Here’s one of several Charles Vess-covered books I got signed by the man himself in 2019. That was a great con experience. This one has 2 stories, and the 2nd is written and drawn by Vess. But first, we gotta get through a short that boils down to a really, really strange decision. Bob Layton inks this month. Peter Parker is in his apartment, brooding about the revelation that Flash Thompson is The Hobgoblin. He’s thinking about their complicated history when Mary Jane bursts in, having just seen in the paper that Flash is The Hobgoblin. He didn’t think to talk to her about it? She wants to know if Peter’s going to help Flash, and he scoffs at the idea that he should help someone who’s been trying to kill him. MJ counters that he’s been trying to kill Spider-Man, not Peter Parker, like that’s some reasonable position.
If you know Daredevil, this is mindboggling.
Yes, Tom DeFalco has inexplicably decided to butt into Born Again, what will turn out to be one of the most famous Daredevil stories ever written. As Matt says, after his first love Karen Page, who is now a heroin-addicted hooker because Frank Miller, sells Daredevil’s secret identity for a hit, The Kingpin brings Matt’s world crashing down. He winds up in this convent, where a nun who just happens to be his long-lost mother lives. It’s a wild one, part of the string of material in the mid-90s that was trying really hard to prove comics could be serious business, that superheroes could be serious business. Putting aside the need for that argument or its results, one thing Born Again didn’t need is a random Spider-Man tie-in shortly before its conclusion. I cannot imagine why they did this. Maybe they thought such a huge move by The Kingpin had to involve Spider-Man. But how? Why? This random phone call to Peter makes zero sense in the context of the actual story. And, well…
I mean, what? This is ridiculous. “I called you here to tell you what’s going on, and also to tell you to stay out of it. If I hadn’t called you here, that would’ve been a fool proof way to keep you out of it, but I guess I’m dumb right now.” Naturally, Peter immediately decides to go see Kingpin. He wonders if he can believe everything Matt said, and if Kingpin might really know his own secret (After all he’s done to Matt? Would he not have also done it to you? Maybe you first, even?). So soon Spider-Man breaks into Kingpin’s office, announcing he’s seen what happened to DD, and he’s not happy.
Frenz usually cribs heavily from Sal Buscema, while sometimes cribbing eve more heavily from Ditko for his Spider-Man figures (And sometimes not, which is strange), so seeing him nick a John Romita, Jr. “Spider-Man landing on the ground” pose twice in as many pages is unusual.
I mean, this was straight trash. DeFalco has injected a pile of junk into one of the most lauded DD stories ever made for no obvious reason. Beyond even the inessential nature of this little story, what is the deal with the actual confrontation? Kingpin acting like Spider-Man being fast or knowing about his cane weapon is a surprise? They both almost act like this is their first meeting. It’s not just unnecessary, it’s terrible! Truly wild that this was published at all. But, that wasn’t quite half the issue. The rest is Charles Vess and colorist Elaine Lee’s Cry of The Wendigo, a much more unusual Spider-Man tale that begins with our hero running through a terrible snowstorm that seems to have a face.
Peter Parker wakes up in a cold sweat. His quietly running TV helpfully says a cold front has suddenly brought “blizzard-like conditions” to New York, and he went to sleep with the window open. He shuts it, but shuts it behind him, as Spider-Man leaps out into the night. He thinks that, while he’s decided to give up being Spider-Man (Can’t forget that silly plot thread), he has to admit, swinging around the city is a great way to clear the cobwebs.
As the van full of goons races off, letting us know they just kidnapped the child of a diplomat, Spider-Man is right on their tail. They decide to cut through the park just as he lands on their roof and looks in the front windshield. But the park is really full of snow, and they lose control of the van. As Spidey flies off because of the snow on the roof, it crashes into a pretty big snowdrift. Our man is knocked out for a minute, and when he comes to, he finds the little girl crawling from the van, the goons all still unconscious. He scoops her up and she tells him “I’ve seen your picture lots of times. You’re nice.” She asks if the bad men are dead, and they are not, now slowly getting out of the van themselves.
Spidey’s so out of it a goon is able to whack him in the head with a pistol from behind. The goons take the girl again, but Spider-Man’s back on his feet before they can get too far, and quickly takes them apart.
While this obviously wasn’t, like, earth-shattering, it was gorgeous and moody and interesting. Whiplash after the first story. Kind of odd that they let him use the Wendigo when Marvel comics had already turned that legend into a pretty recognizable monster in Hulk and later X-Men comics, but who really cares? The letter page includes this lil detail:
Nice little bonus. The letters are all about ASM 274, and unsurprisingly, are overwhelmingly positive. Not the kind of comic you can do every month, but a great one to be able to do at all. One commenter suggests that Spidey and JJJ bury the hatchet, and that Peter & MJ get back together, to which whoever’s answering letters this month simply replies “fat chance.” And yet, less than 2 years from now, Peter & MJ will be marries, and even the JJJ suggestion came to pass eventually. Ya never know in comics.