Do not remember this one at all. It’s a Howard Mackie/Klaus Janson joint, so it’s gonna be weird looking with a lot of inventive composition. Steve Bucellato has his name spelled wrong in the credits and is credited with “color guides.” No one is credited with coloring, but Klaus gets “art,” so maybe he did it? We open on Spider-Man lamenting his lot in life when he hears a scream.
Spidey busts in and fights some goons, who look familiar to him. He thinks they might be related to the Scrier cult. Oh, joy. Then he hears Liz yelling in another room and keeps moving.
Our hero puts that guy through the window, but don’t worry, he lands on a roof right outside. Then it somehow takes him a whole page to beat up the other guy, but he does. But poor little Normie is more scared of Spider-Man than the goons, talking about how Spider-Man hurt his daddy, and then a mystery man appears, and…
I feel like this isn’t the first time we’ve seen someone with a completely insane piercing like this dork’s shoulder, but it makes me laugh every time.
In short order, “Scrier, Jr.” convinces Normie that he can protect him from Spider-Man, and takes him away. Spidey vows to get him back, but Liz says to stay out of their lives. As he swings away to rescue the kid, anyway, Spidey sees someone standing on a rooftop, and as he gets closer, he sees it’s Harry Osborn, in his old bowtie and all, and he’s so shocked he misses his webshot and falls to his death. Seems a bit much! As he falls, he recaps their history for you, death included, saying it can’t be Harry (Can’t it?).
Well that was confusing. It appears Spider-Man somehow brought down just the part of the roof connected to that pillar? And some cops find him, and he talks about the other guy in the room, who of course isn’t there, and then smashes out a window. This is so weird. Then Fast Lane part 4 interrupts, thanks! Then Spidey swings off thinking he must’ve been hit in the head too hard, and then feeling sorry for himself, and then Harry reappears. Spidey keeps attacking him only for Harry to teleport around, saying all that matters is saving Normie. He says he knows Peter has every right to be mad and that he found out about MJ and knows he must be upset, but they’re wasting time. Elsewhere, our baddie lets us know he is from the Scriers, but he hates Norman Osborn for taking over the organization and is running some kind of counter-operation. He mentions how the Scriers came for Norman at the end of SM 98 (Not how any of that squares with the 1999 annual), and reaffirms his plan to take down Norman, etc.
Then Spidey busts in and they fight some more. But this time, Spidey just beats the crap out of “Junior” while raging about the Harry thing, which he of course blames on this guy. And he really beats the crap out of him, it’s the opposite of their last encounter. For some reason?
The way one of them just whups the other one like he’s defenseless for no obvious reason each time they fight makes no sense. Holo-Harry tells Spider-Man this guy gets his powers from his fancy gauntlets, and Spidey breaks them, causing an explosion in the guy’s face.
What an insane mess of a story. Confusing, rushed, nonsensical. One assumes that was meant to be Norman at the end. Why wouldn’t Spider-Man assume the same? Ugh. There’s a 2nd feature. Gregory Wright writes and colors, And Kuhn pencils and Harry Candelario inks. Wright was an editor as well as a colorist, why not a writer, too? Our story begins with Sandman breaking into a museum.
They have a chat-fight wherein Sandy won’t tell Silver what she wants to know and Silver keeps trying to give him an out for awhile, even as she messes up his sand mirrors and sets the alarm off. Sandman begins to envelop her in sand, saying she’s no better than him, that she’d still pay him to do a job right now if she felt it was necessary, and as the Wild Pack descends on them, he’s about to kill her.
This whole Sandman business sure is complicated. He’s been portrayed as a reluctant villain, a brainwashed pawn, a guy just out for revenge and an eager villain during the reboot. Some consistency would be nice.