Ya just can’t get away from generic armor guys in the 90s. Something has gone wrong with Spidey’s web here. Looks like the line art has a color hold almost the same gray as the actual color. Oops. That’s not the only thing that’s gone wrong, Ariel Olivetti shares penciling duties and a whole lotta people pitch in on inks. One of those generic losers has X-Man by the throat and is rocketing him underwater. What a loss that would be.
Nate continues trying to get free, and apparently fails, passing out underwater. I guess this is the last issue of X-Man. Meanwhile, Spider-Man’s fighting another of them up on top of the bridge, and Crisscross really goes wild with the “Spidey-in-motion” gag.
He shoots, he scores, that’s a really fun page. Spidey is STILL recapping has he gets his pursuers to shoot each other, and thinks he’s defeated them for a sec. This gives him time to wonder what happened to Nate before his foes come after him again and keep him busy.
Why on Earth is Spider-Man talking like that in panel 2? “Around me, TO me…” What?
Nate is Cable if he didn’t grow up in the future, if that hasn’t come up yet. And like Cable and so many other stupid characters created by Rob Leifeld or someone emulating him in this period, he has one eye that glows. Just one. For no obvious reason. Remember how Shriek’s one eye glowed in her debut? They seem to have forgotten in later appearances. Spider-Man starts whuppin’ his foe and Nate tries to mentally probe his exposed attacker, but the 3rd one’s still on the loose, and Spider-Man somehow knows Nate has been removing their psi-shields even tho that makes no sense, so he’s worried about it. But…
Turns out Team Generic has done so much damage to the bridge it’s in real danger of coming apart. As Ariel Olivetti takes over, cars start flying off of it, with their occupants saved by the dynamic duo, but things are getting worse. Olivetti is a very different kind of artist, this is pretty jarring.
Spider-Man just starts kicking and punching debris falling down on the bridge, which is insane, and then Nate magically fixes everything with his mental powers so they can flee an ungrateful public hurling mutant-based insults at them. There’s a cut away to a subplot that means nothing to me, and then…
Why is his spider suit just laying on the ground?? Why is he dressed like it’s the 60s???
Whatever, dudes! Then Madelyne Pryor, the clone of Jean Grey created by Mr. Sinister to trick Cyclops into marrying her and making perfect babies (Aka Nate), who died but got better and has been some kinda part of this book in the past, shows up. Whew. X-Men make Spidey seem positively normal, even in the 90s. Let’s get back to his books…