Sandman. I was still sore about his pointless return to villainy in 2007. But he was about to feature prominently in Spider-Man 3, so here he is, as a villain. Gotta keep that one-sided symbiotic relationship with the movies going strong. The movies do nothing to drive people to comics. Don’t even try. But comics are constantly nipping at the movies’ heels like an annoying little dog, begging to be noticed. Todd Nauck is back to bring his signature style of poor proportions and weird faces to the rest of Peter David’s run, I think. Which is only 7 more issues. Not a lot of comics, and yet an absurd amount of comics to cram into the margins of the ASM arc. Robert Camanella inks and John Kalisz colors! There’s a name we’ve not seen in awhile. I think he was at DC for much of the intervening years since PPSM 12. On Ryker’s Island… you know, where Kinpgin is orchestrating May’s death… Sandman is breaking INTO prison, demanding of some guards the location of Floyd Baker. Sandman has had a truly ridiculous amount of aliases for a character who’s not that common, but one of his names (His real name?) is William Baker, so that’s something.
Todd Nauck apparently really likes this comically gangly, barrel-chested Spider-Man, as he will reuse it on a future cover. Also, the title of the issue is in a font called “Sand,” which is hiLARious. It’s one of the most mocked and reviled fonts in all of graphic design, so was the joke worth it?
Look at that lady’s weird, weird little hand.
Spider-Man sure is in good spirits for a man whose Aunt is gonna die any second. Back at Ryker’s, guards with big funny water cannon backpacks arrive, saying they were prepared for Sandman to come since they had Floyd Baker. As Sandman is turned to mud and flushes down a drain, we learn Floyd Baker is in prison for murdering a homeless man, and confessed to it, but Sandman maintains he’s innocent. As he washes out to sea, he apologizes out loud for his failure. Tomorrow, at the high school, Flash Thompson catches “Ben Reilly” having slept in his office. “Ben” says his wife threw him out, and he can’t afford a motel, as he flashes back to being caught at the motel by cops and fleeing. Word? And the cops didn’t then search the motel and find MJ? Maybe she hasn’t left the hospital. Who even knows? Flash throws a dodgeball at the back of the departing Mr. Reilly, who spins and kicks it back at him.
Yuk yuk.
I don’t think Flash would sell Peter out, but Peter David doesn’t seem to much care about character personalities or anything, so I can’t guess. Funny that Flash doesn’t remember him and Peter living together in the 70s, or even that time he offered Peter & MJ his bunk at the gym in ASM 314. Later, at Flash’s place, Peter is talking to a photo of Ben & May, apologizing for failing them, lamenting making his identity public, and weeping (At least there’s SOME acknowledgement of the real world in this strange alternate reality where Peter is still going to work for some reason). Then his Spider Sense goes off.
SANDMAN knows about his Spider Sense, but he never told TONY STARK. JMS, man. You really made dog’s breakfast of it. Todd Nauck draws some long, skinny fingers now, I have noticed. A far cry from the weird little Oompa Loompa people he drew in Sensational 24. But not really much better.
Can’t just leave that plot thread dangling. Peter acts like he and Sandman weren’t allies relatively recently. I know he went bad again, but things got weird after that. I don’t know. He’s under a lot of stress. Allegedly. This issue sees the debut of new editor Steve Wacker. Wacker makes a big impact on comics for a few years, then bounces for Marvel’s “digital content division,” whatever that is. He will oversee the much-hyped new era of Spider-Man that’s about to start, and he’s also the guy who finally pulls the right strings to get Carol Danvers to become Captain Marvel later. That alone is a pretty cool legacy. And yet Alex Alonso remained editor of ASM as Wacker took over the other titles, presumably til JMS leaves. Weird. I bet Wacker wouldn’t have let “May Fitzgerald” see print.