I like Spider-Man running at us on the side of this building.
Slick action. As the battle continues, the difference between this and Ramos once more really snaps into focus, as the movement is clean and easy to follow while still being highly stylized. No “Is he lifting that train or being hit by it?” in this. I’m focusing on the art because the story is awful. It’s not too unusual for the period, but Jenkins is just making up his own versions of characters now, continuity be damned. That Venom story and now this run counter to everything that ever came before them. Spider-Man chases the Lizard through the sewers, thinking he finally understands that Curt lied about the Lizard being a separate personality all along. That makes no sense. No sense. Not one previous Lizard story backs that up. He further thinks the sense of unease he “always had” around Curt was his intuition trying to warn him. Oh yeah? That sense of unease that led you to him for help every time you had a science problem for like 15 years, and he always, always, always helped you? If you’re so uneasy around him, why did you tell him your secret at some point I apparently missed? Oh, right, it’s because this is crap. The Lizard goes to his sister’s house and kidnaps Billy. Spider-Man is in hot pursuit.
They keep fighting and arguing and somehow not hurting Billy. Lizard throws his son into some trash in alley so they can keep having this stupid, nonsensical argument.
Ya know, that top panel does sort of have graffiti energy. Scott’s been having a lot of fun with that tail. Spider-Man hands Billy over to the conveniently arriving police, then tries to chase Lizard, but he’s gone. Then it’s the next day, and regular ol’ Curt Connors walks into a bank with a gun to rob it. Then a security guard draws on him and he gives up immediately.
Find out what, man? That he’s the Lizard? He’s already BEEN TO JAIL for it! Uggggh, I really did not like this at all. This kind of brutal and pointless retconning/ignoring history is antithetical to the superhero comics medium. Its entire existence is about building on what came before, not tossing it out the window. Ugh. Whenever I think of Daimen Scott now, I think of the excellent DC Comic Solo, in which each issue let a different artist go wild doing anything they wanted. All kinds of short stories and pinups, either featuring the DC characters or not, as I recall, working with writers or going it alone. Scott had an issue of that book that was excellent, alongside a real murder’s row of talent. Tim Sale, Darwyn Cooke, Richard Corben, Howard Chaykin, Paul Pope, Mike Allred, Sergio Aragones… Such a diverse array of art styles. That was such a cool series. Like all anthologies, it didn’t last too long, just 12 issues, but I loved it