So much for Tom Brevoort’s moratorium on Spider-Man Must Lift A Heavy Thing, I guess. Maybe covers can be deceiving. Ladies and gentlemen, please give Mark Waid a proper welcome to ASM! Finally, a writer I like. He will be contributing 17 full issues and some more shorts to the remainder of BND. Does that make him part of the “brain trust?” It’s a lot more than Bob Gale’s gonna do, but so far, he’s not part of that credit. And he’s joining the Marcos Martin/Javier Rodriguez team, even. I deserve this after suffering through Joe Kelly. We open with our hero hunched under a makeshift web umbrella in pouring rain, eating take out, finding a fortune that says “Today will be your lucky day,” and feeling unimpressed.
Spider-Man only wears a size nine? That’s weird. Martin bringing that card in through inset panels is very cool.
As is this Spidey-in-motion panel, the rare Peter-in-motion variant. But the Parker Luck wins out when he reaches a train only to be turned away by very gruff cops at the door. But then a mystery lady holds the door of the next car for him. He has to book it, but he gets in the door just in time.
An issue like this really makes you step back and appreciate how far comic book color has come in just a few short years. Rodriguez’s stuff looks almost like watercolor, soft and delicate and the polar opposite of even the most sophisticated coloring of 2001. Our hero’s danger sense is letting him know something terrible is coming, but he can’t figure out from where. He starts forcing his way through the crowd, leaving that lady pretty miffed, but as he reaches the next car, he realizes he’s too late.
Spider-Man… must lift… a heavy thing. But only for another page. People are scared of him, of course, but at least one guy in the crowd is smart enough to see he’s trying to help them, and come drag the people under him free so he can drop his heavy burden and roll out from under it. He continues getting suited up as a cop appears to threaten him. But then they discover the cop’s partner was crushed. And so is Spider-Man for failing to be in 2 places at once. The cop wants to shoot him for putting on his webshooters, so he webs the gun out of the cop’s hand, then asks if anyone saw what happened. An older guy says he thinks their train car was targeted.
I really miss Roger Stern’s attempt to make the Spider Sense a secret. Wonder who that guy is. A big hole explodes in the ceiling, and water starts pouring in. The cop tries to keep everyone together as Spidey does his best to plug the hole enough for everyone to flee, noting this can’t be an accident, either. Scrambling in the dark (Which is weird, since that cop had a flashlight), someone finds a ladder, but, turning on his Spidey light (Don’t see that too often anymore), Spider-Man won’t let anyone climb, his Spider Sense telling him it’s dangerous, and then he’s grabbed by someone up at the top of the ladder with a familiar hand.
One is, if one is me, reminded immediately of ASM 151 & 152. That famous, misleading cover.
Man, that is some exquisite page design. Marcos Martin! So many people decide they have to do crazy, unique page layouts, and almost every time, the end result is a comic that’s just harder to follow. This guy is on his own level. Spidey forces Shocker’s arms against the wall, making his gauntlets build up feedback, which causes an explosion that Spider-Man only just dives out of, leaving him and the others once again trapped in the dark.
How’s that for a shocker? Jonah’s dad is here to stay (I mean, for awhile) as part of the supporting cast, and I knew he was coming, but I didn’t know that was him. Can Spider-Man and the others survive this deathtrap? I mean, probably. Is that is for the Shocker? Probably not! We’ll see next time.