It’s so funny to me that J. Scott Campbell’s bread & butter is “he draws sexy women.” Does he? Is this bucktoothed fencepost of a woman hot? Are those guys all reacting like that because they’re wondering how she lives with nowhere to put her organs? I guess he technically drew “sexier” women in the 90s, when he was getting started at Jim Lee’s Wildstorm Image imprint, but he’s pushed the cartooniness a lot since then, and… Well, I don’t get it.
Knowing nothing about this sort of thing, I looked it up, and you will be surprised to know that’s not a real guy or a real book. JR should coulda drawn an old timey mobster thing if he ever wanted to. Next page tells us nuclear testing took place on that very spot in the present. I’m sure that won’t be important.
Oh, sorry my mistake. I remember this one pretty well, in truth.
I just enjoy seeing them together again. The old heads talking about Spider-Man shouldn’t be married, maybe they have a point, I dunno, but their argument overlooks the fact that, for anyone getting into comics for the first time since 1987 (Like me), it was the status quo. It was as normal as Reed and Sue being married. It’s part of the book. Every day, those of us who grew up with a married Spider-Man outnumber those older than us who didn’t a little more, ya feel me? And then they spent so much of the 90s making the marriage read like a chore, making them constantly at each other’s throats, and… it’s just nice to read them having a good time. While they’re having their reunion, a security guard at what appears to be a lumber mill has a much worse night, mostly off-panel. Something is in there, and it’s not nice. Then we cut to Spider-Man, enjoying a soda and a hot dog, giddy with joy because MJ is back. Didn’t he just have 2 steaks? Then we see some of the Forelli mob shaking down a pimp until something shambles into the building, saying it has a message for Forelli.
Next day(? Night? I’m not sure), that cop Spidey teamed up with back in ASM 41 is on the scene, snarky as usual. Elsewhere, Peter and MJ are deciding how to continue their celebration tonight.
Next page, Spider-Man is out and about again. This book is all very jarring cuts, it’s impossible to tell how much time is passing between scenes. His Spider Sense is triggered by the sound of someone screaming for help, but that turns out to be a recording Detective Lamont was using to get his attention. Bzzzzt! That would not trigger the Spider Sense, but we have some lovely parting gifts for you, JMS!
So, you know where this is going. And it’s sure a weird idea. We cut to the amalgamated mobster monster (They should let me name things) in a club, disgusted that it’s not an old timey jazz joint, when he (They?) bumps into a guy who pulls a knife on him. This does not go well for knife man.
The cobbled-together look of the character is pretty cool. Is he meant to have half a pair of sunglasses embedded in one eye socket? Hard to quite tell what’s going on there. This weird multi-mobster Hulk is called “Digger,” though it’s not been said in-story yet. A very strange idea for a new villain. But, we’ll see how that goes…