Spider-Man – Page 22 – Now Read This!

November 29, 2012November 29, 2012

Spider-Men

By Brian Michael Bendis & Sara Pichelli (Marvel/PaniniUK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-520-8

After Marvel’s financial and creative problems in the later 1990s, the company came back swinging. A key new concept involved remodelling and modernising much of their core pantheon for the new youth culture and the Ultimate imprint abandoned the monumental and slavish continuity which had always been Marvel’s greatest asset, giving its new players a separate universe to play in, with varying degrees of radical makeover to appeal to a contemporary 21^st century audience.

Peter Parker was once again reduced to a callow, nerdy high-school geek, brilliant but perpetually bullied by his physical superiors and there was a fresh, fashionable, more scientifically feasible rationale for the fore-destined spider bite which imparted those patented, impossible arachnoid abilities.

His Uncle Ben still died because of the lad’s lack of responsibility. The Daily Bugle was still there, as was the bombastically outrageous J. Jonah Jameson, but now in a more cynical, litigious world, well-used to cover-ups and conspiracy theories, arch-foe Norman Osborn – a corrupt, ruthless billionaire businessman – was behind everything.

Any gesture towards the faux-realism of traditional superhero fare was surrendered to the tried-and-tested soap-opera melodrama which inevitably links all characters together in invisible threads of karmic coincidence and familial consanguinity but, to be honest, it seldom hurt the narrative. After all, as long as internal logic isn’t contravened, subplots don’t have to make sense to be entertaining.

After a short and spectacularly impressive career, the originally outcast Peter finally gained a measure of acceptance and was hailed a hero when the Ultimate Comics Spider-Man valiantly and very publicly met his end at Osborn’s hands during a catastrophic super-villain showdownâ€¦

Soon after he died a new champion cast in his image arose to carry on the fightâ€¦

In the aftermath child prodigy Miles Morales accidentally gained similar powers and as a freshly empowered 13-year old soon learned to cope with his astounding new physical abilities, painfully discovering the daily costs of living a life of lies and how an inescapable sense of responsibility is the worst of all possible threatsâ€¦

Meanwhile in the mainstream Marvel Universe â€œourâ€ Peter Parker underwent his own turmoil and travails, surviving to become a more-or-less grown man and first rank superheroâ€¦

This collection (collecting the miniseries Spider-Men #1-5 from June to September 2012) was designed as part of the celebrations for the web-spinner’s 50^th anniversary and offers a slight but magically enthralling guest-star-packed riff on one of the superhero genre’s most popular themes.

The action begins in the original universe where Peter is on patrol, stopping a couple of fleeing thieves – and almost getting arrested for his help – when he spots an eerie light. Investigating he discovers the latest hideout of old foe Mysterio and after a brief struggle overpowers the sinister Special Effects genius.

Something is off though: the villain’s babblings make no sense. The creep is clearly delusional, screaming that Spider-Man is already dead before breaking loose and triggering the bizarrely glowing device he’d been defending.

In a blaze of light Spider-Man transits from a dark warehouse at night to a sunny rooftop in a New York radically different, and things get even stranger when he stops a mugging and the victim thanks him but says his costume is in â€œterrible tasteâ€ and asks if he knew Peter Parkerâ€¦

And that’s when the kid in a way cool Spider suit shows upâ€¦

In another universe the Ultimate Mysterio wakes up and activates a telemetric avatar of himself to follow Spider-Man across the dimensions, where Parker is – in true Marvel style – fighting his namesake in a fever of confused misapprehension. Utterly underestimating his diminutive opponent, the elder Arachnoid is defeated by the kid’s secret powers (invisibility and a debilitating venom sting) and wakes up in a S.H.I.E.L.D. cell where an African-American Nick Fury confirms that he’s fallen into an alternate Earthâ€¦

Finally released into Miles’ custody, Peter is introduced to a New York where Peter Parker is a revered â€“ albeit dead â€“ hero, but before he can adapt the Mysterio avatar attacks with a lethal arsenal of ballistic weapons and mind-warping chemical weaponsâ€¦

By the time Ultimate heroes Thor, Hawkeye and Iron Man appear the battle is won and the mechanoid trashed, but as the ferociously curious Tony Stark examines the dimensional transfer tech in our world, their Mysterio is preparing another deadly assaultâ€¦

As the assembled heroes try to find a way home for the wall-crawling wanderer, Parker is torturing himself by visiting â€œhisâ€ old haunts and hangouts, leading to gut-wrenching meetings with Aunt May, Mary Jane Watson and a Gwen Stacy who hadn’t been murdered by Green Goblin Norman Osbornâ€¦

â€¦And in the other universe Mysterio just can’t let go and once again prepares to launch his devilish devices across the dimensional rift to kill Spider-Man: all of them and whoever stands with themâ€¦

Brian Michael Bendis & Sara Pichelli, aided by painter/colourist Justin Ponsor, have crafted a massively impressive fresh take on the alternate Earth team-up: one drenched in genuine warmth and tragedy, brimming with breathtaking action and stuffed with light-hearted, razor sharp humour which elevates it from the rank of formularized Costumed Drama fare and makes it easily one of the best superhero tales of the decade.

As usual the volume also contains a gallery of covers and variants – by Jimmy Cheung, Humberto Ramos, Marcos Martin, Terry & Rachel Dodson, Travis Charest, Tommy Lee Edwards, Mike Deodato, Ponsor, Rainier Beredo and Pichelli, to delight and thrill in a rollercoaster ride of that tense, evocative suspense and easy-going adventure which blessed the original Lee/Ditko tales.
A British Edition â„¢ & Â© 2012 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. and published by Panini UK, Ltd. All rights reserved

November 21, 2012November 20, 2012

Amazing Spider-Man: Big Time

By Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos, Neil Edwards, Stefano Caselli & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4624-7

For a popular character/concept lumbered with a fifty-year pedigree which only really works when the hero is played as a teenaged outsider, radical reboots are a painful if annoying periodic necessity. When the Spider-Man continuity was drastically dialled-back and controversially revised for the ‘Brand New Day’ publishing event, a refreshed, rejuvenated single (and never-been-married to Mary Jane) Peter Parker was parachuted into a similar yet different whole new life, so if this is your first Web-spinning yarn in a while – or you’ve drawn your cues from the movies – be prepared for a little confusionâ€¦

What is still valid: outcast, geeky school kid Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and, after seeking to cash-in on the astonishing abilities he developed, suffered an irreconcilable personal tragedy. His beloved guardian Uncle Ben was murdered and the traumatised boy determined henceforward to always use his powers to help those in dire need.

For years the brilliant boy hero suffered private privation and travail in his domestic situation, whilst his heroic alter ego endured public condemnation and mistrust as he valiantly battled all manner of threat and foeâ€¦

Now, all that changes in an instant as Big Time finds the Original Hard Luck Hero finally reaping some of benefits of his unique gifts and lonely crusadeâ€¦

Collecting Amazing Spider-Man #648-651 (January – March 2011) this enchanting thriller opens with the Webslinger revelling in new-found glory and the benefits of back-up as the newest addition to the Mighty Avengers leads the team into battle against the incorrigible Dr. Octopus in the eponymous first chapter ‘Big Time’. This acceptance among the superhero set hasn’t affected New York City Mayor J. Jonah Jameson who is still on his fanatical anti-Spider-Man crusade, but the former publisher is blithely unaware that he too is the obsessive target of a deadly menace stalking him and his familyâ€¦

Spidey has more pressing problems: his new girlfriend is Police CSI Officer Carlie Cooper, but old flame and barely-reformed super-thief Felicia Hardy – AKA the svelte and sexy Black Cat – continues to flirtatiously hang around raising suspicions and temperaturesâ€¦

As the city burns Doc Ock’s new Sinister Six – Electro, Sandman, Chameleon, Mysterio and The Rhino â€“ continue carrying out their tentacled tyrant’s latest doomsday plan until the Wall-crawler outperforms both his own team-mates and the fabled Fantastic Four to foil the explosive plot in the last secondsâ€¦

At the new Daily Bugle, reporter Ben Urich has got his nephew Phil a job as an office boy, unaware that the disbarred young photo-journalist once fought crime with a suit of Green Goblin armour and bag of tricks he’d found in an old warehouse owned by Norman Osborn. The poor kid isn’t happy and is beginning to resent his fall from grace after being caught doctoring some pictures he’d soldâ€¦

Peter Parker’s life is still a mess. Spending all his time saving the world has resulted in his being eviction after forgetting to pay the rent and this time he’s run out of friends to crash withâ€¦

However things are about to change radically after Pete’s Aunt May – newly married to Jameson’s wealthy father – show Jonah’s wife Marla the boy’s old High School science awards and scrap book. Marla is a very influential researcher and knows someone who might give Peter a jobâ€¦

Soon young Parker is being interviewed by super-cool Max Modell – â€œthe Johnny Depp of Einsteinsâ€ and owner of private think tank Horizon Labs – unaware that as part of Jameson’s extended family he too is being hunted by the Mayor’s latest nemesisâ€¦

The interview is a lucky disaster. When one of Modell’s scientific wonder-kids loses control of an experiment involving deadly new element â€œReverbiumâ€, Peter’s quick thinking saves the day and he’s offered a spot in the company’s exclusive team of geniuses. Soon the stunned lad has his own lab, an open brief to invent cool new stuff and a monthly salary that bigger than all his previous paychecks combinedâ€¦

â€¦And across town Wilson Fisk and his executive office Montana interview the murderous Hobgoblin for the position of enforcer. The Kingpin of Crime has been informed of Reverbium’s existence and he will stop at nothing to possess the potentially unstoppable new weaponised elementâ€¦

In ‘Kill to Be You’, the recent bloody history of Hobgoblin Roderick Kingsley is revealed before the super-assassin discovers Phil Urich skulking in his hidden warehouse lair. Callously moving in for the kill, the mercenary is completely unprepared for the kid’s long-hidden super-power and is mercilessly slaughtered by the traumatised youth who, succumbing to the Osborn/Goblin â€œcurseâ€, then appropriates his gadgets and guise to become the new and utterly psychopathic Hobgoblinâ€¦

As Spidey and Black Cat continue their strictly crime-busting affair, at high security Federal prison The Raft former foe the Scorpion is finally separated from the alien Symbiote which had turned him into the latest incarnation of Venom, but the process has caused a massive collapse. If warder Mach 5 and Doctors Coleman and Nichols can’t find a solution soon, inmate Mac Gargan is surely doomedâ€¦

Back at Horizon Labs, Peter hasn’t even been introduced to his six super-smart colleagues before the newest Hobgoblin busts in determined to fulfil his predecessor’s mission. However when Spider-Man overconfidently tackles the intruder, Urich’s irresistible sonic super-power quickly has the wall-crawler on the ropes and inches from deathâ€¦

The third chapter (inked by Scott Hanna, Joseph Damon & Victor Olazaba) finds the hero ignominiously saved by fellow geeky brain-box Bella Fishbach who manages to drive the exultant Hobgoblin off, but not before the manic marauder snatches up the deadly Reverbium sample and delivers it to the Kingpin. Determined to retrieve the stolen sample Peter calls on the Black Cat, but also takes the time – and Horizon’s resources – to whip up a new high-tech stealth-mode Spidey-suitâ€¦

The blistering all-action finale (with inks from Cuevas & Damon) commences with a raid on the Kingpin’s skyscraper HQ, but even after beating an army of thugs and ninjas, Montana and Hobgoblin, Spider-Man and the Cat are unprepared for the ferocious physical might of the crime-lord and only the devastating escape of the catastrophically unstable Reverbium saves them from certain death – although it also allows Urich and Fisk to escapeâ€¦

This magnificent slice of Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy also includes two short back-ups from issues #650 and 651 which act as pulse-pounding prologues for the next collected edition as ‘The Final Lesson’ (written by Slott with art from Neil Edwards & Hanna) finds genetics expert Professor Eli Folsom attempting to cure the ailing Mac Gargan. However it’s all a cunning plot by mad scientist Alistair Smythe to kidnap the former Scorpion, one that super guard Mach 5 is helpless to stop. The triumphant Spider-Slayer is then revealed as the menace stalking the Jameson clan as he further warps, augments and mutates Gargan in ‘The Sting that Never Goes Away’ (Slott, Stefan Caselli & Edgar Delgado) in preparation to unleashing an Army of Insect Warriors as part of his final ‘Revenge of the Spider-Slayer’.

To Be Continuedâ€¦

With a cover gallery including variants by Ramos & Delgado, Mark Brooks, Caselli, and Marcos Martin, plus promotional art and pages of Ramos design sketches, this is a joyously light yet bombastic rollercoaster ride for fans but also works well as a jumping-on point for readers new or returning.
Â© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

November 2, 2012November 1, 2012

Venom: Birth of a Monster – a Marvel Pocketbook British Edition

By Peter David, David Michelinie, Rick Buckler, Todd McFarlane & various (Marvel/PaniniUK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-052-4

After a shaky start in 1962 The Amazing Spider-Man quickly became a popular sensation with kids of all ages, rivalling the creative powerhouse that was Lee & Kirby’s Fantastic Four. Soon the quirky, charming action-packed comics soap-opera would become the model for an entire generation of younger heroes elbowing aside the staid, (relatively) old costumed-crimebusters of previous publications.

You all know the story: Peter Parker was a smart but alienated kid bitten by a radioactive spider during a school science trip. Discovering he had developed arachnid abilities – which he augmented with his own natural chemistry, physics and engineering genius – Peter did what any lonely, geeky nerd would do with such a gifts: he tried to cash in for girls, fame and money.

Making a costume to hide his identity in case he made a fool of himself, Parker became a minor celebrity – and a criminally self-important one. To his eternal regret, when a thief fled past him one night he didn’t lift a finger to stop him, only to find when he returned home that his guardian uncle Ben Parker had been murdered.

Crazed with a need for vengeance, Peter hunted the assailant who had made his beloved Aunt May a widow and killed the only father he had ever known, only to find that it was the felon he had neglected to stop. His irresponsibility had resulted in the death of the man who raised him, and the traumatised boy swore to forevermore use his powers to help othersâ€¦

Since that night the Wondrous Wall-crawler has tirelessly battled miscreants, monsters and madmen with a fickle, ungrateful public usually baying for his blood even as he perpetually saves them.

Although nominally a collection dedicated to the savagely driven, alien-infected vigilante who was amongst the Web-spinner’s greatest foes, Venom: Birth of a Monster only devotes a fraction of its content to the deadly dark double. Instead this Marvel Pocketbook compendium from 2007 collects the superbly powerful but barely relevant ‘Sin-Eater saga’ from Spectacular Spider-Man # 107-110 in 1985, and the contents of Amazing Spider-Man #298-300 (March-May 1988) which led to the actual debut of the Savage Symbiotic Sentinel…

The drama begins with chapter 1 of ‘Death of Jean DeWolff: Original Sin’ by Peter David, Rich Buckler & Brett Breeding, which begins with the eponymous lady cop who was Spider-Man’s only friend in the NYPD already murdered by a mystery assailant. In the stunned aftermath the department goes into cop-killer overdrive.

Meanwhile the Amazing Arachnid is savagely dealing with a trio of muggers who have robbed and brutalised a senior citizen. Ernie Popchik is a tenant at May Parker‘s boarding house and the senseless assault on the old man has enraged the hero to breaking point. His mood isn’t helped when the arresting cops inform him of Jean’s demiseâ€¦

Forcing himself into the case, Spidey befriends lead detective Stan Carter, even as in a church across town a desperate young man attempts to expiate his recent sins in the confessional boothâ€¦

The next morning sightless crusader Matt Murdock (AKA Daredevil) is drawn into the affair when he successfully defends the three muggers and sets them back on the street. Peter Parker is in court and further incensed as justice again seems to be not only blind by indifferent. The controversial presiding Judge Horace Rosenthal is one of Murdock’s oldest friends, and when the lawyer later visits in his chambers, his super-senses detect a sinister presenceâ€¦

Before anyone can react a ski-masked figure overwhelms Matt and blasts the judge point blank with a sawn-off shotgunâ€¦

‘Sin of Pride’ (with additional inks by Josef Rubinstein, Kyle Baker & Pat Redding) opens moments later in the street where Peter and his Aunt May are consoling the shaken and still-terrified Popchik, who can’t believe his attackers are free again. Suddenly the masked shooter erupts out of the courthouse and instantly provokes a panic. Ditching May and Ernie, Parker changes to Spider-Man and confronts the killer who casually blasts him. The hero’s incredible abilities easily enable him to dodge the shots, but in the heat of pursuit Spider-Man has forgotten that he’s in the middle of a crowded streetâ€¦

Horrified, the wall-crawler attends to the collaterally injured, allowing the murderous Sin-Eater to make his escape. With no other choice, the badly shaken hero is forced to resort to plain old detective work to solve the maniacal mystery and finds that Jean DeWolff had indulged a secret passion for the Amazing Arachnidâ€¦

There are many mourners attending the murdered Police Captain’s funeral, but across the cemetery, only Matt Murdock and close family attend the interment of the killer’s second victim. However as the Rosenthal ceremony concludes Matt’s super-hearing detects the Sin-Eater’s distinctive heartbeat wafting from the gathered crowd of cops, politicians, clerics and celebrities across the still, green parkâ€¦

The Daredevil in mufti is unable to isolate the source but now has a pool of suspects to trackâ€¦ which is reduced by one when, that night, the maniac kills the ReverendÂ Bernard Finn in the Confessionalâ€¦

The tension shifts into overdrive in ‘He Who is Without Sin’ (David, Buckler & Breeding) when political opportunist Reverend Tolliver stirs up racial divisions and Peter learns that one of the bystanders he recklessly endangered has died. Pushed to breaking point, Spider-Man futilely tries to pry a lead from Wilson Fisk, New York’s Kingpin of Crime, but coincidentally discovers that Daredevil was there before himâ€¦ The web-spinner, now nearing boiling point, then terrorises a local gang-boss and recklessly endangers a small child in his desperate urgency to find the Sin-Eaterâ€¦

It all comes to a head at the Daily Bugle building later, when the scattergun killer comes looking for J. Jonah Jameson and is anticlimactically subdued by Peter Parker and other journalists. The malevolent vigilante is Emil Gregg, a simple schizophrenic driven by voices to do the Lord’s work, but when Daredevil confronts the captive at Police Headquarters, his hearing soon discerns that this Sin-Eater is merely a deluded copycatâ€¦

Meanwhile at Jameson’s mansion the authentic assassin is attempting to kill the absent publisher’s wife and Peter’s best friend Betty Brant-Leedsâ€¦

The shocking conclusion ‘All My Sins Remembered’ (Bucker and the inking army known as â€œM. Handsâ€) sees Spider-Man save the day and expose the real killer, but also explode in uncontrolled fury as his shock and betrayal erupts into a misguided, frustration-fuelled dust-up with Daredevil.

And in the subway, traumatised Ernie Popchik shoots three young thugs acting tough and intimidating defenceless passengersâ€¦

By way of background: During the Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars of 1984-1985, Spider-Man picked up a super-scientific new costume which was actually a hungry alien parasite which slowly began to permanently bond to its unwitting wearer.

After being discovered and removed by Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four â€œthe Symbioteâ€ ultimately escaped and, like a crazed and jilted lover, tried to re-establish its relationship with the horrified hero; seemingly destroying itself in the attempt.

During a stellar run of scripts by David Michelinie, the beast was revived with a new host and became one of the most acclaimed Marvel villains of all time, helped in no small part by the escalating popularity of rising star artist Todd McFarlaneâ€¦

The action continues here with another only tangentially germane two-part thriller ‘Chance Encounter’ and ‘Survival of the Fittest!’ from Amazing Spider-Man #298-299, by Michelinie, McFarlane and Bob McLeod.

The story details how Spider-Man stumbles across a coterie of Survivalist millionaires covertly constructing a lavish high tech gated community in which to ride out the fall of civilisation in opulent splendour and lethally protected luxury. The scheme was only exposed when a series of weapons shipments went missing and Spidey’s old enemy Chance was kidnapped. Although a sharp action adventure in its own right – and very enjoyable – each of these tales concludes with a teaser showing a shadowy, bestial figure obsessing over clippings of Spider-Manâ€¦

The mystery is revealed in the anniversary issue #300 with the landmark introduction of ‘Venom’ wherein the monstrous shape-shifting stalker, having terrorised Peter’s new bride Mary Jane, begins a chilling campaign to psychologically punish Spider-Man.

Venom is a huge hulking, distorted carbon copy of the web-spinner: a murderous psychopath constituted of disgraced reporter Eddie Brock and the now eternally bonded bitter, rejected parasite whose animalistic devotion was spurned by its former ungrateful host. Parker had even tried to kill the faithful loving Symbioteâ€¦

Brock obsessively hates Parker for the craziest of reasons: when Emil Gregg was arrested, Brock was the first – and exclusive – reporter to reveal him as the Sin-Eater.

When the real killer was exposed hours later, Brock lost his job, his career and his grip on reality. As he hit the skids Brock blamed photo-journalist Parker for the debacle, but at his lowest moment, the rejected, starving Symbiote found him. As they merged, human and alien realised they hungered for vengeance on the self-same manâ€¦

The story is a stunning blend of action and suspense with an unforgettable classic duel between Good and Evil which famously saw Spider-Man finally return to his original Ditko-designed costume. It also kicked off a riotous run of astounding stories from a fresh generation of game-changing creatorsâ€¦

The savage, shape-changing anti-hero – a perfect dark-side version of the Amazing Arachnid – went on to his own blood-drenched series and eventually the spidery rivals reached a tenuous dÃ©tente.

Although I’ve carped about this book’s incongruent and perhaps misleading title, Venom: Birth of a Monster does reproduce some of the most powerful, entertaining and cruelly forgotten tales of the hard-luck hero’s long and stellar canon. If it’s simply fantastic Fights ‘n’ Tights action and excellent comics enjoyment you’re after, this might well be a very pleasant way to while away your midnight hoursâ€¦
Â© 1985, 1988, 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved. A British edition published under license by Panini S.p.A.

November 1, 2012October 31, 2012

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man volume 2: Spectacular

By Paul Tobin, Roberto Di Salvo, Jacopo Camagni, Ronan Cliquet, Amilton Santos & Terry Pallot (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4560-8

Since its earliest days Marvel has always courted the youngest comicbook audiences. Whether through animated movie or TV tie-ins such as Terrytoons Comics, Mighty Mouse, Super Rabbit Comics, Duckula, assorted Hanna-Barbera and Disney licenses and a myriad of others, or original creations such as Tessie the Typist, Millie the Model, Homer the Happy Ghost, Li’l Kids or even Calvin, the House of Ideas has always understood the necessity of cultivating the next generation of readers.

These days however, accessible child-friendly titles are on the wane and with Marvel’s proprietary characters all over screens large and small, the company usually prefers to create adulterated versions of its own pantheon, making that eventual hoped-for transition to more mature comics as painless as possible.

In 2003 the company created a Marvel Age line which updated and retold classic original tales by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and combined it with the remnants of its failed manga-based Tsunami imprint, which was also intended for a junior demographic. The experiment was tweaked in 2005, becoming Marvel Adventures with the core titles transformed into Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man and the reconstituted classics replaced by all-original yarns. Additional titles included Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes, The Avengers and Hulk. These iterations ran until 2010 when they were cancelled and replaced by new volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man which carried on the established continuities.

This digest-sized collection collects issues #5-8 of that second (2010) iteration and picks up where Spider-Man: Amazing left off. Paul Tobin continues scripting whilst 16-year old Peter Parker rounds out his first year as a reluctant – if driven – superhero: the mysterious Spider-Man.

Even after all the time he has prowled the streets and skyscrapers of New York, fighting crime and injustice, he’s still just a kid learning the ropes and pretty much in over his head all the timeâ€¦

Illustrated by Roberto Di Salvo, the drama begins with the hero battered and close to death following his savage battle with manic assassin Bullseye. Meanwhile top gang enforcer Flip is still masterfully doing his illegal job, which he hates, especially all the lying to his wife – when big boss Berto Torino calls him in for a special mission.

Somewhere Spider-Man is holed-up and helpless. If Flip can find and finish the pestiferous punk there’s a $2 million pay-off up for grabsâ€¦

Across town Peter’s girlfriend Sophia Sanduval is frantic with worry. As a mutant who can communicate with animals and a part-time operative of the Blonde Phantom Detective Agency, â€œChatâ€ has got a lot of unusual resources at her disposal, but not even Wolverine and the X-Men can help her lost and wounded boy wonderâ€¦

Happily her bestial buddies make more progress. A horde of animals locate the unconscious wall-crawler and loyally cluster around his unconscious, recuperating form in a protective cordonâ€¦

Alerted by her birds, Chat rushes across town to his side, but the brutally efficient Flip is also closing inâ€¦

By the time she reaches Peter, the Mafioso is dealing with the severely battered wall-crawler – but her animal shelterers have already performed a redemptive miracleâ€¦

In school next day the bandage-bedecked Peter Parker is properly teased and quizzed by his class-mates, especially ex-girlfriend Gwen Stacy and her controversial new beau Carter Torino (her father is a New York cop who turns a blind eye to Parker’s vigilante sideline and the boy is the unwilling heir-apparent to the city’s paramount criminal empire).

Taking it all in stride, Peter also gets a stern talking-to from Chat and Police Captain George Stacy, both urging the guilt-fuelled hero to take it easy for a while. There’s little chance of that however, when a class trip to a museum is interrupted by murderous maniac Dr. Octopusâ€¦

When the still-sub-par Spider-Man leaps painfully into the fray, the furious Chat is forced to call in a favour and reinforcements by asking morally ambivalent psionic mutant Emma Frost AKA Silencer to take a telepathic hand in the affairâ€¦

An artistic fill-in by Jacopo Camagni, Ronan Cliquet & Amilton Santos sees a hilarious training session with Wolverine and ghostly X-Man Kitty Pryde turn into a bizarre comedy of errors when the Torinos try to buy off Spider-Man, whilst protestors (pro and anti) at a mutant rights rally are attacked by gun-toting gangsters afraid of losing their jobs to super-powered thugs-for-hireâ€¦

The flirty and fearsome Silencer rears her seductive head again in the final tale (art by Di Salvo & Terry Pallot), when Chat gets all snarky after refusing to introduce the increasingly bugged Peter to her enigmatic and never-seen older sister.

Burning with curiosity, Peter has trouble keeping within his boundaries, even after Chat helps him disastrously try out a new and â€œless-unluckyâ€ heroic identity, but sparks fly when Silencer asks for their aid in taking out deadly mutant fire-starter Cinder and subsequently repays Chat by messing with Spider-Man’s obsessive mindâ€¦

These Spidey super stories are extremely enjoyable yarns, but parents should note that some of the themes and certainly the violence might not be what everybody considers â€œAll-Ages Super Hero Actionâ€ and would perhaps better suit older kidsâ€¦

Fast-paced and impressive, bright and breezy with lots of light-hearted action and loads of sly laughs, this book really sees the alternative web-spinner hitting his wall-crawling stride with the violence toned down and â€œcartooned-upâ€ whilst the stories take great pains to keep the growing youth-oriented soap opera sub-plots pot-boiling on but as clear as possible.

Never the success the company hoped, the Marvel Adventures project was superseded in 2012 by specific comics tied to Disney XD television shows designated as â€œMarvel Universe cartoonsâ€, but these collected stories are still an intriguing and perhaps more culturally accessible means of introducing character and concepts to kids born sometimes two generations or more away from those far-distant 1960s originating events.
Â© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

October 23, 2012October 22, 2012

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man volume 1: Amazing

By Paul Tobin, Matteo Lolli, Scott Koblish & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4118-1

Since its earliest days the company we know as Marvel has always courted the youngest comicbook audiences. Whether animated tie-ins such as Terrytoons Comics, Mighty Mouse, Super Rabbit Comics, Duckula, assorted Hanna-Barbera and Disney licenses and a myriad of others, or original creations such as Tessie the Typist, Millie the Model, Homer the Happy Ghost, Li’l Kids or even Calvin, the House of Ideas has always understood the necessity of cultivating the next generation of readers.

These days however, general kid’s interest titles are on the wane and with Marvel’s proprietary characters all over screens large and small, the company usually prefers to create child-friendly versions of its own pantheon, making that eventual hoped-for transition to more mature comics as painless as possible.

In 2003 the company created a Marvel Age line which updated and retold classic original tales by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and mixed in with the remnants of the manga-based Tsunami imprint, all intended for a younger readership. The experiment was tweaked in 2005 becoming Marvel Adventures with the core titles transformed into Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man and the reconstituted classics replaced by all new stories. Additional series included Marvel Adventures series Super Heroes, The Avengers and Hulk. These iterations ran until 2010 when they were cancelled and replaced by new – and continuity-continuing – volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man.

This digest-sized collection collects the first four stories from the second (2010) volume and actually starts in the middle of the action – although writer Paul Tobin and artists Matteo Lolli and Scott Koblish (as well as inkers Christian Dalla Vecchia, Terry Pallot Koblish & Andrew Hennessy) take great pains to keep the stories as clear as possible.

Sixteen year old Peter Parker has been the mysterious Spider-Man for little more than six months. In that time he has constantly prowled the streets and skyscrapers ofNew York, driven to fight injustice. However as a kid just learning the ropes he’s pretty much in over his head all the timeâ€¦

The opening tale finds him on a crusade against the all-pervasive Torino crime-family, and attempting to expose their bought-and-paid-for Judge Clive Baraby, whilst ex-girlfriend and wannabe journalist Gwen dogs his webbed heels and her father Police Captain George Stacy – who knows the boy’s secret and allows him to continue his vigilante antics – picks up all the well-thumped thugs the incensed wall-crawler leaves in his wake.

Even though Spidey can’t touch the corrupt Baraby, his campaign of attrition has the Torinos on the ropes and the Mafioso have engaged the services of super-assassin Bullseye to kill the Web-spinner. However, the Man who Never Misses is infuriatingly slow to act and soon there’s on open contract on the kid crusaderâ€¦

Peter’s civilian life is pretty complicated too. Since he and Gwen split, the lad has taken up with schoolmate Sophia Sanduval – an extremely talented lass nicknamed Chat – who knows Peter’s secret, can communicate with animals and has a part-time job with the Blonde Phantom Detective Agency…

She also pays attention in class and suggests how what they learned in history can be used to trap the untouchable Barabyâ€¦

The second story opens with a brutal dog-napping and leads inexorably to a clash with merciless mercenary Midnight when the villain invades Peter’s school during a martial arts exhibition by Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu. Along the way Chat introduces Pete to new buddy Flapper – a very wise owl indeed – and new kid Carter Torino enrols at Parker’s school. How does the troubled new boy know the constantly watching Bullseyeâ€¦?

Before the subplots get too intense however,Midnightand his ninjas attack Shang-Chi and Spider-Man joins the fracas, subsequently learning a few things from the combat expert – including who to return that stolen dog toâ€¦

Whilst close-mouthed gang-prince Carter gets closer to Gwen, Wolverine guest-stars in the third untitled tale when Chat asks her bug-boy beau to help hunt down the wild-haired mutant for a client who wants Logan to model their hair gel. Typically, whenever the Clawed Canadian appears trouble isn’t far behind, and when a gang ofTorino goons jumps Wolverine, Spidey is forced to join in the carnage. And that’s when Bullseye makes his moveâ€¦

As conflicted Carter Torino confronts his criminal family, this volume concludes with a savage showdown between Bullseye and the sorely overmatched Spider-Man and also sees the death of one of the supporting castâ€¦

Never the success the company hoped, the Marvel Adventures project was superseded in 2012 by specific comics tied to those Disney XD television shows designated as â€œMarvel Universe cartoonsâ€, but these collected stories are still an intriguing and more culturally accessible means of introducing the character and concepts to kids born sometimes two generations or more away from the originating events.

Fast-paced and impressive, these Spidey tales are extremely enjoyable yarns but parents should note that some of the themes and certainly the violence might not be what everybody considers â€œAll-Ages Super Hero Actionâ€ and would perhaps better suit older kidsâ€¦
Â© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

October 21, 2012October 18, 2012

Ultimate Spider-Man: Venom

By Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley, Art Thibert & Rodney Ramos (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2873-1

After Marvel’s financial – and indeed creative – problems in the later 1990s, the company came back swinging. A key new concept was the remodelling and modernising of their core characters for the new youth culture. The ‘Ultimate‘ imprint abandoned the monumental continuity which had always been Marvel’s greatest asset, and the company’s major characters were given a separate universe to play in, with varying degrees of radical makeover to appeal to a contemporary 21st century audience.

Peter Parker was once again a nerdy high-school geek, brilliant but bullied by his physical superiors, and there was a fresh and fashionable, more modern and scientifically feasible rationale for the spider bite which imparted impossible arachnoid abilities.

Uncle Ben still died because of his lack of responsibility. The Daily Bugle was still there as was the outrageous J. Jonah Jameson. But now in a more cynical, litigious world, well-used to cover-ups and conspiracy theories, arch-foe Norman Osborn – a corrupt, ruthless billionaire businessman – was behind everything.

Any gesture towards the faux-realism of traditional superhero fare was surrendered to a tried-and-tested soap-opera melodrama that inevitably links all characters together in invisible threads of karmic coincidence and familial consanguinity, but, to be honest, it seldom hurt the narrative. After all as long as internal logic isn’t contravened, subplots don’t have to make sense to be entertaining.

By reworking key moments of Lee & Ditko’s Spider-Man – and their myriad successors – writer Brian Michael Bendis and illustrator Mark Bagley succinctly captured the core values of the original and certainly re-cast in it terms that newer readers readily assimilated. The Ultimate Peter Parker spoke to modern teen readers in the same way the 1960s incarnation spoke to me and my peersâ€¦

Collecting issues #33-39 of Ultimate Spider-Man from 2003, this premiere hardcover edition introduces an alternative vision for the web-spinner’s most memorable foe of recent vintage, and upped the angst-quotient by revealing untold connections with Peter’s long-dead parents.

The convoluted, clotted web of coincidence and continuity which had eventually bogged down the original Spider-Man was just beginning to creep into these tales, but perhaps that’s unavoidable if you’re concocting contemporary super-heroics.

What you need to know: Parker is the perennial hard-luck loser kid, a brilliant geek just trying to get by in a world where daily education is infinitely more scary than monsters and villains. His alter ego’s already shaky reputation has been destroyed by a burglar, who impersonated Spider-Man, went on a very public crime-spree and murdered Police Captain George Stacy.

Whilst Peter was dealing with the deadly doppelganger his widowed Aunt May was inviting Stacy’s orphaned daughter Gwen to move into the Parker household. In the aftermath Pete’s girlfriend and confidante Mary Jane Watson dumped him, unable to deal with the constant stress of having an underage superhero and perpetually potential corpse for a loverâ€¦

Shell-shocked and emotionally gutted by his bad break-up, Peter broods and mopes around the house until he finds an old box of junk which contains notes and video tapes of his 5-year old self and his parents; dead for a decade in a plane crash.

The idyllic scenes show a picnic in the park, attended by geneticists Richard and Mary Parker, their research partners the Brocks, Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Although he had forgotten, Eddie Brock Jr., despite being an older kid, was young Pete’s best friend for years â€“ almost a brotherâ€¦

Eddie’s folks had also died in the crash and the boy had been forced to leave the city and live with his grandparents.

All fired up, Peter tracks down Eddie and, discovering he’s now a student at Empire State University, resolves to find his old buddy and show him the tapes. So eager is the Arachnid kid that he doesn’t even glance at the notes and files in the box: enigmatic records pertaining to an incredible, radical cancer-cure code-named the Venom Projectâ€¦

Under the tutelage of Dr. Curt Connors (whom Spidey once battled when the scientist temporarily mutated into a sentient Lizard), Eddie has grown into the coolest guy imaginable: a science student carrying on their father’s work and a player with lots of great-sounding advice about girlsâ€¦

At the end of a great day on Campus, Eddie takes Peter to the labs and shows his bro-besotted pal â€œthe workâ€ – a shared inheritance from their departed fathers which will change the world foreverâ€¦

The miracle-cure is a gloopy black liquid based on Ray Parker’s DNA: designed to coat a cancer sufferer’s entire body in a living bio-suit that would boost the victim’s system and repair organic malfunctions, and as Eddie shows it off he also discloses how corporate skulduggery scuttled the bold project even before the groundbreaking technologists died in that mysterious crashâ€¦

The suspicious and embittered Brock has spent years reconstructing the project using notes and samples kept by his grandfather. Now the student is close to total, vindicating successâ€¦

Back in High School Pete wants to confront Mary Jane, but Gwen advises against it. However when college-guy Eddie shows up in flashy sports car she joins the distracted Parker in another jaunt to ESUâ€¦

Fuming for hours at the imagined cause of his parents’ death and how well Gwen is getting on with Eddie, Parker breaks into the university labs to â€œobtainâ€ his own test samples of the Venom prototype and is horrified when the goo attacks and utterly envelops his bodyâ€¦

That night, a new Spider-Man rampages through New York, clad in deepest black. Stronger, faster, tougher, far more reckless and wild and spectacularly crushing crimes big and small. After brutally foiling a celebrity kidnapping and easily trashing super-villain the Shocker, the dark Spider tackles a petty thief who reminds him of Uncle Ben’s killer and, lost in an emotional flashback, mutates into a fanged horror which tries to eat the gun-toting thugâ€¦

Petrified and aghast, Peter comes to his senses in time and tries to escape but the suit won’t let him go until the panicked lad blunders into high tension power cables and crashes to earth in the cemetery where his parents are buriedâ€¦

Eddie is far from the cool guy he seems. After trying to take advantage of Gwen the frustrated frat boy sees TV footage of the Black Spider-Man and puts the pieces together. Rushing to the lab he finds Peter with the Venom sample and demands to know everything. Peter’s desperate warnings seem to hit home and he allows Parker to destroy the potentially homicidal sludge. Returning home he finds the still-shaking Gwen who tells him what Eddie did and slowly realises that his childhood friend might not be the paragon he imaginedâ€¦

Brock meanwhile has retrieved another sample in his ongoing series of Venom experiments and activated it with his own bodyâ€¦

Plagued by nightmares, Peter seeks out Mary Jane who again rejects him and his dangerous lifestyle, whilst at ESU Eddie’s rash act has already cost the life of the cleaning woman who tried to help the mewling ebony mess on a lab floor.

Next day at Midtown High, Peter’s Spider-Sense alerts him to incredible peril and he realises that the suit has copied his memories and passed them on. Eddie has become a ravening, shape-shifting carnivorous version of Spider-Man, fuelled by a now unsuppressed psychotic paranoia and hatredâ€¦

With Richard Parker’s video-taped fears and misgivings on the Venom Project and life in general echoing in his head, Peter confronts the exultant, mutated Eddie and is soundly thrashed. The big black beast is going wild: slaughtering cops and civilians, whilst only really craving Peter. The savage suit is madly trying to reunite with Peter’s memories and Parker DNA…

In the pointless battle that follows, the monstrous avatar is vaporised by lightning and Peter flees. Dodging cops who want to arrest him for his various impostors’ crimes, the totally traumatised kid runs straight into the formidable Nick Fury.

The Director of covert security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. is the government’s go-to guy: responsible for superhuman affairs and crises. Moreover he had previously threatened to draft Spider-Man once he turned eighteenâ€¦

Despondent and dejected, the boy surrenders and begs to be cured of the curse of Arachnid powers, but instead receives an unexpected and life-changing pep-talkâ€¦ Bewildered Peter again breaks into the ESU lab and meets Dr. Connors, wearily examining the vaults from which all the remaining Venom samples have been removedâ€¦

This version of the Wondrous Wall-crawler is very close to the movie iteration – surely a welcome benefit for all converts from celluloid to paper adventuring – and this book also includes added value features ‘Venom Arc Outline’ and 8 pages of beautiful Bagley pencils for the assorted comics and collection covers.

Moody and scary, but far more-concerned with angst-ridden melodrama than Fights ‘n’ Tights action, this thriller ends on a pensive, low-key and unsatisfactorily inconclusive note, deferring the eventual, inevitable showdown with the Venom-Brock amalgam to another day and leaving tragic Peter Parker even more conflicted and confused than beforeâ€¦

And that’s probably the point. Frenetic and compelling, the geeky charisma of the misunderstood alienated outsider fuels and permeates this readable pot-boiler of turbulent teen-tribulation and fashionable school-daze. Light yet addictive, this glossy super-soap brings great comics entertainment to the post-literate generation.
Â© 2003, 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

September 24, 2012September 19, 2012

Spider-Girl: Who Killed Gwen Reilly?

By Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, Sal Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4319-2

During a truly scary sales downturn in comicbook sales that afflicted the mid-1990s, American publishers tried all manner of stunts and ideas to retain their rapidly-diminishing readerships. Marvel especially attempted ever-wilder schemes to bolster sales and the one with the most lasting effect, if not success, was to create a pocket universe of interlocking titles featuring the offspring of mainstream characters such as The Avengers and Spider-Man.

Kicking off with a throwaway tale in What Ifâ€¦? volume 2, #105 (February 1998 and clumsily asking ‘What If Mary Jane had never lost the baby, and Spider-Man had a Spider-Girl?’) the notion launched a batch of younger, ostensibly contemporary characters battling modern menaces in the old-fashioned way.

That introductory yarn was eventually re-released as Spider-Girl #0 and is reprinted at the end of this collection of recent episodes which primarily gathers the Alternate Arachnoid Avenger’s short stories from Amazing Spider-Man Family #1-8 and back-up strips from Web of Spider-Man (2009) #1-4.

May â€œMaydayâ€ Parker is the daughter of Peter Parker and wife Mary Jane, and she developed arachnoid superpowers whilst in High School, giving writer/creator Tom DeFalco a chance to rehash the teen-angst shtick of the primal, all-hallowed – and supremely successful – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko days of the company’s infancy.

What with disapproving parental units to dodge, vengeful enemies to tackle, lots of guest stars and the hell that has always been school days to wade through, it frequently felt like a pretty cynical attempt to recapture the glory days, but it was extremely entertaining, worked well and struck a chord with the Faithful.

Spider-Girl became Marvel’s longest running female-starring solo-title, outliving by years every other book in the â€œMC2â€ Universe.

Although she is much less a nerd than her father ever was – I suspect modern kids aren’t so ready to own their alienation issues, and besides, reading comic books is enough geekiness for anyone to admit to – Mayday still endured the traditional torments of teen life, but after many months her concerned guardians grudgingly accepted her need to help humanity as a bona fide super-hero and so, whilst perpetually dealing with classroom politics, hesitant romantic overtures, crushes and strained relations with the rest of the second-generation Marvel Offspring (such as Darkdevil, Stinger, The Buzz, New Avengers and the Fantastic Five), Spider-Girl gradually became a fixture of the alternate future Marvel Universe.

Eventually Mayday’s popularity waned and her first volume ended with issue #100 in 2005, only to return a year later for a 30-issue run as The Amazing Spider-Girl before transferring to support strip status in the anthological Amazing Spider-Man Family (#5-8) and simultaneously as a part of Marvel’s Digital Comics Unlimited webcomic experiment in 2009 as Spectacular Spider-Girl.

Thereafter Mayday sprang into the back of the latest incarnation of Web of Spider-Man, out into a 4-issue miniseries (Spectacular Spider-Girl again) and the finale one-shot Spider-Girl: The End.

I think I got all that right, butâ€¦

This quirky collection opens with the pertinent parts of Amazing Spider-Man Family #5-8, by DeFalco, Frenz & Sal Buscema, and asks ‘Who is Gwen Reilly?’ A very brief recap of those 130 intervening issues reminds us of May’s origins and how she is currently acting as big sister to her own clone who had been grown in secret by the maniacal secret society The Order of the Goblin. Subsequently she gained the metamorphic powers – and weaknesses – of the sinister alien Symbiote which had created Venom and Carnageâ€¦

The clone – who of course claims to be the original May – is wildly unstable and prone to viciously excessive violence, as seen when the girls encounter a robbery in the street, part of an escalating gang war between New Yorkcrime kingpin Black Tarantula and potential cyborg usurper Silverbackâ€¦

Peter and Mary Jane Parker, barely coping with their new son’s physical problems, are more concerned that there are two teenaged May’s in the house but whilst the clone solves that problem with her shape-shifting abilities, she is far more reluctant to surrender her claim to the actual identity of the â€œrealâ€ daughter of Spider-Manâ€¦

That all changes at school next morning when she rolls up as sexy, flamboyant wild-child â€œcousinâ€ April Parker and begins to steal all May’s friends. The senior Parker goes ballistic that night at home but is cut short when another impossible girl turns up.

Gwen Reilly claims to be the long-lost daughter of Peter’s brother Ben but is clearly unaware that the identity was just a fictitious persona used by a Spider-Man clone in the years before the Wall-crawler was maimed in battle against the Green Goblin and retired from costumed crusadingâ€¦

When the stranger leaves, May and April follow her but are separated by another gang crime. When May finally catches up she finds her doppelganger standing over the brutalised corpse of the mystery girlâ€¦

‘Who Killed Gwen Reilly? ratchets up the tension as May calls her dad – now a forensic scientist working in the NYPD crime lab – to deal with the mystery. Most troubling is April’s callous disregard for the stranger’s death: is it possible her emotionally stunted double could actually have committed the murder, despite all her protestations of innocence?

Certainly the female facsimile is no stranger to mischief, using her shape-shifting power to covertly cosy-up to the boy May shyly adores, but with a slaying to solve, Spider-Girl pushes it all onto a back-burner and seeks assistance from demonic do-gooder Darkdevil, before being ambushed by one of her father’s oldest and most savage foesâ€¦

As a result of her hopeless battle against Tombstone, May is left for dead and dumped in the New Jersey Pine Barrens whilst April is busy saving victims of a tenement blaze in ‘Into the Fire!’ but once the crisis is over, the clone ruthlessly ends the Granite Gangster’s threat for ever and simply assumes May’s identity, even fooling Peter and Mary Jane as she luxuriates in finally becoming the only child and declaring ‘There’s a New Spider-Girl in Town!’â€¦

The convoluted commotion continued without missing a beat in Web of Spider-Man (2009) #1-4, as two lazy thugs cut corners and dump May’s battered, broken body short of their regular disposal spot, thus allowing the supposed corpse a last, desperate chance to escape in ‘Angels and Devils’. Scared and furious, the gunsels track the wounded warrior but are attacked by a monstrous winged beast which can only be the mythical Jersey Devilâ€¦

Struggling back to relative civilisation May sneaks into her home, utterly unaware that â€œSpider-Girlâ€ has been ambushed by the deadly Goblin Queen in ‘Like a Fury Scorned!’ The last heir of the twisted Osborn legacy was responsible for creating the Mayday clone and the Gwen Reilly conspiracy but is in a desperate war with her sire’s Order of the Goblin Â personality cult. Claiming April as her spiritual sister, Fury has captured the spider-clone with the heartfelt intention of making her an ally.

May, meanwhile, has recovered and deduced how April has attempted to replace her. Heading to school and eager to reclaim her life, the bruised battler stumbles straight into another catastrophe as Goblin Queen attacks, attempting to kill RenÃ© DeSantos, an influential member of the Order whose unfortunate and unaware daughter Simone is a classmate of the real Ms Parkerâ€¦

Barely surviving the shattering attack, May and Darkdevil unite to track down Fury in ‘Whom Gods Destroy’, backed up by erstwhile Spider-clone super-menace Kaine – now a very senior and Special Federal Agent – and raid her lair only to find the morally ambiguous and definitely untrustworthy April in full Carnage Symbiote mode as the Goblin Queen’s allyâ€¦

The saga culminates in a blockbuster brouhaha as ‘They First Make Mad!’ brings the house down and sets events in motion for the final chapter in Mayday Parker’s fantastic lifeâ€¦

But that’s not included here, even though there’s still plenty of web-spinning wonderment on show.

First up is a terrifically enjoyable run of vignettes from Amazing Spider-Man Family #1-4, set in the same futureverse, but in the early years when May was still a baby. Mr. and Mrs. Spider-Man by DeFalco, Frenz & Sal Buscema opened with the still-active and cash-strapped Wall-Crawler battling the lethal Lizard whilst Mary Jane discussed the pressure of ‘Family Ties!’ with the mutated biochemist – and potential employer’s – distraught and desperate wife and childâ€¦

After a horrific drive-by shooting ‘Those Who Never Return!’ explored the understandable worries of the wife of a practising superhero confronted by a situation where only her hubby could make things right, the absolutely brilliant ‘Common Ground’ (illustrated by Todd Nauck) found Pete and MJ in a bustling, frustrating hospital Emergency Room, frantically waiting to see a doctor after baby May catches her first cold.

It’s not the place you want to see short-tempered super-villain the Rhino trying to cut the line because his beloved ancient auntie is really sickâ€¦

The domestic delights finish up with ‘Career Paths’ as a very convincing and sympathetic thief takes the young Marrieds hostage for the very best of reasons and for a very galling ride, after which this tome concludes with that aforementioned What If?/Spider-Girl #0 yarn.

‘Legacyâ€¦ in Black and White’, illustrated by Frenz & Bill Sienkiewicz, relates how ordinary lass May Parker suddenly found herself possessed of incredible abilities just as the last Green Goblin inexplicably attacked her fuddy-duddy crime lab daddy. When her mother revealed the long-kept secret of his former life, the horrified girl only had one real choice to makeâ€¦

Even though the stories are capable and well produced and accompanied by a superb cover gallery by Frenz, Paulo Siqueira, Joe Suitor, Nuno Plati, Pasqual Ferry & Jelen Djurdjevic to enchant the eyes, this is a truly odd book to read: starting in the middle, proceeding without conclusion to the penultimate, skipping back to a prologue and ending at the beginning.

Even after all the Spider-Girl issues I’ve read from the feature’s inception I found myself regularly stopping to check elsewhere before being able to continue with this collection, so I’ve never been more serious when I say don’t read this unless you’re well versed in the arcane arachnid arcane and lore or need a headache to get out of some even more onerous taskâ€¦

Even so: if some editor would kindly re-order and re-release this tome I’d happily give the Weirdly Winsome Webbed Wonder another goâ€¦
Â© 1998, 2009 & 2010 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.

September 14, 2012September 12, 2012

Spider-Man: The Osborn Identity

By Brian Reed & Philippe Briones with Patrick Olliffe, Chad Hardin, Wayne Faucher, Stephen Segovia, Hector Olazaba, Joe Caramagna & Todd Nauck (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-7851-4687-2

When the Spider-Man continuity was drastically dialled-back and controversially revised for the ‘Brand New Day’ publishing event, a refreshed, now single-and-never-been-married Peter Parker was parachuted into a new life, so if this is your first Web-spinning yarn in a while – or you’ve drawn your cues from the movies – be prepared for a little confusion.

That being said, in any continuity the Wall-Crawler’s greatest and most implacable foe will always be Norman Osborn, whether in his guise as the grotesque Green Goblin or as an insidious billionaire inventor/industrialist turned politician.

The psychotic Osborn has dogged Spider-Man/Peter Parker for years even though his abused son Harry was the maligned hero’s greatest friend and the stress and strain has, over time, turned the Osborn heir into a drug addict, a costumed carbon copy of his old man and latterly, a certifiable basket case.

Callously oblivious, Norman, through various machinations became America’s Security Czar: the â€œtop-copâ€ in sole charge of the beleaguered nation’s defence and freedom, especially in regard to the USA’s costumed community.

Under his draconian tenure the Superhuman Registration Act led to the Civil War, Captain America was arrested, murdered and resurrected and numerous horrific assaults on mankind occurred: including the Secret Invasion and the oppressive Dark Reign as Osborn drove the World’s Mightiest Heroes underground and formed his own team of deadly Dark Avengers.

Not content with commanding all the covert and military resources of the USA, Osborn personally led the team, wearing his own formidable suit of Iron Man armour and calling himself the Iron Patriot, even while conspiring with a coalition of major super-villains to divvy up the world between them.

He finally overreached himself and led an unsanctioned assault on Asgard (see Siege: the Cabal) and when the fugitive Avengers reunited to stop him, Osborn’s fall from grace and subsequent incarceration led to a new Heroic Age.

During that period of ascendancy however, Osborn had again attempted to dominate, subjugate and manipulate his disgustingly disappointing heir Harry by dosing him with a mind-and-body bending blend of Goblin potions and Super-Soldier serum and forcing him to don a genetically triggered cybernetic super-suit, so that his unwilling boy could join the Dark Avengers as the crushingly conflicted American Sonâ€¦

Thanks to Spider-Man however, Harry finally overcame his deadly daddy’s diabolical influence and violently turned on his sire. In the aftermath the shocked and traumatised junior Osborn retired to a life of anonymity and therapyâ€¦

This slight but engaging sequel – containing the 4-part mini-series Amazing Spider-Man Presents: American Son and supplemental material from Age of Heroes #2 – opens with a prologue tale from that latter anthology as ‘Heroic Rage’ by Brian Reed, Chad Hardin & Hector Olazaba, finds scoop-starved reporter Norah Winters on the scene when the American Son spectacularly slaughters a rampaging monster. She jumps to the same conclusion as the late-arriving Spider-Man that the certifiably unstable Harry Osborn is back inside the high-tech armourâ€¦

The saga proper – by Reed and artists Philippe Briones, Hardin, Patrick Olliffe, Wayne Faucher & Stephen Segovia – commences with ‘A Patriot Act’ as the recovering Harry, now running a coffee shop on the campus of Empire State University, is increasingly harassed by news-teams and paparazzi as American Son continues to appear in steadily escalating and high profile emergencies and in clashes with street thugs.

As the troubled vendor’s flatmate Mary Jane Watson asks Peter Parker to have a word with his former friend, both Norah and the FBI separately confront Harry, unwilling to believe that somebody else can be using the full-body weapons-system specifically geared to Osborn genesâ€¦

Harry is already at breaking point when Spider-Man also challenges him, but explodes in violent rage when the web-spinner also refuses to believe in his innocenceâ€¦

Returning to the Coffee Bean, Harry serves one last customer who awkwardly introduces himself as Gabriel Stacy before abruptly claiming to Norman Osborn’s other child, pulling a gun and shooting the astounded baristaâ€¦

In ‘The Other Son’ the enigmatic armoured object of media-frenzy then smashes through the wall and frantically rushes Harry to medical aid, categorically proving that the suit is being used by somebody else and leading to a swift change of priorities for the FBI, if not Norah.

Despite a credible threat, the merely wounded and incensed Harry checks himself out of hospital and teams up with the penitent yet determinedly suspicious Winters to track down the impossible truth.

First stop is a terrifying prison visit with Osborn Senior which culminates in the enraged madman claiming Gabriel is his true sonâ€¦

With all she needs and Harry for corroboration, Norah goes straight to her editor with the story of a lifetime, but Stacy’s secret is far more crazy and convoluted than any of them could possibly suspectâ€¦

‘Side Effects’ further ramps up the psychological tension as good old police work determines how, if not why, American Son saved Harry from Gabriel’s murderous assault, but not before the other Osborn child kidnaps Norah and takes her to one of the Green Goblin’s old hideouts, leading to a spectacular and cataclysmic three (or is it four?) way showdown between Harry, Spider-Man and the terrifyingly twisted possessor of the sinister super-suit in ‘American Slayed’â€¦

With the shocking suspense ended and order temporarily restored, there’s even room for a charming human interest yarn from Joe Caramagna & Todd Nauck as cash-strapped Harry battles a corporate incursion that threatens to undercut and close the Coffee Bean.

Luckily old friends, the outrÃ© tastes of ESU students, a handy drop-in by Spider-Man and a video-blogging super-villain eventually prove more than a match for the big-business blandishments of ‘Bargain Donuts!’ and Harry happily lives to brew another dayâ€¦

Despite feeling a little rushed in places, this is a solid, engaging old-fashioned Fights ‘n’ Tights drama refreshingly focusing on the rich supporting cast and perfectly capturing the familial feel that made Spider-Man sagas such a compelling experience.
Â© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

July 26, 2012July 25, 2012

Stan Lee Presents the Amazing Spider-Man volume 2

By Stan Lee & Steve Ditko, with Jack Kirby (Marvel/Pocket Books)
ISBN: 978-0-67181-444-1

Perhaps I have a tendency to over-think things regarding the world of graphic narrative, but it seems to me that the medium, as much as the message, radically affects the way we interpret our loves and fascinations. Take this pint-sized full-colour treat from 1978.

It’s easy to assume that a quickly resized, repackaged paperback book collection of the early comics extravaganzas was just another Marvel cash-cow in their perennial â€œflood the marketplaceâ€ sales strategy – and maybe it was – but as someone who bought these stories in most of the available formats over the years I have to admit that this compact version has a distinct charm and attraction all its ownâ€¦

During the Marvel Renaissance of the early 1960’s Stan Lee & Jack Kirby followed the same path which had worked so tellingly for DC Comics, but with less obviously successful results.

This is another brilliant glimpse at how our industry’s gradual inclusion into mainstream literature began and is one more breathtaking paperback package for action fans and nostalgia lovers, offering yet another chance to enjoy some of the best and most influential comics stories of all time.

After a few abortive attempts in the 1960s to storm the shelves of bookstores and libraries, from the mid-1970s Marvel made a concerted and comprehensive effort to get their wares into more socially acceptable formats. As the decade closed, purpose-built graphic collections and a string of new prose adventures tailored to feed into their all-encompassing continuity began oh, so slowly to appear.

Whereas the merits of the latter are a matter for a different review, the company’s careful reformatting of classic comics adventures were generally excellent; a superb and recurring effort to generate back-history primers and a perfect – if perilous – alternative venue to introduce fresh readers to their unique worlds.

The dream project was never better represented than in this classy little crime-busting collection. Marvel was frequently described as â€œthe House that Jack Builtâ€ and King Kirby’s contributions are undeniable and inescapable in the creation of a new kind of comicbook story-telling, but there was another unique visionary toiling at Atlas-Comics-as-was: one whose creativity and even philosophy seemed diametrically opposed to the bludgeoning power, vast imaginative scope and clean, broad lines of Kirby’s ever-expanding search for the external and infinite.

Steve Ditko was quiet and unassuming, voluntarily diffident to the point of invisibility, though his work was both subtle and striking.

Innovative, meticulously polished, and often displaying genuine warmth and affection, Ditko’s art and storytelling always managed to capture minute human detail as he ever explored the man within. He found heroism, humour and ultimate evil; all contained within the frail but noble confines of humanity’s scope and consciousness. His drawing could be oddly disquietingâ€¦ and, when he wanted, certainly scary.

Drawing extremely well-received monster and mystery tales for Stan Lee, Ditko had been given his own title. Amazing Adventures/Amazing Adult Fantasy featured a subtler brand of yarn than Rampaging Aliens and Furry Underpants Monsters which, though individually entertaining, had been slowly losing traction in the world of comics ever since National/DC had successfully reintroduced costumed heroes.

Lee & Kirby had responded with Fantastic Four and the ahead-of-its-time Incredible Hulk but there was no indication of the renaissance to come when the already cancelled Amazing Fantasy #15 cover-featured a brand new and somewhat eerie adventure character.

Of course, by now you’re all aware of how outcast, geeky school kid Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and, after seeking to cash-in on the astonishing abilities he developed, suffered an irreconcilable personal tragedy and determined henceforward to always use his powers to help those in dire needâ€¦

After a shaky start The Amazing Spider-Man quickly became a popular sensation with kids of all ages, rivalling the creative powerhouse that was Lee & Kirby’s Fantastic Four and soon the quirky, charming action-packed comics soap-opera would become the model for an entire generation of younger heroes elbowing aside the staid, (relatively) old costumed-crimebusters of previous publications.

This second resized, repackaged Fights ‘n’ Tights bonanza (reprising Amazing Spider-Man #7-13 from 1963-1964) opens, after the mandatory Stan Lee Prologue, with an encore appearance of the Wall-crawler’s first super-powered foe, as a murderous septuagenarian flying bandit at first defeated his juvenile nemesis before falling to the Web-spinner’s boundless bravery and ingenuity in a spectacular duel above the city in ‘The Return of the Vulture’.

Fun and youthful hi-jinks were a signature feature of the series, as was Parker’s budding romance with â€œolder womanâ€ Betty Brant, a secretary at the Daily Bugle where Peter Parker worked part-time.

Such â€œSalad daysâ€ exuberance was the underlying drive in #8â€²s lead tale ‘The Living Brain!’ when an ambulatory robot calculator threatened to expose Spider-Man’s secret identity before running amok at beleaguered Midtown High, just as Parker was finally beating the stuffings out of school bully and personal gadfly Flash Thompson.

This riotous romp was accompanied by ‘Spiderman Tackles the Torch!’ (a short and sweet vignette drawn by Jack Kirby and inked by Ditko) wherein a boisterous wall-crawler gate-crashed a beach party thrown by the flaming hero’s girlfriendâ€¦ with explosive consequences.

Amazing Spider-Man #9 was a qualitative step-up in dramatic terms as Peter’s aged Aunt May was revealed to be chronically ill – adding to the lad’s financial woes – and the action was supplied by ‘The Man Called Electro!’ a super-criminal with grand aspirations.

Spider-Man was always a loner, never far from the dark, grimy streets filled with small-time thugs and criminals and with this tale, wherein he also quells a prison riot single handed, Ditko’s preference for tales of gangersterism began to show through; a predilection confirmed in #10â€²s ‘The Enforcers!’, a classy mystery where a masked mastermind known as the Big Man used a position of trust at the Bugle to organize all the New York mobs into one unbeatable army against decency.

Longer plot-strands were also introduced as Betty mysteriously vanished (her fate to be revealed in the next issue and here the next chapter), but most fans remember this one for the spectacularly climactic seven-page fight scene in an underworld chop-shop that has still never been topped for action-choreography.

The taint of tragedy again touched Parker with a magical two-part adventure ‘Turning Point’ and ‘Unmasked by Dr. Octopus!’ which saw the return of the lethally deranged and deformed scientist – complete with formidable mentally-controlled metal tentacles – and the disclosure of a long-hidden secret which had haunted poor Betty Brant for years.

The dark, doom-filled tale of extortion and excoriating tension stretched from Philadelphia to the Bronx Zoo and cannily tempered the trenchant melodrama with stunning fight scenes in unusual and exotic locations, before culminating in a truly staggering super-powered duel as only the masterful Ditko could orchestrate it.

This tension-drenched tiny tome concludes with the introduction of a new super-threat and ‘The Menace of Mysterio!’ as a seemingly eldritch bounty-hunter hired by Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson to capture Spider-Man eventually revealed his own dark agenda.

Of course the menace was only ended after another mind-boggling battle, this time through the various exotic sets and props of a TV studioâ€¦

These mini-masterpieces of drama, action and suspense immaculately demonstrated the indomitable nature of this perfect American hero, and I suppose in the final reckoning how you come to the material is largely irrelevant; just as long as you doâ€¦

June 23, 2012June 24, 2012

Marvel Platinum: the Definitive Spider-Man

By Stan Lee, Gerry Conway, Jim Shooter, David Michelinie, J. Michael Straczynski, Dan Slott, Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, John Romita, John Romita Jr., Todd McFarlane, Joe Quesada & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-510-9

With Summer Movie Blockbuster season hard upon us and a new iteration of The Amazing Spider-Man swinging our way, Marvel has again sagaciously released a bunch of tie-in books and trade paperback collections to maximise exposure and cater to those movie fans wanting to follow up the cinematic exposure with a comics experience.

Produced under the Marvel Platinum/Definitive Editions umbrella, this treasury of tales gathers a few of the most impressive and obvious landmarks from the world-weary Wall-Crawler’s extensive canon, specifically Amazing Fantasy #15, Amazing Spider-Man #121-122, 300, 500, 545, 600, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21, Sensational Spider-Man volume 2 #41, which offer a fair representation of what is a quite frankly an over-abundance of riches to pick fromâ€¦

After the now-mandatory introduction from Stan Lee, it all begins as it must with the sublime origin tale ‘Spider-Man!’ by Lee & Steve Ditko from Amazing Fantasy #15 (cover-dated September 1962), describing in 11 captivating pages the parable of Peter Parker, a smart but alienated kid bitten by a radioactive spider on a High School science trip.

Discovering he had developed arachnid abilities – which he augmented with his own natural chemistry, physics and engineering genius – he did what any lonely, geeky nerd would do when given such a gift – he tried to cash in for girls, fame and money.

Making a costume to hide his identity in case he made a fool of himself, Parker became a minor celebrity – and a criminally self-important one.

To his eternal regret, when a thief fled past him one night he didn’t lift a finger to stop him, only to find when he returned home that his guardian and uncle Ben Parker had been murdered.

Crazy with a need for vengeance, Peter hunted the assailant who had made his beloved Aunt May a widow and killed the only father he had ever known, only to find that it was the felon he had neglected to stop.

His social irresponsibility had led to the death of the man who raised him and the boy swore to always use his powers to help othersâ€¦

It wasn’t a new story, but the setting was one familiar to every kid reading it and the artwork was downright spooky. This wasn’t the gleaming high-tech world of moon-rockets, giant monsters and flying cars – this stuff could happen to anybodyâ€¦

The story appeared in the same month as Tales to Astonish #35 – the first to feature the Astonishing Ant-Man in costumed capers, but it was the last issue of Amazing and Lee had printed the Spider-Man tale against the advice of his boss and publisher Martin Goodman, who knew kids didn’t want to read about other kids, especially nerdy loner ones with creepy insect powers…

However that tragic last-ditch tale had struck a chord with the reading public and when sales figures came in for that cancelled final issue Lee – and Goodman – knew they had something special. By Christmas a new comicbook superstar was ready to launch in his own title, with Ditko eager to show what he could do with his first returning character since the demise of Captain Atom (see Action Heroes Archive volume 1).

The bi-monthly Amazing Spider-Man #1 had a March 1963 cover-date and the company has never looked back sinceâ€¦

Swiftly rising to the top of the company’s hierarchy, Spider-Man defined being a teenager for the young readers of the 1960s and 1970s, tackling incredible hardships, astonishing foes and the most pedestrian of frustrations. Slowly however he grew up, went to college, got a girlfriend and found true love with policeman’s daughter Gwen Stacyâ€¦

From Amazing Spider-Man #121-122 (June-July 1973) comes a two-part tale which stunned the readership as Parker failed to save his intended from the insane rage of Norman Osborn, the first Green Goblin, in a shattering tragedy entitled ‘The Night Gwen Stacy Died’ which led inexorably to ‘The Goblin’s Last Stand!’ (both by Gerry Conway, Gil Kane, John Romita senior & Tony Mortellaro)â€¦

Life moved on and Peter found a more mature love with old friend Mary Jane Watson. She shared the secret of his identity and after years of treading water they married in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 (1987).

‘The Wedding’, by Jim Shooter, David Michelinie, Paul Ryan & Vince Colletta, is actually a rather bland affair with nominal villain Electro only a minor note in a tale which dwells overlong on the happy couple’s doubts and pre-wedding jitters, but it is undoubtedly a landmark as it set the seal on the Web-spinner’s maturation and offered a genuine symbol and sense of progress.

During the Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars of 1984-1985, Spider-Man had picked up a super-scientific new black and white costume which turned out to be a hungry alien parasite that slowly began to permanently bond to its unwitting wearer.

After being discovered and removed by Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, the â€œSymbioteâ€ ultimately escaped and, like a crazed and jilted lover, tried to re-establish its relationship with the horrified hero; seemingly destroying itself in the attempt.

From Amazing Spider-Man #300 (May 1988) comes ‘Venom’ by Michelinie & McFarlane, wherein a shadowy, bestial figure stalking Peter and Mary Jane Watson-Parker is revealed as a monstrous shape-shifting horror, intent on terrorising the new bride and destroying her husband.

Venom is a hulking, distorted carbon copy of the Wall-crawler: a murderous psychopath constituted of disgraced reporter Eddie Brock (who obsessively hates Parker the photo-journalist) permanently bonded with the bitter, rejected parasite whose animalistic devotion was spurned by an ungrateful host who even tried to kill itâ€¦

The story is a stunning blend of action and suspense with an unforgettable classic duel between Good and Evil which famously saw Spider-Man finally return to his original Ditko-designed costume, and kicked off a riotous run of astounding stories from Michelinie & McFarlane that led to the creation of a fourth Spider-Man title in an era where there was no such thing as overexposureâ€¦

Next, from the anniversary Amazing Spider-Man #500 (December 2003), comes ‘Happy Birthday Part Three’ scripted by J. Michael Straczynski, pencilled by John Romita and John Romita Jr. with inks from Scott Hanna, which concluded a spectacular adventure wherein a host of Earth’s heroes battled an invasion by Dark Dimensional overlord Dormammu and Spider-Man and Dr. Strange were marooned in time.

Simultaneously faced with the moment he was bitten by that radioactive spider and the future instant of his death, tempted by the chance to alter history and destiny, Peter Parker chooses to relive his tragic life all over again in order to change the moment when Dormammu conquered our worldâ€¦

For a character and concept with a fifty-year pedigree which only really works as a teen outsider, radical reboots are a painful if annoying necessity, and with a history this convoluted it was absolutely necessary for a prose ‘Story so far’ page before Sensational Spider-Man volume 2 #41 and Amazing Spider-Man #545 (December 2007 & January 2008) re-present ‘One More Day’ parts 3 & 4 (by Straczynski, Joe Quesada & Danny Miki) wherein Peter and Mary Jane are taken on a metaphysical quest and meet heart-wrenching might-have-beens before ultimately losing each other and having their lives overwritten by demonic tempter Mephisto in a magnificent sacrifice to save the life of Aunt Mayâ€¦

When the Spider-Man continuity was drastically and controversially altered for the ‘Brand New Day’ publishing event a refreshed, now single-and-never-been-married Peter Parker was parachuted into a new life, and the final tale contained here (Amazing Spider-Man #600, September 2009) capitalises on that renewed and returned youthful vim and verve as Peter faces one of his oldest foes on his ‘Last Legs’ in a rousing romp by Dan Slott, Romita Jr. & Klaus Janson.

Set during the wedding of Aunt May to J. Jonah Jameson’s father, the spectacular yarn recounts the last gambit of Dr. Octopus, (a previous fiancÃ© of the inexplicably enticing May Parker) who is dying from years of being smacked around by the good guys. Determined to make the City of New York remember his passing and scotch the impending nuptials if he can, the multi-limbed madman unleashes a horde of tiny octobots and takes cerebral control of every electrical device in the Five Boroughsâ€¦

Packed with guest-stars such Daredevil, Fantastic Four and the Avengers, all of Manhattan is held hostage to the madman’s final rampage until Spider-Man and the Human Torch save the day and still get to the church on time. But at the reception there’s just one more shock for Peter Parkerâ€¦

Jam-packed with a gallery of covers and pin-ups from Jack Kirby & Ditko, Romita (and Son), McFarlane, J. Scott Campbell, Quesada & Miki, Mike Deodato Jr., Janson, Gabriele Dell’otto & Ron Garney, this treasury of delights also includes a meticulous and fact-filled run-down of Spider-Man’s career and ends with ‘The True Origin of the Amazing Spder-Man’ by historian Mike Conroy, proving the modern Wall-Crawler still has a broad reach and major appeal for fans old and new.

This is the perfect vehicle with which to rejoin or jump on if the Webbed Wonder crawled off your radar in recent yearsâ€¦

â„¢ & Â© 1962, 1973, 1987, 1988, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2012 Marvel and subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A, Italy. All Rights Reserved. A British edition published by Panini UK, Ltd.

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