The Spider and the Sea-Scourge!

You know what’s weird? I might be crazy, but I don’t see any credits for this issue. I looked them up online.

Namor, the Sub-Mariner, has been busting up equipment in the ocean. Good for him.

Spidey finally checks out the docks and Deb Whitman’s uncle, which she asked Pete to do long ago. Uncle Whitman has a contract with the government to setup equipment in the ocean, but his crew is scared because of Namor’s activities. Spider-Man, being his usual helpful self, beats up the crew and chases them off. Then he leaves when Uncle Whitman asks him for help.

The next day Deb shows up at school whining about the whole thing, and Pete decides he better stop being a bitch and go help out. He becomes a crew member onboard the ship, along with some other crew members who apparently came back or something.

So we get Spider-Man vs. Namor in a battle on the high seas. Spider-Man actually kicks the crap out of Namor, which is pretty cool and unexpected. Eventually they finally sit down and have a chat and work things out amicably, with Namor helping the surface dwellers find a better spot for their gizmos.

This reads a little like an issue of Team-Up, though not as crappy.

Rating:

buy on amazon.com: single issue or dvd collection

Aliens and Illusions!

The cover of this issue features Spider-Man, Mysterio and Deb Whitman apparently floating in outer space. Spider-Man is punching the fishbowl off Mysterio’s head. Spidey’s legs are wrapped around Mysterio’s body. Deb has a very odd zero-gravity boob thing going on, and a major camel toe. One of Mysterio’s boots has a high heel. The whole thing is very, very weird and very, very bad. I read online that it’s a Frank Miller cover, but for some reason I find this hard to believe.

So we start where we left off, with Peter onboard a space ship with Mysterio and some supposed aliens. Mysterio wants the Dutch Mallone money, and the aliens are helping him in exchange for Mysterio’s help in taking over the world. Of course, it turns out to just be an elaborate ploy by Mysterio. The aliens are just dudes in alien masks, whom Pete / Spider-Man take care of quite easily.

This issue retcons the aliens’ earlier appearance in ASM 2, when they were working for the Tinkerer, so that they were actually movie extras and stuntmen then as well. One of them, apparently, was Quentin Beck, who went on to become Mysterio.

Not a bad issue, really. Mysterio stories can sometimes be formulaic, but for some reason I was a little more engaged this time around.

Rating:

buy this issue on amazon.com

Dilemma!

50th issue! Aliens on the cover! What could go wrong?!

We open immediately following the events of the last issue, with Spidey and the Smuggler mid-fight. Actually, Spidey pretty much has the Smuggler tied up, but doesn’t know what to do with him. Eventually he ends up getting the guy to the cops, more or less, and the reader is happy to finally be done with that.

Later, Pete takes Deb Whitman to an engagement dinner for his Aunt May. While there, they are attacked by aliens! Similar aliens to the ones that were working with the Tinkerer back in Amazing Spider-Man 2! It seems that the aliens want information from Aunt May about Dutch Mallone, the gangster who had money hidden in the Parker house. But that’s dumb, because why would aliens want money? Well, Peter finds out that the aliens are working for Mysterio! I’m guessing they aren’t even aliens.

There’s a weird recap of Spidey’s origin story in this issue. Did any readers in 1981 really not know this by now? Seems like a waste of space.

I liked the engagement party / alien story line. I could have done without the Smuggler bit bleeding in from last issue.

Rating:

buy this issue at amazon.com

The Prophecy of Madame Web!

Here’s what I said when I saw the cover: “Ooooh, Madame Web! Awesome.” That cover and character design are seriously great.

The issue starts with Rupert Dockery, scumbag, instructing some goons to kidnap a lady and kill anybody that gets in the way. This is a new low, even for Dockery.

We then cut to Pete Parker, who is hanging with Deb Whitman as she heads to meet with a psychic, one Madame Web. Pete dismisses Web as “a garden-variety fraud” and leaves Deb to go to a meeting at the Globe. When he gets there he finds the Globe under lock down — nobody allowed into the editorial department before 5PM. Being the dastardly rule-breaker he is, Peter scoffs at this, changes into his Spidey duds, and heads on up anyways.

Up in editorial, Dockery is meeting with some bigwigs and introduces KJ Clayton, reclusive publisher of the Globe. She claims that she has finally come out of hiding in order to turn the paper over to Dockery. Just then, the masked goons we saw Dockery chatting with earlier burst into the meeting room. They move to grab Clayton, as Dockery had previously instructed them, but are interrupted by Spider-Man crashing through the window.

Spidey is able to beat the heck out of most of the gunmen, but one manages to get away with Clayton. Luckily, someone drops a clue — a flyer for Madame Web, the same psychic Deb Whitman was going to see! Hmmm….

Spidey naturally heads straight over to Web’s apartment, and discovers that Madame Web is fucking cool:

Anyway, Madame Web wasn’t kidding about the psychic bit. Though blind, Web is able to identify the flyer Spidey has as belonging to a student of hers, Belinda Bell, who is a model and actress. She also says that Bell was in danger, and complicit in deceit involving a powerful woman named Katrinka Janice Clayton. Aha!

So, as I’m sure you can guess, Dockery hired Bell to pretend to be the mysterious KJ Clayton, who he knew nobody had seen before. Pretending to be Clayton, she would turn the newspaper over to Dockery. Dockery then also orchestrated Bell’s kidnapping (and eventual murder) to hide the evidence. Dockery’s last bit of nastery, we learn, is to wipe out the real KJ Clayton. When all is said and done, he will be in control of the Globe.

Luckily, though, Web also points Spidey in the right direction for finding everybody he’s after. He manages to save both Bell and Clayton and capture Dockery.

In the aftermath, KJ Clayton retires and shuts down the Globe and, as a consequence, Peter is out of a job. As he considers his options, Peter receives a phone call from Madame Web, who congratulates Spider-Man on his success! Yes, her psychic powers have informed her of Spider-Man’s secret identity and Peter’s phone number. She also tells him, though, that his money troubles will soon be over — and we cut to J Jonah Jameson attempting to call Pete and offer him a job, only to receive a busy signal!

This issue was great, dude. Good, fun story, excellent pacing and I really, really love Madame Web. The art is such a drastic step up from that Marvel Team-Up 101 issue I read, that it’s sort of shocking. And finally, I’m glad Dockery is finally out of the picture; I never really enjoyed his character much, and it’s nice to see the books moving forward.

Note: This Madame Web is not the same as the Madam web that appeared in that one Hostess comic.

Rating:

buy on amazon.com: single issue or dvd collection

Spider-Man Vs. The Hulk! at the Winter Olympics

God-awful. One (hyphenated) word: web-skis.

This is an insane story, overly complex with no reason or payoff, insanely long and boring. The only cool thing was seeing hulk in battle armor, but he ditched that pretty quickly.

If you don’t care about the really boring plot, skip to the last paragraph.

The holidays are over and it’s time for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. We open at the Olympic Village, one night before the events are to start, where skater Maria Karsov is being kidnapped by some creepy-looking weirdos. They are Digger, Boulder, Landslide and Water-Witch: the Outcasts. Spider-Man fights them, but it turns out they were maybe actually trying to protect the athlete — while all this is going on, a weird giant diamond rises up through the ground, envelops Karsov, and sucks her back into the Earth. The Outcasts get away.

Later, we find out that Karsov is the third athlete to go missing like this. There’s a bunch of talking and exposition that bores everybody.

The next morning the Hulk is jumping around like a lunatic when he gets captured by one of the weird diamond things. He breaks out, and then some “lava men” attack him with a “lava catapult” and some “carbonizers” and “flame-guns”. Hulk takes care of them and enters their cave and eventually meets Queen Kala, Monarch of all Subterranea. She wants the Hulk to help defeat her enemies and to be her king (or so she says).

The next day, a skier named Brad Rossi is competing. He went to Midtown High with Peter Parker. There’s a full freaking page describing his ski-jumping, in detail. Gimme a break. As Rossi is performing a second jump, he gets eaten by one of the big diamonds and sucked into the Earth. The crowd is upset, the readers not so much.

As Spidey attempts to help Brad, the Outcasts show up again and they all fight for no reason at all. It’s dumb and annoying. The Outcasts overpower Spider-Man and knock him out. When he awakes he finds himself underground, in the presence of the Mole Man. There’s a lot more boring exposition and it turns out he’s the enemy Kala wants vanquished and Mole Man, it seems, would like her defeated as well. See, Mole Man has a fountain of youth that Kala wants. Mole Man won’t let her in because she spurned him. Kala’s ridiculous plan is to have the kidnapped Olympic athletes fight the Outcasts. Mole Man doesn’t know that Kala also has the Hulk, and Kala doesn’t know that Mole Man also has Spider-Man. Ugh.

Lots of fighting. Hulk fights because he’s drugged and under mind control, Spider-Man fights because Mole Man threatens to destroy the Olympic Village, the athletes fight because Kala is holding Brad’s girlfriend hostage. The athletes get some ridiculous equipment: Brad gets “rocket skis and power poles”, Maria gets “super-skates”, Claude Lebron gets a “bomb-sled” and Bobby Lyle gets a “super-stick that fires power pucks”. You know what you could give them instead, Kala? Guns. Or anything not dumb. But, these are apparently the “most advanced weapons known to subterranean science”.

I can’t believe how much I hate this comic. I can’t describe any more. In the end it all works out. Fine, done.

Rating:

Beware the Spider-Woman — Bounty Hunter!

Bring on… the Clown!
Script: Michael Fleisher
Pencils: Frank Springer
Inks: Mike Esposito
Letters: C. Robins
Colors: B. Sean
Originally published: January 1980

Enter the Gamesman
Script: Michael Fleischer
Artists: Trevor von Eedon, Mike Esposito
Letters: Robins
Colors: Gafford
Originally published: February 1980

Trapped–in the Doomsday Room!
Script: Michael Fleisher
Art: Trevor von Eedon, Mike Esposito
Letters: Jim Novak
Colors: Glynis Wein
Originally published: March 1980

To Free a Felon!
Script by: Michael Fleisher
Art by: Steve Leialoha
Letters by: Diana Albers
Colors: Glynis Wein
Originally published: April 1980

The Blades of the Grinder!
Script: Michael Fleisher
Art: S. Leialoha, M. Esposito & Associates
Colors: Gaff
Letters: Novak
Originally published: May 1980

I needed to read six issues of Spider-Woman. For the first five of these I’m pretty iffy on placement; the sixth also has Spider-Man in it, so I was pretty sure where it had to go. I decided to just read and review them all in one big bang.

So… I haven’t read any of these comics in about a year. I do not remember much about what was going on with Spider-Woman in her book, except that I remember not liking it and thinking it was full of weird pervy rape fantasies…OK, I just reread some of my last few posts on Spider-Woman and it seems like my memories are pretty much correct. I guess the last one I read involved Spider-Man and Spider-Woman meeting, so that’s something. Luckily, I also put a bit of a recap of what’s been going on in there.

When we last left Jessica Drew, she was about to embark on a new chapter of her life. Basically jobless and homeless, she was given a second chance by Spider-Man. Now (apparently a few weeks later), we open on her life having “changed suddenly and drastically, and never again will it be the same.”

Issue 21 actually starts out interesting, with a robbery and the revelation that JD is working undercover nearby, ostensibly to catch the thieves. It turns out Jess is making a living as a bounty hunter, working with a guy named Scotty McDowell. Just by capturing the jerks involved in that one heist, she made a cool twenty grand. Not bad work if you can get it, I guess. It makes my wonder how Pete Parker is always so broke. Stupid moral high ground doesn’t pay, I guess.

In addition to the new-found riches, we also learn that Jess has somehow inherited (I think?) a costume shop, and is living in a new place by herself. So she’s got that going for her, too.

OK, so this issue wasn’t bad at all. It did still involve Jessica getting naked, but I guess that’s just how this book rolls. At least it was in a fairly innocent manner this time — a shower after a long night — and not something lurid and sexed up. Not that lurid and sexed up is bad per se, but… I don’t know, this book certainly never seemed to do it right. ANYWAY WHATEVER.

It ends on a weird note with Scotty having dinner with Jess and pining after Spider-Woman. I can’t tell if he knows they’re one and the same.

ONWARDS TO ISSUE 22!

This issue starts off with a welcome piece of news: Jess is not just crime-fighting for the money. Her and Scotty — who figures shit out behind the scenes, and does research/analysis — decide to go after a serial-killing clown for which no reward is posted. Money and moral high ground! Best of both worlds!

(BTW… So far, Scotty’s character definitely brings to mind DC Comics’ Oracle: both are disabled crimefighters with computer/technical expertise, who provide valuable information to their superhero pals. Also, it’s hard to think of serial-killing clowns without thinking of the Joker. Especially when one of the victims in this comic says “What the heck are you, anyway? Some kinda Joker?!”. This Spider-Woman stuff was written years before The Killing Joke and Barbara Gordon’s transformation into Oracle. I’m definitely not implying anybody copied anybody, I just think the similarities, though slight, are interesting. COINCIDENCE CITY, USA.)

The issue follows Spider-Woman and the Killer Clown as their paths cross a few times — including a clown attack on JD’s friend Lindsay. Clown serial killers have the potential to be super scary, but this one ended up being more on the pathetic side. I would have preferred a little more creepiness. Also, the clown is a total woman-hater, and we end up with lines like “My wife thwarted me! Women thwarted me! Women destroyed me, as I shall destroy you!”. In isolation — fine, a woman-hating villain, no biggy. However, this totally fits in with the rest of the misogynistic vibe this comic has had for its entire run, and it really derails the whole thing for me. I guess it’s good that Spider-Woman usually triumphs over shit like this?

The end of this issue felt entirely rushed, but by that point I was glad to see it end.

In the beginning of issue 23, Spider-Woman gets called a bimbo by the chief of police and has some street toughs attack her so she can “show [them] all a good time”. She is unable to actually successfully fight off these common thugs, but luckily a (non-super-powered) man shows up to save her. And get this: the dude’s name is Mr. Braverman. Spider-Woman rewards the Brave Man for his brave manliness with a date and some french kissing. Stay classy, Fleisher.

Well, it turns out Tim Braverman is actually the Gamesman, a criminal matermind who has recently been a problem in LA, and who Spider-Woman and Scotty had been after. Tim hired the goons to attack Spider-Woman, and he set up the rescue to get close to her. Scotty, jealous genius that he is, figures this all out but insta-love-struck Spider-Woman ignores him and gets herself into a whole heap of trouble. Luckily good old Scotty and his six-shooter bust onto the scene in time to save the day!

But — even after Tim/The Gamesman dupes Spider-Woman, has her stun-gunned, ties her up to a pole, and lights the building she’s in on fire — even after that, Spider-Woman still thinks he’s a swell guy and makes out with him for a bit. Meanwhile, poor Scotty (who actually saved her and actually is a swell guy) gets rejected. Ain’t that always the way?

When issue 24 starts up, Tim is in jail and Spider-Woman is visiting him. Tim goes on to explain about his shitty upbringing and why he turned to a life of crime. (IT’S CAUSE HIS DAD WAS MEAN, YO.) Then he plays up how much he loves Spider-Woman and begs for her help in getting him out. Stupid idiot that she is, she goes along with it. I guess I should cut her some slack. I keep forgetting that mentally she’s actually quite young and naive, which might explain why she’s so easy to manipulate. And a shitty crimefighter.

Later, Spider-Woman gets ambushed and shot. There’s now a new Gamesman and he is after her. You see, the new Gamesman thinks Spider-Woman knows the whereabouts of the old Gamesman’s $10 million. But she doesn’t. So, he sets her up in an insanely convoluted death trap and leaves her alone without actually verifying that she’s died. Such a damned cliché. Dumb issue.

Issue 25 opens immediately following the end of 24, and Spider-Woman is in deep trouble. OF A DEADLY NATURE. The setup is thus: Jessica is chained to a stripper pole in the middle of a metal room. The floor, walls, ceiling and door of the room are electrified, and touching them will kill her. There is a bomb at the top of the stripper pole that will explode in one minute that will also kill her.

Spider-Woman escapes thusly: She notices that the door has a glass panel that is not electrified and that she could probably fit through. She climbs up her stripper pole to near the top, and snaps off the bottom of the pole. She then leaps off the top stub, using the snapped off pole as a pole vault thingy, and lunges towards the glass. She manages to smash all the way through it without actually touching any of the metal.

Since the new Gamesman foolishly assumes Spider-Woman is dead, he makes a fake Spider-Woman that he uses to bust the original Gamesman out of jail, in an attempt to find out where that $10 million is. Meanwhile, Jessica Drew lounges around her apartment in sexy lingerie and bathrobes. ZOMG THE FAKE SPIDER-WOMAN IS ACTUALLY JESS’S ACTRESS FRIEND LINDSAY MCCABE! When Lindsay inadvertently drops some hints to Jess, Jess is able to figure it all out and eventually save everyone. (Except the bad guys, they go to jail.)

Steve Leialoha’s art in this issue is really sucky, BTW. Lindsay McCabe, especially, looks like she’s a had a really bad collagen injection in her lips. And her eyes are crazy.

Finally we reach issue 26, in which Spider-Man briefly appears. The issue starts with Spider-Woman hanging out at the LA port, going after some hoods — The Desmond Boys — stealing a fur shipment. She gets them.

Meanwhile we’re introduced to Rupert Dockery, who has purchased the Los Angeles Courier newspaper. The guy is a creep. He almost gets fake kidnapped, but then Spider-Woman shows up and saves him. Dockery writes up the incident in his new newspaper, and I guess the story gets picked up by the wires or something, because next we see Spider-Man reading about it in New York. CAMEO OVER.

Dockery realizes that Spider-Woman sells papers, so he organizes a crime spree, turning a goon named Brute Bashby into a villain named the Grinder. Grinder then publicly challenges Spider-Woman and she goes after the guy. Bingo bango, there are your newspaper sales. They fight, she wins, Dockery is a douche, the end.

Whew! That was a lot of Spider-Woman! Lots of dumb clichés, lots of dumb plot holes, lots of unrealistic and out of character behaviour, occasionally shitty art, misogyny — and still an improvement over the older issues (or at least how I remember them). I’m glad to be done with these for a short bit.

I love the word “presently”, but Michael Fleisher uses it way too much.

Rating:

Mesmero’s Revenge!

First the fashion industry, and now Broadway. Spidey’s really taking an interest in the arts. Unfortunately, though, this battle with Mesmero was once again a complete misfire. And what was with that drug dealer that kept showing up? Did he have a point?

Rating:

When a Spider-Man Comes Calling!

The Frightful Four, with Spider-Man held captive, attack the Fantastic Four.

Surprisingly, this continuation of the story in Spectacular 42 was even worse than the first part. Once again it was almost entirely one big fight scene; no character development, no plot, no surprises. And, frankly, the fight itself even kinda sucked.

Rating:

Where Demons Feat To Dwell!

Another disappointing Dazzler issue. This one consisted almost entirely of a fight between about a million heroes and a bunch of demons called forth by the Enchantress. It was really boring and, even though the winning blow went to the Dazzler, it again seemed like a way to distract the readers from the title character.

Rating:

Bewitched, Bothered and Be-Dazzled!

I don’t know why, but I’ve really looking forward to the Dazzler. Is it because I know she’ll suck? Because I dislike (most) disco? No! It’s because she zips around on roller skates and turns music into light with a magic disco ball! WTFantastic!

This cover is amazing. Seriously. You know what else is amazing: Pete and the gang going to see Star Trek. Yeah, that’s right. ON THE WORLD’S TINIEST MOVIE SCREEN:

Wow, Star Trek on a 2.7″ screen. Hot.

So the action gets pretty lame…who cares? So the plots a stinker…big deal. This issue still has enough badassery to make it a fun read.

Rating:

And Men Shall Call Him… Octopus!

This is a continuation of sorts of the story in ASM Annual 13. Here, Spidey fights Doc Ock some more. The issue as a whole largely fails, due to lackluster writing by Mantlo and incredible boring and occasionally muddled art by Buckler and Mooney. Nowhere near as good as the ASM Annual. The one point at which the book gets interesting is near the end, when Doctor Octopus starts becoming completely unhinged and starts talking to his arms and referring to him and them as “we” — very Hobbit/Lord of the Rings. It’s a nice touch, but it doesn’t save the issue.

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:

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.

Rating:

The Beast Within

A mildly interesting issue that crams in quite a bit — Jessica visits Mrs. Dolly, becomes better friends with Lindsay McCabe, fights some creep named the Enforcer, and chitchats with the Werewolf By Night. Not great, but pretty stellar by Spider-Woman standards.

Rating:

Eye of the Needle

Time for some Spider-Woman, which means almost certainly misplaced comics and me forgetting what the hell’s going on. Also, probably some insanely misogynistic and disturbing imagery! Yeah? At least the cover of this is just standard-issue comic soft pr0n spandex, sans bondage. Perhaps with a new writer comes a newer, cleaner Spider-Woman.

My hopes that Gurenwald & Infantino will have a less offensive issue are quickly dashed, though, as we come to this panel on the second page:

Clear oral sex, rape, and domination imagery. I mean come on, Infantino even started to draw the Needle’s erect cock, and it’s just conveniently blocked by the victim’s arm. And even the name, and his weapon — the Needle? Really? Come ON!

It just gets worse from here, with the narration FILLED with double-entendres, and then another oral shot, this time featuring Jerry Hunt:

Once that unpleasantness is over with, we’re treated to a shot of Jessica Drew stripping out of her costume:

All of this is within the first four pages of content!

Seriously, it continues like this:

Money shot!

I hate this comic so much. ZERO!

Rating:

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.

Rating:

The Crash of ’79!

WTF, this mag has full-on nudity! That’s kind of shocking! Howard and Bev face off against Pro-Rata again, and Spidey shows up in a flashback. There are some people that “get” Howard the Duck, but I most certainly not one of those people

Rating:

Cat’s-Paw!

This was a mostly uninteresting magic story that was mostly about Agatha Harkness and Franklin Richards. Agatha’s evil monster son tries to take over the world, and Franklin somehow stops him.

Peter Parker appears in one panel, getting shoved aside by some force waves, along with the rest of humanity.

Rating:

Carnival of Souls!

Pat Broderick’s pencils have a very different feel than most other Spidey artists I’ve seen. It’s a cool and welcome change — spices things up a bit!

This issue was about a revived one-off character, Moondark, who was lame initially and slightly less lame this time. Actually, the book started off really cool and I was totally into it, but once Moondark introduced himself and every other word was “soul” it got very tedious. Oh well, it was orders of magnitude better than the crud Marvel Team-Up‘s been dishing out lately.

Rating:

Lizards on a Hot Tin Roof!

This one follows the standard Spider-Man Cliffhanger Followup structure:

1. Continue fight
2. Bad guy(s) leaves for no good reason
3. Spider-Man/Pete lead normal life
4. Spidey and bad guy meet up again
5. Spider-Man beats bad guy

BORING!

It doesn’t help that Lizard stories tend to suck anyway, and that the Iguana is just an even lamer version of the Lizard. The one interesting part of the story was that Liz recognized his family and seemed to have a connection with them, but that wasn’t followed up at all. In fact, it was almost completely contradicted when the Lizard decided to team up with the Iguana.

Rating:

Night of the Iguana!

Lizard issues don’t really excite me, and having two Lizards doesn’t really improve things much. I suppose the next issue — where the Lizard and the Iguana face off — might be good, but this one was fairly boring.

Rating:

In Search of the Man-Wolf!

I guess Spidey wasn’t unconscious from the Man-Wolf’s blow, just stunned and “barely conscious”.

It turns out Spencer Smythe is behind a bunch of this lunacy (ha!), orchestrating the attacks by Chameleon, Electro and Man-Wolf. Smythe is pissed because he’s dying from Spider-Slayer-related radiation poisoning, and wants revenge on Jameson and Spidey.

At the end John Jameson dies! :O

Rating:

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.

Rating:

Mayhem by Moonlight!

Betty kisses the crap out of Peter in this issue. They probably have pop-pop in the attic after that. BUT PETER ISN’T EVEN INTERESTED IN BETTY. Boy, does our hero have girl troubles.

This was a pretty nice issue with a good pace. Having the Man-Wolf back makes sense, and I think the whole Jameson vs. his son thing could be interesting, even if it’s ground that’s been tread before.

Rating:

The Jigsaw Is Up!

alright, even with my big shift around, this is in the wrong spot. mary jane reacts harshly towards betty, which is completely contrary to their conversation in spectacular 27 — these two asm issues should come before those.

the whole jigsaw-as-terrified-wreck angle was kind of interesting, but overall this story was a dud.

Rating: