Web of Spider-Man #44 + The Incredible Hulk #349

Web of Spider-Man #44 + The Incredible Hulk #349

Originally released in 1988

Written by Peter David

Art by Alex Saviuk (Spider-Man), Jeff Purves (Hulk)



I've had a book called Marvel Universe by Peter Sanderson for years now, which provides an overview of various corners of the Marvel universe. For years, I just had the panels used as images without much context for the full story beyond a caption, but with access to digital archives, I can finally get that context if I'm curious about a given story.



Spider-Man is in Las Vegas to promote his photography book, though it's not going well - the host of an interview can't get his name right (starting off by calling him Peter Palmer, a nod to a flub by Stan Lee in one of the earlier issues of the Amazing Spider-Man, before settling on Paul Palmer), he has his ear talked off by his publicist, and his book signing is basically empty.



This is interrupted by a quartet of mercenary types trying to blow each other up in a dangerous form of war games.  Marlo, a woman who saw Peter's interview and wanted to meet him, gets caught in the crossfire and injured.



Marlo is friends with a bouncer at a casino, Mr. Fixit, who becomes enraged when he finds out what happened to her.  And you wouldn't like him when he's angry.



Mr. Fixit is Joe Fixit, an alternate persona of the Hulk, and the Hulk is currently presumed to be dead.  This leads into the Incredible Hulk #349, where the art (at least in my eyes) takes a very noticeable downturn.



Spider-Man is trying to keep one of the mercenaries, Charlie, from being killed, while the Hulk couldn't care less since Charlie is the one who hurt Marlo, and he'd have no problem with the mercenaries killing each other.  This puts the two of them at odds, leading to a fight between the Hulk and Spider-Man.



The mercenaries continue to battle it out as Charlie is seemingly killed and Spider-Man runs himself ragged trying to keep innocent bystanders out of harm's way.  When Charlie gets up unharmed from being stabbed in the chest, the Hulk figures out that the mercenaries are cyborgs.



The plot with the cyborgs is rather quickly glossed over - they compete every year for an amulet that boosts their abilities even further, with the winner getting the amulet.  Aside from one being disarmed, they seemingly get away scot free.  The Hulk tells Spider-Man off, saying that whether Spidey helps people or not, someone's going to get hurt regardless, and Hulk arrives at his apartment only to find Doctor Doom (or, more likely, a Doombot) waiting for him.



I thought the first part of the story was handled better than the second for both the art and the writing, with the Hulk issue feeling a little rushed.  Still, it makes for a nice experiment, as all I really knew about this going into it was the panel where the Hulk says "Egad, no! I've been found out!"

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