ASM 22-24 are a 3-parter, so we’re sticking with PPSM for awhile before getting back to it. I’m not complaining! Sure looks like a Byrne swipe from Chapter One on the cover. All this swiping is bumming me out, man. Jenkins and Buckingham are obviously picking up on recent Sandman developments this issue, beginning with him holed up somewhere, slowly dying, writing his last will & testament on a notepad, throwing a book at the TV when Days of Our Lives proves too annoying. Back when comics would still reference real world intellectual property without fear of being sued so often. Meanwhile, a recently-out-of-the-shower Peter Parker once again surveys his empty side of the fridge, and determines to steal some of Randy’s ice cream. He’s wandering around the apartment in naught but a towel singing along to “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Again with the fearless use!) in headphones and eating stolen ice cream as Glory & Randy show up.
Comedy. Meanwhile:
Sandman’s will that’s really a letter to his mom recaps how he got hurt, and unsurprisingly, Buckingham recreates 2 of Romita, Jr.’s panels. I mean, given… the rest of it. Sandy is trying to replace his missing mass with concrete, but it’s not working, and so he swears vengeance before he goes.
Dude, what is this? Did Buckingham get some random person off the street to draw panel 3? All this swiping and you don’t know how the webshooters work!? Well, obviously, Sandman blames Spider-Man for his impending doom, despite how dumb that is. It’s just supervillain move #1. At a cafe, Randy & Glory are laughing til they cry about Peter’s performance earlier, then we’re back to the fight, where Spider-Man points out that, if Sandy should be mad at anyone, it’s Venom but he’s not hearing it.
Wacky Spider-Man stuff. And obvious Byrne reference. Sandman says it’s not nice to make a big joke out of his situation, and to his credit, Spider-Man tries to let him say his piece. But that just gets him beat up. All the while, Sandman rants about how he tried to be a hero, but nothing ever goes right for him, and speculates that Spider-Man is “Mr. Perfect” with a perfect life and perfect wife and 2.3 kids under that mask who’s never had to work a day in his life and so on. Really lays it on.
That splash is the 3rd time Buckingham has used that Spider-Man pose this issue. He has forced me to go look it up. It’s the cover of Chapter One #5. It’s not traced, it’s just obviously referenced. This is extremely distracting.
There’s the cover of PPSM 21, a FOURTH reference from Chapter One 5, and another Spidey obviously sourced from Byrne. I mean this is insane. It’s not like Buckingham can’t draw. Look at this epilogue:
Maybe he’s just more comfortable with regular people. This was a quirky and poignant story, and I could barely pay attention due to all the swiping. This is gonna be a problem for me. He’s on this book a good long while. This could become very frustrating. I’m surprised past me didn’t key into this. I guess present me has a seen a lot more Spider-Man in a very compressed timeline.