The Day She Died

I already wrote a review of this and it got deleted. I don’t feel like rewriting it, so here’s the summary: no good. I had high expectations after reading the other Marvels issues and after reading the Amazing Spider-Man stories this was based on. Unfortunately, this issue didn’t live up to either.

(Update: According the Chronology Project, Clark Kent is in this issue. I think I see who they’re talking about, so I’ve given this review a Superman tag.)

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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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This issue starts awhile back from my current place in the chronology, but it ends sorta right after the whole thing with the Looter from Amazing Spider-Man 36. The background for this issue is the first visit of Galactus and all the events surrounding that (in Fantastic Four). The main idea of the issue, though, is the world’s growing frustration with the Marvels and Phil Sheldon’s growing anger at this.

To be honest, this issue wasn’t as captivating for me as the others have been so far. The art was still great and the writing was still good, but for some reason it wasn’t able to keep me as interested as I have been up ’til now. Perhaps it’s still lingering disappointment over that Heroes & Legends shit. :/ Anyway, this was still good, just not up to Marvels standards I don’t think.

Oh and Spider-Man was actually in this one! (Actually, Kraven in a Spider-Man suit was, but then Peter Parker was in it later).

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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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Well, that’s it, the last Untold Tale of Spider-Man. Booo. I really enjoyed this series, and I’m pretty bummed that for the next little while I only have one continuous Spider-Man series to read. There won’t be another good, long-running series until Marvel Team-Up, and that doesn’t start for awhile.

In this last issue, Spider-Man faces off with the Green Goblin (who is working with the Crime Master) at Empire State University. It was fun and action-packed and light-hearted but, to be honest, it didn’t have the emotional resonance and strong character writing I’ve come to love about this series. Perhaps my expectations were just too high for this last issue, but it really seemed like it was a fairly run-of-the-mill story that was trying to tie up some loose ends.

Oh, and I read this almost exactly 10 years after it came out – that’s pretty neat!

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Whew, that issue was a fuggin rollercoaster.

Flash Thompson goes after the fake Spider-Man that’s been terrorizing the neighborhood. It turns out to be Jason (no surprise there) and he’s getting really unhinged. He has a gun and I was sure he was going to kill himself. But he didn’t, because Flash acted cool instead of rash for a change.

In the A-plot, Batwing has come back to town and is trying to get Spider-Man to kill him. It turns out he’s sad because Curt Connor’s magic serum didn’t turn him back into a boy. And also his mom is really religious and hates him. Batwing puts himself into a situation where the cops are about to kill him, and I thought it was gonna go down like that, but it didn’t. His mom decided she loved him, and then he turned into a boy.

So, nobody died, even though I thought they were going to. It was really good, but part of me thinks it would have been way cooler (and obviously sadder) if they both did die. That would probably fuck up Peter even more and definitely fuck up Flash Thompson.

BTW, this is the second last issue. That’s addressed at the end of the book; it turns out it ended because a) sales were sucky, b) Busiek was leaving. Damn you Busiek and comics-buyers of 1997!

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Yet more Human Torch. This is getting ridiculous.

Anyway, this I guess follows up on Spidey’s new-found interest in Sue Storm. In this issue he gets in yet another fight with the Torch, and then decides to ask the Invisible Girl out on a date. And, big surprise, he ends up pissing off Betty again in the process. Once the Torch tips off Namor, he’s not exactly pleased either.

I guess this was pretty fun. It was definitely a nice break from all the non-stop fisticuffs in some of the other issues I’ve been reading. The bow-tie made of webbing was a nice touch, too.

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I’ve been all over the place for Thanksgiving and read this over the span of like three days. That doesn’t make for the most pleasant comic-reading experience. Fortunately, I thought this story was strong and I liked that it wasn’t a straightforward Spidey-beats-up-the-bad-guys kinda thing. Here we had a “villain” that was being a little reckless and dangerous but didn’t (really) deserve the full-frontal assault he got from Spider-Man (and every other hero in the area). This provides a good opportunity for some guilt and remorse on Spidey’s part, which I think is when I like his character best.

Apparently the story of this character, Sundown, is continued in ASM Annual ’97, but I don’t have that scheduled for quite awhile. I hope that’s right…

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This was another of the Tom DeFalco-scripted stories. They aren’t bad, but I got really used to Busiek’s style and it’s kind of an adjustment reading Untold Tales by somebody else.

This was a pretty simple and fun story. I got into it, and I liked that the bad guys were zombies – I was sure they were going to be robots. I also liked the shoutout to Art Simek, original letterer for Amazing Spider-Man.

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This issue was a little different than the others in that it wasn’t set entirely between ASM issues, but overlapped a bit with ASM #18. In fact, a number of panels were basically recreations of panels from ASM #18, which was a little annoying. The issue was scripted by Tom DeFalco instead of Kurt Busiek and, frankly, I think it suffered for it. It was, in a word, boring.

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Although Busiek and Olliffe always do a great job of hitting the 60s Amazing style (and, dare I say, improving on it?), this was a particularly good example. The dialogue was (intentionally) corny, the action was intense, there were a number of insane coincidences, and it was a lot of fun.

There’s only a few issues of this series left (I think it ends at 25) and I’m going to be really sad to see it end.

Rating:

What a cool issue! Spider-Man actually convinces the Vulture that he’s being a jerk, and he turns himself into the cops! Ha! And the Vulture convinces Jason not to kill himself (though he may have also convinced him to become a super-villain…). We also get the first appearance by the Crime Master (Nick Lewis), and cameos by Kingpin and Norman Osborn.

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Not mind-blowing or anything, but a pretty decent Doctor Octopus story. The stuff with Aunt May inviting Doc Ock over for dinner was pretty funny, I just wish he had actually been able to come before getting trounced by Spider-Man.

The Acme Warehouse scene where Spidey got hit in the head and thought he was seeing the burglar that killed Uncle Ben was weird. I mean, it was an interesting idea I guess, but it wasn’t executed well and I, personally, would have cut it.

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I’m kind of disappointed the Headsman got put out of commission so quickly – he was a pretty cool villain and I would have liked to have seen at least one head get cut off. I guess these aren’t really that kind of book, though.

This was a nice issue, but some of the b-plots are getting a little stale. There’s the same conflict with Peter/Betty/Liz/Flash and while I think it’s interesting there haven’t been any actual developments for awhile. I guess it’s hard when Busiek’s constrained by the events of the original ASM books from Lee/Ditko.

One thing that I liked was when Liz was in danger and Jason literally held her life in his hands. After what Jason had just been through with Sally it would obviously have been traumatic and difficult for him. I sort of get the impression he’s going to become unhinged and turn into a villain at some point. I guess if that’s going to happen it’ll have to be soon, as this series is almost done.

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I guess this is sort of a stand-alone one-shot, but it’s still under the Untold Tales name. I don’t think there are any more of these, but after reading this I certainly wish there were. To start off with, the art is stunning. I really love the style Neil Vokes – a little cartoony, but not so much that it felt silly. Spider-Man, especially, looked really cool.

The story here was also pretty good. There wasn’t anything particularly special about it, there were no big bombshells dropped, but it was well-written and entertaining. One plot point (or plot omission) I was surprised about was that, when Spider-Man asked Dr. Strange to erase everyone’s memory, he didn’t take the opportunity to tell Betty or Flash or JJJ that he was really Peter Parker. He keeps talking about how much he’d love to tell them, and if their memory’s being erased anyway, why not?

Anyway, definitely a cool book.

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I liked this issue. Spider-Man runs into Hawkeye, who has previously tangled with Iron Man. Suspecting that Hawkeye might not actually be that bad a dude, but has just maybe made some bad choices, Spider-Man doesn’t go to hard on him and tries to help him turn things around. This is pretty different from the normal formula these books tend to follow, and it made it a more interesting to read.

The art in this issue also seems a notch better than the other Untold issues (not that it’s normally bad).

Rating:

Holy balls, I didn’t realize MJ knew Peter was Spider-Man from the get-go! Weird! I wonder if this matches up with the rest of the continuity.

Anyway, let’s talk about MJ’s father. Do you think he’s:

1. nice?
2. funny?
3. a mean, abusive drunk?

Well, seeing as how this is a Spider-Man comic, the answer is obviously (c), abusive!

Here’s a great hot dog joke. I gotta use this sometime:

Anyway, this was a pretty cool issue. The fight was in the background, but still pretty interesting; we got a nice introduction to MJ; and, there were some developments with Jason and Betty.

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Betty Brant’s ex-boyfriend Gordon comes back to try to frame/kill JJJ and take control of the Bugle. Also, he has super strength for some reason, and goes by the name “Terrier”. Spider-Man kicks his ass and the day is saved.

MJ is shown at the end! Woo!

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Well, it had to happen at some point and I guess this was it. Sally Avril, the Bluebird, finally got herself killed. The really awesome thing was that it wasn’t even by fighting a bad guy or through crazy heroics. Instead, she took risks driving to a crime scene and got smashed by a truck. What a crazy turn of events! This had two really awesome effects: first, it made Spider-Man feel insanely guilty, because he convinced her to stop being Bluebird and, he reasoned, if he hadn’t he could have protected her in an actual battle, whereas on the road (trying to be a photographer) he wasn’t able to protect her. Spider-Man felt like complete shit, which makes for good reading.

The second cool effect is sending a good message to the kids at home: be careful kids! It doesn’t take big super-villains to kill you, stupid mistakes and traffic accidents can too! That Busiek sure is a thoughtful, civic-minded dude for laying that lesson on us. Seriously.

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The evil dream-Spider-Man on the splash page looks a lot like the current Zombie Spider-Man!

So we finally find out what’s up with Betty: apparently she has a jerk ex-boyfriend and he’s the one that got her brother hooked on gambling and involved with Blackie Gaxton. Also, her mother got beat up really bad by some gangsters. That’s all fine, but it’s not the big reveal I was hoping for. It’s a shame it had been built up so much, because it just made this seem disappointing.

Other than that, this was a pretty good issue. I really like this whole Sally Avril/Blue Bird thing, though I’m sure it’s not going to end well.

Rating:

This was a pretty decent issue. I like when Peter’s in jams, and having Flash follow him around to try to meet Spider-Man really jammed ol’ Pete up good. Add to that stupid Sally Avril’s attempt to be a superhero and two bad guys instead of one – well, you got yourself a trouble salad. And that’s one kind of salad you do make friends with.

Sorry.

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This issue’s all about big tits and how horny Spider-Man is for them. There wasn’t really a whole lot of resolution in this issue, I really feel like it left me hanging.

On the upside, it seems like Sally may have figured out that Peter is Spider-Man. That’s pretty exciting.

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Peter’s really angry in this issue. He punches a danged lamppost in half – and in his civvies, too, not even as Spider-Man.

Busiek seems to be on a father/son relationship kick. The last issue was all about Harry and Norman Osborn. In this one we revisit the issue of Tiny’s violent dad, Batwing and his dead father, and the impact the relationship between the Lizard and his family.

This issue seemed really short to me, and a wee bit boring. It was OK.

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This book finally tells us who the Scorcher was working for in Untold #1 – none other than Norman Osborn! Osborn’s working up to becoming the Green Goblin, and I guess he needed those top secret documents for his research.

This issue introduces Harry Osborn, who is basically treated like shit by his father (+1 to bad father list – this should be a drinking game). We also see Spider-Man fighting the Enforcers again, as they’ve escaped the cops after Spidey caught them in ASM #10. The Enforcers are joined by a new villain named the Headsman, who seems pretty cool (although I don’t understand how his power pack relates to his axe).

Something about this issue seemed off to me, and I can’t really figure out what. The art definitely had a slightly different look – I’m not sure if it’s because Ecklund and Milgrom took over from Vey as inkers, or if it’s something else – and the writing seemed less…gripping, I guess. (BTW, the credits list “M. Milgrom” – I can’t find anyone named that, so I’m going to assume this is actually Al Milgrom.)

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In this issue Jason’s plan to standout comes into play – he and Sally are trying to find out Spider-Man’s true identity.

There’s also a hilarious joke when Peter visits a new optometrist and gives him a false name – Palmer, the incorrect name used in the second half of ASM #1. The optometrist has some crazy equipment and it turns out he’s in league with Electro, and using said crazy equipment to hypnotize people into handing over all their valuables to the crooks. This is pretty bad. Spider-Man ends up handing over money he retrieves from an armoured car robbery, and Electro and the optometrist realize they must have gotten Spider-Man in his true identity. Sally and Jason end up saving the damn day in a round about way when the flash from their camera brings Spidey back to his senses, just as Electro’s about to pull off Spider-Man’s mask and reveal Peter Parker beneath. Sally further saves Spider-Man’s ass by kicking Electro in the face. Spider-Man was actually pretty useless in this issue, which was cool to see.

We also get a Batwing update (he’s still around and Spider-Man’s been helping him out) and a bunch of buzz about the Kingpin’s recent takeover of the New York gang scene.

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