Still, there's no need to fret the web head got his re-match with Thanos, and this time got to go mano-a-mano in the second round. It went about as well as it did the first time since, well, he's got the proportional speed and strength of a spider. Thanos is an alien being who has wielded the power of a god on more than one occasion. Not really a fair fight, and the end of their encounter is reflective of how poorly matched the two combatants are. With the bizarre Superman pun YOU WILL BELIEVE A MAN CAN DIE right there on the front cover of 1991's Spider-Man #17, it's not a career-best for writer Ann Nocenti, either. In actuality Spidey dies because he's saving a mother and daughter from a chemical explosion, after which he goes to limbo and argues with Thanos and Death for a bit. The art's nice. In the end, though, it's a story where the wall crawler dies, has an out-of-body experience, and then returns to life so he can buy Mary Jane some BBQ sauce.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
