This month’s first page is a recap of what’s going on presented to both the reader and to Dr. Strange by Spider-Man, which is more efficient than the average recap.
The thing about those “hilarious” footnotes is whatever that is, it will not be published. I guess JMS had a Dr. Strange idea, but it didn’t make it. One assumes due to him being too busy. Kinda brash to make a promise like that in this book. Well, Spidey is imbued with the power of the Vishanti, and told he’ll be sent to the spot he needs to go in the Astral Plane to fight his foe, and aso don’t leave the path. It’s that kind of thing, you know. Strange says the way to begin is “the worst thing you can possibly imagine,” which is to sit in a chair and meditate for “as long a needed.”
In this period and from now on, repeating panels are really common for a specific pace, dramatic or comedic effect. More “cinematic”-minded writers love ‘em. It will become extremely common place for most of a panel to just be copied and pasted digitally. Romita, Jr. redrawing each panel isn’t too surprising, because he’s old school, but Dan Kemp visibly not copying & pasting his color modeling is kind of crazy to me. Anyway. Funny bit. Over the course of several pages, Spider-Man’s spirit leaves his body and goes careening around NYC as, at the same time, the Shade appears and zaps Jennifer into the Astral Plane his more violent way. Spidey is pulled inexorably to the portal Jenny is going through, and follows, emerging into the Romita, Jr. version of a Ditko dimension.
Our man thinks that, if Shade is drawing his power from the Ditko thing Jenny is freeing those people from, what would happen is Shade got tossed into it. So he does just that.
Everyone starts going through the portal, day saved, but Spider-Man gets a weird tingle, and he goes off the path, JUST like he was told not to, and encounters some kind of big spider spirit. After a cryptic exchange about how he’s not supposed to be there yet and the big this is what he was and what he will be, it flings him out of the Astral Plane. He emerges in the alley where Jenny was abducted to see everyone running off, but then he sees a newspaper headline. He was warned that time moves differently in the Astral Plane, and he sees that MJ got into town last night, and now it’s a whole night later. He is, of course, too late.
Tragic. But certainly not unexpected. It’s kind of what Spider-Man stories do. Well, I’vebeen lamenting the lack of OG villains around here, and the PPSM gang are gonna set us up with the best of ‘em next post. How will the story go? I don’t remember.