I’m sure all this will wrap in a very satisfying way.
I just enjoy seeing the Robertsons again, really. The way the idea of a large cast went out of fashion in the 2000s really sucks. I get it, of course. Everything became way more character focused at the same time the stories got decompressed. If you did a typical Spider-Man plot form the 80s in the new style, you’d go 2 issues without seeing Spider-Man as we checked in on everyone. But even so. So many great characters left to the margins, if not fully abandoned. This situation will sort of tip back and forth over the years, but the days of the large cast are mostly behind us.
Rather uncharitable, Randy! Elsewhere, stupid ol’ Ero is still trying to jam eggs into Peter’s mouth. And being all sassy and whatnot. The primordial bug monster from MKSM22 turning into this lady is so hard to swallow. How and why would it learn to act like a real person? Why did it choose straight blonde hair for its otherwise black appearance? Why is it sassy, beyond internalized racial stereotypes within a certain writer? It just isn’t good in any way. Anyway, Flash says to do him instead, and she rejects that with a flourish of normal human slang that, like, how does she know it? Then someone shoots the egg. Who in this book has a weird and obscure and recently refreshed history as a gun owner?
Good grief, what’s Betty packing, a proton cannon?
Why is she in some kind of paramilitary getup!? Who IS Betty Brant anymore!? That lil rifle did all that to whatshername???
I am… so unhappy right now.
Spare me your awful, instantly dated Whedonisms, David. Spider-Man goes after Ero, a protesting Betty goes after Spider-Man. Flash is left glue to the ceiling as Komedy Business. And I would just like to remind the court that Aunt May is on the brink of death. Possibly in the 2nd hospital by now? I mean, who knows? But her situation is untenable, and we’re somehow doing this! Ero is yelling at the pursuing Spider-Man about how she can never reproduce and he ruined everything blah blah blah. He webs her foot, which… I’m really not sure how a zillion spiders turn into a physical human body, but it seems like a web wouldn’t be such an issue. She begins… traveling by giant web parachute… And somehow has the momentum… You know, floating on a breeze in a giant parachute… the rip Spider-Man’s sticking feet loose from a rooftop. This comic sucks so very badly. Spider-Man is quippin up a storm like he hasn’t a care in the world, and also saying “Ever since Fox canceled ‘DRIVE,’ it’s been one piece of bad luck after another.” I had to look this up. Drive was a 2007 TV show that lasted 4 entire episodes from one of the producers of Joss Whedon’s show Firefly. Sigh. What a stupid reference.
Spider-Man’s fightin’ mad now, so he inexplicably swings up onto her back somehow in a really baffling Spidey-in-motion panel, produces his stupid, stupid stingers, and slices her parachute loose. They’re STINGERS, not swords. They have a pointy end, not a sharp blade edge. Whatever, who cares.
I am so over this. If they’re opposite sides of some mystical animal totem coin, why is she bird food and he’s not? Why is she made of spiders and he’s not? Why did I buy all these terrible comics?
Spoilers: He will not find a way to “take them down.” “They” don’t even exist, I don’t think, and I assure you, when the deck is cleared for new creative teams, no one’s picking this thread up.
Hey, Peter, remember how you’re Aunt’s on the brink of death? No? I guess not. I do choose to believe FNSM’s participation in Back In Black take place… somehow… in the first 2 issues of ASM. When things are slightly less dire. He seems more upset in SSM. No one’s gonna help me here, I gotta make up the reading order as I go.