The clouds have been darkening over my head as I slowly realized this entire block was going to be bad, and now it’s too late. One last breath before the plunge. We begin with The Vulture,in prison, having repurposed parts of a Walkman to make an electromagnet he can use to knock out a guard and rip the whole bar section of his window. Then, of course, he’s made a flying machine out of his bed and some indeterminate other electronics. It’s all patently absurd, but it’s also his go-to move. And so, he escapes.
Seems a reasonable decision. Meanwhile, in Queens, that private investigator Aunt May hired to look into Peter’s parents, has called him over to the house. He wants Peter to know that not only did he not find any dirt on the Parkers, but when May wouldn’t take “no” for an answer, he almost got arrested for following them around, and he’s done. May then reveals to Peter she doesn’t believe those people are his parents.
Ouch. The next day, Peter’s at home, having MJ test the secret hiding place he’s put his Spider-Gear in. This woulda been the first time I saw their new place, I think, with no idea where it came from. Maybe I just assumed it was the old warehouse space. Maybe I didn’t pay that much attention. Option 2 seems more believable. Anyway, she swings open a sliding bookcase, and Peter’s danger sense goes crazy.
The whole spider sense frequency thing is so silly, but again… plenty of precedent. Is he going to look into his shady parents? Nope, he’s going to see Dr. Benita Sanchez, whose “juvenator” experiments, he says, have made her tops in the field of human aging “and… it’s effects.” He has gone hook, line & sinker for Aunt May having dementia, which is pretty crappy of him. Dr. Sanchez says from what he’s told her, she thinks Aunt May very well could have Alzheimer’s. She has questions about people mysteriously returned from the dead after 20 years! That’s her whole list of symptoms!
Panels like that 3rd one never fail to make me laugh. I don’t know why it happens so often. It sure isn’t just Bags. But you see so many old comics where they started a close-up face like this, and it clearly didn’t fit right, and they just… did this. Peter starts brooding about how he needs MJ’s support right now, about how he has a feeling dark times are coming, and how he needs to believe in his newly recovered parents. Then his Spider Sense goes wild, directing him back to Dr. Sanchez, but we go to…
Would they send a character who’s being written out of the show to this kind of gig? Would they think anyone even wanted to see her? Well, this is what was being referenced in other books. A real shake-up for poor MJ. Back at ESU, if you assumed the magic de-aging machine has led Dr. Sanchez to being menaced by The Oldest Supervillain In The World, well, you did it. Rather hilariously, one uses her device by putting on some “transfer gauntlets” and just touching whatever you want to suck the life out of. I mean, this is Evil Scientist business, pure & simple. Vultchy’s ready to begin it first human trials when you-know-who shows up. Vulture is enraged, saying that while Spider-Man didn’t grant him the death he wanted, he’ll make Spidey’s swift and launching himself out the window while trying to ram into him.
Ouch! Spider-Man goes through whatever that was and smashes into another unusually ill-defined surface for Bagley. Spidey thinks it’s lucky these are the deserted buildings Hulk ruined in ASM 382. Sure is! Then he realizes he’s had time to think that without getting pummeled, and knows Vultch is back to menacing Dr. Sanchez. He’s knocked some late arriving guards out and has got the gloves on and he’s ready to rock, but then Spidey’s back in the lab.
Well, that can’t be good! And only in part one of a 3-parter, even! Will Spider-Man be reduced to a premature old age? Actually, yeah…