Issue(s): Web of Spider-Man #53
Cover Date: Aug 89
Title: "Wolves in the night"
Credits:
Gerry Conway - Writer
Mark Bagley - Penciler
Keith Williams - Inker
Glenn Herdling - Assistant Editor
Jim Salicrup - Editor

Review/plot:
Mark Bagley guest pencils again. It's worth noting that we've had penciler fill-ins for this issue and the previous two, but regular penciler Alex Saviuk returns next issue for a steady run. Storywise, this continues Gerry Conway's dual title gang war, starting with Spider-Man doing another hit on the Lobos gang for the Arranger.

From that attack, Spider-Man learns that the Lobo brothers plan a hit on the Kingpin's building tonight. Spider-Man warns the Arranger, and also tells Daily Bugle City Editor Kate Cushing, hoping that she'll print it in advance of the attack and possibly stop it. But Kate says that nowadays she needs to run everything through J. Jonah Jameson, and he doesn't allow the story to run.

Journalistic integrity isn't the real reason for his refusal. It's because he's secretly the Chameleon and in a partnership with Hammerhead, hoping that their third faction can get an advantage from the battle between the Lobos and the Kingpin.

Peter, meanwhile, hears from Joy Mercado that Glory has been seeing Eduardo, so he goes to Glory's apartment, but it's empty except for a pants containing a receipt for an airport hanger. So he goes there and gets into a fight with both Lobo brothers.

They get away in a helicopter and begin the attack on the Kingpin's tower. Before that, we see the Kingpin chewing out the Arranger. This is really a new development; the Arranger has previously been a trusted, nearly personality free, agent of the Kingpin, but now we see him getting humanized as the Kingpin starts to blame him for setbacks.

The other story in this issue is about Mary Jane's cousin, Kristy. We've already seen signs that she's bulimic. That's confirmed here after first showing that she's now covered in bruises.

I'm increasingly impressed with Conway's build of this story. There's very little in terms of character work (Kristy's problems are more After School Special than real development, and i think Peter's relationship with MJ was mostly reserved for Amazing), but the development of the gang plot is a lot of fun. At the moment, though, i'm more amazed by the fact that it was ok for this story to continue directly from Web to Spectacular and back for month after month. When they did just a limited version of that during Kraven's Last Hunt, they got complaints and apologized and said they wouldn't do it again. But now they're doing it, not for a special event, but on an ongoing basis. Outside of events, we haven't seen this sort of thing in the X-Books or Avengers or anywhere else. It will eventually become quite commonplace, but i never realized the Endless Crossover developed quietly during Conway's 1989 Spider-Man run.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Continues directly in Spectacular Spider-Man #153.

References:

• The Arranger tried to have the Punisher kill the Lobo brothers in Spectacular Spider-Man #143 but Spider-Man stopped him.
  
• Peter learns from Joy in this issue that Glory's boyfriend is Eduardo Lobo, the gangster. Peter smacks himself since he had seen the guy before (see the previous bullet) and since his spider-sense tried to warn him in Web of Spider-Man #51. If you think this will make Peter any more trusting of his spider-sense, for example when it goes off around JJ, forget it.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Conway's run on these two Spider-Man series is really good in my opinion--I think it's not overly fondly remembered because there isn't like a "THE" moment or payoff storyline, but it reads very well on a monthly, issue by issue basis (especially when compared with what was happening in Amazing at the time). The always very solid Sal Buscema artwork is a plus, although Sal tended to make everyone's faces very sad.

Obviously Sal was on Spectacular, sorry.

I agree. I've been reading through this storyline for the first time and I'm finding it really compelling, especially compared to the lackluster stories in Amazing at the time. This is how a "Gang War" saga should be done!

The "Endless Crossover" was used in the Superman titles at DC during the revamp at this time.

Clearly the story-telling is much better here, but the art seems to make it clear (to me) why MacFarlane became the house style - just look at his Chameleon in Amazing as compared to how he's drawn here. Here he looks like an animated show character in the mid-80's.

Actually, the "Endless Crossover" (continuing a storyline between two different books) had already been done by Gerry Conway...not with Spider-Man but with Batman. Back when he wrote for DC in the early '80's, "Detective Comics" and "Batman" ran continuously, with multi-part stories working through both books, pretty much exactly what he does here with Spider-Man. Doug Moench would eventually inherit Batman from Conway and continue the trend. Not sure if the Batman "Endless Crossover" ever ended since I quit the comic in the late 80's.