We haven’t gotten to see the 2nd appearance of The Molten Man in ASM 35 yet, but the cover copy says” The Molten Man Regrets…”, a reference I do not get. And now we have a reference to that reference. Another deep pull. Al Milgrom pitches in on inks this month and Joe Bennett takes his unexpected spot as regular penciler. To start, Creel is reading in The Bugle about how Spider-Man beat up Norman Osborn in TAC.
Tom DeFalco sure loves Absorbing Man & Titania. That makes one of us. I mean, they’re fine, but I wouldn’t miss them if they never appeared in anything again. Is Creel taking on the properties of newsprint there? Well, a couple nights later, Spider-Man tries to stop some guys breaking & entering, but they’re terrified he’ll beat them up like that guy, Osborn (sssssshaky), and then a cop rolls by and shoots at him for the same reason. A regular day at the office for Spidey.
Why, it’s yet another “MJ asks Peter not to be Spider-Man” bit, just like after Maximum Carnage. We make a quick stop in at the Robertson home so Martha can be mean to Joe about his job again (Do not like this subplot), then get one-panel reactions to Spider-Man and the bounty on his head from X-Man, The Octopi, and Wolverine & Beast, and also…
Maybe so! But now it’s time for Creel’s scheme, and it’s pretty funny.
As their former pals in the Master of Evil did as The Thunderbolts, they’re pretending to be superheroes. Creel being so unimaginative that he went with a thunder name, too, is pretty funny. Meanwhile, at ESU, MJ & Peter split up to go to class, MJ reminding him not to do an Spider-Manning, and then he immediately spots a figure jumping between rooftops and gets worried.
Why… on Earth… would DD be bandaged OVER his costume? Well, back at The Bugle, everyone gets word that a traffic copter saw Spider-Man, so the Thunders go to claim their reward, and as soon as they leave, Osborn calls the cops, telling JJJ he has to report that Absorbing Man & Titania are in town. Whoops. Spider-Man leaps up onto the helicopter to ask the guy what he’s doing, and then shortly returns to DD to tell him JJJ’s hired half the choppers in town to look for him. Then the pair just miss getting hit with Creel’s wrecking ball. They drop down through the hole it creates in the building they were perched on to avoid T & T for a few seconds.
DeFalco’s new-found love of endless asides in smaller print is… vexing. Quick cut to the Robertson home for more of the same as Joe hears on the radio that the “heroes” they hired are Creel & Titania, then MJ learns Peter broke his promise, then back to the fight.
How many times can Robbie quit The Bugle? We currently have him quitting in the 1993 era and thinking about it in 1997. Sheesh. At ESU, Creel throws his ball and cripples that one guy’s helicopter, forcing Spider-Man to mount a daring rescue before he dies in a crash. Titania is then tricked into jumping out a window by DD, and finds herself under a fast falling helicopter.
The Al Milgrom pages of this issue, including that last one, were really obvious. And so is this latest way to make Peter & MJ’s marriage rocky. Why’re all these presumably happily married guys filling this book with miserable married couples? Can we not have some variety? Ah, well. TAC is still way out ahead of the other titles, and now ASM is slightly ahead of the other 2, so time to catch up.