Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #564

Story 'Threeway Collision!'

Out by Yankee Stadium, Spider-Man is chasing Overdrive (from the Swing Shift Free Comic Book Day issue), who is driving erratically. Spider-Man punches him, while the villain is driving, then webs to the car to try to stop it causing any damage. Vin Gonzales, Peter Parker's flatmate, is in a Yankee uniform watching the action and phones it in to the police. Overdrive gets on to a school bus as Vin tries aims a gun at Spidey and tells him to freeze. Spider-Man swings off on to the bus. He is shot by Overdrive, who has a pulse gun-type thing but saves all the schoolchildren by creating a giant web-sack they all jump into. Overdrive, meanwhile, disappears while Spidey is left on the bus.

An hour later and Vin is talking to a detective. He recalls the earlier events. Peter had already put him in a bad mood by lying about losing his job, then he was taking his father to the baseball game. While there, he heard the screeching of tyres and chased the car to where we were earlier with Spider-Man webbing it up. As Spidey goes after the school bus, Vin gets a cab and tells the driver to follow it. As he catches up we again see the scene from earlier of Spider-Man saving the children – but Vin sees it as Spidey using them as shields to escape himself. The detective tells Vin not to live as a cop 24/7.

Another hour later and Overdrive is getting a kicking from Mr Negative's goons. Overdrive says it wasn't his fault. He managed to get the Sonic Pulse Generator just before Spider-Man showed up. He recalls how he let Spider-Man take the Generator just before escaping the bus on to a passing motorcycle. Unbeknown to him, he also knocked over Dexter Bennett as he did so.

The gun is in the hands of the police – and Mr Negative tells Overdrive he will be disposed of, while telling another of his men he must get the Generator back. The goons put Overdrive in the boot of a car ... which is exactly where he's happy to be. He escapes away as a rather irate Mr Negative tells his men that the ones responsible should also be disposed of.

Peter arrives to an interview at a small lab ... late. It turns out to be the lab where Overdrive stole the Sonic Pulse Generator from. Because of all the repairs they're going to have to make, there is no longer a job available. On the front of the DB, we have a picture of Dexter Bennett jumping to safety as "Spider-Man and Overdrive in cahoots: The secret plot to silence Dexter Bennett". There's also a story about the children Spider-Man "risked the life" of and, apparently, Vin missed "The greatest Yankees game ever played".

Oh dear. Nice Motorola product placement though.

General Comments

Marc Guggenheim wrote the first third of this issue, Bob Gale the second and Dan Slott the final eight pages. I get the feeling the story worked a bit better in theory than it actually did in the final version. I really like the idea of the same story told from different perspectives but here it doesn't quite mesh as well as it could have done.

There are some nice bits, however. I liked Guggenheim's: "I just know I'm gonna get blamed for this somehow ... even though it's kinda my fault," line. But that whole scene of Spider-Man punching Overdrive while he's driving is a weird one. If you're supposed to use your power responsibly, is punching someone who's driving a moving vehicle really a good idea?

Also, what colour was the car – red or black. It seems unclear. Was Spider-Man recalling one thing, while Vin another? Perhaps the art's just unclear? Or maybe I missed something?

There's nothing really wrong with this issue – but it's almost as if the BND team have had a month off in preparation for bigger upcoming storylines. Very little has happened in the past three issues, which bridged the gap between MJ making a fleeting return and the new Kraven being introduced.

Overall Rating

A passable one-shot.

Footnote

I didn't want to edit the original review but, as some people have pointed out, the car became black once Overdrive 'pimped' it. It then returned to red after he had left it.