Marvel Knights Spider-Man: "The Last Stand"

[cyberghostface]

This marks the final part of Mark Millar's Spider-Man epic.

#9 begins with Peter finally meeting Aunt May's kidnapper face to face.



During the time of the initial release there were lots of theories about who May's kidnapper was. One of them was none other than Ben Reilly given that for the first time in years he was actually brought up, plus the red herrings that went nowhere that Aunt May 'knew' the kidnapper, the shots of him in silhouette hanging upside down or clearly attached to walls, etc, etc.

Peter attacks Gargan and slams him up against a nearby window but Gargan reminds him that May's life is still at stake.



We get a bit of backstory...







Peter refuses. "Then your aunt dies. Simple as that."

Later...





#10...

Spider-Man and the Black Cat go to break out Norman from prison.











A question I have is, what would the Lizard be doing there? If he's in control as Connors he wouldn't be helping them and if he was the Lizard he'd be as dangerous to everyone else.



#11...





All looks lost when various other superheroes arrive to save the day.





Spider-Man runs after Norman but is stopped by Gargan.



"Time to get squished, Scorpion!" The building comes down.

Finally...





#12...




The recoil sends Mary Jane off the edge of the bridge. Peter's been thinking about this moment all his life (for obvious reasons) and is able to save her by webbing her at various points to prevent any whiplash.





Even today Otto's treatment here bothers me. He's one of Spider-Man's biggest enemies and he's not even in his right mind throughout the storyline. We didn't even get a 'showdown' between him and Norman (it's still surprising to me that it wasn't until 'Superior Spider-Man' that the two interacted together in any significant capacity).

The two are zapped by lightning (Mark Millar says this was supposed to represent Uncle Ben watching out for Peter from Heaven) and plummet into the river.



Remember Uncle Ben's broken gravestone in Part 1? That's where May was kept, in the empty plot above Ben's spot.



Peter manages to resuscitate her in time. Aunt May is safe.

We later get an epilogue that wraps everything up. Gargan is locked away in prison and is keeping Spider-Man's identity a secret to himself. Jonah, erroneously believing that his son is Spider-Man, is now pro-Spidey. etc.

Dr. Octopus washes ashore with no memories of the past couple of months but Norman is nowhere to be found.

Peter has a moment with Aunt May, wondering if what he does is worth all the pain it's caused them and if he ends up making a difference. May assures him that he's more than made one as Spider-Man.

Comments

[captainbellman]

In all fairness, the last time I saw Mac Gargan as the Scorpion before this, he was literally tricked into breaking his own leg. For someone who started out as a P.I., he didn't have any kind of reputation for the smarts.

[captainbellman]

A question I have is, what would the Lizard be doing there?

Never mind him, what about bloody Hammerhead? What's he going to do, run at things with his waist at a 90-degree angle until he concusses himself?

[dc2houseofmystery]

... Yeah. It's his entire gimmick. That and being an olde time-e gangster.

[glprime]

It's sad to think at the end there, that's a sign of the tiniest shred of Norman's healthy mind reaching out to the optimistic youth he once befriended many years ago, and he's still trying to encourage in a benevolent way, knowing the poor boy lost his uncle. And you remember that Norman Osborn is just a very, very ill man, who was emotionally broken like so many other Marvel villains at a young age.

ON THE OTHER HAND, it could just be one more layer to the great mindfuck that Osborn loves to play against Peter Parker.

Both views work.

[doctor_spanky]

I feel like the healthy part of Norman means it and the ugly goblin part views it as another weapon to throw Peter off-balance, so maybe there's no contradiction in his mind

[silverhammerman]

That explanation by Scorpion for the existence of supervillains is interesting, but utterly wasted on a Marvel book since the status quo means that it can't go anywhere.

[alschroeder3]

Yeah, but I like it as a lie he told a few D-Listers to make them believe they are more important than they are. Gargan believes it, but Gargan is wrong.

And gullible.

[dc2houseofmystery]

I wonder why Marvel let Millar shoehorn in Wanted exposition into a work-for-hire book. Guess it was hit stuff at the time, but still... Clunky.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Gotta love Millar's 'creativity' here.

"Venom plus Scorpion equals awesome!"

"Sinister Six is cool, so a Sinister Twelve must be twice as cool!"

[cyberghostface]

I'd say making the Scorpion Venom is a pretty creative decision.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

To each their own, but I'm hard pressed to see the point.

It doesn't make Gargan more interesting, it simply takes away any depth the first Venom has to give Scorpion a plus one power up, that gets dumped on in this very arc.

[cyberghostface]

The point was Venom as a character had grown stagnant so this was a way to revitalize the character as well as giving a classic villain something big to do (as opposed to making it some new OC replacement).

As a character Gargan as Venom had a lot of potential. It's just that the other writers couldn't be bothered to differentiate between Gargan and Brock.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

That was probably most unnecessary "Stay here " ever, considering that Mary Jane was at the top of the George Washington Brooklyn Bridge when he said it.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Well, she could have tried to climb down herself...

[lbd_nytetrayn]

This... this relationship between May and Peter and MJ is what I miss. When I was reading regularly, this was the status quo I really enjoyed.

Sigh.

[starwolf_oakley]

In ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, the Shocker said similar things about corporations running the world. Still, the only major company in the "create super-villains" business I can think of is Roxxon.

"Big business is worried the superheroes are going to create a socialist utopia/dystopia" is interesting. And I've wondered if Peter thinks "Using my powers to make money is why Uncle Ben is dead, so money is bad." It is an idea that has some potential in a "Here's why capitalism is bad and you should feel bad" story.