John Romita, Jr. did a great 2-part connecting cover for this crossover, but I somehow wound up with this cover by Dan Jurgens for this part. Dang. Here’s Romita’s:
Like, even on this cover, likely drawn way ahead of the issue, Spider-Man’s not nearly so skinny as he was last issue, and will be in this one.
So good. Spidey and Thor bring us up to speed in a gorgeous 2-page splash fighting the Tokkotses, and Spidey webs Thor’s runaway hammer, apparently having forgotten everything he knows about Thor’s hammer.
Shades of MTU 148.
What a sequence! Feel that energy! Oh man. John Romita, Jr. fan blog post #1290. Salute the god! As Spidey and Thor regroup, May is still with that cop, who’s promised no tot leave her until this all blows over. Then Jake Olson’s girlfriend Hannah happens to run by, recognizes May from earlier, and also vows to help find Peter. The the Tokkotses re-engage, continuing to keep Thor from hims hammer and endangering May and Hannah for maximum drama. The Tokkotses cut a swathe out of the ground, leaving the supporting characters and the cop on a pillar of street surrounded by fire, and Spider-Man finally sees them. He leaps into action, leaving Thor to his own devices, and starting to turn into Jake Olson as he scrambles for his hammer. Then there’s a totally crazy footnote…
So… so Peter broke his promise not to be Spider-Man here? And on purpose? He had the suit on! That makes so much less sense than this issue just coming after PPSM 3. Well, anyway, Spider-Man starts kicking around one them as the other attacks that cop, almost killing him until Thor gets back into the mix.
I really have always liked this pairing. Thor and Spider-Man are about as different as any 2 Marvel heroes can get, and it makes them a lot of fun together. Tokkots is about to choke our man to death when Peter’s pager starts going off. Rather improbably, this sound is deeply upsetting to Tokkots, and is distracting him. It’s Glory calling on behalf of a perpetually annoyed JJJ. He demands she keep trying, which helps Spidey get loose.
The god.
Love Thor casually holding him by the horn. Tokkots spouts a bunch of annoying rhymes about how the baddies in Thor are gonna get everyone and then vanishes. Thor is very upset in a very Thor way.
And that’s the ballgame. A pretty fun crossover, really. A lot heavier on Thor stuff, but it kinda had to be. Rather feels like it was designed to try to get Spidey readers to try Thor. Now that I’ve gotten the main titles out of their time warp, it’s time to finally check in on the other new Spider-Man #1 that launched alongside them.