Web of Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #5

Story 'The Enemy Within'

In our opening two scenes, we have Spidey looking all over NYC for Doc Ock. We then have Ock battling (and defeating) a robot Spidey at his HQ.

Meanwhile, at the Bugle, there's a new City Editor - Kathryn Cushing. She gives Pete the task of getting some tricky photos from a peace conference that's well defended.

As Pete's at an ATM getting money out, Ock and his gang burst into the very same bank (there's a coincidence) and begin robbing it. Pete changes though and begins some serious backside-booting on Ock's gang.

But when he has to rush one of the injured bank workers to hospital though and Ock and his gang excape.

Soon after Pete sneaks into the embassy to get his peace conference pics. He is held up though and, meanwhile, Ock kidnaps Kathryn at the Bugle (he was tired of waiting for Spidey to turn up and fight, so left with a hostage).

Spidey uses one of his tracers (which he'd left on one of Ock's goons earlier) to track them down and gets into a battle with the Doc. Ock thinks it is his Spidey robot and fights back but when he realises it's the real deal, he freezes and Spidey saves the day (and Kathryn).

The next day, Pete goes back to the Bugle to try and sell his peace pics but their quality is poor and so Kathryn turns them down.

General Comments

What do you do when a new title is struggling? Bring back an all-time favourite villain! That's just what the Web Of... team do here and, guess what? It totally fails.

In Spidey's last meeting with Ock - back in Spectacular 79 - he was built up as the villain of all villains. Pete even goes round saying his goodbyes before he faces him. Ock is a credible and dangerous bad-guy and, even though we know Spiday will win in the end, it's a blast watching him do it.

In this however, Ock is a carbon-copy, could-be-anyone villain. He's no threat and has little depth.

Spidey defeats him easily. The two-parter seems drawn out, barely warranting the pages devoted to it.

Too much is a coincidence - especially with Ock's gang robbing the bank Peter's standing outside a step too far.

Overall Rating

This is Mooney and La Roque's last pairing as artists on the title and that's a good thing. The dull, white backgrounds are really dragging the title down and with mediocre scripts (plus strong Amazing/Spectaculars), Web Of... is really becoming a drag.

The whole two-part debacle has removed any credibility Ock had as a super-villain.