ASM 580-594, Annual 36, ASM Brand New Day Extra! 2-3, Spider-Man: Fear Itself, Spider-Man: The Short Halloween, Ms. Marvel 34. I just realized I didn’t draw Ms. Marvel. Oh, well! Norman Osborn is the world’s Top Cop, and that can’t bode well for Spider-Man. But aside from a couple of cameos doing the foreboding, Norman isn’t a driving force in this block. Instead, Spider-Man and Jackpot fight new villain Blindside and forgotten villain Commanda, a conflict that reveals Jackpot uses drugs to get her powers, and is summarily killed by them. Then Spider-Man helps Ms. Marvel on a weird espionage mission that ends in him making her promise to go on a date with him. Spider-Man also fights the long-forgotten villain the Blank, then helps Harry Osborn stop an out of control Molten Man and save Harry’s now ex-family before getting into the main event, the Character Assassination storyline. This grand finale to the all the Brand New Day storytelling so far has Harry propose to Lily Hollister, then reveals her to be Menace, having happened on Norman’s goblin stuff and accidentally mutated herself (somehow). As the election draws to a close, Spider-Man is caught and imprisoned for the Spider Tracer Killings, and unbeknownst to him, so is Peter Parker’s roommate, Vin Gonzales, who is part of a ring of cops who faked the killings. When Carlie Cooper uncovers them, they set Vin up for a fall and try to kill Carlie. Menace saves her from the cops, and then Spider-Man and Harry in a Green Goblin mask stop Menace. Bill Hollister wins the election and resigned before he can take office when the world finds out his daughter is Menace on live TV. With all that craziness out of the way, Spider-Man battles the Spot, helps Wolverine celebrate his birthday, has a totally superfluous run-in with Man-Thing, and stops the Chameleon from impersonating Barack Obama on inauguration day and becoming president (really). Then he goes on an adventure with the FF to another dimension. When he gets back, months have passed, and J. Jonah Jameson is now the mayor. Also, the FF remember Peter’s secret identity, and the returning Peter meets Vin’s sister, a lawyer here to vindicate her very guilty brother. Flash Thompson comes home from the war in a wheelchair, Spider-Man has a brief encounter with the daughter of Kraven and Vermin, Anti-Venom learns his savior Martin Li is also Mr. Negative, Spider-Man has a wild run-in with some silly new villains, then battles an all-new Vulture, and Aunt May gets engaged to Jay Jameson!
Ya know, it had been so long since I started one of these, I convinced myself I hadn’t done one with no swipes in ages, so that was my goal here. But it turns out, I’ve done a lot of totally original ones “lately,” it’s just that the last one was full of swipes and sat on the drawing board, as it were, for 6 months or whatever it was. I’m sure glad to be finishing this one faster than that.