I guess the Sinister Sandman is our next contestant for The Gauntlet. Brought to you by Fred Van Lente and the double Javier Dream Team of Javiers Pulido and Rodriguez. Either of them would give you a great looking comic, but together, they’re unstoppable.
Uh… what? I’m not likin’ the look of this. Well, we turn our attention to one Peter Parker, showing up to work to report to Glory Grant. Boy, I miss the days when Peter Parker’s job actually mattered in Spider-Man comics, and also the days when Glory Grant was around. The mayor’s office is awash in crises after the Electro story, and Glory wants Peter to go get photos they can use to spin a rash of missing police evidence at a police precinct as an isolated incident caused by the tech on duty, one Carlie Cooper. Remember her? Meanwhile… a memorial of sorts.
JJJ, Robbie, Glory AND Peter going to work, all in the first 8 pages! It’s like this is a Spider-Man comic! Carlie rattles off the details of the 3 cases with her excellent memory, and begs Peter not to let JJJ pin all this on her as she’s dragged out of the building. Thus, later, do we find Spider-Man, swinging over the city in winter gear (Over missing posters of Keemia), to go investigate the murder scenes himself to try to help Carlie. And his first one is something.
Spidey’s next stop is Betty Brant! This is a Spider-Man comic book, guys! Wow! He wants to know all she knows about the 3rd victim. She knows this guy, a concert promoter, was negotiating with JJJ to set up a concert series on Governor’s Island. We also learn Betty is going to try to run a news blog after the death of The DB!, and that her roommate is none other than Glory Grant, who talks in her sleep and accidentally gives Betty insider info. That’s kinda funny.
Spidey finds the island covered in snowmen as he silently walks the grounds for a couple of really nice looking pages, and then…
The two -Mans throw down, with Sandman notably confused every time Spider-Man mentions one of the murder victims. All he cares about is the girl.
Spidey sure is augmenting his web a lot lately!
Does this make Sandman a team now? So, he’s not our killer, but the killing all seem to benefit him. Maybe Sasha’s behind them? I guess we’ll find out. At least this story is much better than the Electro one so far…