You’ve Never Read Spectacular Spider-Man by DeMatteis and Buscema?! Part 4
Part IV: Eye of the Puma
We last left off on this run of Spectacular Spider-Man, our hero had successfully defeated his chief nemesis and best friend (that would be Harry Osborn, the Green Goblin) and watched as he was hauled off by authorities. Spectacular Spider-Man #190 is a standalone issue that picks up with Harry at Ravencroft in a session with psychiatrist Dr. Ashley Kafka. Harry is trying to seem nonchalant, but he flies into a murderous rage once she puts on the Green Goblin mask herself. Not a great look for Harry. From there we cut to the primary antagonist of this issue: Rhino!
Rhino looks incredible as drawn by Buscema in this issue (who has lots of experience drawing musclebound behemoths from his time on Incredible Hulk), and DeMatteis nails his voice. Rhino is at his best when he’s almost pitiable. He’s a fairly simpleminded guy who relies on his unbelievable strength to try and make a quick buck by doing jobs for criminals. That’s what he’s doing here as someone has hired him to go after Peter Parker. This obviously sounds alarms for Peter who wonders if Rhino has been told about his secret identity. After successfully changing into his Spider-Man costume and taking down the villain, Rhino informs him that he was hired by Green Goblin to scare Peter Parker with no reason given as to why. Harry is once again tormenting Peter even while locked up.
The next issue kicks off a three part story titled “Eye of the Puma” featuring the vastly underutilized Puma as the chief antagonist. Puma (real name Thomas Fireheart) is basically a werecougar. He’s the CEO of Fireheart Enterprises as his day job, but he is able to turn into a humanoid mountain lion through a combination of genetic engineering and vague Native American mysticism (it is never specified what nation he is from, but he hails from New Mexico).
Spectacular Spider-Man #191 kicks off with Fireheart turning into Puma while alone in his office and going into an animalistic rage. While trashing the place, Puma notices a crow in his office. He grabs it and considers eating it before ultimately letting it go and reverting back to his human form. It turns out that this was no ordinary crow. This is Jesse Black Crow, a Navajo man who is paralyzed from the waist down following an accident while working on construction of a skyscraper in New York City. Following that accident, he became the host of a spirit that allows him to become the mystical hero Black Crow as well as shapeshift into a crow and other figures. Using these shapeshifting abilities, he lures both Puma and Spider-Man into the spectral realm of Anasazi where the two battle each other, visions of antagonists, and Black Crow himself. It’s just as trippy as it sounds. Black Crow is essentially trying to bestow Spider-Man with the knowledge he needs to prevent Puma from committing some dastardly act that he believes is coming.
Interspersed in this mystical journey are some excellent character moments for Peter and Mary Jane. There are some great moments of vulnerability for both as they grapple with the loss of their mutual friend in Harry while still trying to maintain a healthy marriage with each other. There is a genuinely touching moment where Peter takes some time from his struggle with Puma and Black Crow to get Mary Jane some flowers and an apologetic card for his off putting behavior earlier. Her reaction is very cute, and it’s another example of both writer and artist conveying a lot emotion without devoting too many expository pages that kills the momentum of the primary story.
The climax of the “Eye of the Puma” story sees Spider-Man trying to stop Puma from assassinating a United States Senator who is planning to speak at a human rights rally. What ensues is the kind of knock down, drag out fight between Spider-Man and Puma that Sal Buscema was put on the Earth to illustrate. Every fight in this run looks *ahem* spectacular, and this one is no different. It ultimately culminates in Puma getting riddled with bullets from a SWAT team before tumbling off of a building to his apparent death. Don’t worry, though. There is no body on the ground below when Spider-Man checks. Puma apparently has a bad case of Michael Myers syndrome.
Next week I’ll be taking a quick break from Spectacular Spider-Man to do some end of the year rankings as all pop culture writers are required to do by international law. When the new year arrives I’ll pick back up with a story starring our good friend Vermin!