Issue(s): Spectacular Spider-Man #191, Spectacular Spider-Man #192, Spectacular Spider-Man #193
Cover Date: Aug-Oct 92
Title: Eye of the Puma: "The valley" / "The summit" / "Over the edge"
Credits:
J.M. DeMatteis - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
Sal Buscema - Inker
Mike Lackey - Assistant Editor
Danny Fingeroth - Editor

Review/plot:
The Black Crow facilitates some kind of vision quest for Puma and Spider-Man. The story is full of mystical mumbo jumbo and i could barely even skim it after a while. Puma seems much more out of control in this story than i've ever seen him, and the Black Crow is acting pretty weird too (although i'll admit that J.M. DeMatteis created the character and it's not like he's had a ton of appearances to judge him by).

What triggered this seems to be an assassination job that Puma has accepted. He normally only kills criminals, and the Senator he's been asked to kill is a human rights hero. But Puma just seems to have gone generally nuts.

Black Crow makes sure that Puma doesn't know Spider-Man's secret identity.

And then Puma is shot by the police, although Spider-Man isn't able to find a body.

I'll leave you with this bizarro scene.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The next arc begins soon after this one, on the same night.

References:

• Peter is irritable after the return of his parents in Amazing Spider-Man #365.
  
• Puma notes that his grudge with Spider-Man ended with Spectacular Spider-Man #171-172, and, yeah, when i was reading this story i was thinking about that one and wondering why we are doing this again.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

DeMatteis makes the vision that Peter receives here seem like a big revelation, and not playing by "the beast's rules," besides summing up Spidey's character for much of the early-90s, will be a major theme in upcoming stories, most notably Maximum Carnage.

However, DeMatteis also implies that the revelation is a fleeting one, and that Peter will forget it and possibly suffer for that. Considering that in the course of about two years after these issues we get stories like "Best of Enemies," "Lifetheft," and the Clone Saga, maybe Peter's vision quest here was more important than we know.

I realize there are major issues with this story as a story, most glaringly the creator's pet nature of Black Crow, but I also really appreciate how this seemingly unimportant tale fits so well into the bigger picture of Peter's life.

I must admit that I absolutely *love* this story! It's... beautiful, just like Kraven's Last Hunt.

Peter's "bizarro scene" seems to be channeling Mr. Buda.

I never understood what the point of Black Crow erasing Puma's memories of Spider-Man's identity was. Puma's uncle knew Peter's identity too, so it's not like he couldn't just ask him if he wanted to.
DeMatteis also used the "wanting to show the world how powerful he really is" as a motivation for Harry- it worked with Harry since Harry's turns as the Goblin have been motivated largely by insecurity but Puma's actions have never been motivated by insecurity.

It did not seem to have much of a point the first time. It is not better this time.

I've also wondered recently if the vision Peter receives here of a great web linking the world together is actually him seeing the Web of Life and Destiny, which would first get mentioned about a decade later in Straczynski's run.

This was a high-fiber word salad of the first degree. Goodness, it seemed like every panel was jammed with overly wordy narrative boxes. And for what? So that Puma forgets that Peter is Spider-Man?

I read some of the narration to my wife, and her eyes glazed over. Not DeMatteis' best work.

Though I do like the connections to the Web of Life and Destiny, as well as the foreshadowing of Peter's increasingly fragile mental state that will come to fruition as the Clone Saga begins.