If I was a writer, and I got to see my words first rendered beautifully by Mike Weiringo, then immediately turned to crap by “Pat Lee,” or whoever it was, and then turned to squiggly mush by Mike Deodato… I might quit comics. Whiplash. Look, guys, Peter’s upset Uncle Ben is dead! We’re really breaking new ground here. At least the red color feels more appropriate to this drawing. It’s the usual ASM art gang for Mike Deodato, Jr., Joe Pimentel and Matt Milla, and we begin with a really cheery flashback to young Aunt May & Uncle Ben dealing with the decision to take May’s mother off life support. Then her mother wakes up and starts strangling her, offended that she’s afraid of death, demanding that she fight. I mean, that’s weird.
I mean… ok.
Guys, we’re having fun. May, to her credit, just asks him what’s wrong, knowing immediately it’s not about whatever’s going on, and he tells her to trust him and go to sleep. MJ shrugs at her, and May continues to the kitchen, telling the Ben in her head she does trust Peter, despite him lying to her all these years. Jarvis is not in the kitchen, and that reminds her to tell the Ben in her head about him. She begins talking out loud, saying she really likes him, and there’s been no one since Ben. NO ONE SINCE BEN. JUSTICE FOR NATHAN LUBENSKY!!!! Jeeeeeez, man, I liked that guy a lot, and he gets no respect! Willie Lumpkin, ok, that didn’t ever seem serious (Did that ever officially end, or is it one of those things that just disappeared due to clone crap? I can’t remember). But Nathan! Put some respect on his name!! She says there’s been no one since Ben unless you count Otto Octavius, and she doesn’t know what she was thinking. Nathan was her man the last time PETER DAVID was writing Spider-Man! JUSTICE FOR NATHAN! Well, anyway, someone catches May in her borderline worrisome outloud chat with the Force ghost of a young Ben Parker, and given the topic, you might expect it to be Jarvis, so something cute can happen, but…
I’m tired of this dork. Also, his beard looks hastily and poorly slapped on after the fact in every panel. I suppose it could be a symptom of Deodato tracing some clean shaven celeb, but it looks more like he didn’t know this guy has a beard. Suddenly, on the next page, there is a transition so jarring it feels like pages are missing. Spider-Man is being thrown into a fire escape, then falling to the ground in a heap in an alleyway. And this was done to him by…
What even happened in that last panel?? Where is this happening? Extremely jarring.
That is a really bad voice for Wolverine, wow. Back at Avengers Tower, Tommy Tracer is explaining to May that he’s the God of Machines as she makes him a sandwich. She believes this about as much as anyone would, but he keeps on yammering about them praying to him and such, then wants to talk to her about disconnecting her mom from life support, saying he heard her yelling about that in her room earlier. Which makes zero sense, but this is the Other, nothing is making sense and it’s gonna stay that way.
Man, who is being traced for Aunt May? I don’t know, and I only have 3 more issues to figure it out.
This comic sucks, man. Spider-Man, randomly in some alley, gets told to go home by Wolverine, who happens to know what alley he’s in, and isn’t that nice, since the bad guy is hanging out there.
Everything Spider-Man is describing presumably happened last issue, but since we frustratingly kept 98% of that relegated to partially seen and described events on a TV in the background, we don’t really know what’s going on. I mean, this is pretty inept. Peter David is a long term pro. Things get even sillier as Spidey lunges at doofus here, and he… snakes some tendrils out of his fingertips into Spider-Man’s side and then learns his diagnosis. This guy’s powers are absurd. He gets offended that someone in Spider-Man’s condition is even fighting him. Spidey snaps. Very Peter David Spider-Man of him. Shades of the Death of Jean DeWolff…
Unsurprisingly, Tracer will never be seen again. What a pointless first round of this event. Well, this thing’s already dreadful and bloated, and next issue, Reggie Hudlin takes over, so it’s gonna get worse. But how much worse? There’s one thing I know is coming in the next MKSM that defies belief…