Kicking off this block with Spectacular, as it is currently a little behind ASM (And even DD and the Pulse, for that matter, but that’s how it goes sometimes). The first person up to bat on art now that Ramos is gone is Daimon Scott. Scott’s art was said to be “graffiti influenced.” I was never sure if he came up with that or marketing did. Whatever the origin, it never totally seemed to fit to me, but he wasn’t Ramos, and he had some bold cartooning, so I bought his 3 issues. I don’t remember them, but my feeling is they’re not great. Not much is from here on out. Those guys are joined by inker Rob Campanella and colorist Frank D’Armata, it’s the first time Wayne Fauncher and Studio F haven’t done a Jenkins Spider-Man in a long time. Page one is a picture of a very forlorn looking Curt Connors under a block of text wherein Peter Parker explains the Lizard’s whole deal, and Jenkins whiffs it immediately by saying Connors is from Louisiana instead of Florida.
Hold the phone, since when is Martha dead? Does Martha know she’s dead? Apparently she died of cancer in a 2002 miniseries called Spider-Man: Quality of Life that I have never heard of. But… she is very not dead later? Man, I am confused. The shrink tells him it’s natural to feel guilty when a spouse dies young, but he’s been feeling guilty for too long. Too long? She died in a comic that came out 2 years ago, it might as well have been last week, Marvel-time. She’s a bad psychiatrist. Also Curt says he and Billy aren’t getting on too well in the wake of her death. I’m sure the psychiatrist would tell the child to buck up and get over it, also.
Does she not know he’s the Lizard? It’s a matter of public record! He went to trial and did time for it! Bah, whatever. Peter is playing softball with the supporting cast that only exists in this book, and a guy on the other team is a real jerk. So they sub in Big John and he accidentally-on-purpose crashes into that guy. Then Randy asks if the guy over there is a friend of Peter’s, and it’s Curt Connors.
Are these guys friends? I wondered this during the last Ultimate block. Spider-Man and Curt are friends, sure, but I have trouble remembering him talking to Peter at all. Maybe they went on a camping trip and bonded during that Quality of Life mini, I dunno.
Flash to Curt getting ready to present for that job, calling Billy first and Billy getting upset that he’s not coming home yet (To Florida, I guess, he’s staying with his Aunt). He runs into the aforementioned Richardson, whoever that is, who is obviously shady and offers Curt a job. Then he goes before the board and is told they gave the grant to Richardson, and they sent Curt a notification of this 3 weeks ago, and he’s wasted his time. Well, I’m sure that will be good for the future.
Or the present, even. Curt calls Peter to yell at him, too, because he lied about everything being ok, and then he almost turns into the Lizard, but hangs in there. Thus, Spider-Man is soon on the case, casually telling us MJ is away on a photoshoot. I wasn’t sure if it was meant to be her or Caryn Earle at the softball game, I guess Caryn. Why not, right? Curt has gone to threaten and harass Richardson, and Spider-Man somehow knows that and knows where that is.
Spidey chases the Lizard up the side of a building, acting like Curt would hear him in there instead of the Lizard, and the Lizard is uncharacteristically quiet as they tussle through the air and eventually crash into a roof.
Bit of a hard sell, there, Curt old man! Interesting to compare Scott to Ramos. Both very highly stylized, but Scott hasn’t forgotten the comic should still look nice. His stuff is has a sharp, slick quality, and his style has an internal logic that works.