“Banned for life? Even Peter Parker gets away with flying outside the plane.”
Spider-Man: The Manga #21
Marvel Comics (October, 1998)
WRITER/ARTIST: Ryoichi Ikegami
TRANSLATION: Mutsumi Masuda
RETOUCH/PRODUCTION: Dan Nakrosis & Rob Kuzmiak
COVER DESIGN: Jeffrey Huang
EDITOR: Glenn Greenberg
The American further damages the plane to ensure they’ll all crash, and gets mad when everyone, including Yu, goes out of their way to save the girl, shooting more of the passengers, including one of the young lovers because of course he did. Yu confronts the man, figuring if they’re all going to die anyway he can at least try to grab his gun, but gets to use his spider-powers when the lights go out. Changing into Spider-Man he goes outside the plane and manages to force the flaps into a safer crash-landing that it was headed for. It turns out he was a soldier dealing with PTSD after the Vietnam War and serving on a military base in Japan. Spider-Man gets the credit for saving the plane.
What they got right: Spider-Man gets to do something superhero-like in his own comic! As Yu he stands up to the gunman and inspires others when the gunman tries to beat him for caring for the shot girl. As Spider-Man he saves the plane and manages deal with the gunman.
What they got wrong: Being bulletproof is not one of Spider-Man’s powers, so why is Yu bouncing bullets off of his chest? Did you really have to kill one of the engaged young couple? It’s kind of cliché at this point.
What I think overall: One of the better arcs recently, if only to see a superhero being a superhero instead of a target to be dumped on like the past few arcs.
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