Sup cus'n. Time again for my Agony Booth-style recap with minimal comment or personal interpretation completely legitimate liveblog of the Marvel Noir stories. If you're just joining us (which I doubt because nobody's reading this), we're about to unwind with Spider-Man Noir: Eyes Without a Face #1.
The cover shows Spider-Man perched on the edge of a tall building. I notice he's ditched Uncle Ben's service revolver, now carrying... some kind of semi-auto handgun. I'm not really a "gun" person so I can't quite guess at what specific kind, but since Spidey has it we can only assume it saw fairly widespread use in 1933.
Ha. The variant cover has Spidey leaping off the ledge and into the snowy night.
Anyway. Our story begins September 1933, "around midnight", where a stoolpigeon is tossed from a moving car onto the doorstep of the Manhattan office of the Bureau of Investigation. I'm guessing specifically that would be the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but I'm just telling you what I see. The guy's dead; his tongue's been cut out, a wad of bills is stuffed in his mouth, and "SQUEALER" is written on a card tied around his neck.
One of our friendly neighborhood feds asks another to count the money. "Two hundred in tens and twenties, right?" "On the nose. How did you know?" "That's what I paid him."
Spider-Man watches the scene from a nearby rooftop. He narrates that the events of the previous series went down eight months ago. You remember how the Goblin died and all, right? Well, nature abhors a vacuum - there's a new boss in town. Spidey thinks whoever did this is hefting some serious brass ones, and that this is a message to both sides of the law that he's untouchable. It's about time somebody proved this guy wrong.
Cut to the Warehouse District in Brooklyn, at 2 AM, where Spidey busts up a... something. Whatever, it's guys with guns and they've got a truck, it's bad news. Spider-Man just wants to know about the new big man in town: The Crime Master. Three guys come at him, and in a few seconds only one's still standing. The guy says nobody knows who the Crime Master is; he wears a mask. He's apprehensive about telling anything else considering what the Crime Master does to stoolies. Spider-Man has a counter-argument: he punches a huge hole in a brick wall and tells his new friend that the Crime Master isn't here - he is.
Ah, now we're back four hours previous, in the Crime Master's place of business. The Crime Master's personal bodyguard appears to be the Sandman, Flint Marko. Anyway, the Crime Master is greeting an old associate of the Goblin's, Donato Moretti. He wants to make an arrangement with Moretti - 30% off the top, and in return, his turf will be completely secure and unchallenged. Donato laughs. He only came to see what kind of two-bit punk hides behind a mask. He speaks fondly of the Goblin (of course, we know that the Goblin wore a mask himself, but...), and spits in the Crime Master's face.
Donato calls his man Tony and says they're leaving, but when he looks behind him he sees the Sandman holding Tony off the ground by his head. Two hands, clasped around the temples. Gripping tightly. Tony can't even scream intelligibly. The Crime Master asks Donato a question - "Do you know why they call him the Sandman?" Probably not, so it's lucky he's about to get a demonstration. The Sandman says "Sweet dreams, Tony" before crushing the man's head with his bare hands. Reading this back, it doesn't sound nearly as horrific as it is, but trust me. I've read this before and my heart jumped into my throat!
Now we're at the Alhambra Theatre, "Now". Spider-Man stands outside the heavily boarded-up building. Something doesn't feel right; that goon gave up this location too easily. Hopping into the building from an open window, he notices an extremely eerie silence as he inspects backstage. Nobody's there. Not a sound... but there is an odor. The last time he smelled it was the night Uncle Ben died. "The stench of the slaughterhouse." Drawing back the curtain, it's worse than he could have imagined: the Sandman stores his victims here. Sitting in the first two rows are dead men who met their ends by way of sickeningly extreme violence. One is missing his entire head, another his arms, still more are missing feet, hands... And make no mistake, these men were rent asunder by inhuman power and cruelty. As if to say "This is what you're in for, folks", this is our title page. And unlike last time, there's little hope that it isn't what it looks like.
Okay, we're now at Felicia Hardy's apartment, which is above the Black Cat. As she stands on the balcony, she asks Spider-Man if he wants to join her. Embarrassed, he says he thought it might be a little late to pay a visit, but he's reassured by her claim that she never sleeps before dawn. As they go inside, Spider-Man takes off his mask and tells Felicia that he needs her help. Yeesh, this lady could tone down the flirting just a little bit. At most Peter's like 20 and she's nearly twice that. Anyway, he just wants her to keep her ears open around the Black Cat for word on the Crime Master.
She refuses. The Black Cat is a Truce Zone. Yes, she helped him with the Goblin, but there were personal reasons for that. The Crime Master never did anything to her. Peter insists he's killed a lot of people, but Felicia notes that those people were all lowlife crooks. Peter presses the issue, but the answer is no. Anyway, she wants to know the other reason he came to see her. He says there isn't one, but she drops her robe (don't worry, kids, she's got on a Black Bra and Panties!) and kisses him. Like, really really hard.
Whoops time cut! Looks like kissing's not all they did, as Peter wakes up in her bed. She tells him to leave, which he doesn't appreciate because he thought they could do something or other today. "Like what? Go for a soda? Walk in the park? I'm not your girlfriend, Peter." Why not, though? Besides the considerable age difference, what would be wrong with that? "What are you going to do? Take me to meet your Aunt May? 'This is Felicia. She runs the hottest speakeasy in town, used to be a dancer... the exotic kind.'" She tells Peter to settle down with a nice girl and come see her when he wants a little excitement on the side. As she continues down this path, it becomes clear we're looking at a grade-A Broken Bird - "I don't look so good in the daylight."
Sorry, that was a little quote heavy, but there were a lot of great lines there. Anyway, Peter tries to reassure Felicia, but she rebuffs him, telling him to go home. We're back at the Bowery Welfare Center, where in spite of a new President and a New Deal the same old bums line up for Aunt May's soup. As Peter walks in, Mary Jane Watson, filling up bowls of soup, taunts him. "Look what the cat dragged in!" (lol i see whut u did thar). She, apparently a neighbor of Peter's, was called in by Aunt May to mind the place while she entertained guests. Peter apologizes for not being there , and MJ seems to pick up on the fact that Pete just had sex.
Anyway, Peter asks who's visiting Aunt May. The Robertsons; they're upstairs with her now. If you're not especially familiar with the Spider-Man mythos, you may not know Robbie Robertson, an assistant editor at the Daily Bugle who happens to be black. And just to remind you, this takes place in 1933. Oh dear. So Robbie Robertson and his grandfather are talking to Aunt May over coffee. Granddad is pleased with Roosevelt's work as president thus far, even though he actually voted for... whatever Republican ran agains him. Robbie, however, is not. "I'll tell you what his precious N.R.A. stands for... and it isn't National Recovery Act. It's Negroes Robbed Again."
Robbie claims to have an inside source in the White House that informed him Roosevelt refused to back an anti-lynching bill because he won't risk losing the support of the senate on "more important" issues. Wait, was lynching really not against the law at some point? Anyway, Granddad tells him his "inside sources" are agitators and propagandists, just as Peter enters the room. "Mind if I interrupt the debate before the Civil War breaks out in here?" Granddad greets him with a hug. Granddad offhandedly mentions that Robbie also works as a reporter (meaning I guess Peter went back to the Bugle). Pete wants to catch up with his old pal Robbie, and Robbie wants to talk to Peter about something in private, so they go for a walk.
Pete wants to know how things are going at Robbie's newspaper, The Negro World. "Frustrating. Oh, it's fine when we stick to sounding off on the progress of the colored race. Liberal New Yorkers are happy to pat us on our nappy heads and congratulate themselves on how broad-minded they are. When we try to step outside our boundaries, it's another story." Sorry again for being quote heavy, but that's a great line that communicates so much about the character and his environment. Robbie asks Peter what he knows about a Dr. Otto Octavius. The most brilliant biologist in the country - the government is financing his new research lab right on Ellis Island. Turns out Robbie wanted to do a piece on him for the Sunday section, but Octavius denied them their interview outright. Robbie imagines it's because The Negro World isn't prestigious enough, but soon you'll discover the real reason.
Robbie thinks if Peter approached Octavius with an offer to do an interview with the Bugle... Peter gets where he's going, sort of. What's in it for Robbie? He just wants to tag along, get a look at that lab... and frankly he kind of always wanted to go to Ellis Island. Three days later, they're on the boat. Peter thinks it's a strange place to set up a lab, but Robbie says it makes sense considering the isolation, high level of security, and old hospital buildings that make for perfect laboratory space. As they set foot on the island, they're greeted by a one-armed man, Dr. Curt Connors, who is upset that Peter didn't mention he'd be bringing a friend. Well, okay, he's upset because the dude's black. Peter insists Robbie's his assistant, like Peter was to Urich.
As they walk through the halls, a lizard in a jar catches Pete's eye. In 616 continuity, Curt Connors is the Lizard, a scientist who tried to regenerate his missing arm by something something lizard DNA or something. Anyway, they reach Octavius' lab, where they're introduced to the man himself.
This is probably the least faithful interpretation of any character thus far in the Noir series, and I don't mean that as a bad thing. A pale, blond man in a lab coat, Octavius is restricted to a wheelchair - from which six mechanical "arms" extend. Ostensibly, these are surgical aids. He shakes Peter's hand without wiping the blood from his gloves first. You see, he's just completed a rather delicate surgery. He directs them to his operating table, where he's got some kind of monkey tied up. Tubes in its nose and mouth, and brain tissue exposed... eyes wet from tears no doubt caused by the unbearable pain. The pain, that is, of having electrodes inserted into its brain.
Robbie has to compose himself to keep from vomiting at the sight. The electrodes, Octavius says, serve to measure the creature's responses to various stimuli. Robbie asks how these findings are going to be put to use, but Octavius says he wouldn't be able to understand. Octavius understands any apprehension he may have as seeing his experiment. "It's unfortunate that any creature should have to suffer, but I think, weighed in the balance, it's an affordable price... if it ensures that no child is ever born with a condition like my own." He asks Peter for his opinion, and Peter says he doesn't really get it but finds it fascinating - exactly what Octavius wants to hear.
As they board the boat to leave, Robbie chews Peter out for humoring that lunatic. Peter tries to calm him by saying it's not that big a deal. "Those experiments could help cure mental illness, overcome all kinds of hereditary illness... the benefits to humanity are incalculable." Robbie couldn't disagree more. "What we just witnessed was the opposite of humanity." He also says that from the way Octavius looked at him, he can guess why he didn't want to talk to The Negro World. Peter thinks he's getting a little too worked up, but Robbie's sure there's a bigger story here. Peter's all ears, but Robbie hasn't put it all together yet - when he does, Pete'll be the first person to know. Pete narrates that whatever Robbie's holding back, he's got a feeling it's something bad.
That night, a small boat pulls into Ellis Island, where it's met by Connors and Octavius. And who should be on that boat but the Sandman. The Sandman tells his men to unload the livestock for the good doctors. What kind of livestock? Black people; mostly vagrants from the looks of it. Sandman says there's plenty more where that came from...
End of issue 1.
Hot crackers, this is getting fired up!
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