Weeeeeird face on Kingpin! And Spider-Man more or less has the same hands from last issue. Odd one all around. This is another one that somehow feels like it’s never been opened. Well, this month, we find our old friend JJJ headed down to the garage to leave for the night and finding the Enforcers waiting for him, having at least knocked out his driver.
Spidey simultaneously throws JJJ out of the line of fire while beginning some quality Bagley dodgin’. The idiots launch their attack, and JJJ has a front row seat as Spider-Man pulls out all the stops, bouncing all over the place, throwing off their attempts to get him and eventually making Fancy Dan accidentally shoot Ox in the leg.
I try not to run so many consecutive pages, but what a sequence! The team was just really firing on all cylinders from page one through this excellent end. You know, I remarked, looking at ASM 10, that all the proof you needed that Ditko was in his own zone as a comic book artist is he made a fight between these jobbers and Spider-Man completely thrilling, and Bags really, really stepped up to the plate on this one, too. I mean, should Ox be able to take all that punishment? Probably not. But it’s all too great to quibble. Well, we then find Peter Parker walking home, thinking about his terrible day, when he finds JJJ slumped on Aunt May’s stoop. He says he’s had an unusually bad day at work, and we see May watching this from inside. Then, out of nowhere, Jonah says his son was on the space shuttle Orion, which, famously in the Ultimate universe, burned up in orbit a year ago. That the government wouldn’t even tell him what happened to cause this accident.
It’s so hard to understand how Bendis can whiff it so hard on Secret War and Ultimate Six and absolutely crush on issues like this. He sees everything so clearly here. The pacing and characterization are impeccable throughout this issue! It’s really jarring. Next morning, Spider-Man has found out where Kingpin likes to have breakfast, and has come by to harass him with today’s Bugle. Headline: “Kingpin’s Cronies Blow Lid!”
So funny! It’s such a perfect scary bad guy line, and such an unusual retort. Just 10/10.
Ah, man. It is really hard to top a classic Bendis/Bagley joint. These were really the days. And that’s not even getting into the fact that they’re about to be 50 issues into this series already, and the quality level is still top of the line. It’s a run to rival the original Lee/Ditko/Romita/Et al period. And speaking of… well, comics love nothing like a big number to celebrate, and ASM 50 was certainly one for the books. Will USM 50 match it? I, uh, don’t actually remember. I remember a little. I remember one thing very clearly that has nothing to do with the story. We shall see.