MTU 144

Oh, no. The White Dragon. I didn’t think we’d ever see this goofball again, and I was totally cool with that. The art team from last issue returns this month, but they’re joined by writer Cary Burkett this time. I am not familiar with this name. The internet tells me he worked in comics for a few years at Archie & DC, co-creating the DC character Nemesis, before quitting comics to be a radio DJ. He only has 8 credits at Marvel, and I hope we like this one, because he also does MTU 146-148. Note Spidey’s squiggly webbing on the cover. Todd McFarlane gets credit for inventing that, but Michael Golden, Art Adams and whoever drew this uncredited cover did it first.

We get started on a dark & stormy night, as Moon Knight looks down at a house where a wake is taking place. A wake for one Do Yang, head of “the strongest warrior society in in Chinatown, The Tigers Claw,” who has apparently been murdered.

Moon Knight apparently knew Do Yang, and has stopped by to pay his respects… rather disrespectfully. He vows to the widow that he’ll bring White Dragon to justice. The hothead nephew yells after him that they don’t want help from outsiders, but I doubt that will dissuade him.

I appreciated that Greg LaRocque (Or somebody) has redesigned White Dragon to look a lot less stupid, but this stuff is still as uncomfortable and probably racist as last time he showed up, so I’m not having much fun yet. Over at The Daily Bugle, Robbie wants pictures of the fighting in Chinatown, so Peter Parker takes a cab out there… a cab driven by one of Moon Knight’s 3 other personalities. Peter decides to investigate a crowd gathering outside a restaurant, only to realize it’s the one Phil Chang’s uncle owns (From last time we saw White Dragon). Turns out, the group is looking for Phil, but they’re told he’s not here. Totally a lie, though, he watches them leave from upstairs.

Phil Chang as presented in ASM 184-185 was a far cry from the fun loving party animal he wound up being in Spectacular Spider-Man over the years. Here, though, he back to being the taciturn Asian stereotype. Not a good turn, there, Mr. Burkett. Phil says Peter doesn’t know about his tragic backstory so he can segue into a flashback, but doesn’t he? I swear he told Peter all this in the previous White Tiger story, but maybe he told Spider-Man. Either way, people know he has a rep as a great fighter who refused to join the Dragon Lords, so the Tiger’s Claw people want him to be their new leader, but he’s not interested. As before, he says he’ll never commit a violent act again, this really is a straight up sequel. To my surprise, Peter gives him the “With great power…” trip, seemingly thinking he should totally go fight The White Dragon. And hey, who’s that outside?

White Dragon doesn’t waste time busting out his old mouth-mounted flamethrower bit, that goofy nonsense has survived the redesign. Soon the restaurant is on fire. Phil’s Uncle goes after White Dragon with a bat, but lucky for him, Moon Knight swings in before he can get killed.

Phil still refuses to lead the gang, and Spidey still thinks he totally should, which is not getting any less weird. Then he & Moon Knight both swing up into the night, MK on the rope ladder of his helicopter and Spidey on his web, discussing the merits of fighting for a cause. Looks like a team-up if I ever saw one, but then MK flies off in his helicopter without Spider-Man. Huh. Ok. Moon Knight uses his Jake Lockley identity to get some info on how White Dragon was broken out of jail by an unknown but high ranking figure in the criminal underworld, and then we check back in with Spidey.

This kind of tight continuity is really appreciated. Some of the eras we’ve covered, where even stories written by the same person didn’t line up in any reasonable reading order, really make you appreciate these comics fitting together like puzzle pieces. Spidey easily takes out all the goons, but then a commotion outside turns out to be The White Dragon with Phil Chang in hand up on a nearby roof.

The Tiger Claw guys won’t let Spidey intervene, and he thinks maybe that’s for the best. Maybe White Dragon needs to be beaten by someone from around here. But Phil continues to refuse to fight, even as White Dragon beats the crap out of him. Then Spidey notices Chu Yang from the wake earlier running off into an alley.

Spidey jumps in feet first, knocking out the Dragon Lord guy and demanding to know Chu’s deal. He says his uncle was a soft-hearted coward, so he betrayed him to a real warrior. Nice. He says he’ll never tell Spider-Man where the bomb is. Around the corner, White Dragon is crowing over his defeated enemy, but…

Moon Knight continues to exposit the deal to the assembled onlookers, saying Kingpin plans to use White Dragon to finally get control of Chinatown, and forcing the goon he’s got tied up to confirm the story. Moon Knight then leaps into battle with White Dragon, while Spider-Man rushes to try to find the bomb.

Was that footnote really necessary? Spidey’s found the bomb, but there’s no time to defuse it, so as Moon Knight continues to wail on White Dragon, Spidey just tries to swing it as far away as he can, until his Spider Sense tells him it’s time to drop it…

Timely! With the bomb gone and White Dragon defeated, we’ve only got one page left to wrap this up. Phil and Moon Knight wonder what that explosion even was…