Picking up where PPSM 5 ended, no matter what it said. Joe Rosas colors this one. Spider-Man appears to be asking us, the reader, if we’ve ever lied to someone we care about on the splash, but on the seemingly requisite 2-page splash that follows, we learn he’s stopped some guys from robbing a church and is actually talking to them as he webs them through the air. Hedrops those guys with some cops and then thinks to himself how lying to MJ is killing him, then recaps the Spider-Woman situation as he goes home to his unhappy bride.
Not cool, Pete-o. But now they’re both hiding something. That can’t go well. Elsewhere, Evil Spider-Woman is ranting at no one in particular about how she doesn’t want to do these things that “HE” made her do, that she wants her life back, and then she attacks some cops who’ve come to the disturbance. As she beats them up, she complains that she never wanted these powers or the costume, and she even hates spiders.
Weird play for Doc Ock. I’d forgotten this bit. She says she wants his life and attacks, but we cut to a hospital where some pretty surprising things are going down…
He’s back. He still looks terrible. He looks more 90s than he ever did in the 90s. He lets us know this Spider-Woman was “a fashion designer of some repute” who lived a double life that allowed them to meet (KIND of implies she was, like, an escort or something? A fashion designer of some repute?). So, he did what anyone would do, kidnapped her, experimented on her, tortured and brainwashed her into her current state. This is prrrrretty messed up. Doc Ock usually just wants to hold the city to ransom or whatever, this is gross. Also, she can “hypnotize” Spidey “just as a female spider does the male,” in case you were wondering why his Spider Sense didn’t factor into their previous bouts. She’s all for it now, talking about how Ock showed her the way and stuff. Ock says since she’s drained Spider-Man’s powers, there’s nothing he can do, but of course, she didn’t drain his powers, so he busts loose and starts fighting both of them. Does he immediately web Ock’s goggles? You bet!
That man sure loves him an underwater base. Spider-Man watches Ock drag Evil Spider-Woman into an escape pod, and then swims out to discover he’s in the East River. He’s surprised. I don’t… know why? This man loves him an underwater base! You know this!
Lookin’ sharp, May! A long overdue update. From here, Mattie’s off to headline a new Spider-Woman series, written by Byrne and drawn mostly by Bart Sears, which I 100% would not have touched with a 10 ft. pole. No way I’d trust John Byrne, writer, after Chapter One, and Bart Sears is no selling point. Mattie’s series would last 18 issues, a strangely common number for new launches in this period, and feature her wearing no less than 6 different costumes as they desperately tried and failed to come up with a good one. Along the way, Madame Web was part of that book, the other Spider-Women appeared, including the new evil one, and rather surprisingly, Spider-Man only guest starred once. All this is if the covers can be believed, at any rate. I think we’ll see her again around here, but not much.