Why the “?!?” Would it be so strange if he did? I know that the beginning of the Vol. 2 era is a disaster, but getting Tom DeFalco out of my life makes it seem like a dream from my current vantage point. This month, Scott Kolins is penciling and Gary Martin inks. Still Tom DeFalco and Bob Sharen holding it down in the other roles. If you guessed we’d open in the middle of something and then flashback, congratulations, you did it. The “something” in question is Spider-Man fleeing a dinosaur while 2 regular people yell that they don’t know how they got here nearby.
Spidey sure did leave a lot of people down there when he rescued the kid. Kolins has certainly improved from when he was doing odds and ends around the Spider-Office 4 years prior and they were frequently misspelling his last name. That completely out of context “Duhhh!” really shows you how DeFalco has his finger on the pulse of the youth.
So… dinosaurs and the jungle and stuff just appear in the city… and none of it triggers your danger sense… and you just go with it. Sheesh. Our hero can sure be dumb when he’s written that way.
Right-o. Daredevil sees Spider-Man swinging by and figures he must’ve dealt with the bank thing, so he can go on about his business, which is explaining his powers to us in case you’ve never heard of Daredevil. Why is DeFalco regressing to the 60s so much lately?
Well, I’m sure that won’t have anything to do with the obviously VR dinosaur adventure. Meanwhile, JJJ is berating Peter for not getting photos of the dinosaur thing, and then berating him for the quality of the photos when he sees them. This, too, feels very retro. But look, DeFalco’s decided to do some commentary on the comic book industry’s horrible legal practices:
Seems odd for a guy who’s been management at Marvel for decades and even Editor-In-Chief for several years to comment on work-for-hire agreements. He was in charge when David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane signed away the ownership of Venom, among hundreds of other instances of creations made up under his tenure. But, whatever, this isn’t about that, it’s about this:
Is that one guy having a heart attack? Spider-Man swings by, wondering why his pictures didn’t show any dinosaurs (He’s supposed to be a genius!), and then a volcano appears in the middle of the street. DD notices everyone’s panicking except Angela right as Spider-Man catches up to them. So Angela uses her “MVRI” to make it look like she’s a helpless damsel being harassed by some kind of robot devil just as Spider-Man arrives on the scene. And in this comic, Spider-Man is an absolute idiot, so…
Well, this is another 1970s issue of Marvel Team-Up, so the heroes have to fight now. Spidey still sees an evil robot, which is now shooting beams at him while saying it’s Daredevil. But, as DD tends to remind us every time he & Spidey scrap, including now, Spider-Man is stronger and faster than him, so Spidey quickly gets the better of him.
“As ifffff!” Ye gods. DD is able to point out to Spider-Man that he knows Spidey has a danger sense that’s not going off right now, no matter what he sees, and suddenly, Spider-Man doesn’t see an evil robot anymore. Is that the power of friendship or something? Oh, it’s because the evil boss has stolen the controls. So DD didn’t even need to talk Spidey down, good stuff. As he runs, he yells to Angela that if she developed this thingie on his time, using his equipment, it belongs to him, which, again, is hitting real close to home for the comics business. Spidey bounds after him, and so he turns the thingie back on.
Did someone just think Daredevil needed a sales boost? He was the most important character in this issue of ASM. As we’ve seen, DeFalco’s first chance at writing Spider-Man was some dreadful issues of Marvel Team-Up. From Team-Up you came, and to Team-Up you shall return, apparently. For some reason, ASM published 2 issues this month, so Tom’s swansong is our next post. Don’t get excited.