Carnage takes down Spidey and Venom, in a seeming waking dream, or really loud fantasy. As plain serial killer Cletus Kassidy, he might not have been as tough without his symbiote, but promises a guard they will be reunited. Spidey later notes that previously the Silver Surfer had imprisoned Carnage in "a supposedly unbreakable shell of ethereal energy," which Spidey almost seems to think would have been permanent. (Would that have been too much? Maybe for somebody other than Carnage, but...) Venom had taken the Carnage symbiote away after that; but Cletus is still dangerous, escaping after a prison bus crash, out to "paint the town red!" Somewhat literally: at first glance, Cletus appears to have killed some cops and covered himself in their blood, but there are paint cans behind him.
Spidey spends most of this issue pining for his wife Mary Jane, unaware that Aunt May has just been told that her plane has...something bad. Something we're not told here; I think it had just disappeared, or at least MJ had, since I think Marvel might've been testing the waters. Mary Jane was a beloved supporting character, Wizard fan-favorite, poster girl; but did Marvel already want to backtrack away from married Peter Parker? And I think it set up a sort of narrative cul-de-sac: the larger world and his supporting cast believed Mary Jane was dead, but Spidey refused to buy it and followed leads and red herrings to try and find her. There's also a sense that Peter is sick of being Spider-Man: he knows he's needed, but was burned out on the treadmill of recurring villains. That would build up to PP: SM #16, which we saw briefly some time back, where Spidey hangs a lot of lampshades on some of the repetitive elements in his stories. (It's an idea that I'm not sure you can use with Spidey without breaking him?)
Back to Carnage, covered in red paint in the streets of NYC, and calling out Spider-Man and Venom: one of the Kingpin's goons tries to get this red nut off the boss's car, but the Kingpin points up, indicating Spidey coming in. Claiming to still have some of his "other's" strength, Cletus throws a hubcap at Spidey; but gets taken down quickly, as Venom silently watches. Spidey resolves to take back his life with Mary Jane and swings home, just in time to get the bad news...
Aside: Aunt May has a couple lines about Peter; about him being frail, and wanting to hold him as when he was a child; that are somewhat infantilizing? He's a grown-ass man! I'm not sure how long MJ was MIA--her Marvel wiki page didn't even bring this stretch up. But Mary Jane shows up on the cover of PP: SM #29, which I'm going to assume really happened and wasn't a fakeout? It was after Mackie's run ended and Paul Jenkins took over. And Lee Weeks is, as always, pretty great here: feel like he's an artist that doesn't get mad love, but is so reliably solid in everything that he should be appreciated more.
Also this issue: A "Fast Lane" Spidey insert and a Spidey "Got Milk" ad! Yet it wasn't a high-water point for the actual book.
Yeah Lee Weeks definitely doesn't get enough credit or appreciation for being such a steady, dependable talent. I guess because like other similar steady pros, like Aparo, Ryan, etc, his style's not particularly flashy?
ReplyDeleteI do know thoroughly enjoyed his run on DD after he took over for JRJR. Their similar styles helped make the transition a lot smoother.
Yeah, Surfer really dropped the ball on that one in-story. Outside that, Mackie kinda' did by letting him escape and the editor for also not keeping tabs on that story point to correct him.