Between having vague, not-fond memories of this book and knowing what I’m reading next, I really just wanna get through it. Even if it’s perfectly fine, it’s pretty unnecessary. Yet another Spidey/Doc Ock confrontation awkwardly inserted into a history full of them, and narrated by Some Random Guy, even. I think setting it in the present would’ve made me at least more interested, but then, how many times can Doc Ock and Spider-Man fight in the same year? This one opens with Doc Ock giving a little dissertation on how humans are like hydrogen atoms, making it clear he feels above humans, as that guy from last issue brings him Jeffery Haight’s photography book.
Right-o! Meanwhile, ol’ Jeffrey is spying on Peter Parker, who he identifies as “teenage,” so it’s for sure, like, 1970 at the latest, timeline-wise. He is interrupted by the cop lady he’s dating.
It’s funny that the Vulture would be that predictable, but let’s be honest, the Vulture would absolutely be that predictable. Haight runs off to get his scoop, and Peter hears the news of a winged thief on a radio and makes a lame excuse to MJ to run off, too. He doesn’t even say he has to go get photos, he uses Aunt May. Think faster next time, Pete-O. Haight makes it to the scene, where he’s not allowed in by the cops because Vultch has taken a hostage. So, he sneaks off somewheres and bribes someone to let him onto their fire escape. Meanwhile, Spider-Man arrives.
Man, poor Staz Johnson put all that work into trying to do a classic “Spidey-in-motion” panel and then Avalon Studios blurred it to oblivion. Really glad that sort of thing eventually becomes less common, blur is the enemy.
Ye Olde Spider-Man webbed to Vulture’s ankle sequence. Spider-Man webs Vulture’s wings together behind him and then hops on his back, riding him to the ground like he’s the bomb in Dr. Strangelove, while forming a web parachute to save them from the fall. Haight gets all this, but doesn’t notice Peter’s camera webbed literally directly over his head on the same fire escape, which is just too much for me.
So ol’ Jeff goes out to the prison, where the warden, whose last name is Warden, lets him in to see Doc Ock, who had to be taken out of gen pop after rigging a walkman to electrocute someone who made a comment about his mom. When Haight arrives at Ock’s cell, Ock has papered the wall behind him with Haight’s photos, and says it’s an honor to meet him, playing him like a fiddle (Is that a good expression? My impression of the fiddle is it seems kind of hard to play, does that even make sense?).
Ock somehow sensing Haight would have a vendetta against Peter Parker is pretty dopey, and how that will help him is hard to imagine, but who knows what’ll happen in the remaining 3 issues?