Welcome back to another edition of Sergei Kravinoff, the Spectacular Spider-Man. You notice how Mike Zeck has been drawing the eyes on the Spidey mask enormous? You know how Todd McFarlane gets credit for inventing that even though he hasn’t drawn Spider-Man yet by this point? I’m just saying. The Spectacular Spider-Hunter kicks this issue off by attacking some guys in a warehouse.
As the cops rush in, he skitters off, babbling in his narration about how the police secretly worship him. The cops exposit that Spider-Man has put fifteen people in the hospital before one of them discovers that guy with the neck pull is dead. I would say this will be bad for Spider-Man’s reputation, but he’s dead, so it doesn’t matter. Up on a roof, Kraven thinks he’s proven himself superior to Spider-Man in every way but one. Cut to the grave again. Still nothing going on out there. Cut to Vermin grabbing another woman off the street.
Vermin tosses one of the cops into the gutter so his army of rats can emerge and swarm and I guess eat him, in probably the creepiest scene ever in a Spider-Man comic, and then the other cop manages to shoot Vermin in the side. She orders him to get the rats off her partner, and he does, but he also thinks the cop reminds him of someone.
Mm hmm. Naturally. Elsewhere, an increasingly desperate Mary Jane shows up at Joe Robertson’s house in the night, looking like crap, before realizing she can’t actually talk to him about this.
I would like to ask every major Spider-Man writer if they think Joe Robertson knows Peter is Spider-Man. I bet most or even all of them would say yes. Robbie’s not dumb, and he’s had a long time being up close and personal with both of them. But he’s also always been like a father to Peter, and would never betray his secret, probably not even to him. Speaking of whom, sure are a lot of spiders on that grave. SYMBOLISM OR SOMETHING. Meanwhile, Kraven is toying with a rat in a cage.
This is immensely stupid, but he did pull a similar mindcontrol gag on The Gibbon way back when, so I guess there’s a precedent. Some bits of continuity deserve to be swept under the rug, and I kinda think Kraven’s mindcontrol juice is one of them. To no one’s delight, Kraven removes all his clothes again, and looks like he’s gonna jump out the window like that to go fight Vermin, but when we cut to Vermin waking from sleep in the sewer as he hears someone approaching, it is thankfully Spider-Man. I mean, it’s Kraven-as-Spider-Man, but that’s better than naked Kraven.
Again, the art team is nailing it. That last panel is something. Then it’s fightin’ time. It’s a brutal battle, too, both parties fighting to kill. But Kraven proves too much for Vermin in the end.
Hang on, what’s that bump at the grave? Spiders don’t do that. Spider-Hunter emerges from the sewers carrying Vermin’s unconscious body, and then…
Ok, so maybe he’s not dead. Maybe he’s a zombie now. Maybe he’s an actual spider man. Would that be any sillier than what has preceded it? You know he’s not, though. Tune in next time, when Spider-Man actually appears in a Spider-Man comic.