Alford Notes: ASM Annual #42

If you’ve been sitting around hoping for a long overdue Betty Brant story, then this one if for you!  The only missing here is that little spider-suit she wore back in What If? #7.  Oh! and a celebrity written back up story!  All this for just a dollar extra than normal price!  What a steal, folks!

 

The Devil in the Details

Story Title: Bury the Ledes

Writer: Dan Slott

Penciler: Cory Smith

Inker: Terry Pallot

Colorist: Brian Reber

Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga

Cover Artist: Alex Ross

Editor: Nick Lowe

Published: February 14, 2018

 

The Story – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test

We start our merry tale with a look back weeks ago to the Enforcers, back from the dead thanks to the Ben Reilly Jackal.  They tell a mystery villain that Ned Leeds was also brought back, but before he clone-melted, he called Betty Brant and told her “Blood Creek”.  These words cause our mystery villain some distress.  If Brant acts on this, the Enforcers are to kill her.  Betty has taken Peter with her to a psychic (presumably on one of those regular Friday night friend-dates that they have), but Peter scoffs at the psychic until she shoos them away.  Sensing a man stalking Betty, Peter relies on his figurative language skills to save the day, but ends up failing (both in catching the stalker and in literary term usage).

Betty goes to Glory Grant for help which leads her to an old case Leeds was working on for the Bugle.  Betty heads off to ESU, where the Enforcers show up.  Spidey fights them and saves Betty (with a super bright Spider-signal????). They then go to see Glory Grant in City Hall, only to the attract attention of security.  Mayor Fisk’s men go after them, but Spidey holds them off.  Brant’s stalker shows up and leads her to safety in underground tunnels.  He explains the statue is really a bomb made out of precious tritium placed there by the Undermob.   The head of the Undermob decides to just blow everything up, but is thwarted by Spidey, Fancy Dan (who switched sides when he thought he was going to blow up too), Betty Brant, and some homeless guy, who turns out to be Ned?

 

What Passed:

Props to Slott for knowing it is “Bury the ledes” and not “bury the leads”.  Sorry.  English teacher appreciation heading his way for that.

Glory’s back!

The art is good.

OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)

On a scale of 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB), FSPPT rates a 6.  Right now try to say that as loud as you can without regard to the people around you.

 

What Failed:

Just a nitpick, but sticking a tracer on her shoulder seems like it will get found very easily.

Super bright Spider-signal.

Y’all – I’m from the South (if you heard the recent Slott podcast you may not have been able to tell due to my well concealed accent), and we DON’T use the plural y’all for the singular you.  I don’t expect yankees to get it, but it’s still annoying to see and hear it used that way.

Running out of web fluid – twice in one issue.  I’m all for the running out of web fluid trope, even if long ago Spidey put in a warning light to stop that from happening (but it seems I’m the only one to remember that story).  But twice in one issue?  Feels a bit forced.

Speaking of forced plot:

Analysis:

The story in itself is pretty much consistent with annual stories.  No real impact.  The thrill factor was not there for me as it was pretty much a Betty Brant story with a sidekick Spidey.  I’m not a Betty Brant fan or a hater, and as a result I’m not a fan or a hater of this issue.  That said, the one thing that this issue does that leaves lasting impressions on Spider-verse is revealing that Ned Leeds is alive (well, his clone it) and walking around.  Why?  To bring him back in Clone Conspiracy makes a little sense, but to reveal here that he is alive makes less.  To then have him walk away after stalking Betty as a vagrant, makes even less sense.  Either bring him back and use him, or don’t.  I side with “don’t”.

Bleeding Cool is upset that his spider-sense isn’t working correctly because it didn’t go off with the stalker, so he assumes that the stalker must be after Betty instead of him.  Bleeding Cool is wrong here.  The problem is NOT with the way the spider-sense works.  It doesn’t go off because the stalker is not a threat.  It’s the guy trying to help Betty.  However, that scene still has a flaw in that Spider-Man doesn’t remember that his sense triggers for any danger around him, not just those specifically targeting him.  So if there is any wrongdoing here, it is in the writing of Spidey’s character and the way he interprets his sense.  But, to be fair, that thing is written so inconsistently so often that it’s hardly worth the amount of time either Bleeding Cool or I have just spent on it.

Slott Leaving Checklist – with Slott on his way out, he is both putting everything back as well as setting up things he wishes to continue.  For each issue as we approach the end of this ten year run, we will try and check off his “wrapping things up” quota.

An unknown amount of dead Spider-villains survived the Clone Conspiracy and can be used in future stories as needed – check!

 

Extra Credit:

Goes to anyone who can remember where that story was that had Peter put a signal light on his web shooters to alert him to running out of web fluid.

 

Final Grade:

I have a one shot, which I like.  I have a Betty Brant story, which I don’t like.

D+

Maybe I could have been convinced to give it a C-, but that “y’all” misuse is a bit hard to forgive.  J

 

Your Turn:

What grade do YOU give it?

 

What’s Next?

Oh goodie…  A follow up on that Venom arc…  Maybe I can talk Shaun into one more fling at ASM???

Do I think that Slott is going to get MJ and Peter back together?  Not at all.  Do I think that Slott is going to have one more “this will never work” moment?  Yes, I do.  It’s on his checklist to drive that point home one more time.

Look at the Peter half of the face at the top of the image.  Even Peter is not excited for what is to come!

 

 

We have a back-up story!

Spider-Sense and Sensibility

Writer – David Hen

Artist – Marcus To

Colorist – Ian Herring

Letterer – VC’s Joe Caramanga

 

Well, I gotta love the Jane Austin allusion in the title.

OK, so we get a lesson on how his spider-sense works.  I like the little bubbles that is like the sense talking to him.  Also the warning that the alarm clock is about to go off is pretty neat.  This would have been cute if it wasn’t so close to the over-hyped spider-sense we got a while back near/nearer to Slott’s run.  It seemed a bit exaggerated to have it constantly going off for everything from the Vulture to dog poop (twice).

I’ll include this in for George.  Seems Peter echo’s Berryman’s feelings.

Grade

It does what a back-up story by a celebrity writer should do.  It’s cute.  It’s harmless (albeit a bit overkill).  It doesn’t always match up with continuity.  However, this one is obviously written by someone who knows the character, and there are some genuine good jokes in there (“Demon in a bottle!”).

C

 

All in all, am I happy that I just spent $5 on this annual?  Not really.  But it was most likely a better read than Crafting with Cat Hair at twice the cost.

 

Most likely.

 

 

Ah! Precious Tritium!

‘Nuff Said!