Now, finally, for the first time in this block, it’s time to check in with ASM. In a story that explicitly takes place after the first arc of New Avengers and this arc of TAC. I don’t often get such clear markers in this era. Well, J. Michael Straczynski, you’ve just unleashed one of the worst ideas in the history of Spider-Man (Tho at least he didn’t turn into a giant spider, die and give birth to himself, I guess!), what do you do now? The answer may surprise you, but not in a good way. In his newsletter, Tom Brevoort has made repeated mention of an internal edict by Bill Jemas that covers should feature a single figure, preferably female, preferably scantily clad, preferably bending over. This Gary Frank cover feels like it coulda been done under that regime but for Spider-Man. We open on Peter late for work, thinking about how he’s found no trace of Gwen’s kids as he unloads supplies from… from the trunk of his car. Peter Parker does not have a car! Peter Parker famously doesn’t know how to drive!! Where did this car come from!? Ugh. Well, he’s in trouble with the vice principal for being late, especially because they left a message telling Peter he’s covering for a “remedial citizenship” class because the regular teacher is out. I guess that’s a joke? Peter asks how it’s possible to be remedial in citizenship, but does not get an answer.
And so, we flashback to Peter’s high school days to meet yet another kid we never saw at the time. This shtick gets old to me. While the main story is by the usual suspects of Mike Deodato, Jr., Joe Pimentel and Matt Milla, the flashback material is handled by Mark Brooks, Jaime Mendoza and Brian Reber. Brooks has a kind of cartoony style at this point, and no one could guess the lush, fully painted, mostly realistic covers he would later become known for are in his future right now. Well, anyway, we learn Charlie Weiderman was an even nerdier nerd than Peter, and thus took some of the heat off him. But when Charlie tried to sit with Peter at lunch, Peter made an excuse and left, trying not to get “re-geeked.” Pretty standard high school stuff. Back to the present…
This art looks even more sloppy and unfinished than usual. Maybe that’s why the flashback got its own art team.
We seem to know better than that. We return to the flashback to see just how good a friend Peter was, seeing Charlie get picked on in volleyball instead of him for a change, and even…
I only remember one thing about this story, but Charlie better end up moving away or something, or none of this is gonna make any sense. Peter continued to pelt Charlie with volleyballs at every opportunity, and at least felt terrible about it after.
Somewhere, when this came out, JM DeMatteis smiled, though he didn’t know why. Well, back in the present, Charlie gets his meeting with Tony Stark, who is infuriatingly played by Timothy Dalton. He sees a lot of flaws in Charlie’s plans, but the recommendation from Peter Parker get his attention, since they’re now teammates. Charlie then lies and says Peter will be a key part of his project, and that gets him his grant. So, Charlie gets to work, and Peter doesn’t much hear from him, as a montage page lets us know a lot of time passes. Peter & Mj are doing fine, of course. Her shattering his whole world in the previous story is already forgotten. The montage page also features an extremely Joe Bennett-looking Spider-Man.
Straczynski has gone to a whole lot of trouble just to recreate the Molten Man.