It’s felt like an eternity between this and Vol. 3, but finally we get the end of Bill Mantlo’s lengthy run on the title and the beginning of Al Milgrom’s continuation of many of Mantlo’s threads.
Much of the book is devoted to the development of Spider-Man’s romance with Black Cat and then it’s slow deconstruction as we see the start of the return of Mary Jane Watson that would eventually lead to the marriage. Unfortunately while much of the construction of the Black Cat relationship happens in these pages, the end of the relationship seems to mainly be happening in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, which are unseen here. The end of the alien symbiote suit gets a similar hasty recap here.
That leaves you with the impression of the work Mantlo did being given short shrift by editorial edict. Not helped by Milgrom trying to keep up Mantlo’s weirdness quotient, but not really having the same knack for it. His creation The Answer is a weird, origin-less, super-villain who seems almost cosmic in his abilities and decisions at times. He’d later be brought down to earth when he returned, but here he seems like a walking, talking plot device. Milgrom would have more success in later issues with cult-favourite The Spot, but that’s for the next volume.
As well as writing the later issues in the book, Milgrom also provides the bulk of the artwork, along with Jim Mooney inks. Unfortunately the earlier volumes had Ed Hannigan, and while Milgrom has his moments (especially during the Dr Octopus vs. Owl war), his Cloak and Dagger are disappointing in comparison to Hannigan’s.
The best issues here, oddly enough, are two of the fillers. First is a J. Jonah Jameson story, told from his point of view, with some great Ditko pastiching from Ron Frenz. Secondly is the Assistant Editor’s Month issue, which features the great Fred Hembeck as artist, drawing a fairly straight story with the Human Fly. There’s a line in there that nails Mantlo’s style where assistant editor Bob DeNatale refers to it as “urban weird”.
Going back the Spider-man / Black Cat relationship, there’s an underdeveloped part to it that could be revisited with a different character later. There’s hints of a love triangle between Spider-Man, Black Cat and police captain Jean DeWolff. What made that unique for Spider-Man was that the two women were love with Spider-Man, rather than Peter Parker. Not to mention that Jean DeWolff is a rare woman in Spidey’s life who behaves like an adult (well apart from the 1930s cosplay) and isn’t an OAP. Ignoring the underdeveloped romantic aspect, she was to Spider-Man, what Robbie was to Peter, a level headed voice of reason. Her key story should be in the next volume, and as much as I have fond memories of that story from its Spider-Man & Zoids UK reprint, now I’ve actually read her earlier appearances, I’ve a clearer idea of why it was shocking and controversial.
Also of interest here is an early outing for Hobgoblin, with a plot assist from Roger Stern, so presumably he was written with the intention here of it being Roderick Kingsley. We also start to get the various false leads (Leeds?) that caused so much confusion when Stern left and they couldn’t make up their minds who the Hobgoblin was… Unfortunately I think I’ll have to wait for either Vol 10 or 11 of the ASM Essentials to pick-up the main Hobgoblin story that I loved from Spider-Man & Zoids.