It’s called foreshadowing, kids. And with Joe Kelly back in the saddle, I’m sure this will manage the astounding feat of being the worst Black Cat comic I’ve ever read. Mike McKone, Andy Lanning and Chris Chuckry guilty by association.
What a cheery start!
Oh man, Joe Kelly getting ahold of this plotline. All the tact of a zombie hippo. Also, Mike McKone’s art looks weird. Different. And not, like, he’s got a new style, because his art later on still looks like it used to. What’s this?
Ah, good, the wretched Norah Winters is here. I am on page 3 and I hate this comic so much. When will the racism happen?
Ah, there it is! Page FOUR. I want to see Norah Winters torn apart by Vermin. Maybe Joe Kelly also. I hesitate to say “shades of ASM 243,” because mentioning a Stern/Romita, Jr. classic in the same breath as this tripe is truly insulting, but I am cursed with an encyclopedic knowledge of these comics.
Hilarious. Real Three’s Company writing. Joe Kelly cannot get off this book fast enough. This has made me look up how much longer I have to deal with him, and he stops befouling these pages all the way off in ASM 647. Sigh. Only 12 of those issues, and not even the only store in 2 of them at least. But I dread every single one. We next find Spider-Man swinging some thief around explaining all this to him. He hangs the guy from a flagpole for a breather, and it breaks under the weight, and our man webs onto a gargoyle to save them from falling, and that also breaks. Given the cover, you can kinda tell where that’s going.
Spider-Man: also racist.
Gosh, he was just thinking of her. What are the odds?? I briefly took that title card to mean this issue was over, and was glad, but it’s not. Harder to tell when you’re reading digitally.
And she’s back like the entirety of her appearances since ASM 316 didn’t happen, awesome. Man, look at that art. McFarlane was a great… inker… Felicia proceeds with what she’s doing, with a lot of banter and a quick dismissal of her barely shown relationship with Puma. It takes Spider-Man longer than it should to realize she’s doing a B&E and he’s following her through it. He says he thought she was some kind of detective now, and she says she got a new job.
What is even happening anymore. The corpse explodes in a shower of little balls, and each one that his something grows into a giant spike. Our hero and friend barely get out of the room alive. And then we see who’s responsible for this.
Diablo! One of Kirby and Lee’s (much) lesser creations. Long time, no see! Is that expression racist? Kinda feels like a white person doing a stereotypical impression of a Native American. Can’t imagine what would make me feel so sensitive about race at the moment… At any rate, Spider-Man not remembering him is very good editing but Steve Wacker.
Black Cat was fine, diving into an all-granite kitchen. She refuses to tell Spidey anything about what she’s up to and takes off. She gets on the phone with her employer, explaining that it turns out Dexter Bennett is “a target, not a player.” But, perhaps inevitably…
Really is feeling like 1982 all over again. ASM’s “Brand New Day,” always feeling like the past somehow. Just with a lot more racism in the Joe Kelly issues. MORE racism than the 70s and 80s!!! That shouldn’t be possible! This man should have been run out of town instead of continuing to write comics (And Spider-Man comics) right up to the present day…