{"id":9745,"date":"2021-07-15T00:00:09","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T04:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=9745"},"modified":"2020-06-23T13:57:25","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T17:57:25","slug":"web-super-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2021\/07\/15\/web-super-special\/","title":{"rendered":"WEB Super Special"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Of all the people who could\u2019ve illustrated this final chapter, I never expected it to be cover artist for the first and final parts Steve Lightle. His stuff has always seemed so elegant and artistic to me. This is a weird fit, but I like it. Colors by Marianne Lightle, too, it\u2019s a family affair! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I mean look at that. That\u2019s as far from the 90s aesthetic as possible. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve ever seen interiors by Lightle, this is cool. So, a giant Carnage has attacked the battle between Spider-Man, Scarlet Spider, Venom and a gaggle of symbiotes. After a brief battle, Carnage pulls the symbiotes off various people around him, growing larger and letting the heroes know what\u2019s up. They procure an alien flying machine and escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This 100% woulda been a summer crossover event in the 21st Century. That\u2019s MJ down there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I assume this is the first time MJ has seen Brock since he terrified her between ASM 299<\/a> & 300<\/a>? I don\u2019t recall if it\u2019s not. Awkward! But not as awkward as this panel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I guess in this era of hypersexualized female characters, it was time for the ladies to get some.  Also: Future \u201chilarious\u201d constant reference Hootie & The Blowfish makes their Spider-Man debut. One more sequential page just because Lightle renders the grossest symbiote transformation I\u2019ve ever seen:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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They don\u2019t look much better, but ok. Eddie says that, because the symbiotes are \u201cempathic receptors,\u201d if they \u201camplify the psychic agony that brought them here,\u201d it could knock them all out. Somehow, even MJ agrees this is  good plan, and lets Peter go. They head to the church where Venom as born, and Eddie tells the Spiders to leave them alone so they can focus on their pain. Very 90s. But they have plenty to do, Carnage is outside. He\u2019s now bigger than the church. He says he quit interfering with the symbiotes because he likes the chaos they\u2019re causing, and has come to eat Eddie, instead, drawn by their empathic link.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eddie & the alien focus their pain or whatever, and it\u2019s working drawing the attention of all the symbiotes. Meanwhile, Carnage is really beating the crap out of Spider-Man, and knocks him into a gas truck. He & Ben realize it will explode, but they stay on it til they can lure Carnage close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lightle\u2019s page layouts are so ahead of their time. This is how pretty much all contemporary comics look, and he was nailing it in 1995.The good guys live, of course, though Ben gets a big piece of shrapnel in his leg. They\u2019re alive, but soon a literal wave of symbiotes is overwhelming them. And then something happens that is so not going to stick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eddie and the symbiote have been separated so many times since this. I guess that\u2019s comics for ya. Anyway\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Well. Ok. We cut to a news report saying the aliens all turned to dust and Cletus Kasady is back in custody. At the Parkers\u2019, Peter feels bad that a whole race had to die, but Ben & MJ agree the ends justify the means, and not only was Earth saved, but any other planet they would\u2019ve pillaged. Hard to fault their logic, but weird to read in a Spider-Man comic. \u201cGenocide: Sometimes it\u2019s ok!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As Michelinie\u2019s last word on perhaps his most important contribution to Marvel, that\u2019s pretty good (I wouldn\u2019t have said \u201cperhaps\u201d if not for the improbable rise to movie stardom of Scott Lang). A pretty wild story overall. I think I would\u2019ve enjoyed it pretty well if not for some abysmal art, but at least the last 2 chapters were cool. Next up, we got a Black Cat story by noted writer\/inker Karl Kesel, penciler Patrick Zircher, and colorist Tom Smith. Zircher is currently drawing The New Warriors as, believe it or not, The Scarlet Spider joins that team. The Black Cat is watching a very fancy restaurant she loves get robbed. Because she heard it was going to get robbed, but when she offered her services to protect them, she was turned away. Now she plans to let them get robbed, then charge them a huge fee to recover their lost goods as a duo of female villains named Leather & Lace (Really!) make their way up to the place. But when she sees Flash Thompson is in there, she suddenly doesn\u2019t want her old \u201cits complicated\u201d beau to get hurt, and dives in early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid reference of all things! Lace recovers Leather while temporarily blinding Felicia, and as she gets her vision back, they\u2019re on her. They knock her out, and Leather is preparing to throw her to the ground when she, of course, reveals she\u2019s not knocked out, and uses her grappling hook to take Leather with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The 3 women crash into the restaurant, the bad two unconscious. Felicia tells the owner he owes her, and even makes him pay for Flash\u2019s dinner as she leaves. The end. Not much to it, but nicely done. Finally, there\u2019s\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This St. Pierre guy is becoming a mystery to me. This cover\u2019s kinda cool. Kinda cartoony, got sort of an early Ninja Turtles vibe (The comics, not the cartoons). Line art this time comes from Roger Robinson & Salem Crawford, 2 more names I don\u2019t know. Ben Reilly has just taken a shower at his new hospital job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Super nice. Meanwhile, the doctor who saved Armstrong is getting his notes on what happened in order when The Lizard attacks him. In the locker room, that Rick guy\u2019s lady, Toni, shows up, making Ben super uncomfortable, but not as uncomfortable as the Spider Sense buzz telling him there\u2019s trouble upstairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ben gets it by the tail and swings it around, but it\u2019s tail pops off, like a lizard, and it gets away. Ben goes to check on Dr. Purl and finds him alive but fading. So, as The Lizard flees, Ben gives him CPR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He reads about how Strongarm saved the day and he was also present last night in The Bugle. Then he sees if Greer\u2019s home, and when she\u2019s not, he finds out where Armstrong lives and goes to spy on them. SUPER cool, Ben!! He thinks Armstrong saw him, and heads to the roof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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All a misunderstanding. But Ben is being way too creepy to get off the hook. They\u2019re pretty sure The Lizard is at the zoo, and soon they are, also. And Armstrong just walks around being bait until The Lizard appears, and then Scarlet Spider does, too, and it\u2019s fightin\u2019 time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yeesh. Armstrong gets stuck fighting some animals while Ben chases The Lizard into the reptile room. But first, he grabs some supplies and turns the AC way up in there, hoping to slow the cold blooded lizard-man. And when The Lizard attacks, it seems to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That about wraps it up. The cops and the press want Armstrong to tell them what happened, but he says the day was saved by the now absent Scarlet Spider. He\u2019s off trying to contact The Connors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The End! Why is there a phone on the floor in that empty house? Who cares, we\u2019ve already seen all this retconned away! And with that, I am free. I cannot wait to go back to reading normal-size comics. These long ones take way too long to write about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of all the people who could\u2019ve illustrated this final chapter, I never expected it to be cover artist for the first and final parts Steve Lightle. His stuff has always seemed so…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[410],"tags":[455,458,413,259,592,522,940,21,919,916,941,2,939,423,43,706,409],"class_list":["post-9745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1990s","tag-ben-reilly","tag-carnage","tag-chia-chi-wang","tag-david-michelinie","tag-gabrielle-greer","tag-karl-kesel","tag-marianne-lightle","tag-mary-jane-watson","tag-patrick-zircher","tag-roger-robinson","tag-salem-crawford","tag-spider-man","tag-steve-lightle","tag-terry-kavanagh","tag-the-lizard","tag-tom-smith","tag-venom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9745","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=9745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9770,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9745\/revisions\/9770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}