Spectacular Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #199

Background

Spider-Man and the original X-Men have teamed up to beat Professor Power last issue. But they’re still stuck in a once-flying castle that is rapidly losing altitude.

Story 'Falling!'

Our heroes squabble a bit, but eventually find the deux ex machina button that will stop their freefall. They make it down safely to the ground and find that they’re now stranded somewhere in upstate New York. This works out fine for the X-Men (since their headquarters are in Westchester), but our hero now has to schlep his way back to New York all by himself.

Spidey decides to catch a train (by relaxing on top, natch) into the city. He returns to his Aunt May’s house, where she and his parents are having dinner. After a quick change, Peter arrives. But his parents are upset that he left them so abruptly after lunch (as seen in Spectacular Spider-Man #197). They have a heart-to-heart and everything is better.

Tired from the fight with Professor Power and still upset about his argument with his parents, Peter decides to ride the subway (this time on the inside of the cars) back to his SoHo apartment. Bad move. He gets in a scuffle with a punk and almost twists his arm off.

But what does Peter find once he gets home? To make matters worse, Harry was just released from the Vault! Harry’s seen better days, however, because he is feverish and rather wobbly on his feet.

After he leaves, Peter and MJ get in another fight. Peter wants MJ to go away so she doesn’t become a target for the Green Goblin, but MJ wants to ride it out at Peter’s side. She ends up leaving in a huff.

Peter decides to go talk to Harry directly, but Liz tells him he’s not home. Meanwhile, MJ is out walking when she is confronted by (who else but…) the Green Goblin!

General Comments

This issue is a just bridge between the X-Men arc and the upcoming Green Goblin rematch in Spectacular Spider-Man #200. As such, nothing much happens in story – there’s no big villains or fight scenes.

Overall Rating

There’s not much I can say about this one. It’s all setup.

Footnote

What’s the deal with Peter’s parents? Well, they turn out to be robot doubles sent by the Chameleon in order to learn Spider-Man’s secret identity. That little story unfolds in Amazing Spider-Man #388 if you’re interested.

The X-Men go off and do their own thing (no doubt something to do with visiting alternate dimensions and screwing up the space-time continuum yet again).

And, I’m sure Professor Power shows up again sometime, but I don’t care enough about him to look it up.