{"id":16823,"date":"2023-04-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=16823"},"modified":"2022-01-07T01:42:32","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T05:42:32","slug":"web-022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2023\/04\/19\/web-022\/","title":{"rendered":"WEB 022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s another issue with no credits. What if they excluded the credits due to the subject matter? Afraid the IRA would take issue with the team? Makes more sense than them forgetting on both issues, I guess. Anyway, one assumes it\u2019s Michelinie, it is visibly Silvestri, and who knows about the other 2 creative slots as Joy & Peter pull into a bombed out Belfast, more or less really following up on that cliffhanger last issue, to my surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When was Joy in Beirut??? Ok, hang on. Ok, so reading these things out of order sometimes makes it hard to know when a character comes into or exits the narrative. Joy Mercado, sayeth the internet, was created in Moon Knight #33, which is a bit of a surprise, since the rest of her career is very much as a Spider-Man character. Her first appearance in a Spider-title was TAC annual 5<\/a>, the first goofy \u201cAce\u201d issue (The fact that Kurt Busiek brought Ace back in 2021 will always be astounding to me). I forgot she introduced herself to Peter there. Her next appearance is at Jean DeWolffe\u2019s funeral in TAC 108<\/a>. So she\u2019s been in the case a pretty short time, actually, and I guess her past could be pretty much anything. I\u2019m not used to the idea of her being a hard-hitting journalist based on the material I grew up with, but prior to 1983, she coulda done anything. I am also shocked to read she\u2019s not appeared in a comic since 1994! We\u2019re already past her quiet exit from the books in other blocks. Her last appearance was in a totally superfluous Spider-Man\/X-Factor miniseries even I didn\u2019t see the point in buying. Joy was such a part of The Bugle when Conway was on WEB and TAC. In my mind, she\u2019s as core to The Bugle as Ben Urich, another transplant from another title (Daredevil), but I guess that\u2019s strictly due to when I started reading. Wow. Totally shocked. Well, ok, maybe Joy was in Beirut! Ok, so, Peter blinds their assailant with a camera flash, and then they watch him gunned down by the British soldiers. The other IRA guys run for it, and the soldiers aren\u2019t too sure Joy & Peter aren\u2019t with them. They search the car and let them go, cautioning them not to come back. Peter asks Joy if she\u2019s sure she wouldn\u2019t rather be working on Goonies 2, which is pretty good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Trouble at Aunt May\u2019s! Joy and Peter hook back up and set off on the trail of the so-called \u201cblack hoods,\u201d who Joy seems to think are connected to Roxxon as part of her investigation from 2 issues ago. They see smoke coming out of an apartment building, and a bomb squad going in, as the crowd throws rotten food at them. Then a panicking guy breaks from the crowd and falls over behind a trashcan next to Joy & Peter, begging them not to let \u201cthem\u201d find him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seems to be a real disconnect in the dialogue on this page. Panels 2 and 3 don\u2019t make a lot of sense to me. After Peter buys everyone in the pub a round, one guy helpfully volunteers that the black hoods showed up awhile ago, causing violence and mayhem but never making any demands. \u201cMost o\u2019 these terrorist blokes, they\u2019ll spread their message all around. At least you know what it is they\u2019re after,\u201d he says, but these guys just cause chaos. While he speaks, someone at the bar looking very suspicious gets up and leaves. Naturally, as our heroes leave, Joy now certain Roxxon and the black hoods are connected, many of them show up, led by the guy from the bar, and putting bags over Peter & Joy\u2019s heads, they cart them off somewhere\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Man, some villains just can\u2019t wait to tell you their plan! A particle beam cannon! That just seems so funny to me. Trying to sell the government Star Wars weapons in 1986. Peter seems to be on my side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Is\u2026 Is Michelinie trying to imply Roxxon is behind The Troubles??? This seems like a kind of absurd thing to insert into a real, ongoing (at the time) conflict. Like having Dr. Doom be behind the Vietnam war or something. Peter & Joy are led away to a cell somewhere, but are then rescued with comical ease by Liam, who bonks are guard on the head and that\u2019s that. Ok, sure, a Roxxon facility tied to a terrorist group and a rogue secret agent, and he just waltzed on in! Peter & Joy say they have to get proof of wrongdoing, and Joy suggests they split up, naturally, so Peter can become Spider-Man. Yet again, I ask: Why not just put on a ski mask??? Putting on that suit is 100% worse for your secret identity! He never listens to me, tho, and is soon beating up goons. More dialogue seems to be missing, with Spider-Man thinking \u201cAnd I\u2019m not thrilled with the guns that SHOOT them!\u201d apropo of nothing. There\u2019s some weird stuff happening with the lettering in this comic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Spidey scares that guy so bad he gives up, but finds out too late Duncan is leaving by helicopter. They have caught Joy & Liam and, for no obvious reason, brought them to the chopper and are about to kill them when Spider-Man intervenes. He\u2019s able to save them, but not before the chopper takes off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Booooooo. Too coincidental, and we don\u2019t know Liam well enough to care, frankly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And so, a pretty weird story comes to a seemingly rushed and sloppy conclusion. And with that, Marc Silvestri is off to become a star on Uncanny X-Men. I wonder if Spider-Man swung around looking for that chopper later. No Spider-Man comments from Joy? Bumpy ride to a bad end, this one. To my surprise, Web 24 ran the credits for this issue in the letter column, apologizing for forgetting them. But what about Web 20? Anyway, I’m very surprised to find this issue plotted by Jim Shooter and scripted by Len Kaminski, and I knew this one wasn’t any of the previous inkers! It’s Art Nichols. Bob Sharen colors. I wonder where Michelinie went. Did he do 20?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s another issue with no credits. What if they excluded the credits due to the subject matter? Afraid the IRA would take issue with the team? Makes more sense than them forgetting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[1497,35,253,149,403,1070,1495,2,265],"class_list":["post-16823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1980s","tag-art-nichols","tag-aunt-may","tag-bob-sharen","tag-jim-shooter","tag-joy-mercado","tag-len-kaminski","tag-marc-silvestri","tag-spider-man","tag-web-of-spider-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16823"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16841,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16823\/revisions\/16841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}