Spectacular Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #7

Background

Last issue, Spider-Man tangled with Doctor Octopus, Spidey took a dip in the Hudson River for his trouble, and Doc Ock promised that he would somehow make Spidey reveal his identity to the world...

Story Details

At Peter Parker's apartment, Mary Jane is visiting, trying to fix the dislocated shoulder that Peter suffered in his battle with Doctor Octopus. After popping it back into place, MJ romantically tackles Pete. Meanwhile, in Queens, Doctor Octopus barges into the apartment he lived in as a child and relives some old memories. Back at Peter's apartment building, Peter, Mary Jane, and several others are on the roof enjoying the evening. Mary Jane asks Big John Anderson why he moved to New York from New Zealand, and Big John reveals that he did so because he was hoping for a career as a superhero's kid sidekick, which MJ finds just hysterical.

The next morning, Spider-Man is out web-swinging as Doctor Octopus calls a radio talk show. He declares that he's about to rob the Central Museum of Antiquities, and blows up the side of the museum while Spider-Man is nearby. Spidey rushes to investigate, but finds the police pinned down by gunfire from the side of the building. Spidey uses his spider-sense to safely dodge the bullets as he jumps in the demolished side of the building, only to find that the guns are merely being fired by motion detectors. Spidey skulks along the ceiling in search of Doc Ock, and spots his silhouette against the window. So Spidey hops up to the roof of the building and uses a web-line to swing down the other side and come through the window Doc Ock is standing next to. But when Spidey swings through and crashes into his foe, he finds that it was only a dummy made up to look like Doc Ock.

Confused, Spidey frees the hostages that Octopus had taken, and one of them reveals that Doc Ock didn't even try to steal anything - he merely tied them up and was gone after a few minutes. The plot thickens when Spidey finds a hole in the floor of the building. Spidey hops through it down into the sewers, and after going a short distance, he finds another hole in the sewer ceiling. The wall-crawler crawls up through this one and finds himself in the Palestinian Embassy, when he realizes that Doctor Octopus has kidnapped the visiting Palestinian Foreign Minister (who was part of the delegation that Robbie Robertson mentioned last issue). And as the police arrive and see the web- slinger standing inside the wrecked outer wall of the Embassy, Spider-Man realizes that he will be blamed for the kidnapping...

General Comments

It's getting hard to review this book, since every issue is so consistently good, and this issue is actually even better than the one preceding it. Paul Jenkins develops the story nicely here, leaving his poor readers clamoring for the next issue, and the art by Humberto Ramos and Wayne Faucher is great yet again; slightly greater even than last issue. This issue is yet another very good read to what is shaping up to be yet another very good story arc.

Overall Rating

No complaints here. Four webs.