The Book of the Vishanti

Despite the title on the cover (and, subsequently, this post), this actually is an Annual for Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1. I’m not sure why they left out “the amazing” on the cover. It just seems weird.

This book features Dr. Strange and Dr. Doom, neither of whom I’ve read about in awhile. We open in Latveria, at Doom’s castle, where Doom’s assistant Dilby has finally, after 10 years of research, built a magic-science interface. He created a device that either is called or creates or gives him access to something called “the Bend Sinister”. That, my friends, is a cool name. This device transports a person to the dimension of the Dread Dormammu, and Doom sends Dilby on a little trip to said dimension to test the Bend Sinister out. Once there, Dilby is basically existing inside a nightmare. He meets Dormammu.

Later, Doom is hanging out in his castle watching Nazi movies, “to learn from them”. Ok. Dormammu interrupts him with news that Dilby has some new powers and is building magic robots with them, or something like that. I’m not exactly sure why, but Doom and Dormammu seem to have some sort of plan.

Some time passes I guess and we check in on New York City, where Dr. Strange is chilling out with a book. His studies are interrupted by the delivery of a mysterious, huge, glowing crate. Inside is one of those magic robots that Dilby was building, and Doc Strange accidentally activates it using his Eye of Agamotto. It turns out it’s a killer magic robot. The robot beats the snot out of Wong and Strange.

With little hope of defeating the killer magic robot, Strange ditches his body and takes his astral form out to look for help. This seems like a really good plan, except that there’s a whole bunch of astral demons outside his house, and they proceed to beat up his astral body! Dude can’t catch a break. Strange can’t ditch this and leave in an astral astral body (I assume), so his only recourse is to send out what he calls “a psychic flare”.

Now, this being a Spider-Man comic, the flare is naturally observed, though rather circuitously, by Peter Parker. Pete finds a reason to ditch the first-year chem class he’s teaching and heads out to Doc Strange’s rescue. He finds just enough time to break a date with Deb Whitman, though, because that’s how Peter rolls. Pete eventually arrives at Strange’s Sanctum, fights off a couple gargoyles, and shoots webbing right into the face of one of Dr. Strange’s neighbours (what a dick), and finally he also fights off some weird yellow demons. This bit had some decent action. Spidey finally makes his way inside. He finds Wong, who tells him that Dr. Strange has been abducted.

Meanwhile, Doc Strange is tussled up under the command of Dilby. It turns out creating the Bend Sinister requires a human sacrifice; that sacrifice is to be Strange.

This is where things get stupid. For some reason (lame gimmick writing) Dilby is holding Strange a CBGB, the punk club. When Pete arrives there, Dilby somehow manages to brainwash everybody, including the band Shrapnel, into marching around and chanting “Bend Sinister”. I guess that’s part of the ritual to create the Bend Sinister? The parade of people grows as they pass through different parts of Manhattan, until the whole crew ends up in Central Park. Then there’s a lot of business about the moon and a huge crystal and eldritch this and darkling that.

Spidey goes in for the attack, fights killer magic robot, and ends up smashing the robot into the giant evil crystal. That pretty much saves the day!

There are some totally sweet panels in this. I don’t totally understand the credits on the issue, but I assume it was penciled by Frank Miller. A lot of it looks awesome. The issue had good pacing and had me interested up until the last act or so. Overall it was still good, I just wish the ending had been tighter.

Rating:

By The Dawn’s Early Light!

Dragon Man!
Writer: Roger Stern
Co-plotters: Roger Stern, John Byrne
Penciler: John Byrne
Inker: Josef Rubinstein
Letterer: Jim Novak
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Originally published: August 1980

Death, Where Is Thy Sting?
Co-plotters: Roger Stern, John Byrne
Penciler: John Byrne
Inker: Josef Rubinstein
Letterer: Jim Novak
Colorist: B. Sharen
Originally published: September 1980

The Terror of the Taskmaster
Writer: David Michelinie
Penciler: George Perez
Inker: Jack Abel
Letterer: John Costanza
Colorist: Carl Gafford
Originally published: June 1980

Cap For President!
Story: Roger Stern
Photography: John Byrne, Josef Rubinstein
Typography: James Novak
Color: George Roussos
Originally published: October 1980

CA 247-249 tell the tale of Machinesmith, a robot master. They’re good, but Spidey never appears. There is a Spidey robot, and an off-hand mention of the real Spider-Man, but that’s it. I just read them for fun basically, but technically they shouldn’t really be in the project. Also, CA 247 and 248 should have come before M/TU 95.

Avengers 196 features a one-panel flashback of Spidey swinging on a pole — completely inconsequential. Its story about the Taskmaster was pretty good as well.

CA 250 features Spidey in one panel, considering the possibility of Captain America as president.

Rating:

Dark Phoenix

Child of Light and Darkness!
Writer: Chris Claremont
Plotters: Chris Claremont, John Byrne
Penciler: John Byrne
Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Originally published: August 1980

The Fate of the Phoenix
Writer: Chris Claremont
Plotters: Chris Claremont, John Byrne
Penciler: John Byrne
Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorist: Glynis Wein
Originally published: September 1980

Elegy
Writer: Chris Claremont
Plotters: Chris Claremont, John Byrne
Penciler: John Byrne
Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorist: Glynis Wein
Originally published: October 1980

The Dark Phoenix Saga, plus one. Spidey appears very briefly in X-Men 135 and as a kind of out-of-context floating-person kinda thing in 138 (which should probably be excluded).

This was quite good, I’m glad I read it.

Rating:

Verdicts

Ok, Marvels was pretty good. But all these other shitty painted books about real people are crap. Seriously, NO GOOD.

Update: this should come about one Marvel-year later than I have it.

Rating:

Last Rites

Why must Chris Claremont always be credited as “author”? I find that so pretentious.

I can’t believe how over-the-top sexily Satana and Clea are drawn. It’s ridiculous. Satana dies in this issue but it probably won’t last, knowing Marvel.

This relationship with Cissy has come absolutely out of nowhere… some setup / intro would have been nice.

Rating:

A Sorcerer Possessed!

Lame issue in which Pete’s on a date with Cissy, and Dr. Strange turns into a werewolf. At the end, Satana shows up looking like a hoochy slut.

Rating:

If I’m to Live…My Love Must Die!

Another boring Claremont issue that is basically two simultaneous long fights. I’m glad I’m done with this particular story.

Rating:

If Not For Love…

Super boring story that barely features Spidey. Here’s the thing with Dr. Strange stories — because they involve magic, anything can happen, and not in a good way. Every Dr. Strange story I read is the same: a bunch of crazy magic crap happens, and to fix it there’s some more crazy magic crap. This issue only featured the first half of that formula, with the second half I’m sure coming in the next issue.

Rating:

First Blood

Hmm…again, I jumped into the middle (or beginning?) and really had no idea what was happening here. It seemed mildly interesting, but without more info it’s really hard to tell.

Pete and MJ are seen when some shit goes down in Forest Hills.

Rating:

‘Tis the Season

My Treasury Edition 13 showed up! I’m finally back on track with my reading order.

It’s Christmas time, and the Marvel superheroes are playing in the snow! This is kind of a wrapper story around some reprints of past issues. Nothing much happens, but it’s nice and cute, and fun to see everyone relaxing and having a good time.

Rating:

Excerpted material originally appeared in: Fantastic Four 44-47; Fantastic Four Annual 3; Strange Tales 161
Excerpted material by: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Jim Steranko, Vince Colletta, Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia

This issue is about Reed and Sue’s wedding and the Fantastic Four’s first meeting with the Inhumans. Spider-Man appears in one panel that I believe is new, during the big wedding fight. This was read out of order.

There are two characters that I didn’t recognize and couldn’t tag.

I like this Marvel Saga stuff, it’s really making me understand stuff more.

Rating:

KISS / Precisely as Hot as Hell! / The Andromedia Hustle! / See Latveria and Die!

“Forty pages of full-color comics. Plus never-before-published photos and features. Printed in real KISS blood.“

Everything about this is badass!

Platform shoes? Check.
Blind old man in a fur loincloth? Check.
Gene Simmons breathing fire? Check.
Teleportation? Check.
Moon-shaped spaceship? Check.
Sexy robot ladies with machine guns and robot monks with laser eyes? Check.
Outerspace alien disco? Check.

This is literally the best comic I’ve ever read.

Here are some amazing panels and things. Check out the fucking awesome fake ad for Air Latveria!

Rating:

Five Villains in Search of a Plot / The Duck and the Defenders

Pete and MJ give Howard the Duck and Beverly Switzler directions. Waaaugh.

(Why is Tillie the Hun a Nazi? That’s really weird.)

Rating:

The Trial of the Wraith!

Finally the conclusion of the Wraith storyline, after that truly bizarre and misplaced Spider-Woman break. It feels good to be back to Spider-Man stuff.

Courtroom drama unfolds at the trial of Brian and Phillip DeWolf. Despite a lot of action, the issue was fairly boring. Kind of a letdown after a fairly interesting start to the arc.

This issue had an extremely weird ending, where it was revealed that the judges trying the case had telepathic and telekinetic powers, and then cut to a random scene of the Hulk bounding around the New Mexico desert.

Rating:

The Mystery of the Wraith!

This issue was a fairly good almost-conclusion to the whole Wraith storyline, but there was far too much exposition for me. Still satisfying, but not the home run I was hoping for.

Rating:

Midgard Aflame!

Loki invades Earth — specifically, Washington, DC — and, to ensure his battle is solely with Thor, he immobilizes every other super-powered individual on the planet. This includes Spider-Man, who appears in a brief cameo.

Even though I don’t really know most of the backstory, this was a thoroughly enjoyable issue. It also made me realize how much I miss John Buscema’s art. Nothing against Ross Andru or anything, but John Buscema is fantastic.

Rating:

The Spider and The Sorcerer!

Spidey and Dr. Strange vs. Xandu. Spider-Man gets hypnotized and acts like a bad guy, which is pretty fun. The whole thing devolves pretty quickly, though, into an early 1960s-style multi-page fight / bore-fest. A cool idea goes awry when Spidey and Strange exchange powers – including, somehow, Spidey’s web shooters – to defeat Xandu.

The whole thing was also really way too similar to the Strange story in ASM Annual 2.

I like crazy trippy backgrounds in Dr. Strange books usually, but Sal didn’t pull it off as well as some of the other artists I’ve seen.

Rating:

On the Brink of Madness!

Two Worlds…and Dark Destiny
Writer: Steve Gerber
Artist: George Tuska
Inker: Vince Colletta
Letterer: C. Jetter
Colorist: G. Wein
Originally published: March 1974

Peter Parker just shows up briefly in issue 68 – in fact, only in the last panel – and his appearance in issue 69 is fairly brief too. This is a pretty boring story about Namor’s quest to get a forcefield projector to protect Atlantis. The art kinda stank, too, especially in 69.

Rating:

To The Death!

I’m back to my correct chronology, and it’s the Avengers and the Defenders vs. Dormammu. I’m not a fan of these super-hero orgy issues, where every damn last Marvel character is thrown in. This issue manages to overcome this a little, but is still a little on the weak side.

Rating:

Enter: Dr. Strange!

Flash has been kidnapped, Gwen doesn’t want Peter to run off like a coward, and Pete doesn’t know what to do.

Pete manages to get out, and as he’s looking for Flash he is met by the astral form of Dr. Strange. Strange let’s Spidey see what’s going on with Flash: he’s going to be sacrificed as a way to revive the high priest that sorta-died-but-not-really in the temple. Also there is Sha Shan, the girl that Flash cozied up to, and daughter of that high priest. Even though she knows Flash had nothing to do with the attack, she appears going along with this whole thing. Later, though, she tries to help Flash escape. Spidey and Dr. Strange show up and rescue Flash and revive the old man.

Meanwhile, Gwen goes ballistic on Aunt May. It’s sweet.

Well, this was a little better than the last issue in that the story actually seemed to progress a little. It still didn’t enthrall me, though, and the backstory where Flash was blacked out ended up being pretty boring.

Rating:

The Baxter Building Besieged!

The Sinister Secret of the Sentry!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Script: Chuck Dixon
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, Keith Giffen, Al Gordon, Paul Ryan, Al Milgrom, Frank Fosco, Bruce Timm
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings, Wes Abbott
Cover: Michael Golden
Originally published: March 2001

When Strike These Sentinels!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Script: Tom DeFalco
Pencils and inks: Eric Shanower, Ron Frenz, Paul Ryan, Tom Scioli, Bruce Timm, Keith Giffen, Al Gordon
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Jae Lee, Bruce Timm
Originally published: April 2001

The Merciless Menace of Modok!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Script: Jeph Loeb
Pencils and inks: Erik Larsen, Bruce Timm, Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, Keith Giffen, Al Gordon, Shannon Denton, Al Milgrom
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Bruce Timm
Originally published: May 2001

New York Knockdown!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Script: Kurt Busiek
Pencils and inks: Keith Giffen, Al Gordon, Joe Bennett, Al Milgrom, Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, Gordon Purcell, Bruce Timm
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Erik Larsen, Joe Sinnott
Originally published: June 2001

Mayhem on the Moon!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Script: Eric Stephenson
Layouts: Keith Giffen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, Frank Fosco, Bruce Timm, Keith Giffen, Al Gordon, Jorge Pereira Lucas, Al Milgrom
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Michael Golden
Originally published: July 2001

…Touched by the Hand of Havoc!
Co-plotters: Eric Stephenson, Erik Larsen
Script: Tom DeFalco
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Cover: Keith Giffen, Bruce Timm
Pencils and inks: Rick Veitch, Al Williamson, Ron Frenz, Al Gordon, Mike Manley, Bruce Timm, Graham Nolan, Al Milgrom
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Originally published: August 2001

…To Aid the Avengers!
Co-plotters: Eric Stephenson, Erik Larsen
Script: Kurt Busiek
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Bruce Timm, Jorge Pereira Lucas, Al Milgrom, Bill Wray, Rick Vietch, Terry Beatty
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Cover: Rick Vietch, Bruce Timm
Originally published: September 2001

Nightmare in the Negative Zone!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Script: Tom DeFalco
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, Frank Fosco, Bruce Timm, Bill Wray, John Beatty, Paul Ryan, Al Gordon
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Erik Larsen, Bruce Timm
Originally published: October 2001

On…To Asgard!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Script: Bruce Timm
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Mike Royer, Dave Ross, Greg Adams, Joe Sinnott, Erik Larsen
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Bruce Timm, Joe Sinnott
Originally published: November 2001

Doom Triumphant!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Script: Erik Larsen
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Bruce Timm, Frank Fosco, Mike Royer, Al Milgrom, Paul Ryan, Joe Sinnott
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott
Originally published: December 2001

Victor von Doom, Emperor of Earth!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Script: Stan Lee
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, John Romita, Tom Palmer, Dan Jurgens, Al Milgrom, Steve Rude, Jorge Lucas, Bruce Timm, Scott Hanna
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Erik Larsen, Joe Sinnott
Originally published: January 2002

Most of these are probably out of order, but I didn’t really care. I just figured I was kind of interested in reading them, and most of the FF’s chronology didn’t matter to me than much. Spider-Man appears in issue 3 in a brief cameo and as a floating head in the last issue.

It took me forever to get through these, which is why I haven’t updated in awhile. I don’t have a ton to say about them, but generally I thought they were pretty good. Lots of times these modern books that try to emulate the silver age style end up sucking really bad and failing miserable; these don’t. They somehow managed to stay pretty true to the style of the art and writing from the 60s and 70s, so kudos to everyone involved.

My biggest complain with this series is that it was too long. The story was pretty cool, but I think it could have been told better in eight or six issues instead of twelve. By the end, the whole thing was wearing a bit thin. Even the endless cameos, which I thought worked really well for the first while, started to get extremely tiresome by around issue 8 or 9. Even so, these problems didn’t actually detract from the books on an individual basis, as they were fairly uniformly entertaining.

Rating:

Out of the Blue (Into the Fire)

Broken!
Writer: Eric Stephenson
Penciler: Keith Giffen
Inks: Andy Smith, Jimmy Palmiotti, Scott Elmer, Rodney Ramos
Originally published: May 1999

With Everything to Lose
Writer: Eric Stephenson
Artist: Andy Smith
Originally published: June 1999

The notes on the first issue say that this occurs right after Silver Surfer Vol. 1 #18, which I didn’t read. The issues makes reference to the fight with the Silver Surfer in issue 14, too, and Spidey says it happened “a few weeks back”. I’m going to have to rethink this ordering a bit.

The art in this is pretty dark and sort of weird looking. It reminds me of Batman a little, at least at the beginning. I dunno, it’s not bad, but it’s not my thing.

The first issue concerns the Silver Surfer going ballistic and attacking the city. It turns out he’s under the control of some weirdo named the Psycho Man “from the microverse of Sub-Atomica”. I was going to review/summarize all these, but they’re just bad. Really bad. I can’t bring myself to do it.

Rating:

The Name Is…Yellowjacket!

Writer: Joe Casey
Pencils: Will Rosado
Inks: Tom Palmer
Colors: Wil Quintana
Originally published: March 2007

…Till Death Do Us Part!
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: John Buscema
Inker: Mickey Demeo
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Originally published: January 1969

Writer: Joe Casey
Pencils: Will Rosado
Inks: Tom Palmer
Colors: Wil Quintana
Originally published: March 2007

Writer: Joe Casey
Pencils: Will Rosado
Inks: Tom Palmer
Colors: Wil Quintana
Originally published: April 2007

Writer: Joe Casey
Pencils: Will Rosado
Inks: Tom Palmer
Colors: Wil Quintana
Originally published: May 2007

In Avengers #59 a new super-hero, the mysterious Yellowjacket, shows up in town and tackles a few crooks. The next morning, Goliath – Hank Pym – doesn’t show up for an Avengers meeting. Just as everyone starts wondering where Hank is, Yellowjacket appears claiming that’s he killed Goliath. He kidnaps the Wasp, then makes out with her and lets her go. The rest of the Avengers show up as she’s leaving and they attack Yellowjacket – until Wasp stops them! When they ask her what’s up, she says she’s going to marry him! WTF?!

Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #005 starts in basically the same spot as Avengers 59. There are some crooks, Yellowjacket shows up and trounces ‘em. (This time it’s a hell of a lot bloodier, which is sweet. Yellowjacket really seems like a lunatic.) It covers basically the same events, but shows much more of the background that’s going on – continuing investigation of Vision by SHIELD, Hawkeye’s relationship with the Black Widow, T’Challa’s secret life as a school teacher. When Yellowjacket shows up in Avengers Mansion in this issue, we see Jarvis scan the intruder and determine he is none other than – Hank Pym, Goliath! In this version of the story, all the Avengers realize it’s Hank but don’t let on at first. They suspect that he’s had some sort of breakdown (he has) and doesn’t really realize who he is (he doesn’t).

This is a nice retcon. It’s pretty insane to believe the Avengers wouldn’t recognize their teammate, and I like how this book handles it. They even have a SHIELD psychologist around who tells them to humour this new personality, so as not to harm Hank’s obviously fragile mind. This goes a long way towards explaining why the Avengers actually fight Yellowjacket in Avengers 59. Cool.

The issue ends right before Hank kidnaps the Wasp.

In Avengers #60, we continue the elaborate charade. To be honest, the retcon doesn’t work that well in this issue – there are still some moments when it’s painfully clear that the Avengers have no idea who Yellowjacket is. It works well enough, though, that will a little bit of suspension of disbelief, a little bit of slack, we can buy the whole thing. Sort of.

Anyway, because the story of Wasp apparently abandoning Hank for this Yellowjacket character – his supposed murderer – wasn’t enough for those 1960s action-hounds, there’s a whole other mess thrown into the mix. At the wedding ceremony, the caterers turn out to be the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime! Man, talk about nutty. The event is hella rolodex, as weddings in the Marvel universe tend to be: there are super heroes up the wazoo.

This issue is actually shockingly lame. The fight with the Circus of Crime is really stupid, the big reveal is really stupid…I don’t know, it just kind of a huge let down.

Switching back to Earth’s MIghtiest Heroes, we again get to see the events of the wedding. This time we learn that whole wedding is a SHIELD operation. Everybody on staff, including the minister, is a SHIELD agent. The point? The Wasp seems to think it will snap Hank out of his psychosis. Everybody – the other Avengers (active and otherwise), SHIELD – is pissed at the Wasp for doing it, but they still go along with it.

Meanwhile, that Death Tiger character is still after the Black Panther. He shows up outside the wedding and is stopped by SHIELD agents on patrol. The issue ends with Princess Python’s dumb snake jumping out of the dumb cake.

EMH 7 continues, with Yellowjacket flipping out and revealing himself as Goliath – basically the end of Avengers 60. Once the smoke has cleared Hank gets carted off by SHEILD for a thorough examination, and we learn that SHIELD lost some agents. Knowing full-well that the Circus of Crime are a bunch of lame douchebags, they wonder how that could be…but we know it musta been bad ol’ Death Tiger. The Black Panther, God bless him, figures it out pretty quickly after seeing the bodies.

A couple days later, Death Tiger shows up at the public school where Black Panther is teaching, but doesn’t do anything really..at first. Later, this bullied kid that the Panther is trying to help goes off the deep-end. He’s preparing the blow the brains out of his tormentor when Death Tiger shows up again, this time in the school. Death Tiger and the Black Panther fight like crazy in the middle of a classroom and, after the Panther ends up getting knocked out of window, out in an alley (I think…). The Panther puts up a good fight, but is eventually knocked down. Just as the Tiger is about to finish Panther off, the nutso kid with gun shoots the Death Tiger! Yeah!

The obvious message is that all schoolchildren should carry guns and, hopefully, be capable of murder. Right? Actually, the Panther looks pretty shaken up and disappointed in the kid. But whatever.

Back at the Avengers mansion, Vision is down in the dumps about all the humans in the city hating him. In the last page of the issue, he goes up to the roof and runs into the evil escaped adaptoid.

Finally we reach the end of this saga. EMH 8 opens with the crazy-gun-kid in the police station, and the Black Panther showing up (in super-hero costume, rather than teacher-costume) to talk to him and chastise him. He ends up revealing to the kid who he is, and does thank him for his actions. He tells the dumb kid to accept the consequences of his actions like a man, and to use them as a source of strength. Nice, I guess.

Back at the mansion, there’s a big-ass fight with the super-adaptoid. The adaptoid mostly picks on Vision, and tries to get him riled up with insults and attacks on innocent bystanders. Vision wipes the floor with him in a very anti-climactic fight, but it does warm the public’s opinion of him.

After that, it’s just a bit of wrap-up. T’Challa’s still teaching and becomes Avengers chairman, Hawkeye and Black Widow break up, and Captain American and Iron Man hug. It’s all warm and fuzzy.

Spider-Man shows up to heckle J. Jonah Jameson at one point in Avengers 59, and at the wedding in Avengers 60 and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes 6.

Ok, so overall these issues were OK, but sorta boring. The wedding thing really threw the whole story off in my opinion, but I don’t know who to blame for that. It was in the original series, so it can’t really be ignored. Then again, Casey chose to write about this point in Avengers history… I didn’t mind reading this series, but I certainly wasn’t as enthralled as I was with the first series.

Rating:

Spider-Man hooks up with Dr. Strange to fight some evil mystic arts dude named Xandu. Mostly it’s just a big long fight and kinda boring. However, the parts when Spidey’s in some other dimension look awesome, and the art elsewhere is pretty fantastic as well. This was a different kind of villain and different kind of fight for Spider-Man too, so that it made it slightly more interesting than the usual fare.

Rating:

The Secret Origin of Jessica Jones Part 2
Story: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Michael Gaydos
Colors: Matt Hollingsworth
Letters: Cory Petit
Originally published: July 2003

Purple Part 2 (Purple Haze)
Words: Brian Bendis
Art: Mark Bagley
Colors: Dean White
Letters: Cory Petit
Originally published: October 2003

Purple Part 3 (Flashback)
Story: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Michael Gaydos, Mark Bagley/Art Thibert, Rick Mays
Colors: Matt Hollingsworth, Dean White
Letters: Cory Petit
Cover: David Mack
Originally published: November 2003

I decided to just read the origin part of this story. It started off good and got progressively less interesting. It also spans a pretty long period of time, starting off at the same time as Amazing Fantasy 15 and continuing well, well past where I am now. I don’t know how these should have been ordered in my chronology, but the way I have it is most definitely wrong.

It was pretty shocking to go from all the golly-gosh-comic-code goodness of 1960s Amazing Spider-Man to the mature-audiences-teenage-masturbation MAX stuff.

Anyway, I liked the parts that involved Peter Parker – it was neat to have Jessica in the background of those scenes, silently pining after him. Too bad it didn’t really pan out into anything more interesting (to me).

Rating: