Picking up from last issue without pretense for a change, we find Spider-Man and Arthur Stacy debating whether to kill Senator Ward (While recapping right at each other like they weren’t there last issue). You can guess who has taken which position. Then Spidey’s danger sense barely gets them away from an explosion. And then, suddenly: The past?
The past. When I was much younger, Jim Lee’s X-Men comic revealed part of Wolverine’s much-mined “mysterious past” was a time he worked on a secret spy team with Sabretooth and a new character called Maverick, and they all wore hilarious matching outfits. I am very much reminded of that here. But I am also reminded of the 2-issue Cable miniseries, wherein a flashback to a pivotal mission with Cable’s team the Wild Pack (No relation! Later renamed the Six Pack because of the obvious problem) that went wrong, drawn by one John Romita, Jr. Everyone was huge in that, though, it was Romita in his glorious mid-90s excess phase. Man, that series was a work of art. Well, anyway.
I feel 100% confidence that everything happening as we wrap up this Senator Ward business was not planned originally. Maaaaaybe him, Ranger & Arthur’s past together. Maybe. Certainly not what’s happening in the present, as he finishes torturing the Venom symbiote and lets it go, saying he’s learned so much about how to control “his others.” Then he calls in a secret service guy so he can do this to him for some reason:
Ok! Really burning the whole secret identity by now. Meanwhile, Spider-Man is in and out of consciousness after saving him and Arthur from that blast earlier. So when Ranger shows up and he and Arthur go after Ward, Spidey is barely able to limp away before the cops arrive, let alone go after them. Back in the past, Ward tries to gain Arthurt’s trust and fails as Hydra catches up to them, then tells his cohorts he can lead them to a secret entrance to the Hydra operation. This is all so intentionally vague that it’s weightless. Somewhere, in some country, Hydra was doing something, and these guys, working for someone, were fighting back. Ok, sure. Maybe that’s better than giving it a date or naming a real conflict only for the sliding time scale to get you later, but it’s not like any of these characters have much longevity.
Didn’t take long for attempts at continuity to cause problems once we had more than one writer again. Then we have a single page of Green Goblin blowing up a building, directing us to an upcoming limited series. Weird plug. Back in the plot, Peter wakes up in the floor and realizes if he finds Jill, he can find Arthur. Then Randy wants him to go to the club with Jill & Glory, so he knows where to look as he ghosts Randy as Spider-Man.
Did Mackie seriously just imply old beef in the flashback meant to be showing the old beef!!???
Spider-Man almost absent-mindedly stops a robbery on his way to the club, and in the past, Arthur and Ranger have a showdown with Ward as he tries to sell his vial to an interested party, which doesn’t seem to match anything he said in the previous part of the flashback.
But also:
Yes, this has all been bolted onto an obscure X-Men comic. Insane. In the present, Spider-Man battles those guys as Jill berates him for killing Gwen, like none of their interactions at the end of Vol. 1 happened and Glory and Randy watch in horror. In the past, the Z’Nox guy breaks Ward’s vial on purpose, exposing him and a whole crowd of people to its contents and Arthur and Ranger are forced to flee, safe in the knowledge that Ward died.
Yes, that caption is right, the Senator Ward story wraps next issue as part of a line-wide crossover. As I’m sure it was always intended to!