Gettin’ pretty cold out there. But maybe getting a little warmer in JJJ’s hospital room.
JJJ thanks the nurse for helping him see the light, waits til she leaves, then tries to march out into the blizzard without so much as shoes before being forcibly dragged back inside. Which is pretty JJJ, but him doing it in the hospital gown and no shoes, I don’t buy for a second. He’s not stupid, he’s just stubborn. We cut to an increasingly frozen Spider-Man trying to travel across an increasingly frozen city, then to the 5th Precinct…
Oh, hey, it’s our new pal, Carlie Cooper. “Mayan extremists.”
I mean this is very stupid.
So, at this point, the first time I read this, I had to start looking things up. This is comics, after all, with a long and sad history of just making up “ancient traditions” of real people. And I don’t know if Wells was trying to obfuscate a little or what, but he spelled everything wrong. There’s a Mayan text called the Popol Vuh, not “Popul Voh.” This 5-pday period (at the end of the Mayan year) exists, but it’s called Uayeb or Wayeb, not “Uayep.” There exists a the Mayan term K’ujul ajaw, meaning “divine lord,” but he left out the apostrophe. So is he spelling it wrong on purpose to try to give himself some wiggle room vis a vis historical accuracy, or is he just bad at Google? I guess we’ll never know. Either way, this whole thing is deeply awkward. Well, while that guy’s info dumping, Spider-Man has more or less gotten so cold he literally can’t proceed, and finds himself in an alley with a guy with Ye Olde New York Barrel Fire going, who thinks SHIELD is after him, and is invited to warm up.
Hey, that’s a good Peter Parker moment. We cut away to Vin the cop awkwardly trying to get Carlie to move in with him, but when she hears he’s looking for a roommate, she says her friend Peter Parker is, too, and never gets the hint. Back in the alley…
I’m sure this is all very authentic. Spider-Man rips a parking meter out of the ground as a weapon, and big guy there picks up a whole semi truck as his own club. After nearly being smashed, Spider-Man is told he “carries the sun-blood” and is not the sacrifice. Asked if he’s a priest, while being smooshed, he says yes, and the thing flies away. Spider-Man decides to just press on and pretend that didn’t happen, as the thing follow him from above.
According to my limited reading, it was Mayan custom to stay indoors and not wash your hair during Wayeb. So he’s got that right, I suppose.
The bones of this story are pretty good. The growing creepiness and the twist here. But the whole Mayan culture of it all is uncomfortable at best. I would’ve preferred some Dr. Strange fakey intradimensional stuff.