A simple, and simply great, story. It begins like so many 1980s comics: With Spider-Man foiling a basic street crime that he happens across while on patrol. Roger Stern was able to write “corny” Spidey jokes and make them work, and Romita Jr. was at the height of his considerable skills.
From there, we get some side-character development. Nathan Lubensky, Aunt May’s boyfriend, has taken on a new friend at the old folks home–Adrian Toomes. It’s weird that a guy who has committed as many crimes as Vulture still gets paroled, but that’s life in the Marvel Universe. Bad guys never stay locked up.
Toomes is down on himself, and Lubensky gets him to believe he’s not all washed up. That’s, of course, a bad move, since it inspires Toomes to take apart some old machinery and build a new vulture costume. Inevitably, no good deed goes unpunished and Vulture turns on Nathan…
Then Spider-Man comes in and saves the day.
A truly wonderful done-in-one that can be re-read over and over and still enjoyed.
Meanwhile, Lance Bannon is a photographer at the Bugle with a cute way of dealing with his competition.
