I do not understand the significance of the statuary on these covers. Well, Spider-Man is now wrapped up in Octo-tentacles, and Fusion wants to know how Spider-Man found them. As happens perhaps too often to Spider-Man, he has stumbled on villains who assume he found them on purpose.
Cinema! British writer spotted!
I wonder if people were super into Fusion. Reader, like. To have him come back so soon seems very confident. Maybe they got a lot of mail lovin’ him.
As Spider-Man flees on the next page, Bucky swipes a new Spidey, and I can’t quite place it in my mind. I think it might be a Weiringo, which would be pretty far outside his pool so far. Fusion forces Doc Ock to chase him, but Spider-Man is fully committed to just leaving, after swiping a few of the mechanical arms first, of course. Ultimately, it appears Ock sort of lets Spider-Man escape, possibly seeing that Spidey is his only way out of servitude to this D-Lister. We go to the Bugle, where Robbie is still trying to get JJJ to back his Technotronix or whatever story (Biotechnix? I think that was it). JJJ eventually relents. This picture of Jonah not wanting to follow this story and also not willing to trust Robbie’s instincts feels deeply wrong. Then this happens…
Play Squid may be too much for me, joke-wise.
Hey, I have no idea what that was about. Did Biotechnix somehow arrange for this guy to have an accident? Was that supposed to be a gag? I don’t really know. Elsewhere, Fusion threatens Miles, telling him “delivery of the device” must be moved up to tonight due to Spider-Man. He has full control of the Congressman through his powers, so I guess that’s that. Elsewhere, Spider-Man takes his stolen mechanical arm to… Nick Fury! That’s a surprise (Says someone who’s read this before, isn’t that sad?). Spidey says DD told him where Fury lives (Ok???), and so Spider-Man caught him taking out the trash.
That would be a reference to Jenkins’ recently concluded run on Hulk (Seemingly hastily concluded as he was forced out so they could bring in Bruce Jones, who tried to do Hulk as a mystery thriller and treat the Hulk like the shark in Jaws… except… we all know what the Hulk looks like. It was a very “cinematic” writing style and it didn’t work very well). And don’t think I didn’t see how Herb Trimpe-ish Bucky’s Hulk is there (Ponytail notwithstanding).
I know Spider-Man is traditionally a loner (For now!), but if you have access to SHIELD for this, why not, you know, invite them along? Well, exposition settled, we shift our scene to Fusion & Ock’s headquarters, where Fusion explains (To a Doc who probably already knows) that this mysterious device would allow them to track Spider-Man. He further exposits that this guy who delivered it is the only person besides them who knows about any of this, so a grinning Doc Ock murders him.
I am very pleased by this turn of events.
It’s almost like Jenkins is chiding the reader for believing the scenario he presented in the previous issue, but I gotta tell ya, in this period, it was fully believable. Stuff starts to happen largely just because a writer had the idea, no thought given to history or continuity. It’s the dark side of the new level of freedom writers have under Jemas/Quesada. Characters will do things wildly out of character, and it’s not a swerve, it’s just in service of a story. People who know each other very well will meet for the first time. Dead people will wander into a panel with no explanation. It’s not great! And it means I had no trouble buying Doc Ock as a washed up loser being controlled by Fusion. This is much better, altho I’m not totally sure why Ock needed Fusion anymore. If he wanted this device in the 70s, he woulda raided Area 52 with an army of yellow-suited goons in a helicopter. Ah, well. It’s fine. Well, a TV news report lets us know Robbie has cracked the case wide open and Miles’ political career is over, but the media doesn’t know about the device yet, as Spider-Man swings through the city. He thinks this has all gone wrong, that SHIELD went after Miles too soon. That everyone’s been played. So he heads back to Biotechnix, and finds a dead guy on the floor. His narration is suddenly talking about how scary Doc Ock is like he wasn’t treating him like a dopey, ineffectual sap all last issue and half of this one. You can’t change Spider-Man’s opinion of Doc Ock as part of your swerve, dude. Anyway, following the trail of blood, our man finds this:
I guess that’s it for Ford Fusion. Why bring him back immediately just to kill him? That seems weird. Maybe we’ll get some answers next issue.