As mentioned last time, now we already know who the mystery man at the end of last issue was. Gerry Conway takes over as new writer in mid-story, with Jazzy John Romita staying on to ensure and easy transition. Kraven approaches The Gibbon and offers him power. Martin, though, just feels bad and wants to sulk.
Kraven lets us know he slowed his fall in the Savage Land by grabbing various roots and branches on the way down, so he got hurt, but didn’t die. Gog died, though, and Kraven (Rightly, for once) blames Spider-Man for that. Weird to see Conway hop in for Stan then flash back past Stan to Roy Thomas’ brief tenure. Anyway, Kraven wants revenge &etc., you know the drill.
“Spider-Man killed a creature that I raised like a child, and you! You, he was really mean to for like 5 minutes! We are the same, you and I…” Martin has officially adopted the phrase Spider-Man used to make fun of him as his supername, which is a dubious start, but why not? Spidey, meanwhile, is swinging away to Aunt May’s place, thinking he’s done Martin a favor by scaring him away from the super-life. Arriving at Aunt May’s, no one is home, but he finds a letter to him on the table…
Whaaaa? Where could she be? No time to puzzle that out, because someone saw him crawling in the window and called the cops, and they got here remarkably fast. Spidey’s off before they can do anything, but now they suspect he did something with the old lady who lives here. Spider-Man just can’t catch a break with the cops.
Spidey swings by The Bugle, thinking maybe Robbie can help him (With what? Finding Aunt May? He doesn’t elaborate). Robbie tells him he’s already wanted for kidnapping, so he shows Robbie Aunt May’s letter, making up a flimsy excuse that Peter needed it, so he snuck in to get it for him (Pete couldn’t get into his Aunt’s apartment?), and then leaves the letter with Robbie and departs. That seems weird. Then JJJ comes in ready to bury Spider-Man for what he must’ve done to that poor woman…
But if Spidey didn’t know he was wanted for kidnapping, what was Robbie going to help him with? At any rate, Kraven & Gibbon are now in the botanical gardens, where Kraven has been feeding Gibbon various herbal potions and “training him” (It’s been, like, 20 minutes!), and the final potion seems to have a profound effect on The Gibbon…
Gibbon starts trying with all he’s got to kill Kraven, who’s trying to let this run its course until he can get his new toy under control again, but it’s not going too well. They wind up locked in a stalemate staring at each other, until The Gibbon backs down.
Aaaaaaaalright. Whatever you say. The next morning, Peter Parker is trying to get some sleep after a night of failing to get a lead on Aunt May when the phone rings. He hopes it’s her, but it’s Gwen. When she finds out Aunt May left, she feels really guilty, and Peter tries to talk her out of it by saying this has been coming a long time. Has it? I mean, Gwen was right, Aunt May does treat Peter like a child, but that’s always been their dynamic to this point. I don’t know. Anyway, Pete figures he won’t be sleeping now, so he heads back out as Spider-Man, checking all Aunt May’s usual haunts to no avail. And then…
Gibbon’s surprising strength really catches Spidey off guard. So much that Gibbon is able to get on top of him and get his hands around his neck, Kraven commanding him to kill Spider-Man through their “pyshic link” or whatever. But deep down, Martin’s not a killer, and he hesitates long enough for Spidey to get free. But he accidentally kicks Gibbon off the roof, so he immediately has to save his attacker.
Kraven will just wait to have his next embarrassing defeat at a later date. But where’s Aunt May? Who knows? I mean, I kinda know, but I’m not sure how things get where I know they’re going. Maybe we’ll find out more next issue. Kiiiind of a rough start for our new writer. I wonder how much, if any of this was Stan’s idea. You think he just passed it off? “Here’s where I left it, good luck?” All the psychic stuff sure was weird. Conway’s just getting warmed up when it comes to weird, though.