The Amazing Spider-Man #267: The Commuter Cometh!

Script: Peter David
Art: Bob McLeod

There are tons of issues of Spider-Man in which he has to swing-around New York to track-down whichever villain he's chasing, and I think I'm right in supposing that this strategy is usually successful.

I mean heck, that's the iconic Spider-image, isn't it? Spider-Man, swinging from a web-line, between New York skyscrapers. He doesn't need to be able to fly like other super heroes, because he gets everywhere by swinging. He doesn't need super-speed, because, well, same reason. If the recent three-part story with him battling the Vulturions in mid-air taught us anything, it was that, to all intents and purposes, Spider-Man can practically fly.

In this issue, the bad guy lives outside of the city, and is regularly commuting-in to do his daily burglarising. To track him down Spider-Man has to hitch a ride on top of a train heading northbound to the suburb of Scarsdale, and out of his comfort-zone.

Though he initially jumps off and straight into someone's garden, where he webs-up a ferocious pet dog's mouth, this should be easy, right?


No, this is going to be one of those days...

After accidentally snapping a neighbour's tree-trunk (it couldn't support his weight) and getting apprehended by the local neighbourhood watch, he suffers the huge indignity of having to catch the bus over to the villain's house. Except that he doesn't have any money on him. So he has to walk. In front of everyone.

It's a great fish-out-of-water story, and really demonstrates just how much the webslinger has come to depend upon his cramped city environment in which to function.

Another genius comedy from Peter David, just how many spins can he put on such a familiar genre?