{"id":27612,"date":"2025-07-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=27612"},"modified":"2024-02-21T16:38:33","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T20:38:33","slug":"spider-man-human-torch-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2025\/07\/15\/spider-man-human-torch-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Spider-Man\/Human Torch 4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Well, I sure can\u2019t wait to see how this plays. Yes, obviously, I don\u2019t remember this series at all. I only seem to remember the big moments, most of which have been bad lately. But when this came out, I didn\u2019t know how dysfunctional and terrible Spider-Man and Black Cat\u2019s relationship was. Will it be handled faithfully here, or will there be some rose colored glasses? Who knows? I guess I will in a few minutes. Nelson is out, Tom Palmer is still here, and he\u2019s aided by Drew Geraci now. Wonder why inking this book was so hard to schedule. This one threw me for a loop because panel one says \u201cA dozen years ago\u2026\u201d Issue one said \u201cTen years ago,\u201d  and the ones in between played it safe and said \u201cseveral years ago.\u201d But this turns out to be a flashback within flashback. Perhaps inevitably, with Felicia involved, we open on the Black Fox botching a robbery of the Wakandan embassy. Never excited to see Black Fox. Then we jump ahead to \u201cA few years ago\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The 80s were a rough time for hairstyles, but as we can see by checking ASM 258<\/a>, Johnny\u2019s was not this bad at the time. Yeesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

That is, like, the least-sexy stereotypical French maid costume I\u2019ve ever seen. Which, given the lascivious nature of comics in this time (Or that time, for that matter), and the treatment of She-Hulk in particular over the years, is shocking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cI can\u2019t believe awkwardly hitting on my coworker out of nowhere didn\u2019t work! This certainly isn\u2019t MY fault!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Incorrect! Jean DeWolff got Black Cat conditional amnesty as a favor to Spidey in ASM 227<\/a> and she never really committed a crime again til Mark Millar\u2019s random, stupid \u201cI work for the Owl now\u201d crap, but we have some lovely parting gifts for you. Next page, Felicia says she wants to put the crime fighting on pause and do something she\u2019s interested in, and it\u2019s something she wants to do with Peter Parker. Again, incorrect! Felicia\u2019s insane dislike for Peter even as she dated Spider-Man was KIND OF a big deal. Spidey lets the alien turn into regular clothes at the mention of his real name, and then Felicia says she wants to go see the mask her dad was trying to steal 12 years ago at the top of the book. So it wasn\u2019t Black Fox, it was Felicia\u2019s dad dressed just like him. Well, ok, fine. Felicia apparently wants PETER to help her steal it since her dad couldn\u2019t? Felicia said some dumb things back then, but not this dumb. As they argue, the Human Torch is flying nearby, wondering why all the girls he likes always prefer jerks (Don\u2019t look in a mirror, buddy), when he sees Peter Parker on a rooftop talking to Black Cat.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Johnny is so dumb. Well, then, it\u2019s night time at the Wakandan embassy, and Peter Parker arrives in his capacity as a photographer. Black Panther is there, wearing his 2005 costume (Whoops!), as Johnny and Felicia make waves with the news folks with their arrival. Peter is thinking he better get some shots of the mask \u201cbefore Klaw or somebody attacks, forcing the Panther and me to eventually team up to stop \u2018em\u2026\u201d which is pretty funny, until he sees Johnny & Felicia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The Panther asks one of his dudes to take Johnny & Felicia for a private viewing of the mask, so Peter makes the alien look like a Wakandan soldier suit to sneak in after them (Uh, your skin tone is maybe not working with this disguise). Panther\u2019s guy details all the security to Felicia until she points out Peter to the guard, making Peter bolt and the guard chase him, and leaving Johnny and Felicia to get down to business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

This is getting uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

T\u2019Challa refers, of course, to MTU 20<\/a> and 87<\/a>. Good work on that one, Slott. Johnny\u2019s powers have now helped Felicia get past most of the security, but while he can create distortions in the lasers, Felicia will not be able to squeeze through \u201cunless I\u2019m not wearing an extra stitch.\u201d Now that\u2019s starting to sound more like a 2005 depiction of a female character. Elsewhere in the embassy, Spider-Man is trying to convince the Panther to stop fighting him and tell him what\u2019s going on, but he HAS been caught breaking into the embassy on a special night, so it\u2019s easy to see why T\u2019Challa isn\u2019t interested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Yeah, there you have it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Spidey kind of looks like Vector down there. An observation I sure wouldn\u2019t have been able to make if not for reading Breakout so recently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Ya know, that was actually about the right amount of insane dysfunction for their relationship, right down to Spidey immediately forgiving her. What a mess they were. It\u2019s so funny that Felicia is some people\u2019s favorite. They clearly did not read the comics\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, I sure can\u2019t wait to see how this plays. Yes, obviously, I don\u2019t remember this series at all. I only seem to remember the big moments, most of which have been…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1864,1],"tags":[33,156,744,933,2169,72,158,665,2168,2,227,2166],"class_list":["post-27612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2000s","category-uncategorized","tag-beetle","tag-black-cat","tag-black-panther","tag-dan-slott","tag-drew-geraci","tag-human-torch","tag-jean-dewolff","tag-she-hulk","tag-sotocolor","tag-spider-man","tag-tom-palmer","tag-ty-templeton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27612","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=27612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27613,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27612\/revisions\/27613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}