With this issue, Herb Trimpe is off Marvel Team-Up, and penciler Kerry Gammill and inker Mike Esposito are in! This is good news for me personally. I have no idea where this one came from. It feels like a more recent acquisition. Say, the last decade. But whence cometh it? I have no memory. And even though I’ve had it awhile, I don’t think I’ve ever read it. Maybe The Gargoyle didn’t fill me with excitement. Man, where did this come from? Well, I dunno, let’s get going. We are dropping in on Spider-Man and The Gargoyle, apparently newfound friends after an adventure with The Defenders with I do not have.
Isaac anticipates that Spidey wants to know his origin. And I know nothin’ about Gargoyle, so I’m totally cool with the flashback. Alls I know about Gargoyle is he looks too much like Jack Kirby’s DC character, Etrigan the Demon. He was apparently a 78-year old guy who made a deal with a devil to try to save his hometown from economic ruin. That doesn’t sound like a very good idea. The devil (not THE devil) trapped him this form, and told Isaac he had to serve him in a big crazy demon war. But soon The Defenders got involved, Isaac wound up on the good team, and his devil doomed him to live in this body forever.
Aaaaalright. That is some weird origin, but why not? An old woman is being harassed by a bunch of goons, but they’re no match for our odd couple of heroes. The goons are dispatched with ease, and then our guys check on the lady.
Isaac walks the old lady home. Her name’s Sadie. She’s got a lot to say about the old days and whatnot, which seems like it’s up Isaac’s alley. When they get to her apartment, she invite him in for tea. He wonders why she seems so beat down, and she says she’s lived a rich life, but…
Imagine being that woman. While that weird scene is playing out, we check in on Peter Parker, headed to see Aunt May, but as he approaches the nursing home, one of her buddies runs up to him.
He’s not dead, he’s just gone. Nathan was in showbiz in his youth, and he’s been finding out a lot of his old partners have died. He slipped into a depression, and then vanished, leaving a note saying he couldn’t go on living. My goodness. Peter vows to find him and bring him back and rushes off. He’s come to like Nathan since they got together. But Nathan’s not quite in as dire a mood as it sounded…
Unfortunately, some knife-wielding goons choose Nathan as their next victim, and Jose runs off. Meanwhile, across town, Sadie & Beatrice are arguing about how well Sadie can take care of herself, and Isaac steps in.
Guys… what is going on? This comic is super weird. The story is then interrupted by a glossy 4-page ad for jewelry that seems extremely out of place. Isaac takes the ladies flying around New York, to see all the good and bad the world has to offer, and to see that life is “wonderous, frightening, and inexplicably sacred.” Then he takes them back to Sadie’s place, where she wants to go to sleep. Things are sadly not so life-affirming for Nathan, who has been taken into the abandoned theater by the goons, who are rolling him around the stage and otherwise harassing him. Turns out, they’re the same goons from earlier, and mad about having been caught. Lucky for him…
He’s in the right place, of course. He sneaks into the building and begins snagging and webbing up the goons one-by-one so they don’t do anything crazy. They, meanwhile, are telling Nathan how they specialize in harassing old people, which is kind of ridiculous, but soon there’s only 2 of them left un-webbed to do any harassing. Nathan finally snaps at them, and gets hit in the face for it, and Spidey is about to leap into action when something much crazier happens instead…
Spidey manages to scare the remaining goons off without May & Nathan seeing him, so they think they scared the goons off themselves, which is nice.
Ain’t that sweet? Across town… Isaac is sitting with Beatrice & Sadie as Sadie dies peacefully. So, there’s that. Beatrice thanks him for helping her understand her Mom, and then says she’d like to be alone with her for awhile, so The Gargoyle takes to the skies. And who should he run into but…
Well, then. This certainly was unusual, like the cover said it would be. I wonder what prompted JM to do this one. It was nice in its way, but extremely strange for its era. Superhero comics are allowed to do quieter things these days, but this one would be pretty unusual even done right now. That was a surprise.