Spider-Man: The Manga #26

Background

This is part two of the last big arc in Spider-Man: The Manga.

Story Details

Responding to the girl's command, one of the men pulls out a blackjack intending to beat Mitsuo "to a bloody pulp". But Yu steps in and, rather bloodily, fells all four men. Mitsuo revels in the violence. He stomps on the head of one of the thugs, then harshly slaps the face of the startled woman. Not content with that, he picks up the blackjack, grabs the girl by the hair and tells her, "Come and see me after they rebuild your face". He has to be restrained by Yu.

Later, as they walk in the rain, Yu tells Mitsuo that the spurned woman's reaction was understandable and that you can't take advantage of people without expecting consequences. Mitsuo replies that he is poor and parentless, that there are two kinds of people in the world... "those who use and those who get used", that he intends to use his looks and talents to rise in the world so he can be the user rather than the used. As it is, he reveals, his sister works at a bar for his tuition. "She let customers touch her, and finally she started selling her body." "I can't let her do that anymore", he says, then collapses from the beating.

Yu helps Mitsuo up and walks him home. Mitsuo is amazed at Yu's strength and resiliance. "You're a fighter", he says, "I wish I was like you."

Soon, Mitsuo is running a high fever so Yu and Yukiko put him to bed. Ever the manipulator, Mitsuo reveals to Yukiko that he has told Yu about her sordid past. With the sweat streaming down his face, Mitsuo proclaims his hatred for Yu. "His clean and moral life makes me sick!" In a feverish fury, Mitsuo tears his quilt and the Toyko Yellow Pages in two with his bare hands.

Later, Yukiko meets with Yu and tells him that her brother was fully recovered the next day. Since then he has gone out of his way to get into fights. Yukiko calls Mitsuo "good for nothing" and admits that the deaths of her parents warped Mitsuo's mind. She confesses that "I've thought about suicide many times." Yu is taken by this beautiful and sad young woman. He promises to do whatever he can for Mitsuo.

He catches up to Mitsuo in time to see him in a street fight with three professional wrestlers. Mitsuo is bloodying all of them, knocking out teeth, stomping on their heads. He only runs away when the crowd protests that he will kill the men. Yu follows and is shocked by what he sees. Mitsuo is "climbing up the side of a building like a spider".

Overall Rating

This is surprisingly good stuff. Four webs.