{"id":23084,"date":"2020-11-23T08:00:36","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T08:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=23084"},"modified":"2020-11-22T17:22:44","modified_gmt":"2020-11-22T17:22:44","slug":"spider-man-vs-mysterio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2020\/11\/23\/spider-man-vs-mysterio\/","title":{"rendered":"Spider-Man Vs. Mysterio"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"
\nBy Stan Lee<\/strong> & Steve Ditko<\/strong>, Gerry Conway<\/strong>, Roger Stern<\/strong>, Howard Mackie<\/strong>, Peter David<\/strong>, Dan Slott<\/strong>, John Romita Sr.<\/strong>, Ross Andru<\/strong>, John Romita Jr.<\/strong>, Marie Severin<\/strong>, Alex Saviuk<\/strong>, Todd Nauck<\/strong> & Marcos Martin<\/strong>, with Don Heck<\/strong>, Javier Pulido<\/strong> & various (Marvel)
\nISBN: 978-1-3029-1871-2 (TPB)<\/p>\n

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Fabulous Fights ‘n’ Tights Fantasy\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heroes are only truly defined by their enemies and superheroes doubly so, with the added proviso that costumed crusaders generally have a rogue’s gallery of fantastic foes rather than just one arch-nemesis. Even so, there’s always one particular enemy who wears that mantle: Moriarty<\/em> for Sherlock Holmes<\/strong>; Blofeld<\/em> for James Bond<\/strong>; Luthor<\/em> for Superman<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Spider-Man<\/strong> has always had two top contenders\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 but Mysterio<\/strong> was never one of them.<\/p>\n

However, this nifty trade paperback (and eBook) compilation gathers many of the now-cinematic evil enigma’s key and most entertaining clashes with the Wondrous Wallcrawler, tracing his devious development whilst offering an uncomplicated, no-frills thrill-ride of frantic spills and chills, equally appetising to film-inspired new meat and grizzled old veterans of the Fights ‘n’ Tights arena.<\/p>\n

Collecting Amazing Spider-Man<\/strong> #13, 66-67, 141-142, 618-620; Web of Spider-Man<\/strong> #90; Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man<\/strong> #11-13 and Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man<\/strong> #50-51 – collectively spanning June 1964 to April 2010 – the moody menace manifests sans preamble in ‘The Menace of\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Mysterio!’<\/em> (by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko from Amazing Spider-Man<\/strong> #13).<\/p>\n

Here a chilling super-foe premiers in the form of a seemingly eldritch mercenary hired by publisher J. Jonah Jameson<\/em> to capture Spider-Man. Eventually, however, the bizarre bounty-hunter reveals his own dark criminal agenda and is exposed as a scientific trickster not a mystic marauder\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

When Ditko quit Marvel the webspinner’s adventurers were limned by John Romita and a succession of stellar associates. One of most spectacular collaborations came in Amazing Spider-Man<\/strong> #66-67 (November & December 1968) as Lee scripted a psychedelic blockbuster for Romita, Don Heck & inkers Mike Esposito (Mickey Demeo) and Jim Mooney to illuminate. This time, the psychotic special-effects mastermind returns seeking loot and vengeance in ‘The Madness of Mysterio!’ <\/em>as the master of FX illusions engineers his most outlandish stunt, with the wallcrawler subjected to a bizarre form of mind-bending resulting in an all-out action-packed brawl entitled ‘To Squash a Spider!’<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps more interestingly, this yarn introduces Randy Robertson<\/em>, college student son of the Daily Bugle’s city editor and one of the first young black regular roles in Silver Age comics.<\/p>\n

Lee and his staff were increasingly making a stand on Civil Rights issues at this time of unrest and Marvel would blaze a trail for African American and other minority characters in their titles. There would also be a growth of student and college issues during a period when American campuses were coming under intense media scrutiny\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Jump forward a few years to February & March 1975 and Amazing Spider-Man<\/strong> #141-142 and – as Peter Parker comes to terms with the death of first love Gwen Stacy – a long-running comedy thread ends with the frankly ridiculous Spider-Mobile<\/em> crashing into the harbour, thanks to a series of apparent hallucinations, but the wallcrawler barely has time to care as a supposedly long-dead enemy returns in ‘The Man’s Name Appears to be\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Mysterio!’<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite the psychological assaults escalating and Parker continually questioning his own sanity, the mystery is solved through rational deduction and violence in ‘Dead Man’s Bluff!’<\/em>, with all entertainment coming courtesy of Gerry Conway, Ross Andru & Esposito\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Even more years later, a fanciful piece of classic Spider-history is unpicked by Roger Stern John Romita Jr. & Mooney in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man<\/strong> #50 and 51 (from January & February 1981) as ‘Dilemma’<\/em> and ‘Aliens and Illusions!’<\/em> (the latter pencilled by Marie Severin) reveal how special effects guru Quentin Beck<\/em> was secretly battling the Amazing Arachnid long before he adopted his luminous fishbowl hat and green tights\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Crafted by Howard Mackie, Alex Saviuk & Sam de la Rosa, Web of Spider-Man<\/strong> #90 (November 1992) was part of the wallcrawler’s 30th<\/sup> anniversary celebrations. ‘The Spider’s Thread’<\/em> again delves into secret personal history as the hero’s old theatrical agent returns, presaging a manic series of attacks from an army of impossible foes\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 until Spidey discerns his real enemy in ‘Sleight of Mind!’<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Set during the first superhero Civil War, 3-parter ‘I Hate a Mystery’<\/em> is by Peter David, Todd Nauck, Robert Campanella, & Rodney Ramos and comes from Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man<\/strong> #11-13 (October-December 2006). Peter Parker has recently gone public with his identity after acquiescing to the Super Human Registration Act, but his life as a high school science teacher is shattered by press intrusion and the vengeful acts of three separate but equally unhappy Mysterios\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The dramatic quotient of this collection cranks into overdrive for concluding extended epic ‘Mysterioso’<\/em>, originally seen in Amazing Spider-Man<\/strong> #618-620 (March & April 2010), by writer Dan Slott and art team Marcos Martin, Javier Pulido & Javier Rodriguez. Divided into ‘Un-Murder Incorporated’<\/em>, ‘Re-Appearing Act’<\/em> and ‘Smoke & Mirrors’<\/em>, the wallcrawler’s war against Mr. Negative<\/em> and an army of old enemies takes an even darker turn after Aunt May<\/em> is turned evil and a seemingly undead Mysterio is hired by cyborg mafioso Silvermane<\/em> to destroy his bitter rival Hammerhead<\/em>. The chaotic final clash is even more confused and cataclysmic and leaves us all on a tense cliffhanger\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Adding extra sheen are info pages, cover reprints (from Spider-Man Classics<\/strong>, Marvel Tales<\/strong> and others), variant covers and pin-ups by Ditko, Dwayne Turner, Romita Sr. and Jr. and Joe Quinones, plus Marvel Handbook fact-pages on all three villains who have thus far played Mysterio.<\/p>\n

Epic and engaging, this grab-bag of aerial assaults and titanic tussles is pure comicbook catharsis: fast, furious fun and thrill-a-minute-melodrama no fights ‘n’ Tights fan could resist.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 2019 MARVEL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stan Lee & Steve Ditko, Gerry Conway, Roger Stern, Howard Mackie, Peter David, Dan Slott, John Romita Sr., Ross Andru, John Romita Jr., Marie Severin, Alex Saviuk, Todd Nauck & Marcos Martin, with Don Heck, Javier Pulido & various (Marvel) ISBN: 978-1-3029-1871-2 (TPB) Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Fabulous Fights ‘n’ Tights Fantasy\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 8\/10 Heroes … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Spider-Man Vs. Mysterio”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[79,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marvel-superheroes","category-spider-man"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-60k","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}