It’s Bill Mantlo, Jim Mooney and Frank Springer beginning an unusually long story for their era with the absolutely terrible title “Carrion, My Wayward Son.” Hooboy. We open on the headquarters of the Maggia, Marvel’s Mafia, whose leader call himself “Big M” like that’s not hilarious, as they entertain a guest: Carrion.
This spooky weirdo claims he can do what they couldn’t and defeat Spider-Man. When they don’t agree, he shows off his super powers.
Just killin’ dudes. “Big M” (Clearly the lost McDonald’s mascot, who lost popularity after the introduction of the Hamburglar and decided to show him what real crime looks like) opens a trap door under him, bu he just floats, and then he vanishes. Seems like he’s going to be a formidable foe, and he really, really hates Spider-Man. But why? I know, but only because I read comics with him in the in the past. This story, I guess his introduction, is new to me. We cut to Spider-Man swinging across the city and worrying about all his recent troubles in ASM, I guess in case you haven’t been reading it, while Jim Mooney straight up swipes the Spider-Man off the famous cover of ASM 121 for some reason.
Was I not supposed to notice? It’s literally one of the all-time most famous comic books, Jim. As Peter worries that he doesn’t know what his future holds, we switch to following The White Tiger as he leaps into action against some gang members working on a car. White Tiger… well, maybe he’ll explain his deal for us. He handles them easily, but then…
Then he vanishes on the gangster kid just as he’s decided White Tiger is a hero for the community. So, ok, I’ll do it, Hector Ayala is one of Peter Parker’s ESU classmates, but the amulets he wears grant him the power of The White Tiger, enhancing his martial arts prowess and making him one of the most poorly costumed heroes of all time. I mean, look at him. It’s just a white morph suit. No flair, no “tiger” elements. Elsewhere, the Maggia are breaking into the NY headquarters of Citibank! You don’t see real companies namechecked like that in comics anymore. A robot bird bursts out of a van as “Big M” and his goons prepare to attack. I mean a truck. A sinister truck.
“That ‘robot,’ as you call it… because that’s exactly what it is…” Anyway, if you guessed Spider-Man happened to be swinging by right now, you win! Spidey gets into it with all the goons even as the “birddroid” flies into and explodes a vault.
The action moves into said vault, where the robo-bird morphs into a humanoid shape. But you probably expected that from the cover telling you this is “The Terrible Tri-Man.” And while the whole issue has played coy about who his creator is, the cover told you that, too, as Spidey learns on the last page: It’s The Masked Marauder! Yeah, everyone’s favorite villain! What, are you saying you don’t know The Masked Marauder? Well, me either, but here he is, and he just shot some beams out of his own face that rendered Spider-Man blind! Uh-oh!