We’re back! I’m back! I haven’t read one of these in four months! I ain’t happy about it, but that’s life. I got so behind on the drawings I do based on these, due to slowly realizing that drawing was injuring me. And then what was I going to do, let the drawing backlog pile up? But I figure out how to change my work habits, sort of, mostly, after a lot of trial and error and time, and now I’m back. And so is John Romita, Jr.! I thought New Ways to Die was his only major foray into this era of Spider-Man, but I’m thrilled to be wrong. The master is once again joined by Klaus Janson and Dean White, basically the dream team, and for this story, Marc Guggenheim rotates in on writing duties. And it seems like a weirdly overstuffed one, as it appears to be promising revelations about who Menace is, a wrap for the Spider Tracer Killer, and also, the mayoral race is finally coming to a close. Even publishing 3 issues a month, we’ve been waiting to see who’ll be the next mayor for over a year, which isn’t usually how elections work. The recap page gives you this handy refresher:
Is there anyone in the world who would’ve guessed Jackpot? In fact, we’ve seen Menace in the same place as almost everyone in that image. Almost.
I still don’t get it. Osborn stood up there on behalf of his friend Crowne and said the Spider-Tracer Killer was dead in ASM 573, despite knowing that was not true, and then the killings continued, and this somehow helped Crown?
Bullseye, an Australian, shilling Bush-era nonsense about how invading Iraq under what were known even at the time known to be false pretenses, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths for literally no reason, somehow protected our freedoms. Ooooooohkay! Well, the goon squad finds the bookie dead due to the end of ASM 582 (Look at me sliding back into the saddle way easier than my last break), and they place an anonymous 911 call. 2 detectives, including a female named Stacy(?), find a Spider Tracer on his neck. So, that’s bad.
“In the name of public safety, we’re literally spraying bullets into the street!”
Spider-Man moves through this building as cops close in, and there’s a weird bit where some office guy lets him walk by in front of some cops, and he and they re-enact Spider-Man not stopping the burglar, “You could’ve at least tripped him or something!” and everything. But our hero escapes into some air shafts leaving a pretty pronounced blood trail behind him.
That is an extremely John Romita, Jr.-looking piece of tech!
Seems like trouble. Is Carlie Menace? Seems unlikely. We turn the page to Menace beating Spider-Man senseless in what is obviously a dream before yanking off his face to reveal Harry Osborn. Then Spider-Man wakes up, bleeding out on the roof of that building. I gotta say, while I realize superheroes, action movie characters and so on probably shouldn’t be able to shrug off a bullet in the shoulder as easily as they do… they do, Spider-Man being no exception, so this wound laying him so thoroughly low feels wrong. Cut to:
Look at those colors! Dean White was so good. It almost reads like watercolor. Always a pleasure to see those two. But this issue is all about rounding up Menace suspects, no matter how improbable, so we then jump to a page checking in with Bennet, Crowne and Hollister all talking in their offices about the election. And Bill Hollister wondering where his daughter is. She’s with…
These pages look so good, man. I wish this art team had been together more often. Meanwhile, Vin Gonzales is leaving home, being loud and lame as usual, as Spider-Man waits to sneak in after him. He decides to shower before going to see the Night Nurse for help. And the Carlie just lets herself into the apartment, because her Spider Tracer Tracer led her here.
Vin getting mistaken for Spider-Man repeatedly is kind of absurd. But, here we go again! Who’s Menace? Who will win the election? Will Harry and Lily tie the knot? How many of these questions will be answered by the end of this 4-parter? I guess we’ll find out. Man, there was a time when this blog was queued up nearly 2 years in advance. My various breaks and issues have me down to just 15 months.