Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #321
Cover Date: Oct 89
Title: "Under war!"
Credits:
David Michelinie - Writer
Todd McFarlane - Penciler
Todd McFarlane - Inker
Glenn Herdling - Assistant Editor
Jim Salicrup - Editor

Review/plot:
Assassination Nation began in Amazing Spider-Man #320 but we paused to give Silver Sable time to do whatever research she needed to do before contacting Spider-Man again, and to allow the other Spider books to catch up. This issue begins with Spider-Man already mid-mission, partnering with Paladin to capture data discs from a Life Division warehouse.

David Michelinie or Todd McFarlane continue to emphasize Spider-Man's strength. There's this panel, which is a type of panel McFarlane does a lot (looks a lot like the tank-lifting scene from Amazing Spider-Man #320, for example, and both of them have an Action Comics #1 feel that McFarlane previously did on the cover of #306)...

...and there's this scene emphasizing the relative strengths of Paladin and Spider-Man.

Spider-Man does have super-strength. But that strength is usually de-emphasized to allow Spidey to appear to be a more street level hero. Michelinie and McFarlane seem to be going in the opposite direction and treating Spider-Man like a real powerhouse.

Spider-Man and Paladin get the files they were looking for and Spidey returns to his own life for the time being. As Peter, he confronts Aunt May about the phone call he overheard, and she tells him that the diagnosis of irreversible heart disease was for Nathan Lubenski, not her. But she has decided to clear out her boarding house so that she can spend some quality time with Nathan during his last days.

Peter and Mary Jane discuss their options in their bedroom, and McFarlane depicts that conversation with a shot of MJ's ass.

The next day, they help the Osborns move into their Manhattan loft, and Harry offers to rent the upstairs portion to Peter and MJ, with a "25% friendship deduction" on the rent. Peter then checks in with Silver Sable and rejoins her and Paladin for their next mission. This one involves the discovery of an underground mall created by the Life Foundation.

While Paladin and Spider-Man keep the Life Foundation's specially mutated protectors busy...

...Silver Sable hunts down Carlton Drake, the head of Life Foundation, and hits him with a truth serum.

I'm a little confused about this fuse box. Why is it just planted in the middle of the room? Don't they usually go on walls?

Spider-Man isn't happy to learn that Sable used drugs to get information out of Drake.

But the drugs did help her learn that there's going to be an assassination attempt on the king of Symkaria, and she has to go back to her home country to stop it. Paladin is unavailable, but Spider-Man agrees to go in return for $1,000 a day.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Peter and MJ find out in this issue that it's Nathan, not Aunt May, that is dying. Also, they are invited to move into the Osborn's building in this issue. This has ramifications for Web of Spider-Man #56, which takes place after finding out that Nathan is dying but before being invited into the Osborn's house. So Web of Spider-Man #56 must take place during this issue.

References:

• Carlton Drake and the Life Foundation were previously seen in Amazing Spider-Man #299.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Spider-Man Legends vol. 3: Todd McFarlane Book 3 TPB