Monster in the Meadow / Payoff / Heroes for Hire / The Men and the Machine / Confrontations

As tends to be the case with annuals, this is a big honking issue. Unfortunately, Spider-Man only appears very briefly, observing a fight between a blackmailer and Luke Cage and Iron Fist.

The issue is a bit convoluted and long, but overall a decent read. Some of the art is nice.

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Pretty Poison

Sweet cover! Brutal issue, though. Spider-Man saves the fashion world! I certainly hope Madam Belladonna never makes a reappearance.

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Meteor Madness!

Well, this sucked. Why bring back a mediocre villain like Meteor Man if you’re not even going to do anything interesting with him? Why bring Giant Man into the mix if you’re not going to do anything interesting with him? This was all very much by the numbers. I guess it’s cool that Meteor Man ended up dying (permanently though? No.), but overall this was just pretty lame.

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One For Those Long Gone!

Not a super interesting episode, but Pollard and Mooney’s art was top-notch. The last few books I’ve read have looked really great.

Homecoming!

This story sucked kinda. It was about one of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Vance Astro, trying to convince his younger self to not take the same path he did. While I generally like time-travel stuff, this was just boring. The Thing’s part was useless, too, which is kind of annoying since this is his book. Also, Spidey just showed up in one panel, saving a construction worker.

This guy looks like Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen:

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The Arms of Doctor Octopus

This was an awesome issue. Really great story. Seriously cool art in here, too. Kudos to everyone involved.

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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.

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…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.

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Tangled Webs

Ok, this issue is definitely a milestone. Here we have the first meeting between Spider-Woman and Spider-Man. :O

This is a good opportunity to catch up on what’s actually been happening in Spidey’s continuity, since I’ve read so many damned things out of order lately. In M/TU 92, Spidey teamed up with Hawkeye to beat Mr. Fear. Before that, in Spectacular, Spidey fought Swarm. As far as his personal life goes, Peter Parker is just kind of starting grad school and settling into things, and is working for the Daily Globe.

This issue opens with a surprise — Spider-Woman has stolen a bunch of money! We then flash back to how this came to be. Basically, bad shit started happening to dear Jess: she got fired, she got evicted. How does she cope with the bad news? By robbing her former employers, of course. This is completely out of character and not even slightly believable. It’s really pretty annoying.

Feeling shitty about what she’s done, Jessica immediately decides to return the money. She, of course, is interrupted by Peter Parker, who just happens to be out in LA on a photography assignment. Quickly changing into Spider-Man, Pete chases Spider-Woman around for a bit. They lightly spar before having a nice cordial conversation.

Then, as he is wont to do, Spider-Man takes off into the night, before even finding out that the woman he was hanging with was a Spider-Woman.

So this was pretty gimmicky and clearly designed to try to get Spidey fans interested in Spider-Woman. It even included a retelling of Jessica’s origin, to catch new fans up on what her deal is. Kinda lame. At the same time, it was basically inoffensive and and mildly entertaining, which is kinda saying a lot for this book.

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Sins of the Flesh!

This is the first Spider-Woman issue that I can actually recall enjoying. The Waxman was a genuinely creepy character, and the story had a nice brisk pace. It reminded me of an episode of Twilight Zone or Outer Limits.

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All You Need is Hate

Well, we’ve once again got two ridiculous excuses for Jessica Drew to get naked. Nekra is also pretty much naked as well:

And they of course get into a huge fight — described as “tiger against tiger”, a.k.a. a catfight — in which their clothes get torn to shreds. None of this is anywhere near as bad as the crap Marv Wolfman was writing, but it’s still pretty gratuitous and stupid.

As a side note, we learn that Spider-Woman won the fight because Nekra loved her. So it wasn’t just a normal catfight, it was a hot lesbian catfight.

On the plus side, Jerry Hunt is moving to London. Are we finally rid of him? Let’s hope so.

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Suddenly…The Shroud!

Goodness gracious, praise the Lord. Jerry Hunt and Magnus depart in this issue. Between this and #12, Gruenwald has eliminated Jessica Drew’s entire supporting cast. They were terrible and I wont miss them. The issue does cut back to Jerry’s new assignment, but I’m hoping it gives up on him pretty quickly.

This issue was much, much better than most previous Spider-Woman outings. It was still fairly boring and uninteresting by any normal standards, but at least it didn’t make me want to vomit with rage.

Also, although he wasn’t necessarily very good here, the Shroud seems to have the potential to be interesting.

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The Last Tale of the Brothers Grimm

In this issue the story of the Brothers Grimm is finally wrapped up. Thankfully, the issue as not nearly as offensive as past issues (though still a little). Unfortunately, it’s still pretty terrible.

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And Dolly Makes Three

More of the same from this mag. Here, Spider-Woman is forced to wipe some white “goop” from her face and, later, is chained to a wall. “Can’t I go a week without getting tied up by somebody?” she wonders. Amen, sister.

Truth be told, this issue wasn’t as bad as many of the others, but that’s really not saying much.

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Fear!

This was surprisingly decent. I liked Mr. Fear. The relationship between Spidey and Hawkeye was nice too. It wasn’t just all buddy buddy as usual. Hawkeye was embarrassed a bit about working with Spidey but the two just basically acted professionally. There were some other nice touches too, like Hawkeye having to work a security job and Spidey browsing Hawkeye’s record collection.

My two biggest complaints are that the art wasn’t as crazy and imaginative a I would have liked for a fear issue, and Hawkeye’s gimmick is kinda lame. Rescuing himself from a fall with a flare arrow is kinda bullshits.

Overall I really enjoyed it.

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The Man Who Could Not Die!

The Suit!
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Pencils: Carmine Infantino
Inks: Al Gordon
Letters: John Costanza
Colors: Francoise M.
Originally published: November 1978

Another fucking bondage cover! This is insane! No, seriously, what’s all the constant bondage and rape imagery and misogyny and sexism in this series? How was this ever published?! It’s not just the cover, each issue it seems more and more that this is just a way for Wolfman and Infantino to get paid to jerk off to bondage and rape fantasies.

The first story is awful and stupid, the second one is too. At least the first one features Spider-Woman — ‘The Suit!’ has a bizarre, completely non-sensical cameo by her and that’s it.

Apparently in the first story it’s August 12, and the ground is covered in snow.

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End of a Nightmare!!

This was mostly a big sorcery battle between Magnus and Morgan, with Spider-Woman in the middle of course. Werewolf by Night, a.k.a. Jack Russell, is also brought into it, but he’s pretty much useless.

My biggest complaint was the stupid and non-sensical narration by Jack Russell. It sucked.

Oh wait…an even bigger complaint: what’s up with the cover?! In issue 4 I was complaining about the sexism and bondage imagery, and here there’s even more of it. To make matters worse, this scene never even happens in the damn story. It’s just pure exploitation! I don’t know what’s up with Carmine Infantino, Marv Wolfman, and the editors, but this series has some really bad sexist overtones that I do not like.

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Nightmare

Spider-Woman!

This takes place basically immediately after issue 4, so it’s definitely in the wrong spot. Or #4 is, maybe that’s a better way to look at it.

In this issue, Spider-Woman is the prisoner of the Hangman and is driven almost insane by Morgan le Fay! That’s about it. It’s pretty ok, but the illusions/insanity thing gets a little tired.

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Death on the Air

This was a decent done-in-one. My biggest complaint was that the tone of the book would have us believe that the villains were far more impressive than they were in actuality.

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A Child is Waiting

This was a mildly entertaining kidnapping caper, in which little Franklin Richards gets abducted and held for ransom. Spidey and the Invisible Girl team up to get him back, and everything ends up wonderful.

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The Spider and the Burglar…A Sequel

Well, this is a big one! 200 issues of Amazing Spider-Man! Woo. A note on the splash says that Stan Lee wrote one page of the issue, which is pretty cool I guess. (I’m guessing it’s page 15.)

This was an awesome, epic, issue. Having Pete face off against the burglar again, and having him confront all his old fears, angers, anxieties was a welcome shot of adrenaline into the character. Pete’s been so morose lately, that it was nice to see everything come together for him in the end.

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Requiem!

Well…Aunt May certainly appears to really be dead. BUT I DON’T BELIEVE IT.

This was a crazy issue. In addition to Pete grieving like crazy over Aunt May, Robbie Robertson quits! We also learn that Robbie had another son before Randy, and that he died as a child.

This was a pretty interesting issue. Not action-packed by any means, but that was one reason why it was so awesome. Really nice characterization and plotting here.

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Nine Lives Has the Black Cat!

This Black Cat issue wasn’t as good. The banter between the Cat and Spider-Man seemed more forced, and the story wasn’t really as interesting. The bits of the issue that were good were that Spidey broke his arm and that the Burglar convinced Aunt May’s nursing home to (falsely) inform Pete that Aunt May had died.

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Never Let the Black Cat Cross Your Path!

Alright, the Black Cat! This should be good, right? Right! This was a fun issue and the interplay between the Black Cat and Spidey was well-done. I’m really looking forward to more of Ms. Hardy.

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Might of the Monocle!

Since this takes place the same day as ASM 193, it should take place before those Hostess ads.

This was a really great, if fairly standard, hypnosis story. I usually get annoyed when Spidey and the Torch team up, but this had a really good pacing and was actually funny a bunch of times. Kudos!

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