Web of Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #111

Story 'Scales Of Justice'

Warrant is escorting Billy to Florida. Meanwhile, back at Pete and MJ's new flat, Mary-Jane is still upset over the recent problem she's had - see ASM 386 for more details. Pete sees the report of the Lizard's latest rampage in the Everglades on the news and books himself a plane ticket. MJ isn't pleased but doesn't say anything.

Pete has to book a charter flight to Florida and admits it 'cost half the mortgage' to pay for it. Warrant has got Billy - who wants to be called William - with him while he looks for Lizard, while Spider-Man web-parachutes in to the area too.

Spidey finds Lizard first and tries to stop him attacking some construction workers. Warrant then shows up and holds William in front of Lizard. The reptile doesn't appear to be showing any signs at all of having Curt inside him. He attacks Warrant with little regard for his son.

Spider-Man saves William then gets into a three-way battle with Warrant and Lizard. Lizard falls into a quicksand pool and sinks. Mrs Connors shows up with Dr Kafka. Warrant and his assistant from the first issue are arrested.

General Comments

Similarly to issue 109, I quite like the idea of this story but it doesn't quite work. The web-parachute is a stupid gimmick that doesn't really fit and, even worse, Peter spending so much on a charter flight is utterly unrealistic. He and MJ have just moved and have major money problems in any case. Hiring a private charter plane just would not happen and, ultimately, makes the rest of the story a bit of a mockery.

Having said that, for once, Kavanagh gets more or less as much right as he gets wrong. The development of Billy from the early ASM's to William here is a great transformation that ages the stories in a way you often don't see. Mary-Jane's introverted reaction from the events in ASM is also a decent reflection of things.

The ending is also pretty well put together. The regular format is for Lizard to transform back into Curt and go back to living with his wife, etc, until it all kicks off again. This time, though, he goes to ground - almost certainly alive somehow.

I'm still not too keen on the Warrant character. There seems to be a major abundance of random people in various degrees of armour in the books at the moment. Spider-Man is also increasingly being used less in his own book, which is more than annoying.

Overall Rating

Easily Terry Kavanagh's best story to date. There's still plenty of problems but at least it's not as bad as some of the recent Webs.