Darwyn Cooke and J. Bone take the reins this month. An interesting pairing. Cooke successfully broke into comics in the 90s at DC before quickly deciding it wasn’t a way to make a living and getting right back out (Smart. Sadly). In the 90s, he got work storyboarding on the DC cartoons, Batman and Superman and such. It’s a curious thing, those shows. As they all used a version of Bruce Timm’s cartooning style, they produced a lot of artists whose art… kinda just looks a lot like Bruce Timm’s. But unlike, say, the entire comics industry copying Jim Lee in the 90s, it’s because they spent untold hours working in that style. It was bound to rub off. Cooke is one of these, but he is maybe the most distinguished, having done all sorts of well-received stuff as writer/artist before his untimely death. His DC: The New Frontier series is really something. And J. Bone was an up-and-coming cartoonist in his own right at this time. And jut to maintain the class, Matt Hollingsworth colors this month. All this for only $3.50? What a deal! Anyway, looks like we got romance and the Vulture this time.
It’s weird to see Cooke doing the classic Gill Kane “person getting hit very hard” in panel 3 there. So yeah, it’s looser and more cartoony, but it’s rather Batman-The-Animated-Series-looking. As Spidey is taking a beating, that Edwards guy can’t figure out how to work the camera, and JJJ is very upset. Things continue in very old school fashion, with Spidey lunging for Vultch, missing, webbing his ankle and being whisked through the sky. The usual… until Vulture reveals he was expecting this, since it happens so often, and slings Spider-Man into a smokestack he’s rigged with explosives before setting them off, sending out hero plummeting to Earth in a hail of masonry.
Get Sal Buscema to draw this and we’d be right back in the 70s, but the retro feel is kind of Cooke’s thing. Over the next few pages, we’re introduced to 3 all-new Bugle employees, women reporters referred to “Jill” and “Miss Kay” by copy boy “Spence.” Both the ladies have dates tonight, and Spence heads out to get them some coffee before they knock off work.
I mostly just ran that last page because the middle 3 panels are great. Jill busts into the bathroom, making Kay get lipstick on her face and also angry, she storms out past JJJ angrily answering the phone only to find it’s Marla and get in trouble, there’s a lot of shenanigans going on at the Bugle tonight. Then Jill emerges from the bathroom all sexed up, announcing her date tonight is none other than America’s favorite everyman, Peter Parker. Who is still lying unconscious in that alley, we keep checking on him for a panel, including another as Kay walks past him to the Coffee Bean, where she fends off an advance from Flash Thompson while waiting for her date.
Ol’ Everyman Peter Parker!
Cooke’s JJJ is a lot of fun. Wow, this takes place in the present, I’m rather shocked. Just sort of assumed it would be set in olden times. In fact, I was wondering why Cooke bothered to do a Betty & Veronica riff with brand-new women instead of MJ & Gwen, but I guess it’s because Gwen’s dead and MJ is in California, huh. Spider-Man finally wakes up, trying to remember how he got there, and thinking he’s forgetting he was supposed to be somewhere before passing out again, revealing “8:00” in a heart written on his wrist.
“First row floors?” Did they mean seats?
Funny how that more retro panel is more in line with Cooke’s usual work. Well, as the ladies argue over Peter, Flash points out to them that they’ve been stood up. And back at the Bugle, Marla has had some of the laxative coffee and can’t come out of the bathroom. JJJ is sad to lose his $500, but seems kind of amused. He smells his coffee and then calls in Spence to ask how it happened. Spence mentions the “Angus Special,” and JJJ says he never liked that guy. Meanwhile, the girls have decided to go to Peter’s place and give him what for, but they don’t know where he lives, so Flash offers to drive them. And Spence finds a note from whoever the blue haired girl was and rushes back to take her out for Valentine’s Day.
That lady almost looks like Aunt Anna. Wouldn’t that be wacky. Well, there you go. A pretty rollicking story. I believe these guys are back with another one before the end of this series. I will look forward to it.