Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #87

Background

Being pursued by the newly-suped-up Shocker and Trapster, Spidey and Paul Stacy are stuck together (literally) and trying to escape from certain death! Can the web-slinger pull them out of the wreckage when an entire building caves in on them???

Story 'Enemies...A Love Story?'

Spidey and Paul are jumping from roof-top to roof-top, fleeing from the two mercenaries, when the building they're standing on crumbles into rubble! It was the Trapster's doing, but Shocker isn't too pleased with his newest partner taking such liberties, seeing it as just more work. As the two sift through the rubble, Spidey manages to use a support beam to give them a little breathing room.

Meanwhile, at the Parker house, MJ tends to Jimmy 6's wound. She tries to call an ambulance, but the heavy-set gangster crushes the phone. "No Calls", he says, but in a nice way.

Paul and Spidey slip through a sewer gate and make their way to ESU, where they try and whip up a solvent to dissolve the glue. They go back and forth, Paul with his "you're responsible for my cousin and uncle's deaths", and Spidey with his "you don't know what you're talking about" dialogue just long enough to get flushed out by the bad guys. The two escape up to the roof, where Shocker and Trapster are up there, waiting for them.

Back in Forest Hills, Jimmy 6 intercepts a would-be-killer in the Parker house. Gunfire catches Jill Stacy in the crossfire, but before the cloaked assassin can squeal, he swallows a poison capsule (where do they get those things?). Jimmy notices a strange 'laughing goblin' tattoo on the crook's arm, and realizes that whoever this person was, he wasn't sent by Fortunato. Aunt Anna calls the police (guess they had another phone somewhere), and Jimmy hits the skids, wishing Mrs. Parker good luck as he does.

Just as Spidey and Paul are caught, their feet glued to the roof by the Trapster, the bad gyus get a page telling them to call off the hunt. Zane doubles their fee to leave both Stacy and the web-slinger alive. The two villans bail, leaving Spidey and Paul to take off their shoes (and red-and-blue slippers) to escape. Donovan Zane hangs up the phone, and tells a shotgun-toting dark figure that Spider-Man is still alive.
"...Mr. Osborn appreciates your cooperation." the figure says.

General Comments

Welllll, I don't know. I thought this was a good story, but the ending left me wanting more. The whole Paul Stacy thing got exhaustive quickly, and this iss just made it more so. The fact that the Goblin now has henchemen lurking in the shadows with poison capsules in their teeth waiting to kill the Parker's off is kind of scary - good thing that Jimmy 6 was there - but it doesn't fit Gobby's MO (or does it?) Spider-Man spent most of his time running away (granted he had whiny-boy Stacy with him, but he's strong enough to carry them both on a web-line.)

When it was all said and done, this whole adventure-arc dropped the ball in the last few minutes. We didn't see Spider-Man do one decent job of anything here, the whole "we're stuck together" thing didn't really get resolved, and we never heard about Jill Stacy's apparent gun-wound. There were enough loose strings here to make a quilt out of. I guess what I'm saying is ... I didn't like it.

Overall Rating

Sorry, but this issue was just to "escapist" for me to truly enjoy. A weak ending to what was otherwise a pretty good story. Two webs.