Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #66

Background

Kaine is back from the dead and is being pressured into joining "The Great Game" by a business tycoon named Johnsmeyer. He escaped from Johnsmeyer with a cute Irish assassin calling herself Muse. Spider-Man had been trying to take in his demented clone.

Story 'End Game'

Following the spider tracer her left on Muse, Spider-Man regretted that he was dealing with a clone again. He had hoped to have all of that behind him but should have known that Kaine would be persistent. He found Kaine and Muse in an alleyway and Spidey had the police behind him. Kaine scattered Spider-Man and the cops by bringing down a brick wall, making Spidey run letting him tear his way through the cops. Spidey saved some officers from being smashed into a wall but didn't move fast enough to stop Kaine from being shot in the shoulder. Again, Kaine brought down a portion of the brick wall onto the cops, making Ben web the debris into a net. In gratitude, the cops tried to arrest him.

Block away Muse attended to Kaine's gunshot wound and he thought of how young and beautiful and full of life she was. She reminded him of Louise Kennedy. Kaine explained to her that he hated the sponsors of The Great Game because they use people as pawns and he wanted no part of it. He'd been used as a pawn for his whole life and was grateful to her for saving him from the other players. He was going to repay her by taking down the Game's sponsors and Johnsmeyer.

At the Johnscorp building, a bored looking Johnsmeyer spoke with other sponsors, saying they could take on Spider-Man as a wildcard player. They sympathized with him for losing Muse but he said he'd make do with Kaine, then the wagering began.

At The Daily Bugle, Jonah was disappointed in his staff, who had failed to learn anything about the "Spider-Man skeleton" found in a smokestack. He kicked them out of his office and made a phone call to someone that had experience in getting photos of Spider-Man.

At the Johnscorp building, Kaine fought the laser cannons and robots sent to protect the structure. After the smoke cleared, Muse checked on him and rebandaged his gunshot wound, as well as a facial injury. He didn't want her to remove his mask but after she did, she wasn't put off by his disfigurement. She called it the face of the man that saved her life and kissed him. She told him that they could forget about The Game and go somewhere else, somewhere quiet. Kaine demanded that they finish off Johnsmeyer and immediately had a vision. It showed Muse dead, with his "Mark of Kaine" scar on her face. He ignored it and planned on ending everything right now, when Spider-Man arrived.

They fell through the weakened roof and into a room filled with TV screens. Johnsmeyer spoke to them via a TV, as other sponsors watched. He said that all of them had been part of The Great Game from the time they met but now they were aware of it and stood to benefit. He didn't need Muse to manipulate Kaine anymore and when she began to protest, Johnsmeyer chided her for the change of heart. Kaine was stung by the allegation and threatened to kill him but was stopped by Spidey. The interference didn't last long as Kaine slapped him away. He began to strangle her as the sponsors placed bets if he would succeed. Ben tried to pull his hands away but said if there was any part of Kaine that was like Peter Parker, he'd stop. Kaine relented but still promised to never be manipulated again. He began to tear apart the room, promising the sponsors that he was going to hunt all of them down.

Ben refused to let Kaine walk away and they briefly fought, until Muse hit Spidey with a pink energy blast. She said that Johnsmeyer had wanted her to hit him with that blast and she could have while he was killing her but she didn't. She also could have hit Spidey harder than she did. She then blasted a hole through a wall and jumped, know that Spider-Man would catch her. As he did, Kaine escaped.

At the Daily Bugle, Peter and MJ arrived from Oregon.

General Comments

This was a pretty boring, paint-by-numbers issue. Kaine is suffering again, trusts a woman and is betrayed, and hates Ben. Surprisingly, Ben doesn't show up much in this issue. He does the predictable thing: promising to take down Kaine, talk about responsibility, and save the "innocent" victim as the bad guy escapes. Also, Peter is back, which judging from Jonah's dialog on the phone call, was pretty obvious.

I guess Spider-Man #66 accomplished what it set out to do: get Kaine out of the book and bring back the Parkers to New York.

Overall Rating

Mediocre and bland.