Web of Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #7

Story 'Welcome To My Nightmare'

We begin with Pete in the Bugle's offices although, when the Hulk blasts through Robbie's door, it's pretty clear this is a dream. The Hulk goes mad and brings down the whole building with him. Afterwards him and Spidey fight until Pete wakes up and finds out that Bobby was alive all along...

No wait a minute, that's another show. He just wakes up and finds out it was a dream. He hears some screaming and suddenly it's a gunman and he has images of Uncle Ben, Ant May, Gwen and Captain Stacy, MJ and Betty. They're all dead! No wait, he must still be sleeping. Phew!

Anyway, Spidey chases after the gumnman and gives him a hiding for ruining his life. He rips off his mask and ... it's Peter Parker. Oh dear. The insanity of it all! You see, it's all symbolic and it's just showing that Pete holds Spidey responsible for everything bad in his life.

Suddenly the Hulk shows up again and he and Spidey end up fighting in the sewers while Spidey's costume keeps changing (nice trick that).

It all just kinda goes on like that for a while and eventually Pete wakes up properly with the police and his landlady in his room. Apparently he was making lots of noise and woke up most of the residents. And, well, that's it.

General Comments

After seeing the cover, you'd be mistaken for expecting a Spidey-Hulk slugfest. I guess, technically, we kind of do but there's just no flow to their battle and as you know it's a dream all along you're just left with a 'so what' feeling.

You get the idea that this is part of some Hulk crossover, which it may well be. But if it is, then it's not made clear. It's also not very good. I don't really know what to say. I'm just kinda ambivalent to the whole thing. Why the hell would you do an entire issue as a dream?

Overall Rating

Not good.