PPSM 18

Great cover! I love this scribbly hatching phase for Romita. Fan bloggin never stops. But, crushingly, interiors are courtesy of Graham Nolan. No slight to him, but anyone but Romita is a letdown. Everyone deserves a break sometimes. It’s the regular team in all other slots as the Green Goblin flies around so captions can explain we know it’s not Norman or Harry and we don’t know who it is. Then we get caught up on how Peter has been robbed while sleeping in an alley, losing even his Spidey gear.

Hanna is really making Nolan look crisp. His stuff was always kind of meat & potatoes, middle of the road superheroing, but Hanna gives him a little of a contemporary edge. While that’s happening, Peter Parker is washing up in the ESU bathroom. Remember how he was still finishing his degree back in ASM 1? Remember how he literally hasn’t gone to school since? Man, this reboot. He’s mostly doing some late recapping that doesn’t really tell us anything the first few pages didn’t while he feels sorry for himself (Understandably).

Howard Mackie really does not have a good take on Flash. He’s tossed out all his character development in the last 20 years. I guess he did the same to Sandman and even to JJJ, to a lesser extent, now I think about it. It’s regression time. We cut away to the Green Goblin ranting about how he sees “nothing” when he looks in a mirror, and has to go bother Liz again, and then to that kid trying to get Spider-Man’s webshooter to work, preparing to go after it with a hammer. At the Bugle, Flash is acting like a clueless jerk who thinks he’s dumping Betty because he “can’t be tied down” even tho she can’t stand to be near him, neither side anywhere near the carefully crafted romance DeMatteis put so much effort into in TAC. I mean, this really sucks. And Liz is at the Bugle for some reason? Did Norman’s stake fall to her, I guess? If only someone had bothered to talk about that in the last 18 months. Peter thinks this new Goblin has been after her, and really wants to talk to her.

Who is this awful jerk and what has he done with Flash!?!?

And that’s how Peter gets out of the alleys. And while this situation won’t last long, it’s not the last time they’ll be roommates, so it’s somewhat momentous. Less so is the kid who stole Spider-Man’s gear hitting the trigger on a webshooter with a hammer and webbing himself to a wall. Back in the plot, as Liz gets in a car to leave the Bugle, apparently not actually working there, the Goblin finds her. Inside, Randy is telling Peter he can probably help him get work, too, but then Peter’s danger sense lets him know something’s going on outside. As people flee inside and yell what’s happening, Peter tells Randy to go call 911, and then uses some tarps from some painting going on in the lobby to create his worst-ever superhero identity.

Yeesh. He’s only a step removed from a KKK robe, this is not great, guys! As he battles the Goblin, Peter demands to know who he is, and the Goblin surprises him by saying he’s trying to find out the same thing. Saying “he” gave him the costume and the weapons, but…