WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #113 - June 1994

Live and Let Die Part One - Darkness Descends

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Alex Saviuk (breakdowns), Stephen Baskerville w/Al Milgrom (finishes), Dutro, Krol, & Babcock (letterer), Bob Sharen (colorist)

The Plot: Hearing rumors of a theft, Spider-Man sneaks into Morelle Pharmaceuticals’ unveiling of its neo-bionics project, F.A.C.A.D.E. He confronts Gambit on the rooftop, but their fight ends when Spider-Man’s convinced Gambit isn’t the thief. The Black Cat appears, warning the heroes that something’s wrong inside. Soon, they face the Silencers, and stop them from stealing Morelle’s nuclear-powered generator. Later, Bugle photographer Lance Bannon catches someone sneaking into the F.A.C.A.D.E. armor. “Façade” blasts Bannon in the chest and flies away.

The Subplots: Guests at the Morelle Pharmaceuticals party include Jonah Jameson, Marla Jameson, John Jameson, Dr. Ashley Kafka, Lance Bannon and his fiancé Amy, rookie Bugle photographer Cole Cooper, Betty Brant, Mike Wilson (a lecherous Morelle employee who stumbles across Spider-Man’s fight with the Silencers later on), “renowned European industrialist” Archer Bryce, Victor (Archer’s apparent manservant), and Dr. Thomas Haney, who leads the presentation. Haney’s body is discovered by Lance Bannon at the issue’s end, and the killer is presumably the shadowy figure who’s snuck inside the F.A.C.A.D.E. armor.

Web of Continuity: F.A.C.A.D.E. stands for Full Acclimation Combat and Defense Explo-skeleton. (That’s right. “Explo-skeleton.”) Black Cat says she’s “crossed paths before” with the Silencers. A footnote says, “Remind us to tell you about it sometime.” Looking online, I can't find anyone who's cared enough to create a profile for them. Gambit claims that he’s at the unveiling to make sure members of the Thieves Guild haven’t targeted the project. John Jameson exits the party early after an argument with his father, who disapproves of his new job at Ravencroft.

Gimmicks: This issue comes polybagged with a preview of the upcoming Spider-Man animated series and a facsimile animation cel. I believe the background cover color is what was called a "fifth ink" color. The cover price is $2.95, but a regular-priced edition was also available.

Review: Oh, Façade. This one’s certainly a classic. As future issues will make clear, Kavanagh’s trying to create a murder mystery (Bannon’s merely paralyzed this issue) that uses some of the established supporting cast members and a gaggle of new characters as potential suspects. Kavanagh’s worked overtime inserting characters into this issue, presumably with the goal of creating a few red herrings and perhaps legitimate clues as to Façade’s identity. Unfortunately, as a mystery, the story’s a joke, and not only because the resolution is never given. The book’s a few issues away from getting swallowed into the clone debacle, so poor ol’ Peter Parker’s going to have bigger issues than the unsolved member of a barely remembered supporting cast member from the early ‘80s.

To this issue’s credit, the art’s an improvement over the previous Saviuk/Baskerville team-ups, the Gambit/Spider-Man fight likely thrilled the target audience, and the story’s vague enough at this point to give you hope that maybe this is going somewhere. Unfortunately, “Live and Let Die” turns out to be a prelude to a lengthy, chaotic period of substandard Spidey stories.

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #112 - May 1994

Pursuit Part Three - Trail’s End

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Alex Saviuk (breakdowns), Stephen Baskerville & Al Milgrom (finishes), Krol, Powell, & Dutro (letterers), Nel Yomtov (colorist)

The Plot: The Chameleon stages a prison bus accident, forcing Spider-Man to capture the escaped cons while Chameleon escapes. Spider-Man then follows the explosive clues left by the Chameleon until he reaches his location -- the Kravinoff Estate.

The Subplots: Reynard and Warrant leave government service in order to avoid bad publicity, on the condition that the Deputy Attorney General sends freelance bounty hunter work their way. Dr. Kafka agrees not to reveal Warrant’s recent actions if the government funds a new Ravencroft facility. On Spider-Man’s advice, she calls John Jameson and offers him the role of security chief.

Web of Continuity: Following the revelation that his parents were synthetic robots created by the Chameleon in Amazing Spider-Man #388, Spider-Man has launched a grim search for the villain.

*See _________ For Details: The previous chapters of “Pursuit” are Spider-Man #45 and Spectacular Spider-Man #211. The story is concluded in Amazing Spider-Man#389.

Gimmicks: This issue comes with three free trading cards, bound in the staples, promoting the upcoming Spider-Man trading card series.

Review: If you thought “Lifedeath”’s revelation that Peter Parker’s parents were robots was dumb, “Pursuit” just smacks you in the face and mocks your mother with its inanity. The premise of the mini-crossover is that Spider-Man has been driven over the edge following the exposure of his phony parents, and will stop at nothing to capture, and possibly kill, the Chameleon. The story consists of a lot of grunting, crying, howling with rage, and teeth gritting. Except in the Spectacular chapter, written by short-term writer Mike Lackey, which inconsistently had Spider-Man reverting to his old persona and cracking jokes while in the middle of his blood vendetta. (The four monthly Spider-Man titles had three different editors during this period, which always seemed like a bad idea to me). The most galling moment of this particular chapter has the Chameleon, astonished by Spider-Man’s behavior, reminding him that he’s supposed to be a hero. Spider-Man dutifully rebukes himself, leaves Chameleon behind and rescues the innocents endangered by the escaped criminals, and then goes back to his ‘roid-rage Batman routine. Ugh.

Regardless of my feelings for this crossover, I have to admit that on a purely commercial level, I fell for it. I still purchased Amazing, but rarely looked at the spinoffs by this point. The most recent issue of Web I purchased was during the “Name of the Rose” arc several years earlier. Curious to see if Marvel really would take Spider-Man “too far,” I dutifully collected each issue of this crossover, and even though I was disappointed by each one, I kept going until the conclusion.

Aside from finding the entire event melodramatic and silly, I distinctly remember being stunned by the ‘90s revamp of Alex Saviuk’s style. This was the guy who drew those early, Romita-style Spidey comics I loved as a kid? If I had purchased one of the earlier issues from this era, perhaps I wouldn’t have been so shocked, but considering that Saviuk only did breakdowns on this issue, Stephen Baskerville’s work was particularly unsettling. Did Spidey really look like this now?

Visually, the entire comic was a confusing experience for me, since Al Milgrom seemed to swap random pages with Baskerville as finisher. His pages have a classic Romita look, echoing the style I remembered from those early Web issues (aside from Spidey’s giant eyes, of course). An entire comic with that look I wouldn’t mind, but the abrupt Liefeld-ization of Saviuk’s pencils was a lot for me to take in.