Larocca thinks the spider on our guy’s chest should be huge one page, tiny the next. Stephane Pero swaps in on colors this time. the “who is Jackpot working with” question is weirdly answered on page one:
“You’ll just have to open the book to literally the first page to find out!” Not that anyone would get excited to see the Blue Shield. I don’t know him, but he looks dopey. I must again note that New York, home of all superheroes, getting jobbers like Jackpot and Blue Shield as their registered heroes makes no sense to me. Spidey does a tight five, then easily dodges a punch from Bluey before immediately forgetting he has a Spider Sense, forgetting he’s in a fight, looking at Jackpot and getting clobbered. Like, what? She grabs him after the clobbering, and seems strong enough to hold him, while Blue Shield attempts to take our hero’s mask off. The rush to find out who’s under there sure feels weird given the last year of books, but I guess it was important to them to keep reminding you no one knows who Spider-Man really is anymore.
“Woof your cookies?” Now, for the first look at a brand-new villain, you usually want a splash page, I’d say. Really sell it, while also letting us get a good look. Larocca does this:
He does neither. A lot of attempted unmasking in a short period.
“Not your FATHER’S Goblin!” And your father is not jealous even a little. “I’ll KILL you. I mean, with that in mind, there’s no reason I wouldn’t kill you right now, but I’m not gonna! But to prove I WOULD, here’s… a lil’ cut on your chest! It’s not even deep! I’m scary!” Menace makes me miss Demogoblin, and that’s nuts. Spidey wakes up and it’s daylight, and Jackpot is standing over him with a cup of coffee. Like, a ceramic mug. Why oh why would she have that on some random pier? She says Bluey just happened to be passing by when he got involved last night (The ol’ Parker luck or bad writing? U DECIDE), and they debate the merits of registering for a bit, but Jackpot is really here to look for clues about Menace in daylight.
The Flash Thompson gag is pretty good. HOW CAN HE NOT TELL IF THAT’S MJ OR NOT? She just has a gold outline on SOME of her face!! Terrible! I rarely know which celebrities Larocca is tracing. Someone had to tell me the Tony Stark in his long run on Iron Man was a guy from Lost. I didn’t watch Lost. I almost know who Jackpot is in that bottom panel, but it’s not coming to me. However, after Peter makes a very awkward phone call to Lily Hollister to ask if Harry was with her last night…
…JJJ appears to be Liev Schreiber here, and that is not a casting choice I would have made. Marla comes in, still sans glasses, and tries to keep Jonah from finding out she took the Bugle away from him. I feel like I should know who she is, but I just don’t know enough about celebrities. I’m glad, too. I don’t want another Tommy Lee Osborn situation, it’s so distracting. A second interlude lets us know the guy Spider-Man saved from plunging to his death last issue is going to try to sue him. Ok, sure. At the DB(!), Peter runs into Dexter Bennett, who continues the hil-arious bit of calling him by a different last name every 2 seconds, and refuses to publish his bad photos of Menace.
Peter not owning a computer is down right preposterous. He’s a nerd! He shoulda had a computer in 1985! I get that the idea is he can’t afford it, but I think he would save up. Betty finds him an article by Front Line about it, and he sends an email to the cop looking into it, then makes a phone call to arrange a meeting. He uses a payphone in front of a place called “Ringo’s.” This was not long after Mike Weiringo’s tragic death due to a heart condition at only 44. A terrible blow to the comics biz and the world in general that still makes me sad today. You know, when John Romita dies at 93, sure, that’s sad for his family, but he lived a long, extraordinary, and by all accounts very happy life. Only 44. And Ringo’s art was better than ever when he died. Man. Well… anyway… Spider-Man finds Detective Quentin Palone at a precinct house, thinking he’s lucky this guy was willing to talk to him off the record and not turn him in to SHIELD (“lucky” seems an understatement), then he makes a random, poor taste joke about being “bad luck for captains” and then he sees the evidence of his crime.
I just can’t get over how bad Larocca’s art got. And it gets worse from here. I mean, love it or hate it, his late 90s/early 2000s style was consistent and recognizable. His own. Now any 2 pictures of Spider-Man in this book look like different artists and all the people are traced celebs. Several years from now, he’ll get caught tracing the bear from the “cocaine bear” meme.
Now that’s the intro Menace should have gotten earlier. The theater clears out comically fast, like in 3 panels, no one is there but the candidates and a random cop, who Menace swats into the stands before looming, uh, menacingly over the candidates. Is this the same place from ASM 180? Oh, no, that was Radio City Music Hall. Meanwhile, that precinct Spider-Man’s at happens to be close enough to the Apollo that Spidey and Palone see an explosion out the window. What luck! But, also, Palone made a call, as it turns out…
He lied! ACAB!