Amazing Spider-Man 700.4, Amazing Spider-Man 700.5

Amazing Spider-Man 700.4
Casey (w) and Green and Wong (a) and Simpson (c)

Spider-Man is still, pre-Superior days, in the Black Lodge, the little hospital for supervillains, but he knows his time there is short and that someone will figure him out soon. However, he still isn't well enough to move and he thinks he might push his luck and stay a little longer. The Surgeon General decides to inform the other patients of Spider-Man's identity and let them loose on Spider-Man, swearing not to inflict damage himself but knowing that Spider-Man cannot be left to destroy the hospital. The villains attack and Spider-Man still manages to outfight them. One of the nurses, though, messes with Firebrand's medicine too much and causes an explosion in the hospital. The Black Lodge nurses and doctors, led by the Surgeon General, pack things up while Spider-Man saves the villains from burning inside. He then goes home to rest.

This series still flummoxes me and I can't tell if I don't care about this storyline because I can't fathom why it exists or if it's because I truly don't care about this storyline. If forced to make a bet, I'd say it's a little from both columns there. It's just a little boring and it's not exactly wonderfully written. It's a step up from purely poor writing but there are weird things that Casey gets into, including really forced quips and working in a strange attraction to one of the nurses. He also cannot stop telling us that the members of the Black Lodge will CERTAINLY soon find out that he's Spider-Man, which may be less a fault of Casey's and more a fault of Spider-Man's, who has a penchant for this kind of repetitive inner monologue. Don't worry, I bet I won't have to review another one of these. WHAT'S THIS...?

Amazing Spider-Man 700.5
Reed (w) and Chen and Florea (a) and Sotomayor (c)

Okay, so I think I've heard this is the final one of these books for real. Anyway, Johnny Storm shows up at Peter's apartment saying that he has to protect this potential universe ending mechanism from getting into Reed's hands until the end of the day. The rest of the Fantastic Four are on Johnny's trail and asking him for the mechanism but Johnny believes he can't trust them with it and flees again. Spider-Man joins up with the other three as they track Johnny to MJ's apartment (to Spider-Man's frustration). They all arrive at MJ's and decide to sit with the package until the day ends. Finally, Spider-Man opens the bag the Calvin Mechanism is in only to find that there's a note from future Ben (who delivered the package and instructions to Johnny) that reveals it was a prank.

So this one again doesn't really fit anywhere into continuity beyond "it's before Superior and Peter is dating MJ" BUT, and this seems like it might answer the question I asked in the last review, I did find myself enjoying this one. There were funny bits throughout and they idea was at least interesting enough to keep the comic moving at a decent pace. This is one of the better ways to view the Fantastic Four in general: from an outsider's point of view. They have these quirky little stories that may not come across particularly well if we're just living out their lives but when they dump Spider-Man into the middle of it, it's not a bad little story. Definitely the most fun of this little inexplicable series.