When I say I was a stupid kid, I mean it. This cover got me. I didn’t read this book, I didn’t like this book, but this stupid gimmick worked on me. Rafael Kayanan and Bud LaRosa are back for line art this month.
Yeah. We’re doing this. If that webshooter is a thousand years old, shouldn’t this be the near future of the 2099 universe? And yet, I don’t think it’s meant to be.
A lot of inside jokes there. And oooo, 3D! The scientists name check the Kirby Museum and the Ditko Institute as places with actual relics of “The Heroic Age,” saying now they have one, too. They talk about all the people Spider-Man inspired, and we see Spider-Man 2099, and I think the Spider-Man from his future from Spider-Man 2099 Meets The Amazing Spider-Man, and, in a rather cheeky move, Spider-Girl, the alternate future May Parker who survived SM 75 and eventually ran around in Ben Reilly’s costume. One of the scientists wonders what he was really like as we revert to a rainy day in the present, where Peter Parker is feeling down about how his enemies always come back and whatnot.
How funny would it be if DeFalco killed Spider-Man in this? Somehow slipped it past editorial. And the future scientists were like, “Yep, this is how he died,” and that was the end of DeFalco’s run. I would give him 10/10 for that. The future people speculate that Spidey must’ve been beloved in his time (How can they not know the truth when people “publish 5 or 6 books a month” about him? Someone’s not taking his last month seriously) as Spider-Man is chased off the scene of the accident by the cops. So he goes down the street and enters the sewer elsewhere. Take that, officers. The future people confirm there’s blood on the webshooter as one of them takes up a page speculating that Spider-Man had a Batcave, a “Spider-Cycle” and a “Spider-Chopper” (Real missed opportunity to dredge up the Spider-Mobile). Meanwhile, he’s in the sewer in the present.
Oof! But shout out to Tom for at least giving MJ a friend again, however briefly. I don’t think Shantal makes it to Vol. 2, but MJ sorely needed her own life for most of the 90s, and I appreciated Shantal. In the present, Spidey’s still searching, doubting himself, worrying he’s too late, but not giving up. And Kayanan is drawing a really cool Spider-Man, I must say.
The last 2 issues of ASM were horrendous and I hated them, but this is what Spider-Man’s all about. Good job to everyone for this sequence. Future guy asks future girl if she thinks the blood sample they found could be replicated. He says it’s been a hundred years since there was a superhero, but the world could always use one.
Tom wound up giving himself a pretty nice send off, really, all my snark aside. I remembered this being worse. But, I was much younger then. Probably expected something different. Also young me hadn’t slogged through the other 2 issues, they make this look like a masterpiece. And so, DeFalco once again shuffles off of ASM right before a huge event. He will write Spider-Girl, the aforementioned alternate future daughter of Peter & MJ, for years to come, despite it always being on the cusp of cancellation and even actually being canceled a few times, only to return to life. People loved that book, but only just enough to keep it afloat. I gave it a shot, but it was not for me. Well, we have 2 titles ready for the big finale, we just have to catch up the others.