Whoever came up with that web joke… you can feel how proud of it they were just looking at the cover. As we saw at the end of last ish, Doc Ock is in the process of marrying Aunt May! It doesn’t get much crazier than this for a Spidey story. Spidey looks on from outside, not sure what to do, and then Hammerhead and his goons burst in, and the place goes nuts.
Stun bullets! If you say so! Ock hurries Aunt May out of the battleground. She really wants to know why Hammerhead is after her. Peter found out last issue, but Conway hasn’t let us in on it yet. Spidey swings in as they exit the house, and Ock clobbers him. Spidey realizes maybe he should hang back to keep from scaring Aunt May, so he just stays down and watches as Ock flips a switch and whole helicopter comes up outta the ground.
So now it’s a helicopter chase! Not a common Spider-Man trope, you gotta hand it to them. Spidey latches on to the bottom of Hammerhead’s chopper and bides his time. Meanwhile, back at the Christmas Party (Yeah, man, all this has been gogin on since Peter ditched them without a word), Betty, Ned & MJ wonder where Peter got off to. MJ is not pleased.
Oh, uh, sure thing, Robbie. I love this. “Did I hear young people talking about making DECISIONS?” Back at the helicopter chase, Hammerhead starts talking about how he doesn’t know what Aunt May inherited, only that it’s big. Spidey hears this, and between the two of them, they recap events from all the way back to ASM 113 that’ve lead up to this. How May came to live with Ock, how Peter went to Canada to talk about Aunt May’s inheritance only to see the guy he went to talk to assassinated. All this mysterious stuff. But just what did Aunt May inherit? What has Conway been cooking for almost 2 years? Weeeeell…
Do WHAT now? Is that even possible? Aunt May is now the proud owner of an entire nuclear facility?? Hammy’s goons get in range of Otto’s chopper and start shooting, but they seem about to ram their helicopter right into Doc Ock’s! I guess Hammerhead can only think of one move even if he’s driving a vehicle. As the two helicopters smash together, Doc Ock is once again leading Aunt May away from the battle, and once again, Spider-Man swings in, so once again, it’s fightin’ time.
While they’re beating each other up, Aunt May passes out. Spider-Man takes out Doc Ock and then scoops up his freaked out Aunt, taking her further into the complex. Eventually, the whole gang converges…
Spider-Man just cutting out is such a novel turn that I can forgive a dude who couldn’t drive a car last issue magically being able to fly a plane now. As he flies off, Doc Ock realizes to his horror that he’s in the middle of a gun battle in an active nuclear facility. And when Hammerhead runs in, he can’t convince him not to run head first into things, as he always does, and…
Pretty callous of Spider-Man there. “Dozens of people just died in nuclear fire, hilarious!” As they fly away, Aunt May wakes up, and he tries to keep her calm while telling her what happened, but she passes back out. He gave it his best shot. And to close out the issue, we cut back to the Christmas Party, where MJ is still leaving.
And that’s that. I gotta give it up, that is one of the craziest issues of Spider-Man ever made. Wall-to-wall crazy. But they still found time for the MJ subplot. A wild ride. And Doc Ock is most certainly dead now. Never coming back, no sir. The End for that guy. This issue has its Marvel Value Stamp intact. Have I talked about those yet? Seems like I would have. The saga continues.