The Strangest Teens of All

A fun little Team-Up-type tale pitting Spider-Man and the X-Men against Kraven and the Blob. The story had a nice pace, good action, and some cute foreshadowy jokes that I thought worked really well. I’m looking forward to the rest of this series, though I think the issues are spaced out chronologically, so I may not get to them for a bit.

This is set sometime after Spidey and the X-Men first meet, but I didn’t really put in the effort to figure out exactly where. Sometime while Pete’s dating Gwen.

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The story of Hank McCoy in high school, right before being approached by Professor X. Kinda lame. Spidey appears in a flashback, fighting the Sandman.

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Fun story in which Iceman and the Human Torch team-up as a hip, young super-team. Along the way they borrow some bad guys for Spidey, allowing Peter Parker to hit up a pool party at Gwen Stacey’s house.

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Missing Angel

Angel is away from the X-Men, and they reminisce. Spidey appears in a flashback, in which he has trapped Angel in a web (presumably accidentally). Cool art, I really like Colleen Coover.

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Enter: Swarm!

This issue starts with a huge waste of space and time, in which Spidey goes after some random bank robbers. It has nothing to do with the plot, and is simply filler.

The rest of the issue deals with Pete starting to get settled into grad school, and having to deal with some bee guy named Swarm. He’s kind of a cool villain, but the issue basically sucked.

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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.

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My Friend, My Foe!

The resolution to this whole thing was fairly unsatisfying. In the end, though, Bobby Drake is back to normal and the real bad guy is defeated. At the end there are some epiloguey pages with White Tiger going to ESU (booo) and somebody mysterious and powerful breaking out of prison. Perhaps Electro?

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Whatever Happened to the Iceman?

Spidey’s in LA! Apparently the Champions are splitting up, and Pete’s there to cover it. Unfortunately, Iceman is zombified into being a bad guy. The issue ends with a tense standoff.

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Some Say Spidey Will Die by Fire… …Some Say by Ice!

Fantastic issue! Equinox, and old villain from Team-Up returns and we start getting some back story on him. This issue is all action, but there’s also tons of character development. The Wasp is a pretty lame hero, but Claremont’s made her very likable here. And he seems to have killed off Hank Pym!

Seriously, this was really good.

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Did Someone Say… the Stranger?

Man, the Champions are kinda lame, boring nobodies, eh? Even Stilt-Man — one of the worst villains ever — calls them second-rate! And he’s right!

Spidey only appears as a floating head, so this shouldn’t even be in the project.

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‘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.

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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.

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At Last: The Decision!

A new set of Avengers is chosen. It very much resembles the existing lineup. There are lot of flashbacks, including one with Spidey. This was kind of like a crappy clips episode of a sitcom.

Why is Ben Grimm human, but wearing a Thing costume? I’ve clearly missed something there.

I probably shouldn’t have this smack dab in the middle of a cliffhanger.

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With Friends Like These

Well I found a copy pretty easily after all. Take that, world!

This is a story after my own heart. Pete and Bobby are racing each other to a great sushi restaurant — with the best spicy tuna roll in town, no less! — to get the last table. In the end, the Thing beats them both there.

Bobby and Pete know each other’s secret identities? Is that true? Since when?

Anyway, this was nice, short, and cute. I wish I’d had the chance to read it in order. Although the whole identity thing makes me question whether I should even consider it canon.

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The Night of the Frozen Inferno

This issue describes what happens to the Torch after he splits off from Spidey in the Giant-Size Spider-Man I just read. The stuff in this issue is also in Code of Honor 1, meaning my placement for that was even more screwed up than I though. Basically it’s the Human Torch and Iceman fighting this guy, Equinox, that has both their powers. He was kind of a cool villain, but I would have liked more of a back story on him. I hope he comes back.

Spidey was really only in it in flashbacks to GSSM 1.

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Guns

Well, this is really obvious trying to recapture the glory of Marvels. Instead of the super-hero stuff told from the perspective of a regular joe reporter, we get the super-hero stuff told from the perspective of a regular joe cop. Unfortunately, it’s just not that interesting and it feels like it’s just recovering the same ground. The super-hero bit is all in the background and there’s not much of a story to it; the copy’s story line is completely unoriginal and two-dimensional. Some of the paintings are pretty good, but none of them really live up to what Alex Ross did in Marvels.

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And Then– The X-Men!

Note that this is still taking place within Amazing 105, after Harry’s party but before the Spider Slayer robot comes into play.

We start with Pete having nightmares about Morbius. Harry wakes Peter up, but Pete refuses to go see a doctor. Apparently this has been happening a lot – like for a week – and Pete decides he does finally need to do something about it. He decides to go back for another visit to Professor Hans Jorgenson. Meanwhile, Morbius has a similar idea and also goes to visit Jorgenson. Morbius knocks him out and takes him away, hoping Jorgenson can make him a full-on vamp even during the day. When Spidey arrives, they’re both gone. And when some bitch walks in to find Spider-Man there and the Professor missing, the cops assume the worst and Spidey gets blamed for Jorgenson’s kidnapping.

In Westchester county, Professor Charles Xavier reads the news of his old friend Jorgenson’s disappearance and sends his X-Men out to retrieve Spider-Man. They all – well, all except Beast – go out fight Spider-Man, and subdue him enough to talk. Spidey is a little under the weather and blacks out, and so the X-Men race him back to Xavier’s compound.

Once there they consult Jorgenson’s notes, and discover that Spider-Man has less than four hours to live!!! Professor X also determines that Spider-Man is not a bad guy, BTW. Anyway, to save Spidey they need to get Morbius, so the X-Men head out once again. They find him, they fight, the X-Men win and return with both Morbius and Jorgenson.

Then they save Spider-Man — and Spidey fucking kisses Jean full on the lips! What the heck is that shit? What about Gwen? Jesus. Then he just fucking dives through a window to leave. “Thanks for saving my life guys, excuse me while I but the place up.” Man, fuck Gerry Conway – he’s got no grip on Spidey’s personality. And his shitty narration drives me bonkers!

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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.

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When Iceman Attacks

No exclamation mark in the title!

To solve his little problem – Gwen and Sam Bullit waiting in his apartment – Spider-Man chooses the only logical action and jumps out the window with Gwen in his arms. Down below, Iceman sees this and goes after him. They fight for a bit and Iceman manages to scare Spidey off. Bullit takes credit for it.

Later, Jameson calls Bullit to retract the Bugle’s support – all because Bullit’s thugs beat up on Peter! Who knew Jameson had that kind of loyalty in him?! Bullit responds by sending armed thugs over to Jameson’s office. When Bullit gets there Jameson and Robbie let him have it – calling him out on his support of hate groups, and calling him a bigot! Whooee! The only problem is that once Robbie steps outside, Bullit’s thugs grab him. Luckily Pete spots the whole thing and follows them.

As Spidey gets on their tail, stupid Iceman shows up and starts harassing him, slowing him down. Spider-Man’s freaking out about Robbie a bit and soundly clobbers Iceman. He’s able to find the baddies’ car again pretty quickly, and tracks them to an abandoned warehouse. Inside, Bullit and his thugs are about to kill Robbie, but Spidey – and Iceman, who now knows Spider-Man was telling the truth – stop them.

Everything wraps up nice and snugly and Bullit goes to jail. No mention of how Gwen takes it, but I’m guessing she’ll be a little upset, since she started placing her trust in Bullit, and he became like a new father figure when she needed one.

Ok issue, nothing really to write home about, but pretty solid overall I guess.

Burn, Namor…Burn!

I was supposed to read this before ASM 72 but it really made no difference, so…who cares? Nobody.

Neat: The original, android Human Torch is in this issue. Or is he? It actually turns out that it’s Toro, the Human Torch’s old sidekick. He and Namor fight the Mad Thinker.

Spider-Man appears while listening to a terrorist threat.

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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.

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Banshee is flying around Europe looking for a group called Factor 3 that I guess has captured Professor X. He finds their mountain hideout, featuring protection from a mechanical spider that tries paralyze him. He gets away and warns the X-Men, who are back in the US and also trying to locate the Professor. The Banshee finally passes out from the spider attack and is taken away by Factor 3. The only message he was able to transmit first was “beware the spider”. You can see where this is going!

Fresh off his fight with the Kingpin, Peter Parker is lost on his motorcycle and driving around Westchester. Just then, a flying egg from Factor 3 shows up, carrying the mechanical spider. It’s there to go after the X-Men, but Peter finds it first (and changes into Spider-Man) and kills the crap out of it. Or did he?

Meanwhile, for some reason Cerebro detects a mutant presence where Spider-Man is. Cerebro was detecting the mechanical spider apparently. Anyway, the X-Men show up and find Spider-Man and naturally assume he is who the Banshee warned them about. They fight, then the X-Men figure out their mistake. Spider-Man’s pissed but they just drive off in their Rolls Royce.

The X-Men race off to Europe to find the Professor and Banshee…

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This was pretty intense. It was all about S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra, and a bunch of stuff I don’t really know about — but it was still pretty awesome.

When the Supreme Hydra declares that he’s killed Nick Fury (not true), Spider-Man is shown with a bunch of other heroes receiving the news.

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The X-Men’s ranks are thinning: Jean is in college, Warren is injured, and Scott is down on himself. When the Professor detects a menace, he’s worried that they’ll need extra help. Spider-Man is one of the heroes the X-Men get in touch with, but he turns them down.

The story is mostly about the Mimic and the Puppet Master, and it’s pretty good.

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Yeah, more Kurt Busiek! And Alex Ross’s art again! Woo!

Seriously, I love Marvels. It’s super good. In this issue Busiek deals with the emerging mutant “menace”. It turns out everybody — everybody — hates the mutants. A lot. Like, I thought Spider-Man was hated by the public, but Busiek puts people’s fear and distrust of mutants in a whole other category. Even our protagonist, photojournalist (and now budding author) Phil Sheldon, hates the “muties” and ends up clocking Iceman in the head with a brick.

That all changes, though, when Sheldon’s daughters find and rescue a lonely little mutant girl. Sheldon agrees to take her in, and his views begin to change. The mutant story comes to a head when the Sentinel robots are released, sparking mass riots and general chaos. Sheldon sees his friends and neighbours turn into far worse monsters than the mutants they’re raging against.

The chaos and anti-mutant fire is contrasted with the whole city’s celebration of Reed Richard and Sue Storm’s engagement and subsequent wedding. The city adores the Fantastic Four, and the wedding is a blow-out extravaganza that catches the interest of the whole town. The fact that the wedding and the release of the Sentinels occurs on the same day just helps further sharpen the contrast between these two groups – the so-called Marvels and the mutants – and the public perception of them.

This is a great issue in what’s turning out to be a great series. Busiek’s writing and Ross’s beautiful, stunning paintings, make it a sheer joy to read.

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