Got some greats returning to the blog this month in the form of Lee Weeks and Joe Rubenstein. They’re illustrating a story by Bruce Jones. Interesting career trajectory for that guy. Worked in comics are an artist first in the early 70s, then writer-artist, then sometimes writer, sometimes artists. Did work for various smaller publishers and eventually DC, while also writing novels and working in TV. At the turn of the century, did some work for, you guessed it, Axel Alonso in DC’s Vertigo office, and soon enough found himself lured to Marvel. Paul Jenkins’ excellent run on Hulk was cut short so Jones, with a background in horror stuff, could do a version of Hulk where you almost never see the Hulk. I recall him comparing it to Jaws. The problem with that is, EVERYONE HAS SEEN THE HULK A MILLION TIMES. It was a completely insane decision. Other aspects of his story were more interesting, and some of them even formed the basis for the 2008 Incredible Hulk movie. After illustrating a stretch of Jenkins’ run, one John Romita, Jr. returned to launch Jones’ Hulk. JR stayed for nearly a year, replaced by the great Stuart Immonen, who was in turn replaced by Mike Deodato, Jr. Both of whom will have a big impact on Spider-Man in the future, for better (Immonen) or worse (Deodato). Jones’ long tenure was followed by a brief return for Peter David, and the artist for his first story was Lee Weeks. The connections are everywhere! So, Bruce Jones didn’t want to be the only guy in this rambling paragraph who didn’t work on Spider-Man, so here he is. An opening page shows us a guy surviving a car crash with a police car during a hail of bullets and the silhouette of Spider-Man watches, and then…
Why is the doctor Albert Einstein?
Charlie gets back in his cab, but has a flashback to the accident and freaks out. Later, we see him driving when he comes upon a mugging. He rushes to call the Daily Bugle instead of the cops, gets Peter Parker, and reports the crime.
Mugs the mugger?
An interesting premise. Later, we find Joe at home, looking through photo albums and scrapbooks, including Spider-Man stories, and getting drunk, until he has some kind of attack. Passing out, he once again flashes back to the accident, where we see he was trapped under his cab as some mobster was about to kill a cop when something stopped him. I think we can guess what. Then Charlie wakes up, and thinks about how his life saving operation would cost half a million.
Seed, Roach and Holy Man. You can really tell Jones is a comic book writer from the 70s.
One assumes these guys will be back. You won’t believe it, but I don’t remember this one. Next, Charlie goes to confession so he can ask a priest if it’s right to tell a secret that will ruin a man’s life and betray his trust if it means he can also save a life.
Now that’s a setup issue if ever I saw one. This term would become pretty ubiquitous around this time to describe first issues of stories that don’t really do much other than set the scene. Which is, some could argue, not terribly worth your $2.99. But it would become extremely common practice. Well, hey, there’s 2 more of these, and if nothing else, they’re gonna look nice.