This month is the first where USM ships twice. Part of this era of Marvel was trying to get books out more than 12 times a year. Considering the twice-a-month summers are what made Todd McFarlane quit ASM, you’d think no one would risk knocking over those dominoes again, but anything goes in this era. Some artists are more able to meet crazier deadlines than others, and Mark Bagley is basically the top of that list in this period. So while all Marvel titles were encouraged to up their output to 15, 18 books a year, USM was one of the only ones that routinely did it. Years later, when it became obvious those pesky artists couldn’t crap out 18 comics in 12 months, editorial solved that by simply making every title have 2 different pencilers. Or more! Which allowed them to ship 24, 30, 36 issues of a title in a single year. This ludicrous increase in cost to follow your favorite comics was considered acceptable. Editorial claims readers really want this, even. Suddenly buying ASM costs as much as buying 3 books used to, a practice that continues today. So you have an ever-shrinking comics buying public being asked to buy 3 times as many comic books per year as they used to, as prices just skyrocket, and they have the nerve to act surprised when smaller titles aren’t able to turn a profit. It’s a very stupid business. But, as I so often do, I am getting ahead of myself. By rough estimate, not being able to tell the exact dates, USM published 17 issues in 2002, and that accelerated timetable begins with this issue. Well, anyway, Kraven’s shown up, all in character, saying the time is now for their battle. Spider-Man is not even dignifying that with a response. He says he’s going to go get Hammer’s assistant out of what’s left of the limo because she seems to be in shock. She thinks Hammer’s had a heart attack and died. Spidey tells Kraven he’s going to rip off the door and he can get the girl out, but Kraven says, “We will do battle!,” to which our man says, “No, we won’t.” Which is so good. But Kraven has his cameras rolling, so…
Anyone who’s read much of this blog will know I have a very low opinion of Kraven as a character, a problem dramatically exacerbated by everyone pretending he’s not a D-list loser because of Kraven’s Last Hunt. I cannot express my joy at reading this sequence for the first time in 2002. Kraven treated like the bad joke he should be. But on top of that, what a swerve! Bendis builds this up like it’s gonna be the battle of Spider-Man’s life after he’s already barely survived fighting Doc Ock only to pull the rug out from under you. They even wasted this issue’s cover on selling the serve! What a surprise. What a fun time reading comics. Man, these were the days. You really couldn’t guess what would happen next! And speaking of what happens next…
What a great sequence! I love Spider-Man exhausted and over it until he finds out he can try to reach people a little bit. This is another bit of business you’ve never really seen before, a big win for Spider-Man. I think people forget to give him those sometimes. People get so obsessed with their bizarre contention that Peter being an “everyman” means his life must be constant misery that they forget to make it all mean something in the end. You wind up with Nick Spencer and Nick Lowe just beating the crap out of Spider-Man nonstop for 3 years only to stagger over the finish line not noticing they’ve made 80-odd issues of terrible, meaningless comics (I just got, like, 20 years ahead of myself. A new record!). But this stuff lands so well. That reporter lady returns to talking into the camera, saying it seems people have misjudged Spider-Man, but then she notices the cops are arresting Kraven and his people for, you know, all the obvious reasons. Then Sharon Carter and Agent Jimmy Woo, another classic SHIELD name, show up to try to contain the situation. They take custody of Ock, shut down the camera feed with that reporter tries to talk to them and shoo Ben Urich away, but he’s been taking copious notes. And that’s that. Except…
And THAT’S how you maintain “the ol’ Parker luck” even after letting Spider-Man win. Brutal. You know, I was talking about how May finding out Peter’s secret let them have a relationship like we’ve never seen before, but this is just as groundbreaking. A May who isn’t a clueless, doddering old codger, who won’t just let Peter sneak around all the time, that’s something else we’d never seen before. And it’s powerful and it’s real. Peter’s the star of the book, but who reading it wouldn’t side with May here? Bendis’ take on her was so radical just by letting her be a real person. Peter sulks up into his room in time to see that news lady get back on the air and recap the long list of noteworthy events of the last few hours, thinking he’s finally a big time superhero, until he remembers he’s grounded. Then we cut to a babbling, sedated Ock in a high tech cell, watched by Agents Carter and Woo, who debate how angry Fury will be with them when he gets back.
Well that seems like trouble! And so does that next issue caption! But we’re going to divert to UMTU for a while to get caught up. The last page of this issue is a full-page ad for this issue. That sort of thing never fails to make me laugh. Ya sold me, I’ll buy it…