My understanding is that, because ASM was doing this big and important Gang War story, the other 2 titles were kind of meant to hang back. There’s a lot of flashback material and such running alongside that ASM story. Like this. Is this an inventory story? Just a flashback? No idea, but it explicitly takes place sometime after ASM Annual 15, which was about 6 years ago, so it’s definitely not happening now. Roger McKenzie writes, Greg Laroque pencils, Art Nichols inks and Bob Sharen colors. We open on Doc Ock attacking a “huge transport” carrying nuclear material.
This does feel more like inventory material. Nowhere does it say it takes place in the past, and you’d think that footnote would make reference to how old that annual is. Well, anyway, Spider-Man swings around looking for Ock, and his Spider Sense takes him to a shady character walking toward a jewelry store, but he turns out to be the owner. Spider-Man just scampers off, embarrassed, but the whole “Spider Sense went off” aspect is seemingly dropped. Then we’re told Doc Ock goes on a rampage robbing places over the next few nights. Peter Parker finds out JJJ is trying to say Spider-Man is involved, and goes to talk to him, but gets yelled at to get photos that link Spider-Man to Doc Ock. This is very old school. Then he gets a tip from Robbie that Brentwood Electronics is building a prototype nuclear reactor, and parts are due in by ship tomorrow night. So, at the appointed time, when Doc Ock strikes, Spider-Man is there.
At this point, you never know whether Ock will be treated like a joke or a terrifying threat. This one starts the first way, then goes the 2nd, Spider-Man easily getting a few licks in, but then getting over confident and thrashed. Ock starts chasing him around the ship, but Spider-Man is able to lose him and mount a surprise attack. He only keeps the advantage for a few panels, tho.
Spidey sliding down the tentacles is pretty fun! Ock grabs him up in his arms and throws him at the cops as he makes his escape. The cops try to take him, instead, but he breaks free of them and jumps off the boat. He can still barely see, and navigates by instinct up onto a roof where it’s safe to take his mask off. He does some pretty old school wallowing in self-pity, complete with demolishing a chimney for no reason in his anger, then goes home. Meanwhile, in a lab beneath Manhattan, Doc Ock finishes building his own nuclear reactor. He thinks he can use to make himself more powerful, somehow. In another bit of visual fun from Laroque, he rubs his tentacles together instead of his hands as he villain monologues. The next day, JJJ is happy with Peter’s photos of the fight, and then Peter and Lance Bannon have a pretty out-of-character fight about whether Spider-Man is working with Ock. They’re interrupted by The Bugle’s never-before-seen science editor, a woman simply called “Izzy,” who announces she’s checked all the stuff Ock stole, and he’s certainly built a nuclear reactor.
And so the jewelry thing makes sense. It’s into the sewer for our hero, who doesn’t take long to find himself in Ock’s lair, and in Ock’s clutches.
As you might expect, Ock has just damaged his stuff such that the reactor is going to meltdown. Spider-Man manages to bring a big piece of equipment crashing down on Ock, knocking him out, and quickly sees the bigger danger growing. He’s smart, but he’s not exactly a nuclear scientist. As he tries to figure out how to stop the meltdown, Ock’s unconscious form rises back up, his tentacles trying to keep fighting without him. Spidey realizes he’s not gonna get the reactor shut down on his own, especially not with the tentacles chasing him, so he begins trying to wake Ock up, eventually tossing a bucket of water in his face.
The abrupt and awkward end. Really by-the-book stuff, but I appreciate LaRoque’s attempt to have a good time with it. This issue’s letters span several issues, with some deserved praise for TAC 120 and various comments about Black Cat’s costume. In responding to one, they run this totally bizarre choice of picture:
I mean, what? Why? Why the gratuitous butt shot? Why so small on the page? Why anything? I’ll never know. A curious thing happens where one person asks if Mike Zeck can be the new regular penciler on TAC, and is told yes, and another says JM DeMatteis and Mike Zeck have a lot to live up to after 120. Did they get announced as this book’s regular team? Was Kraven’s Last Hunt just going to be an arc of Spectacular? This is surprising to me. Zeck doesn’t draw an issue of this title until Last Hunt starts, some 7 months from now, and as we have seen, neither he nor DeMatteis stays in the Spider-Office when it ends. Interesting.