Hey, look, we’re randomly using a new logo. Why? To usher in the New Avengers era? As good a guess as any. New Avengers’ first arc is wrapping up the month this comes out. Spectacular is on #26, almost out of gas, but both ASM and MKSM catch up with Spidey’s new status quo at the same time this month. In my recollection, this arc isn’t as offensive as Sins Past or as offputting as Skin Deep. It just ends up being pretty stupid. But it starts where last issue left off, with Aunt May’s house in ruins. And in narration, Peter Parker blames himself, thinking he’d worried all these years that Spider-Man would ruin his loved ones’ lives, and in the end, it was Peter Parker who got both he & MJ’s apartment and Aunt May’s house burned.
Boy is that Liv Tyler in panel 2. How did I never catch this back in 2005?
Now there’s a twist. How actor Timothy Dalton gets to decide who lives in Avengers Tower, I don’t know, but there it is. Timothy tells Jason Priestly he won’t take no for an answer, and then Peter & MJ realize they can’t find May. She’s up in the attic even though it’s not safe. Peter rushes up, sure she’s in shock.
I wonder who’s playing Aunt May. I feel like I almost know in panel 2 there. Well, she’s over the loss of her family home, but I’m not. A pretty reductive choice, and as we know, reductive choices are rarely permanent. Well, that settled, we next find the Parker clan and Tony in an elevator up to their new home, where the rest of the Avengers are waiting. In uniform, even (Except for Luke, of course). Tony introduces them all to the Parker ladies one by one.
Peter’s getting this from a lot of friends lately. And May and MJ sure are meeting a lot of superheroes. The Cap/May business is nice. All the May stuff this issue is nice, she’s gotten backgrounded a lot since MJ came back. But wait, one more page:
An Aunt May/Jarvis romance??? Who knows? Peter and MJ settle in for some quality time to themselves, and meanwhile, this book’s half over, we’re gonna need a superhero plot rolling up, so we take our leave. We find a lady who’s seduced a rich guy drugging his drink. He babbles about him and 4 other guys carving up the country and running it. She goes into the bathroom to tell her superiors how it’s going, and we see the Hydra insignia on this guy’s mirror. Then some Hydra goons break in, kill the SHIELD lady, and prepare to kidnap the guy, saying he’s too weak to hold on.
That close up of various facial features monologues a couple more pages, ending in the good ol’ Hydra chant before those guys are all executed by firing squad.
Over a flashback of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and Hulk fighting Hydra agents, a thing that certainly never happened, this new Hydra leader says they never met the superheroes on their own terms.
Evil green doppelgangers of the Avengers? What is this, the 70s? Is this Bill Mantlo? What a dumb idea. We will unfortunately be seeing more of those guys, let me tell you…