Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #371 (Story 1)

Background

Invasion of the Spider-Slayers part 4! For parts 1-3, look at my last 3 reviews!

Story 'One Clue Over The Cuckoo's Nest'

Our story begins with the Black Cat in the Parker's apartment displaying her new skills and powers. She wants to get back into superheroing. Mary Jane is obviously not pleased to have her husbands ex-girlfriend in their apartment.

Later on, Peter and Mary Jane are going for a walk with Peter's parents whom he long thought dead, but apparently were only in a Russian prison. They dont remember giving Peter a dog when he was little and Peter gets really indignant because he never fully believed that his parents were back from the dead, and the fact that they can't remember giving him a dog lends credence to his theory that they are imposters.

Later still, Peter and Felicia investigate who could have been sending the killer robots after him latley. After encountering a robot that resembled one built long ago by Mendel Stromm, the two heroes go to a mental institution looking for Stromm's assistant, Max Young, to see if he had been the one to construct the robots that were sent after Spider-Man only to hear that he had escaped. As the two heroes leave the mental institution, they spot a small robotic spider that had been watching them. Several robot spiders had been watching Spider-Man the last few weeks, transmitting his position to the robots so that they could know where to find him to attack. Just as they come to that realization, they are attacked by a giant robot, at least 20 feet tall, with three differant screens with three differant faces for a head. The robot was built by Max Young, who is split personality, and the robot has split personality as well (which sounds kind of like a stupid idea to me). The robot attacks the heroes, whom are unable to harm the gargantuan machine. But eventually, Spider-Man plays the robots split personalities against each other, tricking it into destroying itself. Spider-Man and the Black Cat learn that the breakout during which Max Young escaped was led by Alistair Smythe, the maker of Spider-Slayers! Finally, the mastermind revealed, even though it was kind of obvious all along seeing as how the story was called, "Invasion of the Spider- Slayers."

The story closes with Richard and Mary Parker, the alleged parents of Peter Parker finding a man whom they had run into earlier that week and whom had claimed to know them. Before they can ask him any questions, he points a gun at them and tells them to get into his car. To be continued next issue!

Overall Rating

I think that even if Max Young had split personality, all three personalities would be smarter than to build a robot that had three personalities. Whatever. Not a bad story, but probably the best in the storyline so far. Finally, the mastermind revealed, though it was never really a secret and Spider-Man should have figured it out earlier. I do like the developments with Peter Parker's parents.