There’s an odd cover idea. This month, the Spider-Office is newly under the auspices of Axel Alonso, recently poached from DC’s Vertigo arm, where he edited a truly remarkable run of really major titles in the 90s, like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, Hellblazer, Preacher and 100 Bullets. His first assignment at Marvel is the Spider-Books, but that’s only the beginning, and he will eventually rise to Editor-in-Chief for a tenure that is pretty controversial. A run that kind of brought Marvel’s 21st Century success train to a screeching halt. But that’s for, uh, like 15 years after this issue came out. This month, ASM gets going with 2 mysterious dudes in an alley called “Mr. P” and “Mr. Q” (Really?) watching an unspecified person. Nearby, Peter and Randy are walking down the street, Randy still raving about his encounter with Green Goblin, aka Pete. Peter tries to tell him to let it go, that it was weeks ago, but Randy is pretty traumatized. Then a quick shock of Spider Sense makes Peter claim he left his wallet in the restaurant and run off to this awesome 2-page spread:
That Spidey should’ve been a t-shirt. Spidey finds that little girl distraught because her cat is up a tree. As cliche as possible. But when he gets up there, he finds the animal feeling pretty rowdy, and many cartoon sound effects ensue.
That’s one big cat!
Hey, “Axel’s Pub” back there. Jr welcoming the new boss. Like that John Woo joke. As a very confused Spider-Man goes to higher ground looking for his assailants, we see Mr. P & Mr. Q, obviously after the giant cat, decide they need to bring in the really heavy fire power, revealing a trunk full of crazy Romita weapons. But Peter Parker is running back to Randy walking down the street, having “retrieved his wallet.” It wasn’t fully obvious last issue, but Randy has grown a goatee, because he’s a black man in a comic in the 2000s. He’s lucky they didn’t also shave his head. Peter smells awful because of the cat, and they stop off so Randy can buy some cheap cologne and hose him down with it before taking Peter to a secret underground nightclub. Elsewhere:
That cat is a thief! Back at the club, a band Randy says “does 90s covers of 70s songs with post-80s funk” is about to play, and Jill & Glory are waiting for them, naturally. Glory makes fun of Peter’s cologne, recognizing it as something Randy would buy instantly, and Peter is uncomfortable for some reason. Feels like it’s been so long since I saw them all together I don’t even remember why he would be.
I’m with Glory on this one, how is this different from any number of previous scenes in this title? But Peter is freakin’ out in the bathroom, thinking Jill is like a sister and he dated her cousin and Randy can’t keep doing this to him, and then… the cat comes in the window, and his Spider Sense goes off, and he sees the Mr.’s down on the street looking for the cat.
Solid joke, Glory! Those guys disappear back out the door suddenly, but the band saw what happened and is nervous. Randy and the girls are clueless, the cat is wandering around the club, and it’s time for a double-splash page:
So good. A horizontal 2-page spread follows, in which Spider-Man dodges giant explosions while finding out these guys aren’t after him, but were hired by AIM to find “a walking genetic timebomb” that is feline.
Peter didn’t have his Romita-issued shoulder bag when they went to the club! A rare continuity error from the master. Kind of nice, really. Makes things feel a little better for us mere mortals when the gods make mistakes. They’re letting an unusually high number of letters referencing how people hate the Spider-Titles run lately (A couple mentioning how the newly launched USM is better, even), presumably because they think they have the solution. One writer astutely points out that the whole death of MJ thing is starting to stink like the Clone Saga, while another calls killing her “just disgusting,” and after saying he swore off ASM when they brought Aunt May back but also bought #25, says he’ll never buy another issue. That’s an addict for ya. And everyone in the letters knows Mackie’s out, who his replacement is, and have heard rumors about the end of Mackie’s tenure which are true. As the internet got bigger and bigger, keeping comics stories secret ‘til they launch became essentially impossible. I guess my big questions for the back half of 2000 are “When did Howard Mackie find out his services were no longer required?” and “How far in advance had he planned when he found out?” How drastically did he have to scramble to wrap up all his ongoing plots? This is 2 months of random one-offs before the big finale storyline. Was he already done and just filling time? That’s very Clone Saga…