After 2 years of build up, the rudderless Senator Ward saga will wrap up in the midst of Maximum Security. It felt like Ward was endlessly haunting these pages during much of that time, but the internet sez he only appeared in 11 comics, this one included. Huh. I guess they did just drop his plot for awhile after they blew up MJ. Sometimes, comics do a frustrating thing with the credits where they just jam everyone’s last name in a box. I don’t know why, but it’s happened throughout the decades. And it’s extra frustrating here, because crammed between “romita” and “green” (no caps) is “elliot.” Who’s “Elliot?” The internet says it was inker Randy Elliot helping out Dan Green, but why make that so hard to know? We open on the standoff from last issue giving way to a fight, Arthur begging Spider-Man to get Jill out of there, Jill rendered with no face in one panel (What’s the deal, Randy-and-or-Dan?), and the Z’Nox taking Arthur and leaving with Ward in a mere 5 panels. Jill slaps Spider-Man and says he’s been nothing but poison to her family, then Ranger says he can’t go up against Ward alone.
The blue in Spidey’s suit consistently being all black, coupled with the presence of a 2nd inker, feels like evidence this job was behind schedule. The Badoon, another famous Marvel alien race. The Badoon suddenly just flee, and Spidey thinks they seemed afraid of him, but he has no idea why. And is exhausted after being shot in the back by alien lasers, and decides he has to go try to get some rest. Then we see a Green Goblin fighting other aliens at an Osborn facility, and he’s described as “clumsy and unsteady” as he gets shot down and flees himself. What’s his deal? That’s for some other time. Later, Peter wakes up on the floor again, still exhausted. Very much like the old symbiote days. But the reason for this experience this time is impossible to predict and terrible. It’s comin’! He goes out in the living room to find Glory and Randy watching the news, reporting the invasion of alien criminals that no one knows is an invasion of alien criminals. Randy says it’s “a Halloween thing… I’m telling you!” Ok, Randy. Peter goes to visit Aunt May and finds himself looking through a photo album at all his dead loved ones before Aunt May chastises him for blaming himself even tho he didn’t even say it out loud, so well does she know her nephew. Then he sees someone outside the window.
Unacceptable! Some random Z-List jobber knows Spider-Man’s identity now!? And Peter just rolls with it? They went out of their way to take that away from Venom whose entire deal is hating Peter Parker, and they let RANGER know? Stupid, sloppy, unacceptable.
A tidy recap of last issue’s flashbacks. Over a montage of people at the Bugle, Ranger says the pathogen is airborne now, and he’s sure Ward has an antidote ready to sell to the world to attain more power. This feels so left field. Then it’s time for more exposition:
Back in the beginning, in PPSM 1, Ward was talked to by mysterious voices that seemed to manifest as fire. A mere 2 issues ago, he was talking about having aliens living inside him. Now he’s just a big container for a virus? How often did this story change behind the scenes before arriving at this disappointing conclusion? Well, the boys find Arthur in some big, weird, yellow biomachinery, and then Ward and his homies show up and talk about how Earth has been made an alien prison, which is what brought this other Z’Nox guy around. Things don’t get any more concrete as Ranger, who JUST told Spider-Man Ward wants Arthur to be the new host of the virus, asks Ward what he wants with Arthur, and is told he’ll be the new host of the virus. This is not exactly anyone’s finest hour. Then it’s fightin’ time.
Always about a lady. While they argue about who deserved to marry Arthur’s wife, Spidey begins subduing the 2 aliens with electrical feedback from their own weird machines.
Good Spider-Man joke. Ward starts rapidly turning into a giant muck monster. Ranger somehow knows that Spider-Man has to get the antidote off him, and jam it “into a major artery,” which will turn Ward from a container for the bug to a “super-charged antibody manufacturing mechanism,” which makes NO sense at all. So Spidey jams the stuff into the ever-expanding mass of Ward’s body.
And that’s that for Senator Ward. Not one of the all-time great villains. I wonder what the original plan was. It had to have been better than this nonsense. I guess we’ll never know. And he’s not the only one shuffling off stage in the coming issues, either. That’s it for this block. In the Vol. 1 era, I broke things up by author to keep things from getting stale for me. This time, I’m going in a straight line, but I have a way to break things up still, and I’m very excited about it. Next post, we check out something new.