ASM 539-545, FNSM 17-24, SSM 35-41 & Annual 1. After Aunt May is shot, Peter is so mad he… puts his old black costume on. “To send a message.” That message is, apparently, that it’s laundry day. This drawing entails both the Back In Black cycle and One More Day, minus all the comics Spider-Man appeared in wearing the black suit beyond his own titles, which are getting their own drawing. Spider-Man beats up Kingpin for having May shot, finds out the Uncle Ben from an alternate reality that’s been running around was killed and replaced by the Chameleon of 2211 (Really) who looks like a big red monster (really), while helping Sandman clear his dad of the murder of the alternate Uncle Ben, then has it out with Flash Thompson’s girlfriend “Ms. Arrow,” who is actually the Other from the story The Other, as Flash & Betty rekindle their romance. Then he hashes it out with JJJ for firing Robbie and gets him to drop the lawsuit he filed against Peter Parker. Elsewhere, Mr. Hyde’s alter ego Calvin Zabo is turning various street kids into Spider-Men to see what will happen, and Spider-Man calls on Madame Web to try to talk to Aunt May’s spirit. Also this is where MJ’s Aunt Anna is brought in, where all she does is talk to Black Cat, we don’t get her perspective on her dear friend dying at all, it sucks. Then a thoroughly insane and dying Eddie Brock finds out he’s in the same hospital as Aunt May and hears the Venom in his head tell him to put on a black Spider-Man suit and kill MJ & May, but he manages not to, don’t worry. And then Peter Parker meets God (Who looks like Iggy Pop with black hair after going through a windshield, for some reason?), who says it’s May’s time to go. None of it makes much sense. Then, after Jarvis pays for Aunt May’s hospital stay via Tony Stark, Spider-Man travels the Marvel U looking for a way to save her. And then Mephisto presents him & MJ with the prospect of saving May at the price of wiping their marriage from history, which they decide to do in one of the single worst Marvel Comics stories ever published! What a mess. The only good comic is SSM Annual 1, a sort of last ride of Peter & MJ as a couple. I got kind of obsessed with trying to make Mephisto look gross in the coloring stage. Quesada, Mikki & Isanove made him look kind of beautiful, which I guess works for the story, but I thought he should be gross. These comics were all terrible and I was not too excited about drawing this. I managed to get involved in the Mephisto, MJ & Peter part, but the rest was a chore. Glad to move on. No swipes, all my fault.