Ringmaster gets a ring with reality-shaping powers from an old man in China and uses it for mayhem against Moon Knight and Spider-Man…
But before that, Moon Knight and Spider-Man take down Constrictor.
Why does Moon Knight have a black costume now?
Anyway, that battle goes quick. then it’s time for the Ringmaster fight. Ringmaster’s new ring is made out a fragment of the Cosmic Cube so…He’s hard to beat.
Each issue kind of goes like that: Two heroes fight a villain, then the Ringmaster story comes in at the end. Or they fight each other. Like the Blade/Punisher part of this story.
That whole “badass face-off” thing is dumb. If Pun was gonna shoot him anyway, why not do it in the face? And Sleepwalker is involved somehow. It makes the whole thing very hard to follow.
Anyway, back to the main story about Ringmaster being superpowerful. Moon Knight hits him.
Then Punisher shoots off Ringmaster’s ring finger.
The ring will return near the end of this series.
On top of all of that heavy plotting, Titannus is still trying to revive his woman from her tube-stasis and for some reason he thinks that taking over Japan is the best way to do that. And then on top of THAT, there’s a different artist for each issue.
Even the “cute” MJ/PP moments feel tired.
I prefer my MTU stories to be simple, rock-em-sock-em affairs, but I guess everyone thought stories had to be complicated or “matter” in order to get new readers.