2 Flowers 2 Rhino.
Can’t argue with the results.
Well, Rhino keeps advancing, and then he goes to see Stella, who’s with the jerk guy, Romeo, who reveals he’s her fiance when telling Rhino he has no business here. But Rhino corrects Romeo’s English, and then he and Stella talk about how people misusing words is diminishing the language, and then Romeo shuffles her out of the room.
Rhino goes barreling toward that restaurant, but whoever Romeo called somehow did tip of Spider-Man, and he arrives, covering Rhino in a blanket of webbing.
Soon, Kangaroo and MINDWORM are reading about Rhino’s escape in the paper. I cannot get over Mindworm being in this! Mindworm! Last seen in TAC 35, Bill Mantlo’s pointless remake of ASM 138. That was a long time ago! Well, Rhino comes smashing through the wall, saying he’ll bust them out if they agree to work for him.
That’s pretty ridiculous, but whatever, it’s basically a fairytale. Rhino and his lady go see Hamlet, we find out Rhino’s gotten a court injunction against Spider-Man coming near him, and then he gets a call about his operation. Turns out, the smart monkey killed itself, because it never stopped gaining intelligence and eventually became bored with everything. Rhino doesn’t think that could happen to him.
I can’t believe it’s happening to him!
Soon enough, Rhino is back on the bridge from last issue is, once again contemplating throwing himself off. He hears music, and remembers seeing a monkey conduct a symphony once, and has an epiphany. We next see him back in the lab, having an operation to reverse the process, and even asking the doctor to make him ”a little stupider than before,” just in case.
I’m going to assume this one’s not in-continuity. Seems likely to be true of a few of them, before the end. An amusing enough story, if rathe ron the nose. Next time, another new creative team.