He stands accused! Like Isaac Hayes! Maybe not like Isaac Hayes.
Maybe I’m not smart enough to follow politics, but if Crowne was running on apprehending the Tracer Killer, how… does this help Hollister?
“Let’s take a look back on other noteworthy superhero arrests” is pretty funny. That’s totally something they’d do. Well, we jump ahead to Spider-Man getting perp walked out of the Fifth Precinct, possibly unconscious and bleeding from the head, and then back to the ominous turn of events from last issue…
Ooooh, they deceded to do something about it. People in the biz say great lettering is the kind you don’t notice. Cory Petit is a long-time vet, everyone makes mistakes once in awhile. Also it got past the editors, too.
I don’t think Carlie is sincere, and I think Vin knows it. Not to be acting like I know people, but I’m a bit surprised they got Romita, Jr. to draw this one. He seems like one of those New Yorkers who became super pro-cop in the wake of 9/11. I don’t know that or anything, it just seems like it. Whatever your feelings on cops, he sure can draw the uniforms. The way they look bulky and lived in. Not many people do! This is, after all, a John Romita, Jr. fan blog. Well, anyway, this is also a Spider-Man blog, and we’ve not seen much of him so far this issue, so we scoot back to the precinct. Did I misunderstand? I thought they took him out of the Fifth Precinct earlier, now he’s in there. Nope, still looks like they’re bringing him out to me. Ah, well, inside, Spider-Man is being completely uncooperative with Detective Palone, last seen way back in ASM 550, and Palone’s going to pull his mask off when, who else, Matt Murdock bursts in and tells Palone to unhand his client. Naturally.
How does violating the SRA not already “federalize” this case?? The way this major piece of shared continuity amount to little more than an ocassional nuisance in ASM is bonkers to me.
There ya go, Carlie!
The who now? Ooooh, that’s the story from ASM Extra 1 that said it took place in the future and appears later in the collection I’m reading, gotcha. That’s a very Star Trek TOS story title. Hey, who calls Matt “The Lawyer Without Fear?” Come on, Guggenheim, jeez. The Hollisters discuss Bill’s political future, which, of course, Lily has had a bigger hand in than he knows. But you know what? Why wait to see that short story I can do whatever I want. Why these weirdoes published a story that takes place in the middle of this issue months before it came out, I have no idea, but let’s put it where it goes. Please welcome Marcos Martin and Javier Rodriguez for Spider-Man’s day in court…
The Spartacus Gambit. I suddenly don’t like what that name is implying, now that I see it laid over a story.
Man, what a sticky situation. I don’t recall whether there was much lawyering in either the Bendis/Maleev or Brubaker/Lark runs after Matt’s secret got out, but I don’t think there was. A 3rd lawyer shows up, Matthew Dowd, claiming to represent a Ryan Maxwell in a civil suit against Spider-Man that’s never been able to go anywhere because they don’t know his real identity, and this guy thus files a motion to unmask the defendant. Spidey and Matt go to a room where they can talk about it, our hero panicking and Matt saying the Registration Act bars local law enforcement from unmasking arrested superheroes (BOY IS THAT CONVENIENT), but the judge can opt to do it in this case. But Matt says he’s spent a lot of time thinking about a situation like this…
Matt’s suing the government over Cap’s death? Who’s the client? Why is this literally the only place I’m aware of this being mentioned? He’s not doing this in his own title or the Captain America title. What? What is going on?
So many things aside! Matt leaves the courthouse, saying he’s “going to find Spider-Man,” leaving our hero as confused as anyone else. And then this story jumps ahead 23 hours… Good grief… so let’s return to the main story and see if we can get these things to sync up somehow. We’re off to the patrol car of Vin and Al, where Al implies he was ready to kill Carlie back at the apartment, and that he doesn’t believe her story, but then he gets a call on the radio, which he’s told to take off mic.
(Have always loved the way Romita, Jr. does flashbacks by fading someone’s head into a panel) So it goes all the way up to Palone? Is that what we’re saying? Well, Spider-Man is chatting with his sympathetic guard when Vin is hauled in. And Spider-Man smells a rat, so he talks to Matt about it, but we aren’t privy to their discussion. Then we jump ahead to tomorrow.
And that actually brings us back to the story from ASM Extra. This is absurd. This is not unnecessary info, it should have been in the main arc, not some ancillary title published eight months before this one! Geez, man, what a debacle…
See, it syncs right up.
We’re firmly in Bob Gale territory now. This circus act works, and the judge rules that Spider-Man will not be unmasked, and that the civil case is dismissed, but could be brought again some day if they can prove who was Spider-Man during the incident in question. Sure, man, whatever. Matt actually references Bob Gale’s terrible DD arc as the inspiration for this defense, and reveals to our hero that the various Spider-Men were the motley assortment of Nightcrawler, Iron Fist, Shang-Chi, Black Cat, Ronin, Patriot and Araña… don’t even ask about Araña, this is too much of a tangent already.
The wristband on that webshooter is enormous, Marcos! How on Earth would that fit on Spidey’s wrist?? Well, with that done, we can rejoin our regularly scheduled program…
And there you have it. What an unnecessarily convoluted situation. What is Matt’s objective in essentially helping Spider-Man break out of jail? Does that help anything? I don’t really get this. But now it’s time for a new player to enter the already very crowded game. Well, new-ish.
Is Norman gonna get in on this overcrowded story, too? Spidey sees the inmates beating up Vin, who he thinks is his friend, so he uses the webshooter to rig up a kind of pulley system with him in it, to try to get that headgear off. It’s apparently an “inhibitor collar,” blocking his powers, but he figures physics will provide where his powers cannot. He pulls til he’s about to black out.
Ya just can’t beat a JRJR Spidey hero pose. Even in a sling! And he’s re-injured his shoulder getting out of that harness, the poor guy, which is a nice visual choice by Romita that no one feels the need to spell out, for a change. Well, it all comes to a head next issue. For some reason. Why are they cleaning house on all of their ongoing plots at once? That just seems weird to me. Regardless, we’ll see what happens.