Zap! Scenes that almost certainly do not appear in the comic for $500, Alex. Ian Hannin of Avalon Studios takes over colors this month. As we get going this month, the Sinister Five have decamped to the Hamptons, to what we’re told is one of Kingpin’s houses, but since he’s fled the country after the events of USM 12, it’s up for grabs. I think Electro took them there? The explanation is delivered in a panel where the people talking are in the background and all five of them have a full head of black hair. Uh, whoops. Anyway, it is from this home that Norman calls the President. Then we jump forward to after the call, and Fury has been summoned to the White House.
Fury kinda getting what he gave Peter last issue is kind of amusing.
On his way out from the browbeating, Nick gets a phone call, and it’s Osborn, saying he hopes Nick enjoys prison more than he did. So, if the bad guys are planning to release their footage or whatever, why not preemptively release the footage of them killing 35 government agents? It’s 2003, any attack on a government stooge is an attack on AMERICA, as far as the majority is concerned. George W. Bush, the president who let 9/11 happen, is a year away from winning a 2nd term by promising to “keep America safe.” I mean this is the American public they talked into the war in Iraq and “Freedom Fries” and whatnot, this is a layup, play the game smarter. “Norman Osborn is a terrorist” is literally all they need to say. Even if that was as fake as the infamous “yellow cake” that proved Iraq was developing WMDs, the public would call for his hanging in 2003 as soon as they said the word “terrorist.” Can you tell I have a lot of pent up frustration from watching all this play out at the time? But I guess that’s not the story Bendis wants to tell. Still. Seems like an easy out. Well, anyway, Norman tells the boys he plans to destroy Fury, and they’re welcome to help him or not, but if he & Otto get away with their plan, they’ll not only get their revenge, but walk away free men. The others are incredulous, Kraven pointing out they’re technically terrorists (They sure are!).
Again, it would take Donald Rumsfeld and Karl Rove a short lunch to come up with a narrative to sell executing these guys on live TV that would work on the majority of 2003 Americans, but whatever.
So Fury, the Ultimates and a bunch of stormtroopers raid the offices of the production company, and quickly learn Osborn was lying. Cut to Otto uploading something or other, after which they have to leave fast to avoid a trace, then back to the Triskelion, where Peter Parker is just standing around in his Spider-Suit. This series really delivers the kind of pulse-pounding action you’d expect in a Spider-Man/Ultimates crossover. With nothing else to do, Peter calls May, just to hear her voice, really. She mentions, not for the first time, that she has her “wine class” tonight. Is that her lying about going to therapy? Do I kind of remember that or did I make it up? Well, he hangs up, and then there’s this extremely 2000s scene…
All that’s missing is the tech saying something just slightly complicated and Fury saying, “In English, nerd!” Then all the power goes out. People worry this means Hulk or Magneto will escape captivity (And, like, why don’t they?) and then Electro busts in.
Bendis just didn’t grasp what a crossover event needs in these early stabs. This isn’t a bad story, per se (Well, yet), but all of us, including him, had read enough comics to expect something more exciting than 3 issues of supervillain group therapy from a crossover. It can’t take until the last page of issue 4 of a 6-issue series to get to the point. Meanwhile, you’re flashing back to Norman making a phone call that happened in the previous issue and stuff. So much time wasted. Like I said in the Secret War posts, he gets better at this, but there’s some growing pains. It’s not a kind of project he was geared up for.