In-house ads have been like “THIS IS IT! THE VERTIGO ISSUE!” like we were all waiting with baited breath for a comic where Spider-Man is especially dizzy. “Thrilling can’t-move action!” Great cover, tho. And that’s just the start. This is another one I actually remember, and the art team just goes bananas on this one.
They’re locked in. Romita is doing fun things with page construction. Across another 2-page spread, Spidey recaps why he’s trapped here while seeing an open window a few floors above him. But try as he might, he can’t make himself crawl up there. And if that’s not bad enough, the mystery man from last issue is in the building, blasting his way into an office level with Spider-Man’s predicament, saying they’ll be able to catch up on old times.
Here’s some of the most aggressive stuff yet trying to convince you Peter & MJ are SO YOUNG, actually, 36 years since they were 15 years old. It doesn’t stick. Meanwhile, Paul Stacy basically repeats his scene from last issue questioning why he’s fallen in with the Friends of Humanity and also why he doesn’t want to quit them when Robin comes smashing through his window. She asks he wants to try to intimidate her again, now she’s all armored up, but before he can answer, we’re back to our title character.
Lookit Romita, Jr.’s Shocker! Designed by his dear ol’ dad, of course. As he does with Iron Man, Jr. really tries to communicate the material of the suit. It’s the same Shocker, but his suit’s as padded, as thick, as bulky as it was always implied to be. Elsewhere, MJ is still kind of stalling for Peter to arrive, fielding questions about if they share friends and such, and refusing to talk about the dead ones after she mentions them and the unseen psychiatrist wants more info. In the C plot, Robin tells Paul if he’s scared, he now has some idea what it’s like to be a mutant. She says she came to kill him, but won’t sink to his level. Even now, he’s a pompous jerk. But he might be singing another tune if he knew a shadowy figure in a car outside has just received the order that Paul is expendable if “the team” can get Robin. Aaaaand back in the A plot…
Well, that made no sense. Shocky followed Spider-Man a long time, and impossibly well, to get to this point, tell him he’s gonna be real scary later, and leave. Roger that. In another 2-page spread, we begin to intercut between Spider-Man and Mary Jane, Spider-Man realizing the ledge he’s hanging from is crumbling under him as MJ talks about how they’ve always managed to hang in there, that kind of thing. MJ asserts they’ll be together no matter what the future brings as he begins to fall to his certain doom.
“Gwen & George were my favorite people in the whole world, and that’s why they never, ever talked about it, and also why I waited years to bother to show up and investigate their deaths!” This is so awkward. The goon squad’s bullets just bounce off Robin as she shields Paul from the barrage. She tells him to flee, and if he’s “got a heart,” to evacuate the building, which he begins to do. Robin decides to teach the Friends a pretty harsh lesson as some onlookers spot a child still trapped in the building, as people always do in these situations.
And so, Spider-Man’s storied career comes to its tragic end. Pretty sure. Sorry. This issue features a letter by a guy who says, “One complaint, though, do you think that John Romita, Jr. could make Mary Jane slightly sexier?” He also asks them to hurry up and resolve the baby plot, and the response he gets is “trust us.” Don’t listen to ‘em, weird creepy guy, they have no plan, and when they get there yer gonna wish they hadn’t! Anyway, tune in next time to see if Spider-Man is dead. He probably is.