"The End" Week: Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #24!

Aw, I really want to dig up the one where Daredevil fights the Absorbing Man now, but in today's book, can Spidey make a showing of it? From 2012, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #24, featuring "If You Can't Beat 'Em" Written by Paul Tobin, pencils by Rob DiSalvo, inks by Terry Pallot; and "The Kingpin" Written by Paul Tobin, pencils by Matteo Lolli, inks by Terry Pallot.

Mystery-woman Blonde Phantom has called Spidey for help, since the cops are moving the Absorbing Man to a medical facility. Is he sick? No, the scientists want to try and learn how Creel's absorbing powers work, for use in medicine, recycling, manufacturing, and so forth. (His powers work by magic, you're not going to learn squat, let's call it a day early.) Creel does of course break loose, and Spidey is woefully outclassed but refuses to give up. Even when Creel beats him almost-unconscious and leaves him on top of a cab. Spidey tries to appeal to Creel's better nature, Creel in turn absorbs gasoline and flames on, delivering a flaming, crushing bear hug. Then, Spidey's words seem to hit him: Creel surrenders, picking up Spidey and getting back in the transport. Blonde Phantom wonders, if Creel didn't accidentally absorb some of Spidey's decency, when she really should be getting him to a hospital, I think his ears were filling with blood.

In the next story, it's Spidey vs. the Kingpin, as Spidey notices a ton of crooks he's stopped back on the streets really quickly. (Including "Jimmy 'Big-Time' Gray and Chris 'Casanova' Sims!) After a brief lunch with his girl, Chat, Spidey traces one of the crooks and confronts him: said crook squeals like a pig, admitting a crooked cop has been letting crooks loose after heroes catch them. (Use 'crook' one more time, I dare you!) This actually seems somewhat labor-intensive, as we see some thugs wrapped up in pipe by the Thing. Spidey goes to the Kingpin, who says he doesn't have anything to do with that cop, since he had also been freelancing and extorting charities. Kingpin gives him the cop's address freely, a school closed for rebuilding, which gives Spidey the opportunity for substitute-teacher jokes. After the bad cop is caught by the regular ones, Spidey again visits the Kingpin, to tell him he'd be coming back for him someday. Which would probably be more threatening if his voice had changed; Spidey was pretty young in this one. 

The letters page acknowledges this was the last issue, as next month would bring Marvel Universe: Ultimate Spider-Man #1, based on the Disney XD cartoon. Which wasn't my favorite; possibly because I think Spidey was voiced by one of the kids from Drake & Josh, which my kids watched but I could not stand. Still, as usual, these old Marvel Adventures books usually hold up.