PPSM 27

Here begins Kaare Andrews’ run as a cover artist for the Spider-Office. Under Jemas and Quesada, more and more books will have cover artists who don’t do the interiors, crafting flashy visuals the regular monthly guy wouldn’t have time to do. Like this one. Not Andrews’ last weirdly overt reference to The Dark Knight Returns featuring Spider-Man, but certainly his least offensive. Andrews will later write & draw a miniseries set in the future where he will blatantly rip off Frank Miller’s art style while revealing MJ died of cancer due to Peter’s sperm being radioactive. That’s literally all anyone remembers about that terrible comic, at this point. But, hey, speaking of ripping off art, it’s time for 22 more pages of “guess who drew that first” with Mark Buckingham. We open on a brooding Spider-Man thinking about how he once read the book “How To Get Ahead,” and its advice for same, then..

It’s 3 more familiar Spider-Men right off the bat.

And more. The next page, he sees a weird blue fire and thinks, “Maybe tomorrow.” It turns out something has caused a huge electrical surge, car accidents, an explosion, and so on. Spider-Man notices the electrical surge seems to be coming from the main screen in Times Square. It feels like it’s gonna be an Electro story as he makes his way up there, and Buckingham goes for the brass ring and swipes fro the 2-page spread in the beginning of Todd McFarlane’s Spider-Man #1. Mendel Stromm! A weird choice. Peter recaps who Mendel Stromm is for the significant chunk of the reading public who probably doesn’t know, and then does what anyone would do next: He goes to see his 10th grade science teacher. What?

Peter Parker has a degree! And the internet! And went to grad school like 3 times! And he turns to his random 10th grade teacher we’ve never heard of!?

Bzzzzt, why would this lady have known MJ as a “Sweet kid” if she didn’t go to high school with Peter? Thanks for playing, Paul Jenkins, we have some lovely parting gifts for you! Some news footage lets us know many people saw that Robotmaster face on screens during the power surges, and then Peter’s off to visit with Randy’s random hacker friend from that one time. He’s hacking into the electrical grid for Peter…

Spider-Man heads down to that relay station, Bucky uses the SM#1 spread for a SECOND TIME this issue, electricity surges everywhere, and then Spidey descends into the complex looking for his foe.

That first panel is swiped from a really ugly Spider-Man that appeared in subscription ads, but I don’t know who drew it. And the bottom one is one Bucky has used many a time since issue 20. This is so annoying. I can barely read these things. Spidey seems the Stromm face on a screen, dodges getting zapped and then sees some of his old robots, and some new ones, bearing down on him.