Writers: Brian Michael Bendis, Brian Reed
Pencils, Inks & Colors: Jonathan Luna
Layouts: Joshua Luna
Letterer: Cory Petit
Originally published: June 2006

No idea if this is placed correctly. When I was last reading about Spider-Woman, in Spider-Woman 21-26, she was basically doing crime fighting and bounty hunting with a guy named Scotty. When I last read Spider-Woman Origin I was pretty sure I had misplaced stuff. The recap in the beginning of this issue says that Nick Fury reached out to Jessica with an offer for her to work with SHIELD, which she declined, and that he told her that her parents were alive. I don’t remember this, nor do I understand how it all fits together.

So this opens with Jessica strangling Nick Fury and demanding to know where her parents are. She agrees to work with Fury so they can help each other. Fury tells her that her dad was working for Hydra and that her mom has been hiding, but has recently turned up in NYC. When Jessica arrives at the apartment, she finds some Hydra agents and her mom’s body — recently murdered by some clown named Whiplash. Jess also finds documents about something called “Athena Device Mk 2″. Oooh.

Jess takes off, and later winds up hobnobbing undercover on the yacht of one Otto Vermis. When Whiplash shows up, though, the jig is up. Interestingly, while she is taking to Vermis, at one point Jessica sees him with a cow head, like Bova. I think she’s still screwy in the brain, which gives credence to my theories about past issues. Anyway, Jess has no choice but to toss herself into the shark-infested ocean to get away. Also she blows up the boat with Vermis and Whiplash on it.

Jess I guess found out enough to discover where this Athena was, because she heads out to some oil rig that seems to be the Athena HQ and finds her dad working there. And, that’s the end of issue 4.

This was OK. It seemed to move too quickly, or leave too much out, but I might just be used to exposition-saturated bronze age comics at the moment. The story’s interesting, though, I like it.

In the final issue of this limited series, we open on Madame Hydra arriving at the Athena place and meeting up with a wheelchair-bound General Wyndham. He’s all disfigured and gross. I had been assuming that General Wyndham was Vermis, but it’s made clear here that he’s not. That said, it could still be that the mind-probes from previous issues still caused Jessica to confuse them.

Anyway, Jess is talking with her dad and confirms that he’s a Hydra jerk. He’s simply interested in testing her so her can further Hydra’s experiments with Athena, which is basically a project to make more Spider-Women. When Jessica gets pissed, though, she sees her dad as some kind of Wolf thing and then others from her past — mindprobe brain/psychological damage again. In fact, her dad basically says as much.

Jessica’s response is to basically fly off the handle, blow everything up, and beat the snot out of every Hydra agent she finds. Hydra’s response is to “wake them up” — and then she’s faced with a shit-ton of other Spider-Women. So she beats the hell out of them, too. Madame Hydra gets pissed when Dr. Drew won’t leave, so she shoots his face off. The whole place explodes like crazyballs. Eventually, SHIELD finds Jess floating in the water. The apparently picked up Madame Hydra too.

In the end, Jess is depressed but has an open invitation to work with SHIELD. She gives Fury her card for Drew Investigations and they say their goodbyes. THE END.

So I guess these were probably in the right place, chronology-wise. That’s good.

Again, I more or less liked this. The ending was a little weak, but whatever. For some reason, the Luna Brothers characters sometimes remind me of Lego people.

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:

…And No Birds Sing!

Arriving at the airport in LA, Pete witnesses a lady getting attacked by some dudes. Although the lady defends herself well, Pete jumps in as Spider-Man to help. Unfortunately, it turns out that the dudes were SHIELD agents and the lady, Mockingbird, is a wanted woman.

Later, Pete decides to help SHIELD capture Mockingbird. Everything goes bananas, and it turns out the SHIELD agents in question are corrupt and Mockingbird is good. Nick Fury pops in to dish out the punishment.

Although all the baddies end up put away, at the end Mockingbird is gravely injured.

This was a nice intrigue-y issue. Good, entertaining read. Also, there are flying cars, like in Back to the Future.

Rating:

Writers: Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning
Artist: Igor Kordey
Letters: Richard Starkings
Design: Cindy Emmert
Originally published: September 1995

Oh my God, this was like, uh, so, uh, deep? Because it was about, uh, normal people? And, uh, the way they, uh, talked, was uh, so real.

I’m pretty certain I read these in the wrong spot, since Julia Carpenter (another Spider-Woman) appears, and she doesn’t really exist yet for the books I’m currently reading.

Rating:

From the Ashes…

Finally done with stupid ass Spider-Woman comics for a bit.

Peter Parker only appeared in this for one panel, photographing Cap at a new conference. Despite being basically Spidey-less, this was an awesome issue. It was an incredibly dark story that involved Sharon Carter dying, Cap retiring, and a disturbingly gruesome look at World War II. It was extremely well done.

Rating:

…Like a Diamond in the Sky!

This issue had Thor and Iron Man fighting a giant orbiting evil computer. It was really bad. Spidey appeared in one of those “what’s happening with the rest of the world” panels.

Rating:

Deathgarden

I read this issue last night before bed and today I had absolutely no recollection of the plot. Even after looking at the cover, I was pretty confused. My main, overall impression was that it was weird. I remember thinking that it read like one of the Hostess ads; I kept expecting to throw Twinkies at the villain.

Eventually the story came back to me a bit — Captain America has been poisoned and the Falcon is trying to get an antidote for him. Spidey’s role is very much a supporting one.

This was really bad, but for some reason it had a surreal quality that I really enjoyed.

BWT, who the heck are Bill Kunkel and Dave Wenzel? Where did they come from? I wonder if they’ll be on this book for awhile, or if this is just a blip. ALSO, who the hell is this Plantman guy? Why do he and Spider-Man seem to have a relationship or at least prior acquaintance?

Rating:

Battle Atop Big Ben!

Here’s what seems to be going on:

• Spider-Woman isn’t a prisoner, exactly. She’s willingly working for Hydra.
• She has been re-captured after her initial desertion of Hydra, and hypnotized into working for them again.
• This takes place after she’s met up with Nick Fury and SHIELD.

After a brief clash, Ben gets charged with rescuing Spider-Woman from Hydra. When Spider-Woman kidnaps Ben’s GF Alicia, though, all gloves are off! Meanwhile, two crooks on a mission keep getting in the way, and eventually cause an explosion sending both the Thing and Spider-Woman crashing into the Thames!

I’m getting into this, but the Thing’s cornball dialogue is wearing a bit thin.

Rating:

The Guy Who Turns Into the Hulk

Should go between Amazing Spider-Man 80 and 81 (maybe – still trying to sort it out).

The writing here felt very stilted and weird. I really wanted to like this, but I just couldn’t. The art was pretty nice though. Marvel Girl was maybe too breasty in a couple panels – I’m all for hot girls, but it shouldn’t really distract me. This isn’t that kinda book.

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:

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:

This issue has a lot in it and spans a huge period of time. A good chunk of it follows Spotlight 32 fairly closely, but stretches it out over a few years.

• The dialogue is still terrible
• Two out of three issues so far feature men smacking women to the ground. Interesting? Kind of disturbing, especially given the flack Bendis has received recently for his Ms. Marvel / Dr. Doom exchange. I really don’t think this is necessary, and it’s making me feel very apprehensive about other works by these writers.
• Nick Fury, after demanding a Dr. Pepper in the last issue, is buying a hot dog here (and offers to buy one for Jessica). I find it hard to believe Nick Fury is into hot dogs and Dr. Pepper.

This is the last Spider-Woman book I’m reading for awhile, and I must say that I’m kind of disappointed in how much I botched the ordering. At some point once I’ve read some more, I’m going to have to try and figure it out in better detail.

Rating:

This issue tells the story of Jessica’s awakening and training with Hydra, and continues to about halfway through the story in Spotlight 32. It ends with her attacking Nick Fury. For those of you keeping score, this means it’s in the wrong order for my chronology. In fact, I think it’s safe to assume that every Spider-Woman thing I’ve read up till now is in the wrong spot, both relative to the greater chronology and with one another.

There are definite problems with this issue, and things that have improved since the first issue of the series.

First, the dialogue is still terrible. Jessica ostensibly has the mind of a six or seven year old: even though her body is 17 years old, she’s been in a coma for about a decade and doesn’t seem to have matured mentally. This is often reflected in the dialogue, as it should be, but just as often she switches into speech that is far from typical for a seven year old. These lapses are very distracting.

Second, Jessica getting romantically involved with another Hydra agent – Jared Gold, who in other books is Jared Kurtz – is gross. I know it’s consistent with established chronology, and I believe it’s played to be gross, but it’s still gross. She’s basically still a child. I don’t like this.

One good/interesting thing is that Jessica’s mind is probed and, I will assume, messed up by Mentallo. This allows me to assume that almost everything up until this point in Origins has been a false memory with perhaps only some trace of reality involved. I’m also assuming, as I think I mentioned, that “General Wyndham” is actually Vermis, and that Mentallo’s mind-probe is responsible for this confusion.

During Jessica’s mind-probe we see Bova with a cow-head, an image of the High Evolutionary, and an image of the Man-Beast. These are all fairly consistent with established chronology, so it seems like these images are probably real, and the stuff we saw in the first issue is probably (mostly) fake. So far the archived thread at the Chronology Project agrees with this theory.

So far so good, and I’ll also assume there was some other sort of damage done to her mind in that whole probe thing, which may be able to account for inconsistencies that are still to come.

I liked this issue better than the first. Seeing the Lunas do characters I’m more familiar with (e.g. Jessica in-costume, Nick Fury) was pretty good; I like their take on that better than on supporting characters and extras. Also, finding ways to jam this into established chronology makes me happy. The thing still wasn’t great, but it was an improvement.

Rating:

Dark Destiny!

This is a Spider-Woman story, but it may actually be in the correct spot in my chronology! Amazing! I’m so confused about where I should be…the last in-order thing I read was the Wraith stuff in Team-Up…

Anyway, here Spider-Woman is an adult and going by the Hydra codename Arachne. She can apparently fly, or at least glide. She also “has few memories”, which maybe I can use to help reconcile inconsistencies with her origin. She can shoot “venom bolts” from her hands, which seem to be some kind of energy burst.

Ok, there’s something really interesting in here. There are flashbacks to when Jessica Drew is recruited by Hydra. The commander that finds her is one Count Otto Vermis, who looks exactly like General Wyndham does in Spider-Woman: Origin (which is nothing like what Wyndham looks like in the High Evolutionary stuff). Furthermore, the narration says that “She knew her name. Her memories could be counted in days. All else was void. A void about to be filled…with lies.” An example of this lying is Vermis telling Arachne that she was a spider that was evolved using the High Evolutionary’s genetic accelerator.

What I’m going to do is assume that Jessica Drew’s memory is fuxxd and that anything that doesn’t make sense in Spider-Woman: Origin is some sort of false, implanted memory. I just checked some archives of the Marvel Chronology Project board, and they assume something similar. Hopefully carrying on this way will help me make sense of things.

I much preferred this origin story to the one in S-W: O.

Rating:

Day of the Demolisher! / War in Washington! / Battle with the Bionic Berserker!

This City–Afire!
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artists: Sal Buscema, Mike Esposito
Letters: Jean Hipp
Colors: Don Warfield
Originally published: July 1976

I Have to Fight the Basilisk!
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artist: Ron WIlson
Inker: Dan Adkins
Letters: I. Watanabe
Colors: D. Warfield
Originally published: July 1976

I was skeptical about how Two-in-One 27 comes before 17, but and it turned out it shouldn’t.

(Two-in-One #27 – Wrong order as I suspected. It contains a flashback of Spidey’s re-arrival in the “present”, which is in the right spot I guess, but the main story isn’t.)

Two-in-One #17 – Spidey is back in his own time, FORGETS EVERYTHING and, with the Thing, fights the Basilisk.

MJ is so frazzled she forgets how to speak!

Marvel Team-Up #47 – Still fighting the Basilisk. The Basilisk survived his earlier lava bath with protection from the Omega Stone. This issue is pretty much half flashback, it’s lame.

These issues were a bitter disappointment after all the time-traveling fun in the last couple.
Rating:

Saturday Night Furor!

This is a Tarantula issue, not a Spidey issue. He’s Spidery enough for me, though!

Captain America is found floating in a river, with a face that’s not his own, and a bitchin case of amnesia. As he reconstructs the events of the last few days, he’s lead to an operation by the Tarantula. It’s a sweet story, I just wish there was more of Tarantula.

Rating:

Auto Motives

This is pretty silly and fun. It sees the return of one of the most ridiculous characters, Stilt-Man, and has Johnny and Spidey chasing after him in the adorable Spider-Mobile. Woohoo! Then they install this weirdo gizmo that Reed built, and start driving the Spider-Mobile up walls. How awesome is that?! Pretty awesome. Then, the Spider-Mobile gets stolen by a bunch of monkeys, courtesy of the Red Ghost.

There were a lot of great laughs in here, and some real touching moments too, which was a really nice surprise.

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:

The Granite Sky!

Hmmm…Len Wein’s narration is almost as annoying as Gerry Conway’s. I’m also not digging Gil Kane’s work here. I’m totally back and forth with him, it’s crazy. I really liked what he’s been doing recently, but here everything’s too rough, there are too many lines. It makes all the characters look old.

In this issue Spidey and Captain America team up to help S.H.I.E.L.D. fight the Grey Gargoyle (spelled both “Gray” and “Grey” in the same issue!) and A.I.M.

My favourite part of the issue:

This was pretty typical fare. Other than the fact that Spidey is still ostensibly considering quitting, this issue doesn’t serve to advance the greater story arc.

Rating:

Gog Cometh!

Gog is back! He’s not dead!

So some fucking awesome-looking dude named Gemini is working with Ka-Zar’s brother, Lord Plunder. They have a super-soldier serum stolen from S.H.I.E.L.D. that will be used to create a super army for A.I.M., which Gemini plans to control. In addition, Lord Plunder controls Gog.

Apparently, Lord Plunder was in the jungle while Spidey and Jameson and Gwen were there visiting. Plunder came to the rescue of Gog, after Spider-Man had apparently drowned him in quicksand, and earned Gog’s obedience. It’s during this flashback explanation that Spider-Man briefly appears.

This is an extremely convoluted and confusing story. It wasn’t unenjoyable, but it was really all over the place. I didn’t really know some of the backstory going into this, but I don’t think that was the problem. In reality, this issue was just kind of a jumble of a bunch of crazy crap that happens, without very much direction.

Dan Adkins art was really great here.

Rating:

But Who Will Judge the Hulk? / …Defender of the Doomed!

The World, My Jury!
Writer: Gary Friedrich
Pencillers: Dick Ayers, Herb Trimpe
Inker: John Severin
Letterer: Jean Izzo
Extra dialogue: Roy Thomas
Originally published: July 1972

Story about the hulk getting captured and subsequently tried. In issue 152 Peter appears in a non-speaking cameo to photograph the Hulk’s arrival in NYC. In 153, he runs off to become Spidey and helps capture the Hulk.

Rating:

To Stalk the Spider-Man

It Happens in Harlem!
Writer: Stan Lee
Art: John Romita
Letterer: Artie Simek
Originally published: June 1971

Spider-Man features somewhat prominently in this story, and I have no recollection of what’s even going on with him right now. It’s been so long, I had to look back at old issues to see what’s up. I suppose right now everything’s in a limbo – Gwen’s gone and life is sort of going forward as usual?

Basically the Falcon wants to make a bigger name for himself, and when he sees Spider-Man and some cops after him (are they still after him? I’ve lost track – maybe from Stacy’s death still) the Falcon decides to try to bring the webslinger in. When the Falcon’s falcon Redwing leads the hero to Pete’s apartment, Falcon finds Harry Osborn and assumes that he is Spider-Man. Oh noes!

Spider-Man shows up and sets things straight, but then shortly afterwards the Falcon gets himself kidnapped by some mobster named Stoneface. Luckily Spidey had put a tracer on the Falcon, so he’s able to rescue the unconscious hero from the mob’s hideout. When the Falcon wakes up he starts beating on Spidey again, and then his bird and Captain America show up and also start in on the poor guy.

Everyone eventually becomes friends, and then they go after Stoneface together.

Check out this awesome anime-y panel:

I loved the art in the first issue, 137. It didn’t look like how I remember Gene Colan’s work looking, but whatever.

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:

Beware… the Black Widow!

It totally threw me off that Spider-Man claims the Black Widow is a “female copy of [him]self”. I’m not crazy familiar with the character, but she’s shown up in a bunch of Avengers stuff that I’ve read and I never noticed any spider-like powers, despite the name. It’s also weird that the splash page calls her a “new costumed adventurer”: this is the same Black Widow that’s been around for awhile – though, admittedly, she does get a new (smoking hot) costume.

Anyway, this issue starts with Spidey apparently swinging home after his encounter with the Kingpin (since apparently all the shit I read since then was in the wrong spot – see previous post). We’re then treated to a little Black Widow recap in a nutshell. When Spider-Man gets home, he finds Gwen, Capt. Stacy and Harry waiting for him. As far as they know, he’s been taken captive by Spider-Man. Pete is covered in bruises from his fight (wait – I just realized Spider-Man never actually got involved with the fight. Why was he bruised?!), and Gwen first drops the L-bomb, then asks Pete to promise to never have anything to do with Spider-Man again. Ouch.

In addition to his usual girl problems, Pete has a case of his not-infrequent dizzy/groggy spells, and he feels like his powers may be fading. This usually means he’ll be fighting somebody less powerful than himself later, and that Stan needed a reason for him to not be able to beat the crap out of this lesser foe. In this case it’s pretty obvious that he’ll end up fighting the Black Widow.

Speaking of Natasha, we cut back to her in her new costume, testing out her new web-shooter – which she readily admits is “just like a female imitation of the original wall-crawling, web-shooting Spider-Man”. Man, shit like that makes me cringe. She wants to find the secret to Spider-Man’s powers, so she sets out to find him.

It’s weird, apparently she does have Spider-Man’s powers, or at least some of them. She’s shown clinging to walls. Why didn’t I know about this? Perhaps I am stupid. But, later she says she gets her powers or whatever from training and special weapons. How would those help her walk on walls? What am I missing?

For some reason they start fighting. It’s really ridiculous actually, and pretty unbelievable. They end up fighting more or less to a standstill, but the Black Widow is still amazed by Spidey’s powers, even in his weakened state. She goes back home and decides she should just be herself, gosh darnit. And wouldn’t ya know it? We get to see her be herself in her own monthly book that’s just starting! Pff.

Anyway, Pete goes home and is still feeling like ass. He decides to test his own blood, but he’s afraid to look at the results. It ends with Pete realizing he’s really afraid to lose his powers.

This issue was alright. The Black Widow stuff was kinda weird and dumb, and it’s pretty annoying that it was just a crossover to launch her own stupid book. Most of the Peter stuff was pretty good, though – everything with Gwen, him being afraid of losing his powers, all that jazz.

This issue has the third Spider-Man Woody Allen reference.

Rating: