Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!

The Frightful Four — the Wizard, Trapster, Sandman and Electro — lure Spider-Man into a trap at the Statue of Liberty. They beat him up. That’s about it, really. At the end, Spidey is their prisoner and the Four are going to go attack the Fantastic Four. It was…ok? Nothing really new here, but it wasn’t a terrible read.

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Darkness, Darkness…

This issue has an awesome cover by Al Milgrom.

The Shroud story is continued, with Spidey fighting and then teaming up with the Shroud to defeat this hypnotic woman, Dansen Macabre. Dansen is part of a Shiva cult, and hates the Shroud because of his connection to Kali. Steven Grant has a really screwed up view of Hinduism.

At the end, Pete flies back to NYC.

Pretty standard issue, not great, not terrible.

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There’s One Iron Man Too Many!

…And a Child Shall Slay Them!
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Illustrators: Keith Pollard, Joe Sinnott
Letters: Costanza
Colors: G. Wein
Originally published: February 1979

The Andromeda Attack!
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Illustrators: Keith Pollard, Joe Sinnott
Letterer: Jim Novak
Colorist: Francoise M.
Originally published: March 1979

Spidey’s unconscious from the Man-Wolf attack, so we’ll have a brief stopover with the Fantastic Four before rejoining him. First, the Fantastic Four battle Quasimodo and an evil duplicate of Iron Man. Next, the Fantastic Four fight evil duplicates of themselves. Finally, in 204, The FF deal with some Skrull stuff and Johnny Storm gets bamboozled by a fake university.

Spidey appears in a flashback in FF 202 and has a real appearance in FF 204, as a cut-away to a fight with the Man-Wolf in ASM 190. I’m reading 203 because it comes in between those! FF 202 and 203 should come before ASM 187, by the way.

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…And Where the Big Wheel Stops, Nobody Knows!

Spider-Man scares Aunt May into having a seizure / heart attack, and MJ rejects Pete’s proposal and dumps him. Harsh! If only the actual action and Spidey stuff in this issue had been interesting, it would have been a real winner. Sigh.

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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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…The Coming of Razorback!

this issue completely unexpectedly drops the sha-shan story line and starts out with a new bad guy, razorback. he’s huge, wears a boar’s-head-hat, and has an electrified mane. it turns out, though, that he’s actually a good guy. he’s an uninteresting character that does little more than waste space in the issue.

The issue ends in a cliffhanger, with Flash, Razorback, and Spidey manacled and about to be dynamited.

Weaker than the last one, but fairly decent.

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A Sword in Hand!

Still in search of identity and meaning, Spider-Woman faces off against Excalibur and Morgan LeFey / LeFay (spelled both ways in the same issue!). This was a decent story, with good pacing. I like Infantino’s art, too.

This was set a couple weeks afteer the last Spider-Woman issue, so I’m thinking I don’t have all this Spider-Woman stuff interspersed correctly with the Spider-Man stuff. Oh well, there aren’t any actual contradictions so far, so I guess that’s good.

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And Only the Invisible Girl Can Save Us Now!

This issue opens with a really dirty-hot ass-shot of Spider-Woman. It’s fairly pornographic. Ron Wilson: tsk tsk.

Alicia is really cool spider-monster. Not only does she have eight actual huge spider legs in addition to her own human limbs, she also spits webs. That’s bad-ass. Unfortunately, at the end of this issue she gets cured and is back to normal.

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My Sweetheart–My Killer!

We finally learn more about these mysterious crooks — one of them is an old Nazi agent who had hidden some huge amount of stolen loot, and is now seeking to retrieve it. It’s dumb.

Alicia Masters gets the serum derived from Spider-Woman and turns into some kind of crazy spider monster. She goes on a mad, Hydra-controlled rampage to kill Ben.

Mystery Menace

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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.

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Panic on Pier One!

I’m not a big fan of either Ghost Rider or the Trapster, so this was fairly boring for me. Also, Pete once again just leaves MJ hanging, injured, and takes off.

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Spider-Kill!

First of all: awesome cover!!! This almost deserves 5 stars just for that.

The story itself was alright, buy I found myself more interested in the Sha-Shan b-plot, with Flash and MJ, than the actual fight with the bad guys. It still wasn’t a bad conclusion to last issue, though.

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The Vulture is a Bird of Prey

There’s a new gang boss around. Mr. Morgan is trying to expand his Harlem racket, but runs a-fowl (ha!) of the Vulture.

Pretty good story, with a nice twist ending, thanks to an appearance by some new guy, the Hitman.

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Pull of the Prodigy

This is “a special Planet Parenthood issue of the Amazing Spider-Man”, released by Marvel and Planned Parenthood. I think I read it in the wrong spot, based on when it was published.

Spidey stumbles on a plan to “recruit and robotize” teenagers from around the country. The big boss of this operation is an alien known as the Prodigy, from the planet Intellectia in the Andromeda galaxy. His voice has the power to brainwash, thanks to exposure to radiation and heat in Earth’s ionosphere.

So, with all this power and a plan to brainwash youth, what does the Prodigy do? Read on…

I think this comic really has to speak for itself, so here is some more awesomeness… including a Twinkie reference!

Overall this was pretty weak. Other than the fact that it’s kinda weird and interesting to see Spidey and others talk about sex and teen pregnancy, this book doesn’t have much to offer (as a comic – the lessons are, of course, top notch).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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A Fine Night for Dying!

Great issue that kept up the mystery the whole way through. Bill Mantlo has a great sense of pacing. I also really loved Capt. DeWolff’s character, she was great (and so was her car).

This would have received a 4.5, except that there were a couple panels that irked me. A no-prize to anyone who can guess why.

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A Past Gone Mad!

Death in the Year Before Yesterday!
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Illustrators: Sal Buscema, Mike Esposito
Letters: K. Mantlo
Colors: J. Cohen
Originally published: April 1976

Future-Shock!
Story: Bill Mantlo
Art: Sal Buscema, Mike Esposito
Letters: Jean Izzo
Colors: George Roussos
Originally published: May 1976

…Am I Now or Have I Ever Been?
Story: Bill Mantlo
Art: Sal Buscema, Mike Esposito
Letters: John Costanza
Colors: P. Goldberg
Originally published: June 1976

After a brief interlude with that Family issue, we’re back to more time travelin! Woo!

Team-Up #43 – big, long, giant fight where Spidey, Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Doom all get their asses kicked.

Team-Up #44 – Moondragon shows up, and together everyone is able to beat the Dark Rider. The “witches” of Salem, though, still hang.

Team-Up #45 – Total War of the Worlds story as Spidey is flung into the future to fight invading Martians with Killraven. It’s 2019, “just eighteen years since the second Martian invasion of Earth!” Oh snap!

Team-Up #46 – Still in the future, though now in the year 1990 (!!!), Spidey meets up with Deathlok and fights radioactive zombie kids and the government!

I did not like that the Scarlet Witch killed a cat in #43, but I guess I can live with it, since Spidey was in mortal peril. :(

These aren’t the most amazing stories ever, but shit, they’re a lot of fun. TIME TRAVEL!

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Visions of Hate!

No real explanation for how Vision arrived in the past, but I guess I’ll just assume he showed up at Doom’s castle and also used the time machine.

There’s crazy freaking action in this. The Scarlet Witch gets shot in the head! Great twist ending with Dr. Doom showing up too! Man, I love time travel stories.

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Through the Rat Hole– Into the Cat’s Lair!

I didn’t know what was going on, and I didn’t like it. It was super weird. It’s entirely possible I’d like it more if I had been reading it regularly.

Pete appears at the Bugle during one scene.

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Omega the Unknown

James-Michael Starling

el gato

Swan-Song …of the Living Dead Duck!

Um, this was the craziest thing I’ve ever read. And it was awesome. The whole thing is a dream (I think…), so Spidey’s appearance – everybody’s appearance – doesn’t really count, and this probably shouldn’t really be on the list. I certainly don’t regret having read it, though.

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Any Number Can Slay!

Murder’s Better the Second Time Around!
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artists: Sal Buscema, Mike Esposito
Letterer: Karen Mantlo
Colorist: Janice Cohen
Originally published: December 1975

Holy crap, Montana and Fancy Dan from the Enforcers are back! We haven’t seen these guys in ages. They’ve been bringing back a lot of the old villains, but I really didn’t expect to see the Enforcers again. Apparently Ox got killed, so it’s just the two of them, though.

And if that’s not crazy enough, there also appearances by the Big Man and the Crime Master, both of whom are supposed to be dead! (And Sandman, but that’s not as interesting.) What the heck is going on?! Well, what’s going is that the Big Man is actually Frederick Foswell’s daughter, Janice, and the Crime Master is actually Nick Lewis’s son, Nick Lewis Jr.

This had a great twist ending, a lot of really fun fights, and some good dialogue. I really enjoyed both issues.

Racism in comics:

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Night of the Griffin

Why do Spidey and the Beast act as thought they’ve never met? I mean, I believe the last time Spidey saw Beast he didn’t have the fur, but that doesn’t explain Beast’s odd behaviour.

I don’t feel like Bill Mantlo has a very good grasp on Spider-Man. Mantlo seems to be trying way too hard with the wise-cracking during (brutally long) fights, and not putting any emphasis on story or character development. In fact, he has the Beast cracking wise almost as much as Spider-Man too, it seems totally out of character.

Spider-Man basically also kills an innocent guy – by accident, but still because of Spidey’s actions – and then barely bats an eye at it. I know Conway had a lot of people die during his tenure, and a lot of their deaths were either directly or indirectly because of Spider-Man, but as far as I can remember they were all bad guys. For Spider-Man to shrug off the death of some random civilian is really out of character.

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Griffin

Even if I Live, I Die!

A really great finish (?) to this first clone saga! Woo. I know people really hate on the other one, but I never hear many comments about this. I’m quite happy to say that I totally enjoyed this arc and this ending.

A Spidey clone was an unexpected surprise! Is the surviving Spidey the original or the clone? Is there a difference really? Ah, sweet.

(We actually all know the answer to this, I assume, but I’ll just suspend that for now…)

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