This cover is by the great Paul Smith, who was currently wrapping up a stellar run on X-Men when this issue came out (in 4 months, he would be succeeded on the title by a certain John Romita, Jr.). Smith’s crisp, clean lines were and are really striking, and I read once that he always wanted to do a Spider-Man run. I would’ve loved to see it, but this is as close as we get. Inside, it’s the regular MTU team except for Sal Buscema in the penciler slot. Last time Spidey teamed up with Reed, they weren’t exactly getting along. Let’s see how it goes this time. We begin with Reed working on a giant Kirby-esque machine, as he tends to begin a lot of his stories.
It’s… Larry! Who is Larry? Reed goes to get him a soda, and Larry immediately seems evil as soon as Reed leaves the room. Reed thinks to himself that he was there when Larry was born, and then it’s time for the recap:
I begin to think almost all of DeMatteis’ MTU issues pick up where some other comic he wrote left off. This would be yet another MTU picking up a thread from his time on Captain America. I am not familiar with “Every-Man,” but I guess I’m gonna be.
Uh-oh! A clearly super strong and super fast Larry mixes it up with Reed in some expertly staged fight pages by buscema, rightly pointing out that calling yourself “Mr. Fantastic” is pretty arrogant before zapping him with some kinda crazy ray gun he brought with him. He says it’s not fair that some people are born geniuses and others aren’t, and that this basic inequality is the root cause of all the misery in the world. Uh, ok. He ties this back to his dad’s unfortunate past as Reed is being cooked or whatever by the ray. Seems like it’s probably time to rope Spider-Man into this somehow. And so we do, as we’re told 40 minutes later, Spider-Man happens to swing by The Baxter Building, hoping, he thinks, to find out how other heroes don’t live under a mountain of bills (Uh, sure), when he just sees an unconscious Reed through a window. There you have it.
Meanwhile, Every-Man is out on the street, trying to connect with the people by giving a speech about freeing them on the steps of a library. When a cop comes to tell him to move along, he belts said cop down to the street, causing an instant panic. He then produces his weapon, which he says is his “Absorbascann” (His WHAT now???), and which “draws in the power from the hundreds of people in the immediate area… literally joining my soul to theirs!” to make him all super. Then he goes on a rampage, which seems a fine way to liberate the people or whatever.
MY MIND! Reed quickly finds he’s no longer a genius, and begins to despair. Spidey tries to talk him out of it with little success, but he at least convinces him to go after Larry together. They find him pretty quick, and Reed wraps his “nephew” up in his elongated body, which has to be super weird for the person being wrapped up, doesn’t it? But he just busts loose, so Spider-Man dives in, covering him in webbing while telling him his cause is just, but his methods are not.
Oh ho. A mysterious mastermind in the background? How traditional. Back at the fight, Reed once again gets knocked down immediately, and Spider-Man’s not far behind. E-M is using his “Absorbascann” to drain everyone in the area, including the heroes. He rips off his mask and claims he’s “shown them all,” but a barely conscious Reed tells him he’s shown them nothing.
Everybody gets to feeling better as Larry flees, but Reed is still not supersmart. Spidey takes him back to his lab, and working together, they begin trying to figure out how to reverse the effects of the silly ray gun.
Aaaaalrighty. Come back next time for Spidey and the whole FF vs. whoever that evil doctor was. In the letters, for a 2nd month in a row, they re-run an old letter (This one from MTU 29) by future comics writer/editor Jo Duffy, and then let her respond to past herself. How long can they keep this gimmick going? I don’t know, but it’s pretty fun, and there are definitely a lot of old letters by future pros to dig up.