This issue reveals Ronnie is not, as it turns out, in bed with the Kingpin. He just contracts him on special assignments. If Marvel had any real nads, they could do Kingpin owning Blackwater. But whatever.

Ron Frenz draws a good Spider-Man comic. Not sure what I think of him overall, but this issue had a lot of good, iconic Spider-Man action without feeling like Frenz was going for homage. It just felt right. And his facial expressions are fantastic.

While DeFalco does everything he can to make Spider-Man a non-character in his own title (it feel like the Kingpin gets more page time), it’s all very competently executed. DeFalco’s writing about the event, with Spider-Man being a participant, not protagonist, but whatever, it’s a fine comic book.

It never occurred to me eighties Spider-Man might be worth a look; this one suggests it.

No doubt about it, there’s some good stuff in this issue–it’s all about the government (Ronnie Raygun in bed with the Kingpin–how did that one fly in the eighties?) dealing with the Beyonder turning a building into pure gold–but can Fingeroth overwrite thought balloons or what? No one ever stops thinking about what they’re doing. It must take them forever to walk, thinking each step out.

But Fingeroth’s approach, the realism, it actually makes one think for a bit. Sure, his dialogue is overblown and so on (I mean, really, in the Marvel Universe, is a building of solid gold really going to change the world economy . . . one would think the Hulk would crash the stock market with a sneeze), but it’s definitely thoughtful.

It’s a tedious read in a lot of ways, but it’s definitely ambitious in quiet, good ways.

The art’s a complete mess, however.