{"id":7499,"date":"2011-10-30T08:00:36","date_gmt":"2011-10-30T08:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=7499"},"modified":"2011-10-29T15:33:28","modified_gmt":"2011-10-29T15:33:28","slug":"sensational-spider-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2011\/10\/30\/sensational-spider-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Sensational Spider-Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Dennis O’Neil<\/strong>, Frank Millar<\/strong>, Klaus Janson<\/strong>, Tom Palmer<\/strong>, Stan Lee<\/strong>, Jack Kirby<\/strong> & Steve Ditko<\/strong> (Marvel)
\nISBN: 978-0-87135-514-0<\/p>\n

Here’s a masterfully moody little lost snippet of full-on Marvel Madness from the early days of graphic novel compilations that might amuse and will certainly delight all-out aficionados and neophyte Spidey fans alike.<\/p>\n

Released in 1989, but still readily available and affordable, this full-colour 80 page compendium collects two supremely impressive Amazing Spider-Man Annuals<\/strong> (#s 14 and 15) by veteran scripter Dennis O’Neil and then rising star Frank Miller, yet still finds room for a classy classic from the Astounding Arachnid’s earliest days (Amazing Spider-Man <\/strong>#8) by Marvel’s triumvirate of top creators.<\/p>\n

Inexplicably the action starts with Amazing Spider-Man Annual <\/strong>#15 (1981) with Klaus Janson inking ‘Spider-Man: Threat or Menace?’<\/em> wherein maniac vigilante Frank Castle (five years before the Steven Grant\/Mike Zeck miniseries catapulted him to anti-heroic superstardom in The Punisher<\/a><\/strong>) returns to the Big Apple and becomes embroiled in a deadly scheme by Doctor Octopus to poison five million New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

It’s not long before both Peter Parker and his colourful alter-ego are caught in the middle of a terrifying battle of ruthless wills in this tense and clever suspense thriller, which perfectly recaptures the moody mastery of Steve Ditko’s heydays.<\/p>\n

Next up is the previous year’s summer offering: a frantic magical mystery masterpiece wherein Doctor Doom and extra-dimensional dark god Dread Dormammu attempt to unmake Reality by invoking the Arcane Armageddon of The Bend Sinister.<\/p>\n

‘Vishanti’<\/em>, inked by Tom Palmer, sees an unsuspecting dupe capture Doctor Strange for the malevolent masterminds and nearly unleash cosmic hell with only the Amazing Spider-Man left to literally save the world; a fascinating magic and mayhem romp that once more deeply references and reverences the glory days of Ditko, particularly ‘The Wondrous World of Dr. Strange!’<\/em>, the legendary team-up of web-spinner and wizard from Spidey’s second annual.<\/p>\n

As if that brace of brilliant yarns was not enough high-quality comic excitement, this slim tome also includes ‘Spiderman Tackles the Torch!’<\/em>, a masterful, light-hearted 6-page vignette written by Stan Lee, drawn by Jack Kirby and inked by Ditko wherein a younger, boisterous and far more carefree wall-crawler gate-crashed a beach party thrown by the flaming hero’s girlfriend, leading to a clash with the entire Fantastic Four with explosive and thoroughly entrancing consequences.<\/p>\n

The most enduring and effective component of Spider-Man’s success was always the soap opera continuity element, but this rare collection of stand-alone stories perfectly demonstrates the character’s other star properties: sharp humour, heroic ingenuity, incredible action and beguiling empathy with the readership.<\/p>\n

Sensational Spider-Man<\/strong> is one of the best individual collections of the hero ever assembled and makes a perfect primer for anyone looking to discover the magic for the first time.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 1988 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dennis O’Neil, Frank Millar, Klaus Janson, Tom Palmer, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko (Marvel) ISBN: 978-0-87135-514-0 Here’s a masterfully moody little lost snippet of full-on Marvel Madness from the early days of graphic novel compilations that might amuse and will certainly delight all-out aficionados and neophyte Spidey fans alike. Released in 1989, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Sensational Spider-Man”<\/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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[158,79,136,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-strange","category-marvel-superheroes","category-punisher","category-spider-man"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-1WX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7499","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=7499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7499\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}