Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #234

Background

Because of the 411 he has on the Brand Corporation, Nose Norton has become one of the most wanted men in New York. Numero uno tight-wad, J. Jonah Jameson has offered a $1500 reward for anyone that finds Nose and the higher ups at Brand want him six feet under. Odds are pretty good that Nose knew something about the Brand's Special Powers Program, which involves them using test subjects to turn into super powered lunatics. Tarantula is about to be Brand's next experiment.

Story 'Now Shall Will-O'-The-Wisp Have His Revenge!'

The Boston Brand Corporation plant is under attack by Will-O'-The Wisp. He tells a security guard to evacuate the facility along with the rest of his co-workers because his beef is not with them. All the Brand employees are outside to see their former place of income go up in smoke.

In the Darkroom of the Daily Bugle, Peter and Ben Urich are looking at Pete's photos to see if they caught the Brand's P.I.'s shooting Norton first. Unfortunately, Peter's automatic camera didn't get any shots of the questionable P.I.'s doing anything dirty. As Peter is leaving, he runs into Amy Powell again, but kindly gives her the brush off since he has other places to be.

Tarantula lies alone in a dark room, sulking from his humiliating defeat that was given to him by Spider-Man. He gets a visit by some folks sent over by Mr. Smith. As a the doctor patches him up, the other man tells him that "We can give you the power to BE Spider-Man!" Hmmm! Interesting.

Next day, Spidey snags a copy of the Bugle to see how his photos turned out, but he's surprised to see that the Boston Brand Corporation story has pushed his photos off the front page. Thinking back to his previous run in with Brand (in Spectacular Spider-Man #57, to be exact), Spidey knows that something is up with company, he just doesn't have all the facts. Luckily, the Brand is holding interviews for their intern program, just the reason Peter needs to sneak in undetected.

When Peter arrives at the Brand's Queens complex, he sees that the place is crawling with guards, which could make playing the roll of Solid Snake pretty difficult. Peter spots James Melvin, knowing that if he's still around, something is definitely up. He tags him with a Spider-Tracer and heads off to the restroom to change into the red & blues.

Using the air vents to tail Melvin, Spidey finds the room where Brand makes their own super powered flunkies. Tarantula walks in and gets outfitted to take the plunge into a chemical bath. Spidey overhears the plan to turn Tarantula into the next Spider-Man and busts out of the air ducts. As Spidey is making Brand's security look like the scrubs that they are, Will-O'-the Wisp busts in and starts wrecking the place. Spidey tries to stop Wisp but he just isn't listening. Tarantula emerges from the chemical bath as a human sized spider, a far cry from what Brand was aiming for.

General Comments

I've always been a big fan of Will-O'-the Wisp so it was nice to see him return.

If you've read part one of my review on this story, then you know that I'm not Tarantula's biggest fan. That being said, Roger Stern made him seem like a human being and not some peon that flunked out of "How to Be a Cool Super Villain." He clearly wants to prove himself so he volunteers to be Brand's next super agent. It makes me feel sorry for him being turned into a flippin' spider!

Overall Rating

Some nice plot advancing and Wisp is back! Not bad.