These covers shot directly from Garney’s pencils look very cool. The raw feeling is appropriate to the subject matter, but also just looks good. If only the comic itself was good. Well, Aunt May’s in the ICU.
Havin’ fun! There follows 4 pages of Spider-Man shaking down the guys who sell the fancy scopes, and of course the last one is the one he needed, but he’s gotta scare the bejeezus out of him to get anything. He’s doing the Daredevil playbook, really. Daredevil beating up everyone in a seedy bar to get information is a well-worn cliche at this point. Pretty good argument for registration, a guy routinely assaulting everyone in a business on the hopes that one of them knows something, but I digress! Spider-Man now knows May was shot by a “Jake Martino,” a freelance hitman who takes “jobs nobody wanted,” which is such a funny image. “I only do the jobs that suck! I hate my life!” Spidey infers this means someone hired him, and decided to “cut through the red tape.” We see some cops hassling a homeless guy for peeing in an alley (Protecting and serving!) and then they notice…
What about his homeboy Lamont? Whither Lamont? Abandoned and forgotten like so many cop characters. Somebody should do a story where they all have a support group. Spidey goes to Martino’s place to find it cleaned out, and is tipped by the landlord, pro-Cap in the recent events, that 2 other guys came ‘round looking for him, too. Probably working for his employer, Spider-Man guesses, but that doesn’t help him find the guy. He assumes Martino is trying to skip town, and plays a hunch.
Not since Rick Leonardi has the black suit looked so good. If only the comic was good. Spider-Man beats and threatens and so on’s this guy, saying he’s going to kill Martino after he tells him who ordered the hit, and how fast that goes is up to him, but then he senses trouble and dodges, allowing a 2nd person to take bullets for him in 24 hours.
If he didn’t kill Norman Osborn for Gwen and for his own unborn child, he’s not killing anybody, man. Well, naturally, in a city full of hospitals, Martino is rushed to the one Aunt May is in, so Peter can go check with MJ, who says May’s not going to make it.
You ever try to cut a symmetry? It’s challenging!
Think he’s gonna kill Fisk? It’d be pretty shocking, but I suspect we’re long past the point you’d have to run that through the Daredevil editor’s office.