This issue opens on Peter Parker going home to see his family. Oops! I thought this didn’t mention them. Oh, well, too late now. And, to make matters worse, MJ & Aunt May turn into aliens right before his eyes, as the energy the baddies are pumping out around the globe is designed to help humans “join with their culture.” But it doesn’t seem to be effecting Spider-Man yet, so he takes off to go try to help.
Has Reed & Sue’s 2nd child, Valeria, showed up on the blog yet? Well, there she is. Her deal is she’s smarter than Reed, which means she’s mature for her age, but she’s still a little kid, prone to little kids things, and that’s a fun mix. She was born in a strange, transitional period for the comic, which is pretty unusual, such a big event happening in what amounts to a fill-in arc. And it was drawn by Mark Bagley, even. Yes, one more thing he did during USM. Anyway, Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo were the ones who got to really develop her character, and now Ringo is back on the job for awhile. As he & Waid represent, for me, the 2nd best FF run of all time, his final gig featuring them feels cool. I hope he enjoyed doing this.
Reed & Sue go on the offensive, but Ben & Johnny get them to stop before they can hurt any of these regular people who’ve been turned into aliens. Reed sees the process in action, and it seems like the human bodies are being possessed by aliens. Then Ben shows Reed & Sue how they’re completely unable to hurt or even bother the cat-faced guy, and they’re all caught up.
Spidey drives them back to the Baxter Building as fast as he can, and they find the kids safe with Alicia Masters, Ben’s longtime girlfriend (The real one, not the one Johnny married who turned out to be a Skrull, resulting in that mess we saw in FF 374). Alicia surmises the aliens aren’t interested in kids or the blind. Ben says they must be crazy to pass up the chance to be Alicia Masters. I just like how sweet that was. Alicia turns on the TV, and the former governor of New York, an a council member of the aliens, is explaining they have 4 billion souls ready to merge at any given moment, and Earth was a good choice because the population provided a nice buffer.
Spidey and Johnny go talk to Dr. Strange, but find he’s been converted. There’s a genuinely funny bit with him doing a card trick, and this gives way to a montage explaining some heroes are putting up a fight, a we see Ms. Marvel fighting War Machine and Luke Cage fighting Captain America. Back at the park, Se has tried making the lion guy’s machine invisible, but he says he’s done this so much he doesn’t even need to see it. He also noticed the invisible Thing coming at him.
Reed explains he’s done all the projections and theorizing he can, and come up with nothing. Spider-Man wonders what happens when the H’moji leave their hosts, and Reed reveals he just so happens to have built a crazy spaceship that would let them see some of the places that have been colonized before, hoping that’ll help. But there’s only room for one person in the ship.
Good joke!
44 years after trying out in ASM 1, Spidey’s finally on the team! But can they hope to win this one? I mean, probably, but we’ll have to see how.