Like FNSM, this run ends on a one-off. Clayton Crain presiding on art. I guess it’s fitting as the 2nd-most represented artist on this strange run, that he send it off. Looks like a Peter & MJ-focused one. Maybe it’ll, like, be good. I always wonder what Crain and his ilk, the surprising amount of artists who think Spider-Man doesn’t have a nose, what are they thinking, exactly? Is it just because McFarlane often drew him with almost no nose? He has one. You know it’s there when the mask’s off. What’s your deal?
Oh, are we doing this? Next page Liz is nice to him before he got bit (incorrect) and they ride a bus to the experiment where he got his powers (incorrect), and then Crain does a noseless recreation of the cover to AF 15 as a splash.
The addition of “Chuckles” and “Spanky” REALLY improves on the original, Roberto, great thinking. Sheesh. Next the dialogue from Spider-Man confronting the (Completely wrong looking) burglar is mangle even worse, and then it’s Ben’s funeral, where Peter vows no one else will die because of him. Ttttthhhhen we skip to Norman Osborn’s death, THEN Gwen’s, out of order, and also Norman isn’t dead. No Harry? George Stacy?
Guess not! Ok, wait. Who… I think Jean DeWolff, Harry, Kraven, George Stacy and… and who? That looks so much like Miles Morales’ costume. Is that meant to be Ben Reilly, colors reversed? If only they got a professional to do this issue. Also, let’s say you’re a woman, and your husband is like “I gotta blow off steam. I gotta HURT SOMETHING.” Get out of there, girl. The thing he decides to hurt is… a dumpster in an alley. He’s just hammering on it when some weird looking guy walks up. I thought he was Morbius, but he asks Peter if he wants to go get a burger (????).
Is the reanimated corpse of Iggy Pop here supposed to be God? What in the world is going on? Peter says he’d beg this weirdo to save Aunt May, that he’s give up Spider-Man and anything else. So Iggy takes him to Robert Moses Beach to walk on the boardwalk. Sure, man, why not.
Iggy shows him a big crowd of people in matching white shirts and brown pants.
Aaaand the award for worst single issue of Back In Black goes to! What the hell was this!? Why did God look like that? Why is anything anything, Frylock!? I am bowled over by this. Utterly baffling. And that’s game, set & match for Roberto Aguirre-Sacas, Clayton Crain, and the absent Angel Medina. What a bizarre run they had. Truly, truly bizarre. I liked… some of it? Man oh man. Well, we are just about down to business. But first, a nice detour.