#osbon

This Medusa attacks with her hair and is apparently part of the Inhumans.

...THOSE Inhumans?

Oh Lord.

So she's there to test the Average Joe or something, which Peter definitely isn't.

More importantly, someone has my name! Love his suit, less fond of his face. He's giving Magnus McGilded (real name) or whatever name you know him under (Cosney Megundal for me).

See the likeness? To be fair, I dig the suit.

So Medusa's here for peace and giggles, but capitalism immediately rears its head and that blond guy above ask her to participate in a shampoo add. Which causes all sort of questions. How would she get paid? She doesn't have a human bank account (presumably), she doesn't care about human money (for now, presumably) and she sets up even more unrealistic standards for the human race (which. is interesting. there's something there. but anyway). And when McGilded/Bliss (...) offers to make a contract, she doesn't care and he's overjoyed. This story better hope it's a communist manifesto.

Even with these panels, I can say Peter's a handsome guy.

Meanwhile Osborn and Jameson are acting like an old married couple and I never thought I'd say this but it makes sense! Do they have a ship name? Osbon? Jamesorn? I'll listen to your suggestions!

The source of Norman's internal conflict is that he's progressively remembering about the times he dressed in drag and was a queen of BDSM with young jock DILF-seeker Peter Parker as partner. Norman hasn't been slaying for a while, and it's time he dons the cloth once again!

*snickers*

McGilded says he'll pay Medusa in fame, which is absolutely a scam, younglings, don't fall for it. She agrees with me and tells the producer to get rekt.

The producer motivates Peter to go fight Medusa fists first, questions later (which makes complete sense, remember when he fought the Human Torch?) and Peter has this to say:

"That's the trouble with women... they just can't keep their mouths shut!"

That is not very slay of you, Peter. Give back your woke badge, you're making me want to go read The Killing Joke.

By now, Peter begs every being he fights to not use up all his webbing, as it's very expensive. Peter, you sound like a broken record.

Peter also accuses me, a respected member of the Homiesexual community, of being a liar. This is a hate crime.

In the end, Peter gets back at McGilded, but can't get his mind off Gwen. This issue is gold and we, commies of the 21st century, deeply appreciate it.

This is a good thing, since the Vulture (apparently still alive) is going all Shadow the Hedgehog on us.

So here I was, enjoying a dark story about the Vulture avenging his name and Spidey having trouble with the rain when I was assaulted by an advertisement:

This sent me in a deep dive: who was Donald O. Bolander?

"Donald O Bolander is the author of books such as Instant Synonyms and Antonyms."

Fascinating biography. Don is/was like that one author you subscribe to for one article, who spams you every week with incredibly boring newsletters, but you can never seem to get the courage to suppress them from your daily life. Somehow, they've become part of your waking hours.

We got a bit more information here if you're curious. Anyway, he died in 2010, but look at you, Donald. It's 2023 and you're still making an impact on our lives. Godspeed!

Anyway, Peter goes back home and goes to sleep in his drenched Spidey costume, which is probably bad but I can't say I ever had this specific experience so you do you. He can't fall asleep because his brain keeps acting up, and this is once again proof that Peter has ADHD, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Peter has internalized homophobia and thus can't ask Harry to give in to his urges and massage his back, but one other interesting thing happens: Vietnam.

So War on Vietnam has been mentioned a few times during these comics. It's not condemned, which is interesting because by 1968, there were definitely people speaking out against it. I think the writers might have wanted to speak out too, but weren't necessarily allowed to do so -- at least, not at that moment. I'm curious to see if the characters go against it.

Someone knocks, and it's Norman, who's considerably less nice than before. Repression!

So that issue was a fun one, the final battle (Vulture vs Vulture vs Spider-Man) incorporated well both Peter's Spidey and civillian lives. I don't care for the Vulture, but the soap opera is great!

The Vulture's attack continues and Robbie Robertson gets a chance to appear, to my usual delight (although I haven't mentioned him until now, he's a reasonable figure in Peter's life and these are usually rare in these comics. In fact, he directly notices that Spidey mentions him by name and figures it's someone he knows. Good going!

Meanwhile MJ gets a dated haircut, Anna and May are still in love with each other, and Anna really thinks her niece's hair are too masculine. Aaah, the Sixties. Gwen still has her long hair and shows off her legs, so she's a much better candidate for a Parker romance, obviously. Gwen's father suddenly recovered from his memory loss - as is known to happen, see the previous arc - so everything's fine again between Peter and Gwen.

Peter uses his smarts and beats the Vulture, but falls unconscious in the street... Will he get unmasked?

I mean, I could absolutely see it, SM2-way.

It so happens that Papa Stacey is here and will *not* let anybody unmask his favorite hero in his presence. He says he wouldn't do it without a legal expert. I wonder what he means by that.

One character mentions it's election year, and I wonder if it's going to be a prominent storyline. Is Osborn mayor already? Is he going to become mayor? Hm.

At this point, both Peter and Norman have been absent for a while and I have to wonder if people thought they had eloped or something. A politician, having a secret relationship with a younger male? Never seen that before!

Meanwhile MJ cameos to scare all of us. Is she in her Cats costume?

So Peter's in prison, he fakes helping prisoner so that he and Captain Stacey get out safely, but Spidey reaffirms his distrust in the legal system by saying that nope, he's not gonna wait for Stacey to testify to his innocence to leave prison. No way.

What a chad.

In the next issue (66), Mysterio's back! Which is nice.

I'm side-eyeing everyone who says TASM2 had too much going on.

Afterwards, the Marvel editors try to figure out how to give fanservice while not summoning their cis male reader base's homophobia. So far, the results have been middling. Either stick to what you were doing before, or show us more skin!!!

He loves dramatic entrances, and I'm here for them!

However, Peter once again questions his character development. Uncle Ben's principles are nice and all, but Peter's starving and needs money.

At least, Peter and Gwen are finally together! That's nice to see, at last. They didn't kiss yet (due to the CCA? nah). At the coffee shop where they go, Robbie and Captain Stacey talk together and reassure themselves that their interest in Spider-Man is strictly professional (in bold in text, twice!!). These men are not doing anything to beat the allegations.

Meanwhile... the Goblin is back! Norman talks to himself and says that his son is "lily-livered" and I'm sure he'd use a gay slur if he was allowed to (he'd be right, but that's not the subject).

Afterwards, Peter finds back his aunt who's absolutely terrified by the telly, which is a Thing that May Does. She's ridiculously fragile, but she's also gay so I can't help but love her.

Here's a small tangeant: we've been seeing the No More outfit (yellow vest, blue pants) for a while now. It's nice to see continuity like that!

So Peter's dead.

I mean. Not really. He's just miniaturized and placed in an amusement park. It's just like in Silent Hill 3! He has now a six inches............... size. Of course.

The visuals are very entertaining - Romita is creative.

Meanwhile, Aunt May is with her ~dear friend Anna~, who takes care of her. Yeah, I'm sure.

Randy, Robbie's son is introduced! Didn't expect that, but I'm happy that Robbie gets some development. The regular (soap side) cast keeps getting bigger...

Overall, it was a quite entertaining series of issues.

After a very entertaining fight, this issue - and post - ends on this. I had a vague feeling of déjà vu when I saw that, so I checked the cover and first page of the next issue and yeah - we're about to enter year 1969 and its Tablet storyline! I've read this one (as told in the masterpost) but I'll be curious to revisit it, especially as I don't recall the Goblin having any involvement.

But before we get there, we have three issues to read in the next post: Spectacular Spider-Man 1 & 2 + Annual 5.