Mark Waid, Paul Azaceta and Andres Mossa are back this time, with Waid joined by Tom Peyer. Talking about powering up classic villains and using this dumb new Vulture once again smacks of hubris. “This is the new guy! This is the Vulture!” You’ll never guess which Vulture is “the Vulture” in 2026. We begin with Electro breaking into Ryker’s Island. I guess that’s why Waid & Co. are back. I guess people have some ownership over the characters they’re working on during this thing. That’s probably a good idea, keep things consistent. At any rate, Chameleon has sent Electro to bust someone out, and Electro is grumbling the whole time about this being beneath him and Chameleon having the nerve to tell him how to do it.
Larry David? That’s… I mean, he is bald. Not as bald as the Vulture, but… Well, anyway, this is the next page:
I am… agog. What are we doing?
Oy vey. Ya know, when I was a teen… Maybe I talked about this before… I made comics. I made terrible comics ripping off the zeitgeist of the time, the grim’n’gritty 90s. Or at least, that was the plan. I am too much of a doofus at heart, and, after creating a terrible dark tech-based hero called… Night Raven! I had forgotten for a minute… I began making him encounter sillier and sillier villains and allies. The point became that he was a dark 90s character stuck in a silly world. In retrospect, the idea has some merit. But I made him fight The Ice Cream Man, a guy with a nuclear cone on his head and a big canister full of regular ice cream on his back that he shot out of tubes attached to his wrists. This Simple Simon character… reminds me of the dumb things I was doing at 13. And it’s in ASM! I also created The Bucketeer, a guy sort of based on the old Marvel mascot Forbush Man, a wannabe superhero with no powers and a bucket on his head who didn’t know that, when the moon is full, he turns into a ninja werewolf. 13-year old me: a genius? Some would say! Well, anyway, “the Vulture” flies off with not even a “thank you,” and Electro reports that to Sasha Kravinoff, who is still in this story despite not being in this story. She’s fine with this. “The Vulture” smashes through an apartment window into his own home, looks at himself in a mirror, and hisses at it. Fun guy.
A very old school Spidey down there. Fitting, for a page that feels like it’s from another era. Brand New Day: Ever looking backward!
Plan J! “The Vulture” takes the mob guy to his home, where the mob guy begs for his life, and “the Vulture” spits acid on a rat and looks like he’s gonna eat it. Charming!
Hang on tight, it’s origin flashback time!
Plan J. This notion is immediately on the news, with the arrest of one Professor Charles Goss, who is saying JJJ hired him to make this new Vulture. JJJ taking public responsibility for the Scorpion is brought up (I don’t remember what issue that was and can’t find it. How the mighty have fallen), and things look bad for him on the talk shows.
Well, “the Vulture” smashes in, wanting to know why JJJ made him like he wanted to know why the other guy made him, and then Spider-Man happens to be on the scene, so it’s fightin’ time.
Draw the eyes bigger, Paul. I’m begging you. Spidey goes rushing down the hall, again occasioually looking either way too buff or chunky, and finds…
Well, that’s that. Sorry, JJJ. See you next lifetime.