Annual 2 already! I pushed the first one later than it came out to make sense, but even so it feels like we just saw it. Once again, Mark Brooks is back, and so are Daredevil & Punisher. Jaime Mendoza is the main inker, with help from Mark Morales, Victor Olazaba and Brooks himself, while Laura Martin colors with assistance from Larry Molinar. A lot of credits! We open on our old friend Jeanne De Wolfe, who we learned is in Kingpin’s pocket back in USM 85, which feels like a lifetime ago. She’s just been informed Moon Knight woke up. He’s been in a coma since USM 85, which feels like a lifetime ago. By the time she can reach his hospital room, he’s vanished. Elsewhere…
Oh, come on, Spidey and Kitty only JUST beat this guy up. It’s not funny if it’s 3 times a year. Spidey dispatched him, and when Spider-Man complains that Shocker never seems to stay in jail, a very weird looking Foggy Nelson appears to tell him he should take Shocker to a police station and file a report. So, at the police station, Jeannneenen Deee Wollfeeee (Had to do it once) is talking some cop out of trying to talk to SHIELD when Spider-Man rolls in with Shocker over his shoulder. De Wolfe says she’s been wanting to talk to him.
I don’t think anyone ever thought we’d get an Ultimate Kangaroo. But life comes at you fast. Jeanne calls her boss, who is dining with a senator, and informs him Spider-Man has been sent to deal with the Kangaroo for them. So, we find our hero scoping out a place, feeling like this whole situation is wrong, but arguing with himself about it. Until a guy comes flying through a plate glass window, and then his decision is made for him.
That “Faaaar out! It’s Daredevil!” thing has to be a reference, but I don’t want to go re-read all their 60s & 70s meetings looking for it.
He’s so mad all the time. I think this must take place before USM 96, despite it being published 2 months after. Whoops. That flashback ends with Foggy wanting to know why Matt took that guy’s info when they’re obviously not going to help him. Matt says there’s no reason to make an enemy of the guy, and then DD is off to fight Kangaroo in the present. In the heat of all that, in their own ways, Spidey and DD suddenly realize Punisher is on a nearby roof, and he shoots a rocket at the bar. That’s rude. Flashback to Frank in prison yesterday when a guy says he’s getting out today and his cousin, the Kangaroo, is coming to get him so they can go do terrible things, and Frank killing him, of course, before being tased and then escaping from his infirmary bed (somehow).
The gang’s all here! Flashback to Moon Knight’s multiple personalities getting together to wake him up and help him flee the hospital before hooking up with his gal, Martene, who I guess is sort of his Alfred in the Ultimate U, and him recommitting to being a vigilante. Then on with the show.
Peak Spider-Man is pretty close to Bugs anyway, after all.
Ol’ Kanga not so good at reading the situation. Well, the cops have Kangaroo under control, and DD is gone. Spider-Man uses the distraction to web up Punny and Moony and heads down to the bar, where Jeanne has just told Kangaroo that Kingpin told him “it would come in shapes he’d never imagine.” Spidey chats with his best friend, Jeaaaaannnenenene Deeee Wolfeofelf for a sec, and then Punisher frees a gun to shoot her from the roof.
Ouch. Weird how DD eased up on our boy there, a bit. Later, DD had snuck into Moon Knight’s sanctuary, because he thinks MK is on the up & up, and he has a proposition for him. Kingpin and his ilk have armies, and these hero-types are starting to get in each other’s way. But DD is proposing a team.
And that’s the weirdly-not-Spider-Man-centric ending. I feel like Peter being betrayed by his only cop friend maybe deserves more space, but it is what it is. And there sure isn’t much room for that coming up, because we’re entering wild, wild territory.