This month’s cover is courtesy of Gabriel Del’Otto, a French painter Marvel discovered online. As I recall, I think it might’ve been Bendis himself championed Del’Otto to Marvel. This cover was, in fact, something Del’Otto had done as a fan, which they decided to repurpose here. I think they did that with a few of his paintings before he actually got to working for them.
Hey, someone was looking for her last issue. Over another 2-page shot of the newsroom, featuring JJJ, Robbie, Ben and Kat Farrell amongst the people, Kidder tells us she’s been here 2 weeks and hasn’t gotten a single story. That she used to work for “one of those big, old-fashioned, great metropolitan nsewspapers,” but she took this gig mostly out of idealism. She thinks papers like the Bugle are the voice of the people. The reference isn’t as obvious as it was back then, but “Terri Kidder” is named after two actors who played Lois Lane, so who she is is really obvious by now after 3 pages.
She even has a picture on her cubicle that looks to have Clark Kent in it. Kat wants to borrow Terri’s stapler, but really wants to see how she’s doing. She asks what Terri has for the “Most Powerful People In The City” feature, and when she says the Avengers, Kat warns her away from it. Then she points out Ben and Jonah walking past each other without speaking, and explains their tiff. Then we jump ahead…
Kat tried to warn her!
The famous Jameson charm. A defeated Terri returns to her desk, where the newsroom phone is ringing. Someone says they have to get down there, that Spider-Man is getting his butt kicked by a flying bald dude outside the Port Authority. Terri’s gone without even hanging up the phone.
It’s extremely cool and very important to me that that is visibly NOT Ultimate Spider-Man. Bagley has them completely separate in his head. This Spider-Man is more muscular, the mask’s eyes are different, he’s the guy from Bags’ ASM run, not from his current main gig. I just think that’s so cool. Terri emerges from a cab just in time to see a news crew go live covering the fight. It quickly becomes clear writing it up for the Bugle would be pointless. We don’t even see how it ends, that’s not the point.
Sheryl tells Terri that people have started to go missing at Oscorp. First an intern, then a scientist, then a security guard. And maybe it’s just one of those things, but she’s freaked out and thinking of taking a couple days off, because it feels bad. We jump ahead to Terri still sitting there, now alone, calling Oscorp, asking to speak to Norman Osborn. She talks her way into a 10-minute window to speak with him, saying she got assigned him for the “100 Most Powerful People In The City” and has to leave town to interview Tony Stark tonight. Clever moves, but she doesn’t know who she’s dealing with. So, soon, she’s in a room at Oscorp, and Norman comes in, still getting into his tux for an event. He’s surprised Jonah would have him on this list, and Terri doesn’t know why, being new and all.
Uh-oh.
While Bags has a very clear defining line between the two continuities, Bendis’ Osborn here feels very Ultimate Osborn. But, then, it’s a small scene. At any rate, we know who got fished out of the drink last issue, and why. Some people took this as a grim attack on DC Comics, the Green Goblin murdering a stand-in for Lois Lane. It was meant as anything but a little in-joke, but you know how people are. Bit of a storm in a teacup for awhile. After these 2 issues, the Pulse shifted to a bi-monthly release schedule. Bendis was writing USM, Daredevil, Powers and this all at once, with USM & DD expected to ship twice a month as often as possible, which impacted Bagley much more than Bendis. Bi-monthly was the only way to go.