Every superhero has saved 100 people from burning buildings. No the biggest cover hook, you know? This month, Ray Kryssing is finishing over Byrne’s layouts. The change is pretty dramatic from Scott Hanna, and I love that kinda thing. Inking is becoming a lost art in the digital age, and honestly, that’s really for the best. The original artist not getting the final word on what their own art looks like is pretty wild. But, having said that, there’s a rich history and a skill to the job, and seeing the difference between 2 different people doing it is really interesting.
Hey, it’s White Nick Fury. No, not that white Nick Fury. On the following, seemingly mandated 2-page splash, we jump ahead in time to Spider-Man saving a girl from a burning building, and commenting on how he does it all the time. Maybe they didn’t want to spoil anything on the cover. An explosion in the burning building makes things a bit trickier, but he’s able to land the girl with some firemen on the next page.
Oh, hey, I think I know what that’s about. Rare these days! Meanwhile, MJ is at her tropical island, and it’s storming, and we finally find out she was going there for a really important modeling gig and Peter was coming along to make it a second honeymoon, but he stupidly missed it, and now her shoot is rained out, so it’s all bad. Kinda crazy it took this long to explain why she went without him, but things seem to have gotten away from the creators in a lot of ways. These books feel like they’re trying to do too much and ignoring the wrong things in this period. MJ tries to call home, but Peter’s obviously not there, he’s at the Bugle, where he and we learn Glory Grant and Jill Stacy are friends now (???), and those ladies comment on how bad Peter smells (from the fire) as he turns in some photos.
Peter goes down to the morgue to research the other names on the list, and discovers they’ve all died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Why, fancy that! Sounds like they got caught in a supervillain plot! What could Peter have in common with a bunch of strangers? What event that was recently terrrribly retconned might have had a lot of notable people at it? As he leaves the Bugle, Peter feels like someone’s watching him, but in the regular, non-Spider Sense way, which only makes him more nervous. And a shadowy figure does watch him leave. So many of those lately!
I get the feeling Kryssing has less to work with than Hanna usually does. This book looks choppy. Or maybe he’s just not as good as Scott Hanna. Few were in this period! So it’s people who were at Peter’s new origin, as I thought. A good chance to keep trying to sell it, I guess. Peter goes to ask his new best friend, Arthur Stacy, some tips on being a detective, which lets him run into Paul, making I think his first appearance in the Vol. 2 era? Took awhile. He rehashes his deal as quickly as possible, then Arthur hears Peter out and tells him he should go talk to Rickman. Wow, he IS a pro, I never woulda thought of that!
This attempt make make Ock’s new look suck less is weird. He’s kinda dressed like Wong now. Ock’s not here to get Rickman, tho, he’s here for the same reason as Peter, and as Rickman gets more and more panicked, we see Ock get trashed by an unseen foe. Jobbed out yet again! At least this guy isn’t killing him like Kaine. But we don’t see who it is, and elsewhere, MJ gets out of a bath to answer the phone, very John Byrne-ily.
It kinda feels like a redo of Jonathan Caesar, but believe you me, it’s a lot worse than that. Next issue’s cover reveals who’s killing all the people from Ock’s explosion. It’s Superman.