{"id":20176,"date":"2024-02-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=20176"},"modified":"2022-07-23T00:19:44","modified_gmt":"2022-07-23T04:19:44","slug":"smu-04","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2024\/02\/22\/smu-04\/","title":{"rendered":"SMU 04"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Oh goody, Mysterio. Cover price: $3.95 in 1993 dollars. Your McKay\u2019s price: 90 cents. An indication of quality, I\u2019m sure. This month\u2019s main feature is inked by Scott Hanna, Al Milgrom and Keith Williams. How do you run up against your deadline on a book that comes out 4 times a year? I guess that\u2019s not fair, Lim is drawing Silver Surfer or Captain America or X-Men 2099 or like all 3 right now, in addition to this, I\u2019m not sure what the timeline is. On page 1, Spider-Man leaps down onto some surprised hoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That Spidey quip made no sense at all. Love that that guy\u2019s name is Snake. If it seems absurd that this would happen to Spider-Man, well, it apparently didn\u2019t, because the guy revealed as Spider-Man in the next day\u2019s Bugle isn\u2019t Peter Parker. Peter sure is surprised by the story, though, and wants to be there when Spidey gives a press conference later that day. But JJJ says it\u2019s Bannon\u2019s story, so\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As promised, The Spider-Van. Makes more sense than the dune buggy from the 70s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Is this guy\u2019s press conference in the middle of the street?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I mostly included this page for that cool Spider-Man, but also, duh, it\u2019s Mysterio. His wand destroys Spider-Man\u2019s tracer right as he\u2019s approaching the van (No trouble telling what car to follow), which causes Spider-Man a shooting pain in the head that almost makes him fall to his demise. That\u2019s never happened before or sense when someone destroyed his tracer, but whatever, I guess. He\u2019s only delayed for a moment, but that gives the Spider-Van enough time todrive into a garage, cover itself in Mysterio Fog, transform into a regular van, and drive back out. Sure, man. Why not. Mysterio built a transforming van as part of this act. We quickly learn \u201cPhil\u201d has signed a bunch of merchandising deals, and find him in a warehouse full of Spider-Man stuff, marveling at how much money there is in licensing, and saying the only way Spider-Man could disrupt their scam is to reveal his own identity. Uh\u2026 I think being in the same place as you and doing Spider-Man things might also work, buddy. Soon, he\u2019s giving another speech, and JJJ appears in the crowd, demanding evidence that Spider-Man\u2019s new charity will go to a good cause. Having him there is a really good touch. Especially when\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Coulda handled that better. Our hero vents his frustrations on a nearby rooftop, and soon, Phil\u2019s cackling about how great this is while Mysterio, STILL hidden in shadow but shown with a perfectly round head in a comic with him on the cover, says not to underestimate Spider-Man. Later, at The Bugle, Ben Urich tells Peter if that\u2019s the real Spider-Man, then he\u2019s Daredevil. Peter agrees, but they haven\u2019t got anything. Ben says he can\u2019t find any background on this \u201cPhil,\u201d and even the hoods he busted in the beginning have all vanished since they were let out on bail. Ben says the only person who seems to know anything is Lance Bannon, but he\u2019s not telling. In short order, \u201cSnake\u201d leads Lance to another crime before it happens, saying he always knows these things via a \u201ctrade secret,\u201d and again, Spider-Man appears, in his van, to stop the robbery. He shoots webs out of his van to catch the guys. But the real Spider-Man followed Lance to the scene\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Well, now we settle into some Traditional Mysterio Violence, as all the Spider-Man products in their hideout turn out to be killer robots. Pretty standard! Our hero finds himself fighting a giant bobble head of himse and.. Just a big robot spider\u2026 kind of off brand, there, Mystie. But Spider-Man quickly comes up with a solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As Mysterio stories go, pretty entertaining. Way better than Spider-Man believing the ghosts of people who aren\u2019t even dead are attacking him or a tiger is walking on a wall or whatever. But this comic\u2019s not over, and our next adventure is courtesy of Kurt Busiek, Kevin West, Jimmy Palmiotti and John Kalisz. It finds Spider-Man escorting an unmarked police van transporting a felon who\u2019s sure they\u2019ll be killed in transit. And then someone shoots the van with a rocket launcher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The guys in the van are somehow ok, and Spidey flashes back to let us know why this is happening. The con in the van is Bloodshed, last seen in Web 81<\/a>, where he owed the Bazin mob a million dollars. And he still does, and they\u2019ve been trying to assassinate him in prison. The feds were trying to get him to testify and enlisted his little brother, also from Web 81, to talk him into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Inside the room\u2026 somewhat absurdly\u2026 Bloodshed\u2019s armor has been left with a note saying if he wants to settle this, \u201cbe where Paulie lives these days.\u201d Room service is delivered, and while Spidey and a fed check it for poison, Wyndell sneaks his suit into the bathroom and escapes by smashing through the wall. With Wyndell running off to get himself killed, Spider-Man bids adieu to the feds and takes this case his way\u2026 but first\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Also it\u2019s raining) Fair point about the Bugle, MJ, but this is ridiculous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ridiculous! Spider-Man manages to arrive at the scene before Bloody, busting in on the villains and telling them no one\u2019s dying tonight. Then Bloodshe comes running in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spidey and Bloodshed fight for awhile, which turns out to be just what Nico wants, and he blows up the building with them still in it. Spider-Man tries to lead Bloodshed out of the collapse, but they get separated, and with a whole building coming down on them, Spidey can\u2019t really go back and look for Bloody. So the building collapses, and a guilt-ridden Spider-Man starts digging through the debris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I am shocked to see that Bloodshed appears in 5 more comics. I don\u2019t own any of them, tho. Well, there\u2019s still room for more comic in this comic, and the 3rd story is by Carl Potts, Dan Norton, Keith Williams and Chia-Chi-Wang, and it has a funny title:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I think the title is going to be the best part. Big Guy won\u2019t tell Spider-Man who he is or where Rhino went, so they fight a bit, but Spidey gets slammed into the ground and Guy is able to walk outside and spot Rhino, like Spidey should have, and by the time our hero\u2019s on his feet, the 2 big guys are fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I\u2019ve seen some rushed endings, but wow. Wow. Well, I guess that ended positively. And that\u2019s the comic. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh goody, Mysterio. Cover price: $3.95 in 1993 dollars. Your McKay\u2019s price: 90 cents. An indication of quality, I\u2019m sure. This month\u2019s main feature is inked by Scott Hanna, Al Milgrom and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[410],"tags":[153,113,1312,891,413,13,485,442,269,1752,1003,122,21,234,1459,441,417,124],"class_list":["post-20176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1990s","tag-al-milgrom","tag-ben-urich","tag-bloodshed","tag-carl-potts","tag-chia-chi-wang","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-jimmy-palmiotti","tag-john-kalisz","tag-keith-williams","tag-kevin-west","tag-kurt-busiek","tag-lance-bannon","tag-mary-jane-watson","tag-mysterio","tag-rhino","tag-ron-lim","tag-scott-hanna","tag-tom-defalco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20176","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=20176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20198,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20176\/revisions\/20198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}