With as sped up as this series is, I half expect Spider-Man to go to Florida via experimental teleporter. Steve Bucellato is coloring now, and of course, on page one, Spider-Man’s in combat with the Lizard, but on page 2, he’s still a prisoner of Dr. Doom. Actually, it rolls back time even further so Spidey can get trapped again.
Byrne has committed so hard to “the spider used to be blue.” I assumed all this electric floor nonsense would be replacing all the traps and gags Doom threw at our hero in ASM 5, so imagine my surprise when Byrne proceeds to do all those, too. Spidey beats them all, as in the original, but then knocks Doom’s head off, revealing a Doombot. But THEN the FF show up, as in the original, leading to Doom fleeing, but this time he leaves his big spaceship crashing toward the city.
The FF save Spidey and Flash as Ben literally punches that big spaceship into the river, which seems absurd.
Liz is WAY more of a jerk in Byrne’s telling. Which makes her calling Peter last issue all the more absurd. And now we’re into ASM 6. John Jameson sent JJJ a Bigfoot-esque video tape of Lizard in action in FL, prompting JJJ to issue his challenge to Spider-Man. We skip Peter trying to convince JJJ to send him down there, and we skip the entire business at the museum, because why would a Spider-Man comic take any time to develop its support cast? We just jump to Spider-Man accepting the challenge, then JJJ & Peter on a plane, skipping Peter getting May’s permission, because again, who needs the supporting cast? In this telling, Spider-Man insisted that Peter go as revenge for taking embarrassing photos of him, which is actually not bad, to be honest. In the original, JJJ could’ve conceivably sent, I dunno, a grown adult instead of a child, so good for you, Byrne, you made a good choice. Soon, way too soon, Spider-Man’s in the swamp, trying to get to Curt Connors’ house.
I’m surprised Byrne put those pointy teeth in Lizard’s mouth. That’s McFarlane’s move, that should be forbidden. Only one man’s allowed to change these characters according to that man. As in the original, they scrap until Liz flings Spidey into the distance, where he spots a house and just assumes it’s the right one, and is correct. The Lizard story in general is just rife with places Byrne could’ve made improvements, and he did get that one in, but I continue to be disappointed, generally. Spidey meets Martha, who does NOT tell him the Lizard is her husband before he’s outside menacing Billy, as Lizard’s origin has been relegated to that zero issue. Wouldn’t want to waste precious pages explaining what’s happening, let alone creating empathy for Curt! No, instead, Lizard just makes off with Billy, and Martha knows where he’s going, but STILL won’t tell Spider-Man the truth, and then they’re attacked by alligators.
“Haven’t you figured it out yet?” He should have, but this Spider-Man seems pretty stupid sometimes. Having the first page of your book be the cliffhanger at the end of your book is nnnnnnuts. And more or less SOP for the rest of this series. I will never understand. Who knows what madness lurks in the next issue? Aside for an incredibly bland new costume for Electro, that is…