Another random Kaare Andrews cover. I wonder what the deal with this was. Did they keep going back to these artists from time to time for another cover, or did they just not use all the ones they commissioned at the time? This is the first of 3 in a row in this block by people who already did covers for this book awhile ago. Well, let’s see what the dumb green evil Avengers are up to this month, and oh yeah, the scandal threatening the Parkers’ marriage, which is where we start. Robbie Robertson calls Peter at 6am to offer his condolences for the scandal, and it’s the first Peter’s heard of it, obviously. And this is off-topic, but it strikes me that a call like this would’ve been impossible just a few years prior, due to Peter’s apartment burning down, but now it’s 2005 and everyone has a cell phone, so Robbie knows how to get ahold of Peter even if he doesn’t know where he lives.
Weirdly adversarial take on Peter & Logan’s dynamic, but that’s just 2000s Marvel for you.
Dang, May & Jarvis, you’ve known each other for, like, 48 hours, ok. I somehow forgot about this, but May’s romantic adventures are so rare they seem worth tracking. No one’s tried to give her a guy since Willie Lumpkin. And Jarvis, of all people. They’re Marvel supporting cast royalty, it’s kinda nice. Well, anyway, our man heads over to Lascombe’s place, sees him lounging on a balcony, and gets a spider tracer on him. But then he almost falls off the building. He thinks he weirdly just got dizzy all of a sudden, but it’s over now. Well, I’m sure that’s nothing, no big deal! Recovering himself, he keeps tracking Lascombe, who he knows can only leave his apartment via the elevator… but then tracer starts going down despite Lascombe going into his bedroom. So, Spidey breaks in, finds a Hydra uniform in the closet, and then finds a way down to the secret Hydra lair. All this is accompanied by some really bad rambling internal monologue. As Spidey suits up in Lasocmbe’s Hydra uniform, he leaves a message for Tony explaining what he’s up to, then descends into the belly of the beast. He discovers their big base, with a giant countdown on the wall with just under 48 hours to go.
So, Deodato’s Hydra goons all wear… the same outfit as the Stacy twins. How creative.
Peter flashes back to learning about the Oglalla Aquifer when he was a little kid. He’s very lucky to have such a good memory. Meanwhile, a Hydra goons is being told they’ve met their evacuation quota for Omaha, and his parents are just gonna have to die, sorry. Hey, you signed up to work for the Nazis, buddy, that’s what you get. As that escalates into an argument that has guns drawn, someone off-panel sticks up for the guy with the parents.
If Deodato thinks putting a new heat on a famous Romita, Sr. Spider-Man is going to keep me from noticing the swipe, he is wrong.
Parents guy brings Spidey up to speed, then tells him how to get out, past “the experimental genetics chamber.” Well, guess what’s in there?
Maybe this is why I didn’t remember the Avengers being so involved in this story. Spidey ends up having to fight the dumb green evil versions alone. But they’re a bunch of knock-offs, I think he can do it.