Why did Mark Waid write the first part of this? The division of labor in the Spider-Office right now is very confusing. Barry Kitson is back to bring it home, inked by himself, Rick Ketcham and Joe Rubenstein. also Jeromy Cox is joined by Antonio Fabela on colors. Feels like things went wrong. Can Spider-Man salvage his life? Seems kind of unlikely in some corners. We begin with Chameleon coming back to his lair to find it trashed. He’s carrying an unconscious woman over his shoulders. He blows the place up and leaves, unaware that there’s a Spider Tracer on his face spraying gun thing.
Time for the terrible explanation for Spider-Man not being dead!
I simply reject this application of Spider-Man’s web, your honor. Ludicrous. Acid strong enough to turn a guy into bones instantly, and he does all that? Nonsense. Well, just to overcomplicate things, he’s figured out why Chameleon replaced him, but doesn’t actually know where the stupid secret base is, and the tracer on Chammy’s gun “must have been damaged,” because he can’t track it with his danger sense, so he had to go get the manual tracker from the old days. He’s swinging around town trying to get a hit when…
Yeah, it’s Chameleon, dressed as that lady. Spider-Man smashes into the van, saying Chammy’s out of his league, and then immediately lets this man with no superpowers kick him in the face. Clownshoes. Speaking of, the goon squad catches up and begins attacking him again, giving Chameleon time to start his detonator. No one will listen to Spider-Man insisting he’s on their side and trying to pull a mask of their true enemy until…
The city is saved, but JJJ still wants Spider-Man’s head. The Mandroid goons, tho, having just lived through the last 10 minutes, aren’t into it. The one with the Spider-Slayer suit breaks the Spider-Man tracker built in, and then…
The whole “personal vendettas over the good of this administration” thing is hitting very close to home here in 2025. Well, we only have a few pages left, and Peter’s life is in shambles. So, afraid of Michele and not knowing Chameleon seduced her, he heads to May’s house, where he learns Chameleon gave Harry his old room. And he goes up to said room to find…
Not sure why Peter’s shirt would or even could hug her boobs so very tightly, but that’s comics, I guess. Well, hey, none of that went the way it should have, realistically, but this story was very bad, so that checks out. How on Earth did “Peter” telling MJ she never measured up to Gwen somehow make her want to be friends again? That’s stupid. And this Michele thing is going to be really unpleasant. And what about Flash? Well, anyway. There’s 2 more pages.
Rather interested that Joe Rubenstein was credited as an inker on the credits page, but not on this redundant 2nd credits page. Look alive, gang, it’s the heretofore unmentioned mother of all Kraven’s heretofore unmentioned children! Who doesn’t know Chameleon is her brother-in-law. Woo. In awhile, she will be back for an obnoxiously long storyline I am somewhat familiar with. But it’s in a while. We’re doing some other stuff first.