Strange cover. Makes it look like it’s those 3 vs. the Sinister Six. Maybe it was meant to throw people off in early solicitations. Well, we pick up where we left off, Gargan very excited to show off that he’s Venom now.
What’s Chameleon even doing there? What does he bring to the table? Electro immediately shocks Black Cat unconscious. The villains are fighting over who gets to beat up Spider-Man first. The plan is to kill him while Osborn kills MJ. They all know about MJ and Aunt May, the entire rogue’s gallery. This is completely untenable. Millar has ruined Spider-Man. The only thing they can do going forward is what they do, which is just pretend this never happened. A complete waste of time. Spider-Man’s getting dogpiled by the villains, and has resigned himself to the fact that he’s going to die, and now all he can do is try to take some of them with him. Millar’s written him into a corner, so it’s about time for a deux ex machina.
Which woulda been pretty literal if Thor was there. Why isn’t Thor there? Why just 3 Avengers? If you’re wondering how they all got here, well, there’s… sort of an explanation…
If Spider-Man in the flesh couldn’t convince the Avengers he was Spider-Man, how did MJ convince SHIELD she knew any of this? Well, sure is lucky she did! Almost like this story built up to a point it couldn’t possibly get out of in a satisfying way! Spider-Man goes racing off to save MJ, but we got a whole issue and a half left, so he is tackled out of the air by Venom. Venom smashes him into some couple’s window, and the guy wakes up and start shooting at them.
Spidey manages to web up a net and save everyone, and the people cheer for him for a change, encouraging him to “kick that guy’s @$$!” I really hate typerwriter symbols, but they are very much here to stay in superhero comics by this point. It’s like, either don’t let the characters curse, or actually let the characters curse. Every 2nd sentence having @$%!# in it is very distracting to the flow of reading. Well, Spider-Man beats up Venom in a single page all of a sudden, and then rather preposterously webs the side of an abandoned building and pulls the whole thing down on his foe. I don’t think Spider-Man or his webbing are that strong, but this is a Millar comic, it doesn’t have to make sense, and rarely does.
Legit would not know who that was if they didn’t say. Dodson draws everyone so pretty that Otto looks like Fabio there. Fabio busts out, intent on fulfilling his programming and killing Norman. I wish he would! Well, anyway, Spider-Man’s still rushing to the rescue. He got to the apartment and no one was there, so now he’s “just closing his eyes and trusting his instincts, just like you did when he disappeared with GWEN.” And you know what that means. I mean, a story this crappy? I don’t have to tell you where Norman took MJ. Where else could it be?
Creatively bankrupt. Playing the hits. Ho hum.