Issue(s): Spectacular Spider-Man #211
Cover Date: Apr 94
Title: "Face value"
Credits:
Mike Lackey - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
Sal Buscema - Inker
Mark Powers - Editor

Review/plot:
Spider-Man continues his Pursuit of the Chameleon. Chameleon hires Tracer - a 1993 annual character, in his second and final appearance - to stop Spider-Man.

Tracer does about as well as you'd expect. He's rattled by Spidey's quips even though he's trained to ignore them.

Also there's the fact that Spidey is fighting like a "brutal, bludgeoning madman" due to his rage at the Chameleon.

Tracer gives Spider-Man the alias that Chameleon used when he hired him.

Mary Jane's role for this issue is - you guessed it - worrying about her husband. She considers calling the Black Cat to commiserate, but her number's been disconnected.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: This is part two of Pursuit. Part three is in Web of Spider-Man #112.

References:

• Tracer debuted in Deathlok annual #2.

Crossover: Pursuit

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

"Maintain verbal abstinence". Hm. Now there's a line a need to note down... :)

Isn't there another Tracer introduced in "the Other" arc about a decade from now? Might want to consider that in the character tags?

The usually solid Sal Buscema, who during his lengthy career was required to draw a number of stories of a variable quality and did so with his typical level of professionalism, seems underwhelmed by this material, turning in artwork with almost no backgrounds. Not that I blame him.

I feel like Howard Mackie noticably improves here from his earlier bad writing. Also, reading early 90s Spider-man through in order (admittedly skipping quite a bit) years back, at this point I was thrilled that it actually had a direction again, regardless of what it was! The early 90s are like a vast forest of inconsequentiality.