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by Dave Scrimgeour & Kevin McCluskey   Cover Date- July 1988 Price- 50p Script- Gerry Conway Art- Sal Buscema Lettering- Rick Parker Colour- Bob Sharen Editor- Jim Salicrup Editor-In-Chief- Tom DeFalco Publisher- Marvel Comics synopsisTombstone's campaign of terror against Robbie Robertson continues and Peter struggles with the burden of knowing, as well as tracking down the softly spoken hitman. Meanwhile, there's a mysterious, yet familiar figure lurking in the shadows, who may be an ally or an enemy. Dave So, what do you make of the cover for issue 140? Kev I think it's an excellent cover. It's striking and it's got a lovely looking Statue of Liberty. The cross hair, with that rose-tinted lens, really pops off that jet black background. It certainly draws you into the comic and makes you want to turn the page to see what happens inside. Which is something that you’ve always stated is the main purpose of a cover. Dave Yeah, I really like this cover as well. It’s simplistic, yet imaginative and it’s not cluttered. It basically shows Spidey is being put in the cross hairs of a target. Kev I agree. The simplicity of it and the fact that it's sparse are huge parts of what makes it so effective. That's a lovely looking splash page too. Any page where the web pits get a showing is a good page in my book. Dave I do like the opening page as well, yeah. Again, it’s another eye catcher. Even the title, "Kill Zone," gives you a hint that this is not going to be a light-hearted issue in any way. Kev Definitely. It makes it clear what we're in store for. Dave It seems that Peter is still playing the blame game with himself, making himself out to be the prime target of the blame for what happened to Robbie. Kev Yep, but at least he’s battling his self-blaming tendencies here, rather than simply wallowing in them. Which is how some writers have a tendency to write him. Dave True. When he's telling Ben Urich about his relationship with Robbie, "He always encouraged me," Urich's response of, "uh-huh" sounds so unsympathetic. Kev Ha, ha! Yeh. Urich is all heart here. It must be a Bugle thing. Which kind-of makes Robbie the exception to the rule in that respect. I like the acknowledgment of the passing of time here, when Urich asks Peter, “Known him a long time, huh?” and Peter replies, “Yeah. Since I started selling photos to the Daily Bugle back in high school.” We get a sense of Peter’s life having moved on, of him having evolved as a person, his marriage to Mary Jane for example. He has grown up a bit and actually gotten a little older and wiser, not just stagnated in some perpetual, arrested development state of being a high school teenager forever. Again, which is how a lot of writers have written him. Dave Yeah, that’s true. "Kid, I'm a reporter. Finding out things is my job.” That pretty much sums up Urich’s agenda in this scene. Kev For sure. Urich is nothing if not a dogged reporter. Good stuff by Buscema here again. That panel of Peter walking away from Urich, the angle of the hospital building and its entrance in the next one, as well as Robbie’s waking up to see Tombstone’s face are all superb. Tombstone looks somewhat “local” to Royston Vasey now that I think about it.  'Ripley's Museum Of Oddities & Hospital.'  Robbie's horrified that Tombstone's got spinach stuck between his teeth. Dave Yeah, that's three cracking panels on the bottom of that page. Minimalist in what they show, yet so self-explanatory and the plain black background adds to the creepiness of Tombstone suddenly appearing. Kev I would imagine that drifting back into consciousness only to be met by Tombstone's ghostly, white face looming out of the shadows would be enough to terrify anybody. Dave The next panel of him leaning over Robbie is very effective too, if a tad disproportioned. Kev I see what you mean about that panel actually, yeh. Just how long is Tombstone's arm? Dave Yeah, clearly though, it's supposed to depict his sheer physical size, but it's like his arm is detachable and it just came off there. Kev Ha, ha! I think you're spot-on about it being intended to depict Tombstone's size advantage over Robbie though.  "Big Arm's got a big fucking arm." Dave That panel after he whispers in Robbie’s ear, where he is standing, once again, with a pure black background, gives him the look of an apparition. Kev Totally. Conway and Buscema really are portraying Tombstone as a boogeyman here. Almost like he’s a force of nature, born out of Robbie’s nightmares. Going back to something you said about Tombstone's speech bubbles a few reviews back, I love that the broken outlines indicate that he whispers. As you said, it makes him even “sound” menacing, and for a medium with no audio, that’s an impressive feat. Dave Yeah, that whispering tone. Those three panels of Robbie paralyzed with fear (pardon the pun) are very effective. Each one zooming outwards. I could imagine the accompanying music to go with them being Hitchcockian. Kev I had that in my notes too, about how effective it is to have the "camera" pulling away from Robbie here. It really sells us on just how trapped and lonely Robbie is at this point. It’s great visual storytelling. I also had the same pun about him being paralysed with fear. Ha, ha! He's mentally and emotionally paralysed, as well as physically now.  Robbie Robertson, a beneficiary of the Brexit dividend. Dave The next page, when Spidey is in ‘Aggie’s’ pub throwing the guy through the window, has a slightly comical tone to it, plus you may notice a cameo appearance from Scratch from ‘Dragon’s Claws’ too. Kev Ha, ha! I thought that the dog was drawn in a really similar way to how Senior drew Scratch in a particular panel from ‘Dragon’s Claws’ too. It’s good that we get back to the gunshot that opened the previous issue, ‘cause I was wondering if it had just been forgotten about, but thankfully not. You couldn’t miss an issue back in those days, man. You lost plot points if you did. Dave Those two panels of the guys beating him down, then a mega power punch by Spidey is reminiscent of the bar room brawl scene in ‘American Ninja 2,’ when Steve James has a similar incident. Kev Right enough, so it is. I hadn't thought of that. The example I was thinking of was Dolph Lundgren in the 'Masters of the Universe' film, where he's piled-on by Skeletor's henchmen on that rooftop before they're transported back to Castle Grayskull.  "It's a fight!" Dave Both movies from 1987 too. Kev Ah, '87 was a good year then, apparently. A good vintage. Dave Also, if you look at that panel where Spidey whacks them all, the guy on the bottom left hand corner has got a case of the Tombstone expanding arm. Kev Ha, ha! So he does. Buscema sacrificing anatomical accuracy in favour of energy by the looks of it. I’m not keen on that panel where Spidey is running. Spidey running is a pet peeve of mine. For my money, Spidey should never run. He'd just leap. Surely with his powers, he'd cover a greater distance that way anyhow. Running just doesn't suit the movement of the character, in my humble and completely amateur opinion. I do love that panel of Spidey sticking to the wall in the alleyway though. The rooftop panel looks amazing too, but then again Buscema’s New York rooftops always did. And the reveal of Spidey having cut off The Arranger and The Kingpin’s phonecall is great as well.  They don't call him "wallcrawler" for nothing, y'know! Dave Once again, The Arranger is completely unfazed by any sudden intrusions. Kev Yeh, he may be a slimy weasel, but he's supremely confident and secure. He is not intimidated by Spidey's threats at all. Peter might want to watch revealing to someone like The Arranger that Robbie is a friend of his though. No wonder everyone knows his secret identity. Dave Even when Spidey smashes the video screen, the Arranger doesn't seem too intimidated. I suppose that is why he is on the employee roll of Fisk. He is capable of handling things like that and he can keep his head under pressure and in stressful situations. Kev If anything he needles Spidey a bit more, provokes him into doing something rash that he can use against him later as video evidence if needs be. The Arranger doesn't half love his gimmick though. He's constantly making references to his "arrangements." Dave Yeah, I kind-of like 'The Arranger.' He is so cool, calm and collected. Everything's just business with him. Kev And, the fact that he's not powered at all just makes his lack of fear in the face of those who are even more impressive. He's a man who's very sure of his own abilities. Dave Oh yeah, like when Spidey is trying to intimidate him by saying, "Remember our talk about Tombstone earlier tonight," straight in The Arranger’s face and his response is a withering, "Dimly." Kev Ha, ha! Yeh. He plain doesn't give a shit. Dave I do like a couple of those panels after Spidey chases the mysterious shooter, where he is walking along the side of the alleyway wall. Kev I love those panels too. Anything like that, that showcased Spidey's powers was like crack to me back in the day. I just ate it right up. Dave Did Spidey take the guy who was shot in ‘Aggie’s’ to the hospital? He says in his thought bubbles that he can't leave a guy to die, even though he was trying to kill him. Kev Yeh, he must have dropped that guy off at a hospital before going to The Arranger's office, I suppose. There’re some funny lines on this page, actually. “Gentlemen, show our friend the door. Open it if you must" and the one after Scottie the security guard presumes Spidey has done a suicide dive out of the office window, his colleague response of, “You’re new in town, Scottie, so I won’t say what I’m thinking. On second thought, maybe I will, you dumb --.” Dave Yeah, that's a funny line. So is, "Who woulda figured Spidey for a suicide, Chief." I like the reference to Daredevil in this issue , "If Mr Fisk we're not so obsessed by his vendetta against Daredevil," Kev Me too. I always loved how little references like that tied the entire Marvel universe together. Even if you weren't reading those titles, it always made you curious as to what was happening in them. Certainly curious enough to want to pick up those other comics, if you got the chance. Which, of course, was the whole point of doing them. It's interesting that Tombstone refers to ‘Aggie’s’ as a “pub,” rather than a bar. That sounds more like a British than an American term to my ear. Dave Yeah, it kind-of has an Irish feel to it. New York is full of Irish bars though. Kev That's a good point actually, it does have an Irish bar feel to it, yeh. I like that Conway is still threading the plot involving Roland Rayburn and his powers of persuasion through these issues. He's constantly moving all these different elements of the story along very nicely, even if it’s only a little bit at a time. That's some tight plotting, right there. Dave His writing gives plenty of breathing room for each sub-plot and it builds plenty of these throughout the overall story. Kev It's really skillfully done. It's starting to feel quite rich, actually. Almost soap opera-like, and I don't mean that as a pejorative, with all the different storylines dovetailing in and out of each other. Dave Yeah, credit where credit is due to Gerry Conway for continually coming up with new ideas and new threads to the storyline. Kev Yep, he deserves it. There's so much going on here, it really succeeds in holding your interest. There's never a point where you start to find yourself becoming bored. To give Buscema and Bob Sharen some more plaudits as well, that's a fantastic panel of Tombstone as he stands in the doorway, backlit by the light from the corridor.  Hey Tombstone! Rorchach's lawyers are on the phone, they want to talk to you regarding gimmick infringement. Dave Yeah, I like that scene where Tombstone appears in the darkness again, like the boogeyman, and The Arrangers eyes are hidden beneath the lenses of his glasses. They're a sinister pair, these two. Also, that panel, of the view from the ground up of the hospital where Robbie is, takes me back to the 70’s show with Nicholas Hammond. There were plenty of camera shots like that used in the early episodes. Kev Ah, that's true. They used a lot of those perspective, ground level, shots of New York in that series, didn't they? The TV movie versions of that series were being shown on TV around about this time too, weren't they?  "All this concrete wasn't made to trap my sound and mute my cries." Dave 'Round about that time, yeah. I remember them being shown on BBC2 in 1989, after the impact the 'Batman' movie had on the world. Kev Right enough. It must've been around a year after this that they were being shown on BBC2 then. Dave This is quite the predicament Robbie puts Peter in during the hospital scene. Kev It really is. Robbie essentially passes the buck to Peter here, and the buck is a 6ft 4" ghostly, mountain of a man, who has a rep for being the best hitman on the east coast of America. Yeh, cheers for that, Robbie. Also, Mary Jane’s “comedy” is shocking when she goes to visit Robbie at the hospital with Peter. If I were Robbie, I’ve asked her to leave right there and then. Dave Yeah, what an idiot she was there. In saying that, she quickly redeems herself by comforting Martha. Kev That's true. She's a lovely person is MJ, just a terrible comedian. I like how Peter starts to cover for her immediately. "Uh, I don't think Robbie and Martha are in the mood for humour, MJ." Dave I have always wondered about Peter’s spider-sense and when it should go off or not. Especially in instances like this, with the mysterious figure (we know who it is) lurking behind the door in the shadows here. Is it only when an imminent threat is near, or when there is something suspicious going on? Kev I always took it that it goes off when there is an imminent threat to his well being, yeh. To be honest though, I think it just performs whatever task the writer and/or the plot need it to, in order to best serve the story. Dave I think so too. It seems to be a tricky one for the writers to know when exactly to use it. Kev Definitely. It's been wildly inconsistent over the years. Going back to what you said about Robbie putting Peter in this predicament, Peter must understand Robbie's fears here though. I mean, how many times has Norman Osborne or Eddie Brock threatened Peter’s family? That's how the bad guys get to the good guys in these situations, I suppose. Dave Yeah. That’s how they do it. Once Peter gets the phone call we are heading to the climax of this story. If you look at how much has been told storywise, it's really not that many pages to tell it all in really. Kev It's not really, is it? It's like we've said before, the storytelling was much more dense in comics back in those days. Dave I like the panel with Spidey hanging off the helicopter at Liberty Island. I like the colour of the sunset. Kev Beautiful, dusk colours, eh? Kudos to Bob Sharen, once more. His skies have become a bit of a talking point for us throughout these reviews. I like how Spidey just uses that news helicopter like an Uber. Dave What about that panel where he swings around the statue? It’s very kinetic. Great artwork.  When your colours fade in the wash. Kev I love that panel. It puts me in mind of the way Ron Frenz used to do those mutliple, faded, Spideys to convey the speed of his movements. Dave The pace has picked right up again. Spider-Man was always full of fast paced action scenes. Kev Your right, the pace has really picked up here as we hurtle towards the climax of the issue. Conway has all his ducks in a row now, he’s set up all his various plot threads and now we're getting right into the thick of the action of it all. I like that first panel of Spidey dodging the gunfire in Liberty’s crown and him provoking the gunman by saying, “Nyah-nyah, you missed me.” Very childish, but still, very amusing all the same.  K-Tow! Tow! Tow! Dave Yeah, Spidey always was a humourous super-hero. Kev Totally. Thwips and quips, Sir. Thwips and quips. Dave And, of course, after a quick chase and an effective body tackle, the shooter is revealed to be Frank Castle himself, The Punisher. Kev Indeed. Although, I think that final panel maybe could’ve benefited from being a full page one, so that the reveal hit you when you turned the page. Then again, if you know anything about The Punisher, you’ve certainly twigged by fifth, if not the forth, panel on the previous page. Again, listen to me advising consummate pros like Conway and Buscema on how to tell a story in a comic book. I’m sure they’d be very grateful for the advise. Dave Now there’s a good match up, The Punisher and Tombstone. This is a great build up to the next issue. Kev Ah, good call. They match up really well, those two. Dave I like the closing panel on this issue. Again, another eye catching image. Although, noticeably The Punisher looks like he has a black eye. Kev So he does. Some punk must've gotten a cheap shot in on him. Dave Or possibly, it’s just an inking error. Kev Ha, ha! More than likely, yeh. Dave In general, I feel this issue was a really good one. It really feels like there is so much about to happen, we are now getting in to the thick of it and there's still plenty more cards to be flung onto the table. What're your thoughts? Kev I would just pretty much echo yours. Reading these issues for these reviews has reminded me exactly how many other plots and subplots Conway had going on, all at once, in support of the main, Tombstone one. I'm loving them. It's making for a really rewarding reading experience. I feel like I came here for the Tombstone storyline, but I'm staying for the others, and we haven't even gotten to the Lobo Brothers yet. And I loved the Lobo Brothers. Dave Yeah, Conway really knows how to mix it all up and now we’ve got The Punisher in there as well. I’m like you, I was only looking at the Tombstone arc too, but this story is bigger than that. It's classic Spidey. (D) & (K) Next: "Private Enemies." 
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