Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #605 (Story 2)

Background

Story (or Chapter) 2 of issue #605 written by Fred Van Lente.

Story 'Models Stink'

MJ's hosting a fashion show for her television program "Sewn Up", with models dressed in variations of Marvel Superheroine costumes. In the audience are Pete and Harry, as well as a couple of the female Reilly cousins. Pete sees a model dressed in Black Cat garb, and thinks to himself "lady, I served with Black Cat; I knew Black Cat; she was a friend of mine. Lady, you are no Black Cat." and then wonders what Felicia Hardy is up these days and thinks how uncomplicated of a girlfriend she was (really?).

Pete is protesting that his roommate Michelle isn't his girlfriend to his friends, when his cell phone is lit up by her texts. He shuts off his phone, but then gets a message over the loudspeaker telling him his girlfriend Michelle wants him to call immediately, embarressing him further.

As he leaves, he's watched through the window on a rooftop by the villain Raptor. Raptor thinks how he's tracked the Reilly clan to Forest Hills, and that getting revenge on Ben Reilly for killing his family by attacking Ben's loved ones seems perfectly fair.

Peter goes home to confront Michelle (who's looking very MJ-esque here for some reason), telling her they aren't dating, and never were. She counters by asking then why were they swapping spit on the kitchen floor together when she tried to kick him out? Exasperated, Pete tells her that it wasn't him, but the super-villain Chameleon posing as him. Skipping a beat, Michelle waylays Peter with a punch, sending him to the floor, and leaves. Pete thinks laying there is the first peace he's got in days.

General Comments

Beyond setting up the return of Black Cat indirectly, and showing Raptor is still on the scene, I'm not sure what the point of this tale was. The payoff is seeing Michelle's reaction, though, to Pete telling her Chameleon hijacked his identity.

Overall Rating

With all the hook-ups, relationships and misunderstandings the creators write into this series, it sometimes threatens to go off the deep end into soap opera territory. A nice diversion but let's get back to the action eh?