10 issues into this block before a regular monthly ASM. Wild. And look who it is. Really mowing them down. It’s Marv Wolfman, Keith Pollard & Jim Mooney on deck for this one. And it’s a wild one, beginning on the very first panel with Spider-Man swinging by a dude falling out of a window. Spidey picks him up and swings back into the window, right into a gigantic firefight featuring The Punisher in a 2-page layout, rare for its time. Spidey bounces around the room taking out goons.
For the first time, Spider-Man is not totally indifferent to the idea of Punisher killing people, right as Punisher randomly stops killing people. Marv is making some choices, some of them weird.
The book just feels weird without the Bugle cast. JJJ goes back to his psychiatrist and recounting the tale of he and Spider-Man’s last adventure together, and letting us know that he didn’t in fact look under his mask during the caper in ASM 192. Took awhile to resolve that one. Meanwhile, Spider-Man swings off to become Peter Parker at his new job at the Daily Globe, where he is assigned to cover an event at City Hall with the absurdly named April Maye, back at it again. Peter doesn’t remember meeting her before, and she is furious. This is a weird subplot. Meanwhile, we check in with Punisher (Who I am not sure has yet been named Frank Castle?). He War Journals to himself that he knows a mob boss is getting busted out of jail today, and he’s on a mission to make sure he stays in. Uh, I think The Punisher usually has a different solution for situations like this…? But he’s got a lead on the case: a Daily Globe photographer took a picture of his fight in the beginning of this issue. And since Frank knows no photographers where there, he thinks Peter Parker must be part of the mob! He’s going to Peter’s home to question him, but he’s not there. He’s in a taxi on the way to City Hall, which he stops because he sees Mary Jane walking down the street. He just gets out of the car on the way to a job to go talk to his ex-girlfriend. WHAT.
Peter Parker, ladies man, leaves both of them there. Holy crap. I cannot believe this. That is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in a Spider-Man comic, but it’s also INSANE. Meanwhile, The Punisher breaks into Peter’s apartment. He finds a spider tracer in the sock drawer, so that seems like a problem, and decides that Peter is in on it, Whatever It Is. Then he rushes off to City Hall, because the mob boss who is being arraigned there is rumored to be getting broken out of jail during the event. So… why did he need Peter…? And why isn’t he just gonna shoot the guy? Frank arrives in time to see Peter arguing with a freshly arrived April Maye about him leaving her on the street earlier, just as the boss is being escorted out, so his suspicions are confirmed. Then 2 armored cars pull up and goons in mathcing uniforms hop out to start spraying machine guns. Since when do mob guys were goon uniforms? Peter dives April to safety and then runs off to “get some pics.”
Man, Keith Pollard’s Spider-Man is still great. Spidey continues to wail on them before falling out of the van, almost getting run over by The Punisher, and then finding himself unable to follow them all in traffic because it’s going to places with no tall buildings for him to web around on. That’s rarely stopped him before. Then he accidentally smashes into someone’s living room window.
What is up with this slapstick nonsense? The Punisher, for his part, is hit by a grenade, forcing his van off a bridge. He jumps out of the van and he’s really mad, which I think we can all relate to, since we’ve all been in this situation. Peter Parker then returns to the Daily Globe, where April Maye and he have another fight, and where Barney takes an interest in the story of Peter’s behavior and makes a call…
Uh-oh!