July 2009 Archives

If you went crazy for the trading card sets that Marvel released in the 1990s, then I’m sure you’ll remember the work done by the Brothers Hildebrandt (Greg and Tim) on various Marvel characters.  They also contributed some Marvel Swimsuit pieces featuring the X-Men.

Here’s Cyclops and Jean Grey on vacation.  I think this picture is proof positive that Jean had plastic surgery sometime during the previous decade.  An untold story!  Scott’s mind does not appear to be wandering.  For a long time, this was the sacred romance in the Marvel universe.  It took Grant Morrison to break them apart.

We all know Rogue and Gambit can’t ever really get it on, without Rogue sucking the life out of her lover.  The Hildebrandt’s are really cruel here having Rogue tease Gambit with what he can’t have.  I think I’ve read somewhere that Mike Carey has devised a way for Rogue to control her powers now?  I can only follow Matt Fraction’s book. 

Check out more Marvel paintings on the Brothers Hildebrandt’s website.  Nuff said.

We've seen many female versions of Marvel's characters: Spider-Woman, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, etc. Now, courtesy of this fan at San Diego--we have female Deadpool! She-Deadpool? Deadpool-Woman? Deadpool-Babe?

Several people mentioned this fan during the San Diego 2009 coverage yesterday, including Agent M. Fortunately, she was easy to find on Flickr.

Wouldn't it be cool if Daniel Way or another Marvel creator made a female version of Deadpool as a joke? I bet they are considering it now. Nuff said.

The big bomb that Joe Quesada promised would break the internet has been detonated.  The rights to Miracleman now belong to Marvel!  It’s an ironic turn of events.  The character started out as Marvelman in the UK.  When it was going to be published in the USA, Marvel sued and the character’s name as changed to Miracleman by Eclipse Comics.  Alan Moore did a mind blowing job on this series, I hold it right up there with Swamp Thing, Watchman, and V for Vendetta.  I’ve always held on to my original copies of the Eclipse Comics.

Marvel brought Mark Buckingham on stage to celebrate the announcement.  I can only assume—or hope—that Marvel will bring Neil Gaiman and Buckingham together to finish The Silver Age and The Dark Age.  It would be weird to see these guys finish something they started over 20 years ago.

I am not sure how I would feel about seeing MarvelMan in the main universe.  It would be strange.  But sooner or later, I bet Marvel would bring him into continuity.  Nuff said.

Update:  Here’s a video interview that Quesada did with Jonah Weiland at CBR TV:

Deathlok is returning to the Marvel Universe soon.  This is the cover to Deathlok #1 by Brandon Peterson. 

Charlie Huston is the writer and Lan Medina is the artist.  I’m very interested to see what Huston does with this character.  Nuff said.

The Cup of Joe panel at San Diego Comic Con 2009 has started off with a bang!  What’s next after the identity of the Red Hulk is revealed in Hulk #600?

Red She-Hulk!  This is the cover to Hulk #16.

In Hulk #17, it’s Red She-Hulk versus Dark Wolverine.  Cowabunga!

Bruce Banner won’t be able to turn into the Hulk for a while.  There will be Red Hulks all over the place, as well as Skaar.  Time for another World War of the Hulks!  Let’s see what happens.  Love this Red Hulk cover by John Romita Jr.  Nuff said.

Update: Here’s an interview that Jonah Weiland did at CBR TV with Jeph Loeb.  They cover the new status quo in the Hulk books and the plan that was cooked up with Greg Pak.

In California, we have earthquake insurance.  In Hawaii and Florida, residents can buy hurricane insurance.  What type of protection does a homeowner really need in the Marvel Universe? 

Hulk insurance!

Great faux insurance ad, drawn by Dale Keown during his merged Hulk period, from the 1992 Marvel Swimsuit special.  The Hulk from this period of time was always one of my favorite versions of the character, and only Keown could draw that wicked look on his face.  Nuff said.

In a publicity event timed with San Diego Comic Con 2009, Activision and Vicarious Visions revealed that Phoenix (Jean Grey) will be a playable character in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.  The model looks pretty detailed in this screenshot as you can see.  How much you want to bet they’ve made a red skin to turn her into Dark Phoenix?

You can see Phoenix in action on this clip from Gametrailers, and the model looks as good in the game as it does in the picture above.  The Hulk is also in this clip—take note of how his skin is breaking up and bleeding light green.

G4TV has an interesting interview with Evan Skolnick, the former Marvel editor/writer who worked on New Warriors and other series.  Skolnick now works for Vicarious Visions, as the lead writer on MUA2.  Apparently, you are given the choice early on in the game whether you are pro-registration or anti-registration.  It seems like most of the Marvel characters will follow your choice.   I imagine that certain characters like Captain America and Iron Man have to chose the same sides they did in the comics.  Nuff said.

Google just released comic book themes for iGoogle, and there's several Marvel characters available:  Captain America, Spider-Woman, Iron Man, etc.  I chose the Hulk theme, which you see above.  The cool thing about this feature, is that the banner image rotates whenever you visit your Google page.  The above image was taken from Planet Hulk.  There are two more banners, one with an image from Mike Deodato, another from Dale Keown's classic cover to Hulk #377.  Cool beans.  Nuff said.

How many more Adam Hughes Marvel Swimsuit pin-ups can I unearth from the Marvel vault?  Lo, this trio of lethal ladies, true believers!

This Black Widow pin-up was the centerfold of the 1993 Marvel Swimsuit issue.  Natasha looks super lithe and sexy here, and a little bit dangerous as well.  I love how she's taken the clip out of her gun.  The rock formation on the background makes up a web pattern--very clever!  This is a great illustration, everything from the design, Natasha's facial expression, and the coloring are superb.

Marvel fan Leo Yen owns the original art to this Black Widow pinup.  You can visit Len Yao's gallery at ComicArtFans to see more of his collection.

From the 1995 Marvel Swimsuit issue, Hughes did this nifty illustration of Silver Sable getting ready to take a dive.  Notice that her one piece suit is silver and she's dangling a grenade around her neck.  Just in case Sable needs to blow up and underground lair while diving!  This piece really reminds of the work of Alphonse Mucha, who is an influence on many artists.

The next image from the 1993 Swimsuit special is my absolute favorite Adam Hughes pin-up, one that has burned itself permanently in my memory.  Can you name who it is without reading the caption?

This sneaky blonde is--Val Cooper from the 1990s X-Factor team!  A very obscure choice for a pin-up girl.  Val Cooper was the government liaison for Peter David's X-Factor team that consisted of Havok, Polaris, Quicksilver, etc.  Val wasn't a super-hero, and she dressed conservatively in the X-Factor comic.  I've no idea how the editors or Adam Hughes picked her for this issue.  But I find Val super sexy here, as she strikes a pose in this X-Factor themed bikini, hat, and trench coat.  The trench coat really seals the deal--anyone see that episode of Rescue Me where Andrea Roth surprised Denis Leary in a trench coat?  Perhaps this image is also a mark of the time period--the film Basic Instinct came out in 1992--Sharon Stone made deadly blondes very sexy back then.

In case you missed it, check out Part 1 of my Adam Hughes Marvel Swimsuit retrospective.  Nuff said!

Adam Hughes has always excelled at drawing babes and adding a little humor to his compositions as well.  In 1994 he contributed a number of stellar pinups for the fourth Marvel Swimsuit Special--which took place in Attilan and the Blue Area of the Moon.

The cover featured Sue Storm getting her freak on with Namor the Sub-Mariner.  Is there any reason why Sue wouldn't want to have a fling with the undersea prince?  She looks pretty fantastic and her leg is slightly opaque to reveal Namor's speedo.

Janet Van Dyne looks pretty luscious in this one piece outfit.  My first impression was there is nothing funny going on here.  But look behind the Wasp to see the bulging thongs behind her, belonging to Wonder Man and Captain America.

This Scarlet Witch pinup is really clever.  She's not wearing a swimsuit per se.  Wanda has used her magic to disassemble her costume--helmet, gloves, cape, etc--leaving only her red centerpiece intact.  How many thirteen year old boys fantasized about undraping the Scarlet Witch?  Adam Hughes sure did.

Here is the funniest piece of this 1994 set.  The Sensational She-Hulk--a must-have babe for any swimsuit special--sitting on top of my favorite dog in the Marvel Universe: Lockjaw!  Clearly, Jen has been using Lockjaw's teleportation powers to zip around to the best beaches.  They've been to Rio and Jamaica and god knows where else, from the stickers plastered on Lockjaw's back.  Jen's bag is packed with thongs, and the creepy Watcher is lurking in the background on the left.  I pity poor Lockjaw, he just looks exhausted from hauling Jen all over the world!  Nuff said.

George Perez contributed a couple of neat pinups for the Marvel Swimsuit issues.  Who better than Perez to draw some cute Marvel babes?

She-Hulk and the Wasp in the Savage Land, circa 1991.  Jen must have imported those high heels and jewelry.  A goofy looking dinosaur looks on in amazement.

Black Bolt and Medusa on Monster Island in 1993.  Drawing Medusa in the nude with nothing but that fantastic red hair to cover herself was a stroke of genius.  I couldn’t recognize Black Bolt until I read the caption and saw the bolts on his speedo.  I suppose I just wasn’t looking at him immediately.  Nuff said.

Beginning in 1991, Marvel started publishing an annual series of Swimsuit magazines, full color pinups of heroes and villains in skimpy beach ware.  Modeled after Sports Illustrated, each issue took place in one of Marvel's fictional locations.  The first issue took place in the Savage Land.  Here's a trio of pinups from 1991 featuring the Avengers.

Captain America and Diamondback.  Although it's not signed, I believe this was drawn by Michael Golden!  The other Swimsuit issues often featured Cap in a red white and blue speedo, but this was probably the best one.  If you like that sort of thing...not that there's anything wrong with that.  Diamondback was Cap's gal pal during this period.  I have fond memories of her.  She's featured in all the other swimsuit issues as well.

Thor and Sif relaxing as Loki lurks in the background.  Drawn by Ron Frenz and Joe Sinnott.  Thank goodness that Frezy didn't draw Thor in a speedo.  Hard for me to imagine a Thunder God on the beach in a resort:  Verily, I'd like another Pina Colada.  What would Loki do?  Make it a virgin?

Here is one of the best illustrations in all these swimsuit specials: Scarlet Witch by Mike Mignola.  She's sexy without being voluptuous and Mignola's use of shadows and blacks really makes the magic seem wonderful.  Nuff said.

Here is a John Buscema illustration from the first Marvel Swimsuit issue in 1991.

No idea if this was created for the magazine or lifted from an earlier comic book.  I still think it looks pretty nifty, and the Surfer is indeed "still hanging ten" by surfing the spaceways.  Nuff said.

The best thing from the Marvel Swimsuit issues were the faux advertisements.  Take these two, from Marvel Swimsuit 1991:

The Beast, drawn by George Perez, selling Ultra-X shampoo!  Seeing this reminds me that I prefer the Beast in his blue and furry form.  After reading Dark Avengers #7, do you think it’s possible Marvel will revert him back?

If you’ve ever given a dog a bath, you’ll know how much hair comes out—it can clog your drain if you do it in the bathroom.  The amount of hair the Beast would shed…OMG.  Probably there would be hair all over his bedroom and lab as well.

Wolverine, drawn by Mike Zeck, selling Macho speed stick deodorant!  Notice that it’s misspelled “deoderant”.  Never thought about superhero sweat until reading this ad.  The Marvel Universe must be a very stinky place indeed.  Nuff said.

The Marvel Swimsuit specials in the early 1990s contained some of the funniest depictions of Marvel's characters.  As evidence, I present to you this double page spread from the 1991 issue, by Paul Ryan:

Avengers (from New York City) versus the West Coast Avengers in a tug of war match!  It only takes 4 classic Avengers (Thor, Hercules, She-Hulk, Captain America) to compete with six West Coasters (Hawkeye, Mockingbird, US Agent, Wonder Man, Scarlet Witch, Iron Man).  Sersi is in the middle as the referee.  The outfits here would give Tim Gunn nightmares.  Cap wearing just his mask and thong--man, that just seems x-rated.  Nuff said.

If you were a Conan fan in the early 1970s, most likely you wailed when Barry Smith left the series, no matter how much you liked John Buscema.  Where there are a large number of fans who feel Buscema is the superior Conan artist, he was always a strong second choice for me.  Barry Smith left the color comic with the Song of Red Sonja, then he returned briefly for the epic Red Nails in Savage Tales.  After that, aside from pinups and posters, we never saw Smith on Conan again.

Roy Thomas found another artist—Tim Conrad—who briefly appeared to be Smith’s successor.

Conrad made a splash in the Savage Sword of Conan with a two part Bran Mak Morn story that blew us all away.  I kept hoping that Conrad would eventually draw Conan regularly—but all we got was this cover from the Marvel Comics Index series.  What happened to Tim Conrad after his Savage Sword stories?  I’ve lost track.  Nuff said.

In 1981, Brent Anderson provided this nifty wraparound cover to the X-Men Marvel Comics Index.

I love this cover because it features the classic X-Men on the left in their yellow and black uniforms.  The new X-Men are gathered around Charles Xavier on the right.  The logo is used as a prop for Nightcrawler to dangle overhead.  Terry Austin did a superb job on the inks, and they corralled Steve Oliff for the coloring.

Brent Anderson was the artists of the classic God Loves, Man Kills graphic novel.  He illustrated many other Marvel comics, including Ka-Zar and one of my favorite non-universe series, Strikeforce Morituri.  Check out Brent’s website.  Nuff said.

How many Fantastic Four covers did Jim Steranko produce in the 1970s?  Only three to my knowledge.

Fantastic Four #130 was produced during Steranko's flurry of 1972 covers for Marvel.  This issue featured the return of the Frightful Four, with an interesting twist.  Medusa, once a member of the Frightful Four in 1960s, had switched sides and become a member of the FF.  Taking Medusa's place?  Thundra, the Femizon who wanted to make babies with Benjamin J. Grimm.  The Thing looks great on this cover.

Fantastic Four #131 featured the answer to a mystery that began in Avengers #104--whatever happened to Quicksilver?  The last we had seen of the silver speedster, he had heroically sacrificed himself to defeat a Sentinel.  Seriously injured, Pietro saw something horrible approaching him.  Then he vanished, leaving the Avengers and his sister Wanda to wonder where he had disappeared.

This issue gave us the answer!  Quicksilver had been approached by Lockjaw, the teleporting giant bulldog from the Inhumans.  Lockjaw brought Pietro to Attilan, where he was nursed back to health by Crystal.  Crystal melted Quicksilver's icy exterior and he fell in love.  Naturally, when Johnny Storm discovered them together, a massive fight ensued.

It was a pretty darn good soap opera moment in the Marvel Universe.  Unfortunately, it had the side effect of removing Quicksilver from the Marvel playground for a number of years.

While the 1972 FF covers are good, they don't seem like iconic Steranko.  But the cover to the Fantastic Four Marvel Comics Index in 1977 is really groovy and psychedelic, man.  Nuff said.

Now here’s a blast from the past—anyone remember artist Ken Steacy?

Steacy worked on a number of remarkable comics in the 1970s and 80s.  He started off at Comico and later did work for Marvel—one Iron Man story in Marvel Fanfare stands out in my memory.  Since 2004, Steacy has been running his own publishing company.

What I find impressive about this cover is not the Hulk—he looks a bit ragged here.  It’s Ant-Man who really stands out on the left.  What could be more imaginative than Kirby’s costume design, the nutty antennae helmet, and steering an airborne insect like it was a flying horse?  And the lovely Janet Van Dyne for company.  Just think, if Marvel could produce computer animated movies, Ant-Man would be a perfect character for that medium.  Nuff said.

In 1982, George Olshevsky snagged Frank Miller for the cover to the Marvel Comics Index featuring Daredevil.

This dynamic cover features Daredevil and Elektra on a NYC rooftop, ready to fight the Hand.  Black Widow, in her new Miller-designed costume, hangs off the building on the side.

What’s really incredible is that this index also covered Black Goliath, Black Panther, Dazzler, and the Human Fly!  I could not believe fans were dying to know who wrote/drew each issue of the Human Fly!  Miller does his best with these side characters—his rendition of Black Goliath makes that character cool.

Not only did Miller draw this cover, Joe Rubenstein inked it, and Steve Oliff did a superb color job.  Nuff said.

Here’s an interview, taken from last June’s E3 2009, with Guha Bala (president of Vicarious Visions) on the new features in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.  There’s loads of footage on the Thunderbolts (Venom, Songbird, Green Goblin, etc) in the game.  I like what I’ve seen of the game environments, and the character detail is greatly improved as well.

Since this game is loosely based on Civil War, I wonder if it ends the same way?  I’d love to control Steve Rogers and have Captain America peel off Tony Stark’s armor.  Nuff said.

My retrospective look at George Olshevsky’s Marvel Comics Index covers continues, with this Doctor Strange cover by Tim Conrad in 1977.

The groovy thing about this cover is the way that Conrad rendered Stephen Strange’s face—it closely resembles Steve Ditko’s version of the character.  Nuff said.

No matter how critical you are of Marvel (and judging from the message boards on various websites, fandom is very critical), you've got to admit that Marvel has their shit together about shipping comics.

Captain America #600 was released on June 15th and now Captain America Reborn #1 was released on July 1st.  There were many covers released for this one--my favorite was the Bryan Hitch cover that you see above.

The story by Ed Brubaker weaves together a lot of dangling plot threads from the regular Captain America series.  In the conclusion of the Red Skull arc, we saw that Arnim Zola had attached Sharon Carter to a crazy device.  I was left with the impression that this machine had something to do with Steve Rogers...and Reborn proves that I was right.  The device was a Doc Doom style time machine designed to bring Steve Rogers back from the past into the present.  Sharon upset their plans in that story, and now Rogers is unstuck in time--shades of Slaughterhouse Five, as Brubaker mentioned in a tweet this week: "Trying to remember if Vonnegut wrote Final Crisis or Lost... or was it Slaughterhouse Five?"

This is a really top notch comic book, with great artwork by Hitch and Guice, and superb color.  The opening scene of Cap in World War 2 (on D-Day) makes me think that there isn't that much difference now between the Ultimate Cap and the regular Marvel 616 Cap.  I also liked how this story involves the rest of the present Marvel Universe, including HAMMER and the Dark Avengers.

I'm wondering if the secret to Captain America's return is to pull him out of the past into the present?  That would kind of push the big reset button, having Cap experience that fish out of water feeling all over again.  Lots of problems to solve there, although I am sure Brubaker could pull it off.  I could be wrong--Marvel tried this stunt with Captain Marvel during Secret Invasion.  I was excited about that gimmick as well.  I guess I'm easy--any excuse to bring my favorite characters back and I'm happy.

Marvel's cosmic event, War of Kings, has also been well orchestrated, with new chapters being published every one to two weeks.

War of Kings #5 propels this story to its climax.  Lilandra really is dead and riots are erupting all over the Shi'Ar homeworld.  Vulcan's megalomania has threatened his throne--now his allies, such as Talon (from Darkhawk) are ready to withdraw their support.  On the other front, Black Bolt has decided to end the war by launching a T-Bomb (Terrigen powered) at the Shi'Ar.  It's a crazy plan.  The bomb will uplift the Shi'Ar and somehow this will transform them into a peaceful society.  And Black Bolt has to commit suicide in order to launch the bomb.  It's crazy, but really imaginative.  You have to give Maximus a lot of credit!  He's become my favorite nut in the Marvel U.

On the very last page of this issue, we are teased with the big showdown we've been waiting for, when Vulcan finally meets Black Bolt.  Next issue we'll see those two powerhouses duke it out.  It should be a great fight, although Vulcan seems much more powerful than Black Bolt.  Wouldn't he win easily just by dragging the Inhuman king into outer space, where his voice would be useless?

We've certainly seen a lot of Matt Fraction's X-Men recently--almost one new issue every week!  Last week's Uncanny X-Men #512 was an excellent done-in-one story about the Beast's team travelling back in time to discover the origin of the mutant species.  And causing the 1906 San Francisco earthquake in the process! 

Uncanny X-Men #513 is a good first act to the war between Norman Osborn and Scott Summers.  This is really a great excuse for Fraction to turn Cyclops back into bad-ass Mr. X-Man.  However, in this chapter, Cyclops pretty much watches the TV coverage of Osborn's mutant crackdown on TV.  He even applauds Osborn for being an excellent chess player.  Hopefully he will spring into action in the next chapter.

Chapter 2 of Utopia (the Dark Avengers vs X-Men event) introduces the Dark X-Men: Emma Frost (now wearing black instead of white), Daken, Cloak, Dagger, and Namor were all evident from the cover.  The Angel looking dude is really Cal Rankin (surprised that he is still alive), and if you think about mutant shape-shifters, you will realize who is impersonating Charles Xavier.  I have to believe that Emma has a plan for undermining Osborn--why else would she bring the Sub-Mariner on her team?  Namor has got it in for Osborn as well.

There are many cool elements in the Utopia storyline.  Setting it in San Francisco, where people protest at the drop of a hat, makes it a natural place for people to protest for Mutant rights.  The initial mutant confrontation with the Dark Avengers takes place in the Castro district.  A curfew in San Francisco?  No way that people would obey that.  Simon Trask is also running around, turning people into human Sentinels.  But worse than Sentinels--Norman Osborn may be the greatest enemy the X-Men have ever faced.  Because he's not only using force against them, Osborn is also using public opinion and political forces.  He's worse the Magneto.  Fraction has really concocted a great threat here, let's see if he can pull off a good second and third act as well.  Nuff said.

How to celebrate July 4th, Marvel style?  With Steve Rogers, Captain Amercia, of course.

This cover, to Captain America volume 1 #454 in 1996, marked the end of Mark Waid and Ron Garney’s first run on the character.  Rob Liefield would re-launch Cap in his twisted vision of Heroes Reborn a short time later.  Fans like me were disgusted—Waid and Garney’s take on the character was very well received.  Fortunately, a year or so later when the Marvel heroes finally returned, Waid and Garney were back.  Nuff said.

Another cover from George Olshevsky’s Marvel Comics Index, Thor, circa 1977:

Tim Conrad was a rising star at Marvel in the 1970s.  This cover shows Thor in all his raging glory as he brings down a rainstorm.  Nuff said.

George Olshevsky was able to corral a number of great artists* to provide the covers for his Marvel Comics Index series in the 1970s.  Neal Adams drew this nifty cover to issue #3, which featured the Avengers, Defenders, and Captain Marvel.

On this cover, my favorite Avenger, the Vision, is featured front and center.  The Scarlet Witch is providing cover over him and Captain Marvel is taking care of the rear guard.  All three characters were featured prominently in the classic Kree-Skrull war arc that Adams illustrated in the Avengers.  The only Defenders representative is Valkyrie hacking away on the right.  Adams really did a great job with all these characters.

*Editor's Note:  Check out Steranko's Cover to the Marvel Comics Index, Nuff said!

I've bought and sold (and re-bought) many classic comics in my time.  But no matter what, I've always kept my very fine copy of Amazing Spider-Man 121 lovingly protected in mylar.  I have to, it's the single most important comic that I've read in my entire life!

I think a lot of comic readers in the baby boom generation would rank this issue very highly as well.  You have to picture me in this time and place.  It's 1973.  I've been reading comics for about 4 years.  I was a huge Spider-Man fan, reading his present (in Amazing) and past adventures (in Marvel Tales).  I even had a mail subscription to ASM.  It would arrive in our mailbox, in a brown wrapper, folded in half.  Not the thing you'd put in mylar (my present copy was purchased later), but a comic you'd slide out of the wrapper and start reading as soon as you could.

Some comics are so eventful, I remember the time and place where I read them.  In this case, I had gotten out of school early to go to the dentist.  My father brought me home on a sunny afternoon (in Alaska) and I read this issue with great excitement.

You could tell ASM #121 was going to be a turning point.  Despite the cover, I never expected anyone to really die.  Certainly not Gwen Stacy--her father, Captain Stacy, had died a few years earlier.  I did know that Norman Osborn would return as the Green Goblin.  Osborn was always a ticking time bomb ready to go off.  Whenever he recovered his memories and insanity took him over, something big always happened.

By the time, I got to the end of the story, I couldn't believe what I had just read.  Sweet, beautiful, loving Gwen Stacy--the love of Peter Parker's life--was dead?  No way.  That kind of thing just didn't happen in superhero comics.  And what really got me, even at 12 years old, was the above panel where Gwen Stacy perished.  The sound effect SWIK! registered that her death was even more sick and twisted. Spider-Man killed his own girlfriend by snagging her the wrong way with his web-line.  The SWIK! and SNAP! and head bobbing that Gil Kane drew left no doubt in mind.  Peter Parker had royally screwed up.

Was Norman Osborn responsible for Gwen Stacy's death as well?  Of course.  He had kidnapped Gwen and knocked her off the George Washington Bridge.

The beautiful and twisted thing about this story is that we as readers have witnessed the truth in a way no other character in the story has.  Spider-Man doesn't realize what he's done.  Neither does Osborn.  Nor any other character in the Marvel Universe.

I still could not quite believe Gwen was dead, even with the full splash page at the very end of the story.  It took the following issue to really confirm that fact.  Nothing seemed the same after this moment.  I could believe that other Marvel characters might die as a result.  It was such a remarkable moment that Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross chose to mark the end of an era in MARVELS.

Fans of this story and Gerry Conway's classic Amazing Spider-Man will want to listen to his podcast interview with John Siuntres on Word Balloon.  Conway talks in detail about how Amazing Spider-Man #121 was created, from the initial story idea by John Romita to Gil Kane's contribution in the neck-snapping panel above.  Conway also discusses his return to comics and the Last Days of Animal Man.  I love how Siuntres interviews comics professionals--he asks the questions I would ask if I were sitting down with them.  Nuff said.