Here begins a stint of ASM covers by the late, great Jason Pearson. His stuff had wild, palpable energy, highly stylized with a super slick finish, made only slicker by this color treatment. I loved these covers so much. If he’d done some interiors, even just for one issue, I would have freaked out. He was a guy who never really found his place in comics, somehow, despite being so good. I think I first saw him on the Savage Dragon: Blood & Guts miniseries, and I was just floored. The kinetic energy was off the charts and I was an instant fan for life. But his creator-owned property, Body Bags, failed to catch fire, and then his work was sporadic for the rest of his career, and his life was kind of a rollercoaster. His was a tragic loss. I think we will get to see interiors from him later, on a random annual, but it’s not the same. But, also, there goes the corner box, er, circle. That didn’t last long. Marvel isn’t done changing the covers yet, either. We open this month on Spider-Man stopping an armored car robbery with narration of Mr. Parker telling his class about the laws of interia, with the gag being a kid asks when you could use this in real life as we’ve seen Spider-Man using them on the preceding pages. Meanwhile, Aunt May has gone to the Daily Bugle building. A man is raving conspiracy theories on the elevator, and Aunt May tells him they’ve reached his floor.
It’s funny how much I’ve missed the old buzzard.
I can’t remember when Quesada enacts Marvel’s no smoking policy. After a tragic incident with cancer in his family (I think his dad?), he decided no one in Marvel comics could be depicted smoking. No one. Good guys, bad guys, Wolverine who literally can’t be killed by cancer, no one. Which, I mean, yer heart’s in the right place, and goodness knows I hate smoking, but you can’t make Marvel “the world outside your window” if nobody smokes. Especially since characters like Wolverine and the Thing and JJJ were so famous for smoking cigars (The Thing picking up the habit from Jack Kirby himself), it just felt a little weird. Anyway, whenever it happens, I guess not yet. After class, Jenny, the student from before, comes to Peter calling in his offer to talk to her any time. She has something she’d like him to come check out. Neither of them seems to know a shadowy figure in an alley observes them leaving the school.
Meanwhile:
I like those last 2 panels. One can only guess how Straczynski described MJ’s level of undress to Romita in the script after last month. Downtown, Jenny takes Peter see another girl (Another girl who could intended to be anywhere from 6-16 given the way JR draws kids & teens), who explains her friend has gone missing and the cops won’t help. And Jenny says he’s not the only one. A lot of guys “around late high school, early college” age have been disappearing. And not only are they worried about those guys, but Jenny is worried for her brother, soon to return from the hospital. Peter says none of this is really his area, but he’ll make some calls and see what he can do.
Great gag! Spidey’s snack has been interrupted by a semi-transparent man sucking a street kid into a vortex that seems to come from his very body. As the boy vanishes, Spidey leaps through the villain. He says he was warned he might run into Spider-Man one of these days, but provides little else by way of explanation. Spidey tries to sock him, but he goes right through, only for the guy to turn solid and belt him one. Similar to fighting Sandman or Hydro-Man. I hope this guy’s called Air Man.
Spidey scores a few hits after that, but then the dude goes intangible and teleports out, saying if Spider-Man’s smart, he’ll stay out of this part of town. Spider-Man looks for clues, but doesn’t find any, so he has to leave. But he knows more than he did. Back home, he’s putting on makeup to hide a bruise on his face, something he’s gotta do these days for his job and now for his Aunt May. He thinks it’s lucky he saw MJ doing her makeup so often, and makes himself sad. Then Aunt May arrives. She says he looks well.
Oh ho! Could it be that our star-crossed lovers will be getting back together? It certainly could, but does it?