Well, that’s a cover. Writer Christopher Golden takes over for, I think, the remainder of this title. I mostly know him for his frequent collaborations with Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. He seems to specialize in horror type stuff, so the spooky turn on this title is perhaps not surprising. Certainly makes it stand out. The rest of the regular team of Joe Bennett, Joe Pimentel and John Kalisz hangs in there. This issue is flowing out of some Blade comic…
Simon Garth is the original “Marvel Zombie.” In the 70s, when the Comics Code loosened up and they could do zombies again, it only made sense to make the term for loyal Marvel fans a literal character. We saw him in SM Annual ‘97. And here he comes now…
Very horror-y. Meanwhile, uptown, Peter & Mary Jane are enjoying a nice evening together, the firs tin months not interrupted by Spider-Business. They exposit that some kids have been going missing, and then an ambulance speeds by, and MJ tells Peter not to stay out too late.
The Blade movie is still many months from release at this point, but its conception of vampirism in the 90s was clearly just something going around at the time. We cut away to one Dr. Jacob Weisenthal, who, we’re told, is an old friend of Michael Morbius who’s been researching a cure for vampirism since he found out his friend had become one. Ok! Unfortunately for him, he’s visited by Lilith, the daughter of Dracula. She grabs him by the throat and asks if he is who she thinks he and if he’s really friends with Morbius.
This woman is like 70% legs. She’s like Stilt-Man without the stilts. While she’s wrecking that guy’s set, Spider-Man is rescuing a woman from a burning building. In a well staged bit of heroing, he runs her through a collapsing floor and uses his web to keep glass from cutting them up as they smash out through a window, then bounds her down to the ground and the waiting firefighters.
NOW is a tabloid now? Did anyone tell Jonah? Meanwhile, Hannibal King is at The Voodoo Lounge, a place where sorcerers and such hang out, allegedly, and he’s asking the bosslady there about the amulet that controls Simon Garth. She brings him to a woman named Collette with a hokey New Orleans accent and an “Uncle Jericho,” meaning Brother Voodoo, who who knows where the amulet is and will tell him for a price. Quick cut to Simon bringing Lilith another victim, against his will, but unable to disobey anyone holding the amulet. And then, back at the club Hannibal started at…
Lilith and Hannibal go all fangs out on each other and get to scrapping, but then Spider-Man butts in.
Some pretty good Spider-Man from Golden.
Spider-Man’s back, his costume’s torn in a few places, and he’s not laughing anymore. As he battles some of her underlings, Lilith vanishes, taking the amulet with her. Lilith, back in her lair, exposits about the various vampire shenanigans going on in Marvel at the time before telling us she’d meant to make Morbius her “concubine and general” as she seeks to take up the title of Lord of Vampires, but has decided on Hannibal, instead. Meanwhile, more exposition:
They’ve broken into somewheres to look at blueprints to get an idea of where Lilith is. They split up, and Spider-Man is STILL talking to himself about how he doesn’t believe in vampires, like he did in MTU Vol. 2 #7. How?? He’s met Frankenstein’s actual monster, TWO werewolves, aliens, subterranean monsters, Atlanteans, gods, and is himself a man who can stick to walls! He draws the line at vampires?? Well, anyway, he sees on a TV that Simon’s on a rampage to draw out King, and King is being stalked by Lilith’s goons. As Spider-Man is knocked out surprisingly easily by the zombie, Hannibal is being led to Lilith’s lair as he chases the vampire goons, and when he gets there, he finds Spidey chained to a pillar.
It WAS a pretty dumb question.
This escalated very quickly. It’s almost like we’re running out of pages. Spidey saves Hannibal from Lilith, but before they can mix it up much, the now free Simon Garth grabs her by the skull and begins to squeeze. She turns to mist to escape, and then Spider-Man throws one of her goons through a boarded up window, letting in sunlight. When Lilith won’t give up, Spidey threatens to just start knocking down walls.
Why on Earth did Spidey make him reach into the sunlight?? That’s so rude!
I’m willing to let slide the fact that Peter has met Dracula since he didn’t know it at the time, but come on, man. I don’t know about Hannibal, but Lilith will not have her revenge on Spider-Man. She only appears in 9 more comics, none of them costarring him. Ah, well. Whether Peter believes in them or not, it’s better to keep such supernatural things out of Spider-Man…