Roger Stern, Jim Mooney & Bruce Patterson bring us Peter Parker sitting in his office at ESU on a Saturday, worrying about the events of ASM 210 when Phil Chang walks in. He thinks Peter looks pretty down about losing his job and all, so…
It’s one of the Dragon Gang-Lords from back in ASM 184–185. Phil actually says, out loud, “I once took a vow never to raise my fist in anger, but I can still grab that guy and hold him until the police can be called!” When I see a dangerous gang leader who tried to kill me once, I, too, think “gonna grab ‘im!” Pete & Phil rush off after him, but he hops in a van. What’s a van to a Spider-Man, though?
Spidey takes off after Tommy, who is spotted by a guy in a helicopter who asks why he’s early to the thing. Tommy says he thought he’d be safer cruising around awhile. The guy in the helicopter sees Spidey, and Tommy starts trying to drive in places with buildings further apart so Spidey can’t swing…
Whoops! Spidey has no choice but to leap from car to car in traffic until he’s on the van. But that only lasts a couple of seconds.
Spidey leaps off the van (Didn’t they worry about shooting Tommy?), which escapes into a tunnel, leaving Spidey defeated. The dude in the helicopter radios his boss, as seen on the cover, who thinks he’ll have to take care of Spider-Man. Spidey goes home to call Aunt May to see if he can come visit tomorrow, but ends up getting more than he bargained for.
That shock sends him right back out as Spider-Man. He hangs out in the old Dragon Gang headquarters hoping Tommy will show up, and he does. Very nice of him. Tommy is scared into taking Spider-Man to the boss’s place, which leads to this bit of business…
…before Spider-Man arrives at The Smuggler’s hideout, and begins making quick work of his goons. Smuggler tries to get the drop on him, but come on, it’s a guy who’s supervillain name is “The Smuggler,” what chance does he have?
While he’s no match for Spider-Man, The Smuggler proves too tough to stay down, and that’s when Spidey runs out of web fluid. He’s only able to get a few feet of web out, which he ties around his foe, but that leads him to a weird predicament.
The rest of the issue is a back-up story featuring our old pal, The White Tiger, but that’s a little outside the purview of this blog, so I’m skippin’ it. Sorry!