Welcome back to “did they credit the wrong writer on this?” part 2. Spidey looks huge on this cover. Inside, Peter & Sarah from last issue are looking at the damage to the Top of New York sign.
This continues to be very Nocenti. JJJ bursts in and does more of the making Peter feel bad thing from last issue, and then we cut down to the street, where Electro is admiring his handiwork. He thinks tonight he’ll show everyone. How he almost showed them last night. Then that mugger guy walk by and looks at the building and thinks “tonight.” Everyone sure loves this building allasudden.
Kinda feels like the 2nd and 3rd caption in panel 3 are reversed. Peter spots Charlie as he ducks out, and thinks he looks familiar, but can’t place him. He does more worrying abut JJJ and Sarah, and then some random big muscle guys forces his way into the lobby dragging a woman behind him. He punches out a security guard while saying the woman is his wife, who left him, and he came to NY to get her back.
Pretty wacky. Peter is now trying to tie a tie and failing. He thinks if MJ were there, she could do it, then berates himself for needing other people to help. Aunt May calls, and he’s snippy with her, then goes back to hating his tie. This is so weird. This is so Nocenti. We jump over to Electro, preparing whatever he’s doing, telling himself he’s scared and he could die and underneath the persona he made up when he got powers, he’s still the same scared little boy and other type things. Then he gasses himself up and goes to the building. Meanwhile, Charlie is in the building, frightening rich people in some way we don’t get to see yet. And Peter…
Sarah and others start laughing as JJJ tells Peter he’s fired. I mean, I feel like a broken record, but this is 100% the heightened reality style of Nocenti rather than the usual for ol’ JM, this is crazy. JJJ becomes very embarrassed and upset, Electro prepares to do whatever he’s doing, and Charlie…
Charlie calls Spider-Man his arch enemy, and Spidey says he’s never seen him before in his life, which really riles him up. With no Spider Sense tingles, Spidey goads Charlie into pushing his button, and then all the lights go out. Electro’s sucking up all the power in the whole city through the harness he’s wearing, and we see various places going dark one by one as he charges up for a couple pages, until…
Well, there you go. Stay tuned to see all these guys’ psychological issues resolved next time.