When I started this back in 2019, I wasn’t sure if I’d really get this far. Reading 36 years of Spider-Man sounded like a lot. And it was! But this is the beginning of the end (of volume 1). This is a 5-part crossover leading directly into a 4-part crossover. Because, sure why not? Looks like it’s gonna be a weird one, yeah? And it is, in so many ways. Off top, forget about regular artists. For some reason, this very important event seems to have been a “whoever’s around” moment for the Spider-Office. Lucky for them, they have Joe Bennett and John Romita, Jr. on hand, each of whom draw 2 of these 9 issues. Luke Ross gets to do his 2 participating Spectacular issues. And as for the other other 3 issues, it seems like it was just “who can crank this out this month?” And so we find Joe Bennett on Sensational, inked by Ralph Cabrera and colored by Tom Smith, to draw the building from that awful Technomancers storyline in issues 21-23.
“Greg” there would be Override. So, that’s what we’re doing. On the one hand, Norman Osborn on the quest for a bunch of magical McGuffins is not particularly Spider-Man. On the OTHER hand, magic tablets have a long history in ASM, especially with Kingpin trying to use them to cure his beloved Vanessa, so as eyeroll-y as this may be to me, you can’t say it’s totally left field. While that’s going on, we check in with Spider-Man, and Bennett’s take on him has never looked better. A shame his tenure in this office is almost over. He’s swinging around having a nice day, and manages to stop an ATM mugging as he cruises along. Then we go see MJ, bored at home while studying, when a Ryan Sawyer calls.
Why… would she have a parenting book so close by at this time in her life? But, hey, that seems like it’s gonna be something. We go back to Spider-Man, who’s headed for home when he sees Override running through the street, stopping cars as he goes. And especially since he knows Override works for Osborn now, Spidey decides to follow, and is surprised to find him breaking into the Technomancer Building.
There has been some insinuation in the dialogue in the last year of Sensational that readers have responded poorly to Spider-Man calling people “Snacky” all the time, which seems to have only emboldened DeZago to do it more. Won’t miss him!
Override regains the thingie and runs off, turning the lasers back on behind him, but Spider-Man is Spider-Man, so he’s past that in seconds. The Technoguys are onto Override, and he’s forced into a big room full of vats with giant monsters in them. This place seems like it’s violating a lot of city ordinances. One of the goons helpfully yells that the last thing they should do is open up the vats.
Override, of course, gets away, and soon delivers the thingie to Norman. Norman says he’ll be handsomely rewarded, but Greg has other plans, and also tells us what’s going on some…
When we see what “the package” is, it’s gonna be really hard to swallow hy it was necessary. But the pieces coming into place. Will Norman get the other McGuffins? I mean, obviously. What 3 other people will be part of his ritual? And what will it do? Don’t expect good times!
Ads in this issue let me know it was this month that saw the debut of 2 entire new sub-lines of comics at Marvel, a good one and a bad one. The good one is Marvel Knights, in which Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti are given 4 properties that could use a new lease on life to reshape as they see fit as editors (And as artists). While the line’s takes on Punisher and Inhumans don’t set the world on fire (It’s so funny to me that Punisher went from 3 books a month to a property they thought needed saving in like 6 years), the other books are a new Daredevil #1 by Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada, and a new Black Panther #1 by Christopher Priest and Mark Texeira. The DD run caught huge buzz because Smith was the most famous person from outside comics to write a superhero book at this point. It was also, uh, not very good. But the Panther book is an absolute classic, a fantastic revival of the character that introduced so many elements that would become vital to the property, in comics and in film (Priest & Tex created Okoye, Nakia, Zuri, Everett K. Ross and the Panther’s Kimoyo technology all in the first issue!) Marvel Knights would become the biggest thing going at Marvel until the Ultimate line, and by the time that started, Quesada’s success had led him to being Editor-In-Chief, a position from which he would reshape Marvel in the 2000s and set it on the path to becoming the juggernaut it is today. Extremely noteworthy.
The other line of comics was MC2, set in an alternate future, all written by Tom DeFalco. The flagship is Spider-Girl, the daughter of Spider-Man, with Pat Oliffe, launching out of the surprise success of a What If issue where they introduced her. But she’s joined by “J2,” the son of the Juggernaut drawn by Ron Lim, and “A-Next,” a team of Avengers drawn by Ron Frenz, featuring young characters like Jubilee, Speedball and Franklin Richards all grown up teaming with young next generation heroes like a daughter of Hank Pym & Janey Van Dyne. The latter 2 books are canceled after a year, for obvious reasons, but Spider-Girl clings to life through endless cancellation threats for many years due to a small but very devoted following.