It’s legit cool that you can tell the Spider-Man on the left is the fake one if you pay close attention. Taller, more muscular. It kind of reads like ASM vs. USM, actually, even the eyes are different. Let’s jump right in.
Rough. Poor Gwen has really been going through it since her introduction. Back at the bank, Fake Spider-Man is screaming at Real Spider-Man that he’ll kill that hostage he had last issue if Spidey doesn’t leave immediately. Our guy hesitates a moment, the taser dangerously close to the woman’s face, and then…
Very Gil Kane. A high compliment in my book.
My recollection is some people felt like this guy not being anybody was a letdown. I think they had been conditioned by comics to believe anyone in a mask is gonna be SOMEBODY underneath, and this wasn’t satisfying to them. It really works for me, tho. The only thing I don’t like, then and now, is this guy having webshooters. With webs that stick and everything. How’d he do that? Does he also have the combined genius of Richard & Peter Parker? Did he find webshooters on ebay? That’s a prrrrrrretty huge problem and no one addresses it. I wonder now, though I don’t think I did then, if Bendis had a witness note to Ben Urich last issue that this Spider-Man fled the scene of George Stacy’s death yelling in Spanish to make you think he would be Tarantula. Well, anyway, Spider-Man does a classic Spider-Man and is so enraged he goes too far, almost killing the guy before realizing what he’s doing and stopping. Then we see Captain DeWolff demanding via bullhorn that Spider-Man come out with his hands behind his head when all the regular people come flooding out the door, happy to be alive.
We find Peter on top of a building far away, freaking out over what he almost did, and then walking home, vowing never to let his anger get the best of him like that again (Hey, time will tell). As he arrives home, he finds May sitting on the front stoop, saying they need to talk about Gwen.
So sad. So good. May stepping up like that rules. That’s no small thing, to take in this kid she barely knows, but that’s who she is. Ultimate Aunt May is such a fantastic character. However, next day at school, Peter is explaining all this to MJ, and she quietly says this isn’t it. That they aren’t what she thought they would be.
Crushing. But MJ is totally right! Bendis really built this up expertly. He let us see Peter making all these mistakes, not paying enough attention to her, not considering what his Spider-Man thing is doing to her until it was too late. Any, you know, they’re 15, of course he’s totally self-absorbed and didn’t realize he was messing up, that’s life, especially at their age. Just really, really human stuff. And Bags is so on for it. I think I said it before, but Bendis is so lucky they wanted someone with Spider-Man pedigree to put this book over in the beginning, because not many comic book artists were this good with regular people in this time period. Or even now, really, but today’s artists dodge that bullet by working in a time when Marvel has given up on trying to tell stories about regular people, grumble grumble grumble. At any rate, Gwen is now Peter’s roommate, MJ has broken up with him, and now Venom is coming. The hits just don’t stop in this title.