The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers! First this issue, we check in on the meth lab Freak has been trying to get to the whole time, where a guy is named “Crater,” in case this wasn’t 70s enough, but they just comment on the cops speeding toward the disturbance. At said disturbance, Spider-Man just tackles Crowne to safety, problem solved. A weak resolution to a weak cliffhanger. All the tension of a commercial break on the Transformers cartoon.
I do like the quips on this page. Freak then smells meth cooking nearby and abandons the fight. Really. Highbrow material. Spidey gets a tracer on him, and then uses the reprieve to check his webshooter, somehow not already guessing his new, thicker webbing gummed up the works. Duh, science wiz. Then he gets back into it, leaping into a window after his tracer to find…
High. Brow.
These fiery panel borders are oppressive and distracting and a terrible idea. Why does Spider-Man think Wall Street people do meth? You know what they famously, stereotypically do? Cocaine. I can’t believe I’m even typing this. I planned to skip the 15+ years of books I didn’t buy, why did I do this?
The escaping Freak is already in another chrysalis, and Spider-Man is now surrounded by the police inside a meth fire, so he does… well, something…
Tired of these cops.
My previous vote for worst ASM writer, Len Wein, laughs at Bob Gale. This does not improve as Peter leaves the DB with his check for an entire $2000, which he thinks means he can start looking for his own place. Even in 2007, no one was gonna get an apartment in Manhattan for $2000! “It’s just a banana, Michael, what could it cost? $10?” Peter’s mood is badly damaged when he sees Bennett on TV saying Spider-Man was trying to assassinate Crowne, and that “the armadillo man” was clearly trying to stop him. Peter is very upset, and thinks JJJ was never as bad to him as Bennett. He thinks he should go see JJJ in the hospital, before recapping at us that he caused JJJ’s heart attack and he shouldn’t do that. So, he decides to go as Spider-Man, which is even stupider.
One is reminded… of when Len Wein… had Aunt May have a heart attack in ASM 176… and then while she was recuperating… Marv Wolfman had Spider-Man give her a 2nd heart attack in ASM 183… This is not a positive memory. Spider-Man flees the hospital when doctors arrive, then Peter’s off to the big event Lily and Harry are at.
The last time Peter stole Harry’s girl, he became addicted to pills. I shudder to think what could happen now. Also, that credit thing is so incredibly stupid. While Lily’s dad talks about how dangerous Spider-Man is, Peter runs into Carlie, who talks about the one-armed man she’s working with, who he obviously guesses. And if he’s involved, Peter thinks Spider-Man should pay his old friend a visit.
What are these random black shapes behind the panels? They continue on the next page:
Using stem cells the like they used radiation in the 60s and the internet in the 90s. “I don’t know anything about it, it could be anything, it will be anything!”
Hard to believe this terrible villain idea is going to go into the future. And as for that snow… well, unusually for the period, I happen to know a lot about that snow, and… it’s not good news… in so many ways…