Saturday Splash Page #180

"Who is that Helmeted Man?" in Sensational Spider-Man #27, by Todd DeZago (writer), Mike Wieringo (writer/penciler), Rich Case (inker), Gregory Wright (colorist), Richard Starkings and Kiff Scholl (letterer)

So, Marvel canceled Web of Spider-Man in late 1995, still in the midst of the increasingly tedious Clone Saga. Shortly after that, Peter Parker (touted as the clone, but married and a father-to-be) went into retirement and Ben Reilly (at that time touted as the original Peter Parker after all) took over as Spider-Man, with a new costume and all that jazz. And Marvel decided they naturally still needed a 4th monthly Spider-Man book, and here we are.

The book ran for just under three years, and probably the most notable part was that Mike Wieringo was the artist for a decent chunk of those issues. I remember reading somewhere (maybe the online "Life of Reilly" history of the Clone Saga) Wieringo wasn't happy to finally get to draw Spider-Man, but not the "real" Spider-Man.

As it turned out, Marvel only dragged the clone thing out another year, then it was Peter Parker back in the classic look. Maybe that perked Wieringo up a bit. Hard to say, because I never hear much about this book. Anything about it, really. Even by the standards of Marvel's mid-90s output, there was no reason for this book to exist. I don't think it had any special focus to differentiate it from the other monthly Spidey books.

Nor do I think, based on the 4 issues I own, that Todd DeZago was doing anything as the writer that really made it stand out. This issue above features editor's boxes that point out inconsistencies or lies in the Looter's account of things, playing up that he's off his rocker. Which I assume was a collaborative effort between DeZago and editor Ralph Macchio. But after the 2-part Identity Crisis tie-in, there's a two-part team-up with the Black Cat against Arcade that's just lifeless and perfunctory. (Also, none of the artists can keep straight what the Cat's costume is like at the moment.)

Maybe the Spider-books were too tightly interconnected for a writer to go far afield. This was the era where they routinely had 4-part stories that ran across all 4 ongoing series in the span of a month. Each creative team had to stay within the prescribed role for their chapter. But I don't think that's all of the problem.