Yes, we’re doing this again. For the last time. Well, for the last time in several decades. Somehow, inexplicably, Deadly Foes was hyped as a major event even though it didn’t feature big name talent, popular villains, or, like, anything special. So of course it demanded a sequel. Gotta get that money! Danny Fingroth returns as writer, with a new art team of Scott McDaniel, Brad Vancata & Dave Samson. This issue opens with a really jarring series of 2 splash pages showing Doc Ock recoiling in pain in prison, and then a Vault Guardsman blowing up his mechanical arms. Then we cut to Peter Parker.
Doc has officially been disarmed. What’s this got to do with the losers from the previous series? Ock is enraged and in pain and swears revenge, as Spider-Man wheels through the city cheering and excited. Cut back to Ock, I guess some time is passing between these pages, tho it’s not noted, and Ock is being attacked psychically now. He senses it’s coming through the computer chip that connected him to his adamantium arms, and resists the will of this unseen foe.
Aw, jeez, really? I guess it stands to reason Fingroth would be interested, if anyone would, in revisiting The Answer, having been the Spider-Man editor during his initial appearances. He bungled his way through the black costume then, and as he prepares to bungle his way through the start of the Clone Saga, he must be in a sentimental mood. He recaps his origin and backstory for Doc Ock, up to his seeming demise in TAC 96, after which, explains, he was discorporated, a being of pure energy rambling around the world until something or other that happened in a recent issue of Excalibur brought him back to awareness.
Ock shoulda said, “This is just like what happened to Hammerhead that time he turned into a ghost after we got nuked!” A jarring 4-panel sequence has someone called Hargrove get a phone call from Ock’s lawyer and get scared, then we’re off to see Leila, Boomerang’s girlfriend from the previous series (Right? One of them, I don’t remember or care) being let out of prison. She is not reformed.
All 3 of us? Has Fingroth bumped his head and decided Vulture was in the previous series? What is going on? The next day, Peter Parker is touring the facility where Ock got his powers (Wearing a bright green shirt and neon orange & black suspenders!), thinking photos in there were go well with his Doc Ock piece. Peter’s never put this much effort into journalism in his life, and that includes his trip to fight the NRA or whatever. He recaps Doc Ock’s origin and ASM 3 to himself (So much recapping in this!), and when we see that Hargrove guy works here. But before we can find out why he’s so scared, The Lethal Foes of Spider-Man smash through the wall. A mysterious armored female is with them. Gee, who could it be? The baddies announce they’re here for “the nuclear blaster” (Really?), then smash through a vault to get it. Then Spider-Man appears.
Deadly Foes meant Spider-Man jobbing out to the villains a lot, but this is a new record. The villains really put a beating on our dazed hero as Hargrove thinks only Spidey could help him and he’s got to find a way to save him.
The villains escape, letting Leila announce her villain name is Hardshell (Sure, why not?) and Hargrove is too scared to even speak to Spidey to ask him for protection from those jokers and from Doc Ock before our hero bounds out a window to go after them, even badly wounded as he is. An hour later, the villains are fighting over the “nuclear blaster” in Central Park when it goes off due to their squabbling, and then the villains leave.
This comic is the definition of random. And about to get moreso, I suspect. I was sure this would just be another dumb adventure of The Sinister Syndicate. I guess this is a little more interesting, at least. We’ll see where it goes.