By this point, Morbius is the sort of figurehead of a whole line of comics called the Midnight Sons, about spooky anti-heroes. Ghost Rider & Blaze are lumped in, of course, and Blade and his lesser known vampire hunting companion Hannibal King, and others. So it’s only natural he’d drop in for some of this in his new goth outfit. Most 90s makeovers were hands down worse than the original, but Morbius really had nowhere to go but up, costume-wise. Your hosts are still Terry Kavanagh, Alex Saviuk and Don Hudson, with Jim Hoston on colors this time. We open on Carrion surveying the chaos left in the bad guys’ wake, then get to Morbius immediately. He’s stopping a mugging by feeding on the perpetrators. And as he’s enjoying his dinner, someone starts clapping for him. You’d think it would be Carnage, but…
Almost impenetrable dialogue. Cut to Peter Parker rebandaging his wounds and recapping the plot as he heads back out as Spider-Man. Then cut to MJ out for a night of dancing to put all this out of her mind. We’ve not seen MJ allowed to go dancing in like 4 years, at this point. Why did they let MJ have something of a life for a change? Why, so Carnage & Co. could come attack the club she’s in.
Spider-Man is helping victims at the previous murder scene. Meanwhile, the other (anti-)heroes are looking for Carnage when Morbius smells fresh blood coming from MJ’s club. Black Cat is still very much falling off the “super tuff 90s mean hero” wagon, and she and Cloak teleport in before the others can get there.
Michelinie did that “knock, knock” line in ASM 317.
Black Cat sure got back on the bandwagon. I remember that panel of Venom’s symbiote slapping Carnage so vividly, because it broke the rules. Venom’s symbiote didn’t do that. Carnage’s could solidify into objects and such, but Venom’s was just goop. But things are evolving quickly now, and with so many different people working with the character, it’s bound to happen, I guess. Anyway, the comic’s ⅔ over, so Spider-Man smashes right through a wall to finally participate in it. Variou threats are exchanged, the usual already. Then there’s a splash page of everyone fighting everyone. This event is so empty, gotta fill the pages somehow. Fight fight fight, Felicia randomly calls Spidey “Spider-Stud” for no obvious reason. Eventually, Carnage has Demogoblin toss bombs everyhere so the bad guys can escape in the confusion. Except there really isn’t any. There’s no obvious reason the heroes shouldn’t right behind them, except that this terrible mess has to go on for 8 more issues.
Last issue, Spider-Man swore to be all tuff and gritty, and then proceeded to miss most of this issue helping people, followed by fighting in his usual manner. This issue, he once again intimates the kid gloves are off on the last page. Can we believe him?