sonotadream

Untold Tales of Spider-Man (1995) #17-25 - Kurt Busiek/G. L. Lawrence/Tom Defalco/Roger Stern/Pat Ollife/Bob McLeod/Ron Frenz

It's Hawkeye vs Spider-Man.

On the back of his introduction, Clint is trying to help the Black Widow, but he's starting to have doubts about her intentions. She maintains she's only working for world peace, but also wants him to steal a new missile guidance system for her handlers.

After meeting him, Peter comes to believe Hawkeye isn't as bad as he pretends to be. With some advice from Uncle Ben - relayed trough Aunt May - he convinces Hawkeye he doesn't have to continue in this path. After all, he set out to be a hero, in the beginning.

Peter hopes he got through to him, but we'll have to find out some other time.

Next, Peter tangles with the Headsman - the Green Goblin’s former second in command. He wants revenge, so Peter fakes his own death to distract him long enough to make his date with Betty.

The night turns into an accidental double date with Liz and Flash, where no one enjoys themselves, except maybe Liz.

Convinced he killed Spider-Man, the Headsman tries to join mobster Lobo's gang, but the news that Spider-Man foiled one of the gang's heists derails his job interview.

While the Headsman is, once again, on the revenge path, Flash is trying to impress Liz by driving around until they see Spider-Man. Peter is happy to oblige, if it helps to get Liz off his back.

Flash can't give up the chance to see his hero up close, no matter the danger, and Peter resorts to sling shot the Headsman away to buy the other teens some time to get to safety.

While he shores up a heavy statue - this is his second fight in a random penthouse sculpture studio, btw - the Green Goblin deals with the Headsman by destroying his equipment - he doesn't appreciate his former henchman making him look bad to mobsters he wants to work with.

Hearing how everyone blames Spider-Man for almost killing the Headsman, Flash has the idea to start the fan club - and we already know how that went.

Before that, we have Doctor Octopus escaping during his trail, by the simple expedient of asking to examine “fake” metallic arms being used as evidence against him. They're not fake, duh, and Peter watches unable to do anything.

Doc Ock plans to build a flying bomb. He hides in Forest Hills, a quaint neighbourhood where he can walk the streets without being recognised.

He's immediately recognized by Aunt May, who invites him for dinner.

There's a block party going on, Peter is taking photos and Jameson is giving a speech about Spider-Man - who has been linked to a robbery carried by Octavius.

Peter briefly wonders if Jameson has a point. Maybe he should leave catching the bad guys to the police, because when they come after Spider-Man, they always cause more trouble.

Then Aunt May tells him she ran into Octavius and he doesn’t hesitate to go after him. Peter figures the best hideout in the neighbourhood is the abandoned warehouse where he confronted Uncle Ben's killer - and learned his lesson on responsibility.

Octavius gets his bomb flying, with both him and Spider-Man on top, but Peter manages to make the bomb fall in a lake and it doesn't explode.

Jameson, of course, demands Spider-Man arrested, but insults and shove Flash in the process, and his father is the cop in charge. You can guess how that works out for him.

Another Sinister Six is out of jail, although not on his own means. The current Kingpin is worried about a wannabe upstart and helps the Vulture escape, in exchange for him murdering Wilson Fisk.

He also get a bit of Adrian Toomes backstory: he was an inventor, but his shady business partner was skimming from the profits. Toomes reinvented himself as the Vulture, destroyed his former partner’s company and, when he thought he was top of the world, Spider-Man came along.

He tells parts of this to a despondent Jason, who chose Vulture’s rooftop to contemplate suicide. He can’t get over Sally’s death and his responsibility in it. The Vulture advises him to do what he did: if he feels so empty inside, fill hat void with hatred. Maybe for Spider-Man, since it was all probably his fault anyway. Jason seems to take that advice to heart…

Meanwhile, Vulture’s attempts at murder for hire get sidetracked by Spider-Man - who suddenly isn’t too worried about leaving Aunt May by herself if something happens to him…

Well, he makes fun of Vulture for working for someone else now and it’s Toomes time to take this to heart. He remembers the joy he used to get from his inventions, from solving those problems, and reflects that filling that hole with hate wasn’t the best idea. In the end, he turns himself to the police on his own.

There's a new mutant menace - who calls himself Menace - robbing banks. Both Peter and the X-Men kids happen to be in the same cafe when they hear about the latest robbery. Both jump into action, and for.once, their first meeting doesn't devolve into a fight.

Peter figures out that Menace isn't a mutant supremacist, just five guys pretending to be a teleporter and a bunch of robots. He just hates mutants. The X-Men invite Spider-Man to help deal with the other Menaces, but Peter just realized he can't put himself in danger when Aunt May needs him and dips. It leaves the X-Men with a better impression of Peter Parker- who was talking about how mutants aren't a problem back at the cafe - than of Spider-Man.

The story also keeps retconing negative public opinion about the X-Men that wasn't really there in the original stories.

Next, Batman Iron Man villain, the Scarecrow, helps Spidey get his groove back. He doesn't have fear gas, he's just a contortionist with a murder of pet crows who thinks that crime pays better than being a hero.

Their first confrontation is accidental. Peter is just trying to get some pictures for Jameson and spends the fight trying to get away.

Fortunately, Aunt May recovers and gives Peter the pep talk seen in ASM before he faces the Scarecrow again.

It's intentional this time and Peter makes sure to get some good pics and make it public - also making Flash's day, who gets to witness his hero's return.

The Crime Master makes his first appearance - he’s probably the current Kingpin, trying a costume gimmick to stay relevant.

He kidnapped Dr. Carson, a neurologist, and his daughter, and he's forcing the doctor to create an army of mind-controlled goons.

Spider-Man first encounters them at a bank robbery and it doesn't go well for him. The goons are impervious to his attacks and strong enough to deliver a good beating, but they’re also incapable of independent thought and leave as soon as their task is accomplished.

Peter manages to hit one goon with a spider tracker and follows them to the Crime Master’s lair. He manages to rescue Carson, his daughter and destroy the neural links in the goons' heads. He even took enough photos to prove that Carson was being coerced.

In thanks for Peter's help, Carson offers to take Betty’s mother - who's on a coma - to his facility, to hopefully help her recover.

Peter overhears Betty talking how she pushes him away partially because she doesn't think she's good enough. He feel that's a real catch-22 of a situation, but he also doesn't want to give up on their relationship.

Meanwhile, Flash's Spider-Man costume is missing and there's a fake Spider-Man running around and playing pranks on people, and the pranks keep getting more serious. Flash is on the case, determined to clear Spider-Man’s name the way Spider-Man would: all action, no hesitation. Flash and Liz follow the fake to his lair and it turns out to be Jason. He’s clearly not handling Sally’s death well - he can’t stop blaming himself; he can’t even blame Spider-Man, no matter how much he wants to. Flash doesn’t take action, he does what his father advised and comforts Jason instead (Flash didn’t take his father advice seriously at first - he has a drinking problem and is maybe not that great).

Spider-Man has to deal with the return of Batwing. Jimmy was last seen flying down to Florida along with Dr. Connors. He had finally made a breakthrough with the serum to cure Batwing, but it didn’t work. Jimmy flew back to New York, convinced he’s a monster and beyond help, and he’s basically trying to get himself killed. Peter tries to reach out to Jimmy’s mother, but she’s also convinced he’s a monster and beyond help.

Spider-Man and Batwing end up cornered by the police. Peter tries to prevent them from shooting Jimmy, but things look dire, until Jimmy’s mother shows up. She apologizes to Jimmy and the serum finally works, returning him to human form.

The series finishes with a confrontation with the Green Goblin (apparentely, Busiek wanted to focus on his other ongoing series). After failing to take over the mob, the Goblin partners up with the Crime Master - the plan being to betray him at a later date. Since he knows the Crime Master’s identity - yes, it is Lewis -he reveals his own and tells the Crime Master that he's J. Jonah Jameson (that's a LIE).

They plan to rob an experimental ray gun from Empire State University and it just happens that's the day Peter is touring the place.

He recognizes a bunch of gangsters and quickly dispatches them, only to be surprised by the appearance of the Green Goblin. So he won't use the ray gun around bystanders, Peter locks them both in a testing chamber that turns out to be some kind of Danger Room prototype and the two have to work together a little bit. Unhappy with the Green Goblin’s decision to focus on a petty vendetta rather than the plan, the Crime Master forces the guy in the control room to crank the chamber to eleven, causing the thing to almost explode. Peter uses the ray gun to implode the room, preventing an worse explosion. Both he and Green Goblin escape unscathed.

Hoping to see more of Spider-Man, Flash decides to study at ESU; Liz isn’t sure she has the grades to go anywhere; Peter figures, if he can get financial aid, this is a good place to study.

I like this series, it was fun and it did what it set out to do by fitting with the original.