Aliens and Illusions!
Writer: Roger Stern
Artists: Marie Severin, Jim Mooney
Letterer: Jim Novak
Colorist: C. Scheele
Originally published: February 1981
The cover of this issue features Spider-Man, Mysterio and Deb Whitman apparently floating in outer space. Spider-Man is punching the fishbowl off Mysterio’s head. Spidey’s legs are wrapped around Mysterio’s body. Deb has a very odd zero-gravity boob thing going on, and a major camel toe. One of Mysterio’s boots has a high heel. The whole thing is very, very weird and very, very bad. I read online that it’s a Frank Miller cover, but for some reason I find this hard to believe.
So we start where we left off, with Peter onboard a space ship with Mysterio and some supposed aliens. Mysterio wants the Dutch Mallone money, and the aliens are helping him in exchange for Mysterio’s help in taking over the world. Of course, it turns out to just be an elaborate ploy by Mysterio. The aliens are just dudes in alien masks, whom Pete / Spider-Man take care of quite easily.
This issue retcons the aliens’ earlier appearance in ASM 2, when they were working for the Tinkerer, so that they were actually movie extras and stuntmen then as well. One of them, apparently, was Quentin Beck, who went on to become Mysterio.
Not a bad issue, really. Mysterio stories can sometimes be formulaic, but for some reason I was a little more engaged this time around.
Rating:
