I’ve put myself in this weird position where, when I finish a batch of USM issues, I don’t want to go back to ASM, and when I finish a batch of ASM issues, I don’t want to go back to USM. Maybe doing it this way was a mistake, I dunno. I’m pretty engrossed in both universes. At any rate, we’re back in the OG world, and welcomed home by this hideous Mike Deodato, Jr. cover that looks like it took at least 10 entire minutes to draw. Thankfully, inside (For now), it’s our stalwart art team of JRJR, Scott Hanna and Dan Kemp. For writing, it’s a bit different. At this time, J. Michael Strackzynski had, like, a protégé or something called Fiona Avery. And, presumably when JMS was feeling the deadline crunch, he’d sub out some of his ASMs to Avery. Certainly not the first or last instance of blatant nepotism in comics, but anytime an unvetted person is given the keys to a major title, it feels weird. More recently, Marvel shouted from the heavens that Hollywood bigshot JJ Abrams was doing a Spider-Man comic. And then they more quietly said it was him and his son writing. And then they even more quietly said it was mostly just his son, a guy with no writing credits, using his dad’s name to write a frankly terrible alternate future story that landed with a wet thud. Aces. Anyway, this issue claims a plot by JMS and Avery and a script by Avery, a very old school writing arrangement. We open with Peter walking to school and catching a kid about to ditch class with some friends who aren’t in school anymore.
If they had just put Stackzynski’s name on this, I would have been fooled. Peter goes to see a secretary and gets Melissa’s file. He finds out she’s in remedial reading, and doesn’t buy it, having clocked her as a smart kid. The secretary chides him for “taking in another stray.” He finds out she had to drop Honors bio and take a PE credit, and we find her sitting in the gym with her crutches, talking about how she wanted to just skip this, but she got caught.
From my vantage point, writing this in 2023, it’s hard to remember when Peter Parker actually went to a job in comics. Things are so upside down right now. This is nice. Peter is right about Melissa, who proves a great student and quick learner. Then he talks her into letting him carry her stuff home for her, which takes an hour, but he’s growing on her. Unfortunately for them, they’re in a superhero comic, so they catch some guys robbing the place. Peter doesn’t know how to get away and spider up, so…
Wacky. Peter meets Melissa’s mom, who is clearly into him, and since Peter almost never wears a wedding band in these comics, she’s disappointed to learn he’s taken. Then he finds out Melissa’s brother is in jail, caught “allegedly” stealing a car by the creep Spider-Man. Melissa notes Peter’s reaction to her brother’s situation, and rightly intuits he knows something about it. And while he really is off to meet his wife for dinner, like he said, he’s thinking about the brother, Jack.
Aaaah, between the USM block and the Tangled Web block, how I’ve missed primo John, Jr. Spider-Man. He proceeds to fight all these guys, but doesn’t want to, trying to talk to them the entire time. He seems to be trying to say he won’t bother them if they don’t prey on people who can’t defend themselves, which… seems very out of character. But they’re not listening, anyway.
Spider-Man Vs. The Unfortunate But Predictable Side Effects of Late Stage Capitalism! Let’s see him punch his way outta this one! The countdown to the end of John Romita, Jr.’s … I wanna say 4th run on Spider-Man (ASM, PPSM, PPSM, Vol. 2, ASM, vol. 2, is what I’m thinking, but I’m not sure you can make such a hard distinction between the last 3) has begun. And when he goes, it’s basically all downhill from there…