Recently in Spider-Man Category

I don't talk about modern comics very much--there's tons of other blogs that do everyday much better than I can.  But I do get a box every month from Discount Comic Book Service, and Amazing Spider-Man is always in there.  I think one of the most talented artists working at Marvel these days is Marcos Martin. 

Marcos Martin brings a crazy, kinetic style of energy on Spider-Man that hasn't been seen since the days of Steve Ditko.  Coupled with Dan Slott's high-energy mania, this is a creator marriage made in comic-book heaven.

I was particularly bowled over by the above splash page, where Spidey is standing over a craps table.  The story title and credits are cleverly laid out along the table grid.  A very clever idea!

I really find Martin's innovative use of logos (such as the blood dripping off Spidey's masthead on issue 619) to be very much in the vein of Will Eisner.  Eisner did all kinds of things with the Spirit's logo (or logo-forms as Alan Moore called them) by shooting them with bullet holes and having all kinds of liquids dripping from them.

The cover to the forthcoming Amazing Spider-Man Annual #37 does another twist on the logo, by turning it into a neon sign.  Again, this cover seems very Eisner-like to me, with Spidey and Cap standing on different levels of a building.

You have to dig the old-fashioned shout-out to "Collector's Item Classic" here as well!

Marcos Martin has also done outstanding work on Dr Strange (The Oath mini-series with Brian K. Vaughan) and the Captain America 70th Anniversary special.  Here's the black and white version of a page where Cap addresses the troops on a WW2 aircraft carrier.

There's a cool interview with Martin over at The Beat by Michel Fiffe.  Like his fellow countryman, Carlos Pacheco, Marcos Martin appears to have respect for the creators who made these characters great.  Nuff Said!

Every comics company loves to give their heroes a new look from time to time.  During the Shooter-era of the 1980s, the Marvel heroes were re-designed with new looks and costumes.

Spider-Man: Black costume from Secret Wars, sans the symbiote.

Iron Man: Tony Stark designed this red and silver armor in Iron Man #200.

Hulk: Grey Hulk from Peter David’s tenure on the series.

Thor: Walt Simonson designed this new battle armor and let the Thunder God grow a beard.

Captain America: Steve Rogers put on this costume and became a free agent for a while.  Later on, US Agent wore this costume whenever a team needed a third-rate Captain America—like the current Mighty Avengers series.

Were these Marvel makeovers as bad as shoulder pads and mullets?  I liked the Grey Hulk the best out of this lineup.  Nuff Said!

In 1974 Marvel introduced us to something a heck of lot larger than good old Giant-Size comics: Marvel Treasury Sized Editions. 10” x 13” suckers that were so big, they fell over on the newsstand.  And while they mostly contained reprints, Marvel put in a few special features in the early editions.

100 Pages of Spider-Man were wrapped around a John Romita (Sr) cover featuring the web-slinger in a classic pose.  I say thee nay—classic is too weak a word. It’s archetypal!  How could a kid not want to buy this comic if they were a Spidey fan?  If I were Disney, I’d take this image and slap it on mugs, T-shirts, and all kinds of merchandise.

The inside front cover featured an editorial by Stan the Man—can you dig his mad mod haircut and full beard?  Crazy, man.

There was also a double page mockup of the Daily Bugle, with Marie Severin providing the “photographs”.

The second page of the Bugle shows the Bullpen hard at work and also announces Ross Andru joining Gerry Conway on Amazing.

The table of contents page featured a gallery of headshots by Romita, comprised of Spider-Man’s friends and foes.

The back cover was another Romita headshot, accompanied by the possibly the most famous quote from any comic book.

I was thrilled to get this in 1974, and I still get one when I pull out my beat up copy.  The Treasury Editions that followed in the first year were pretty good as well—most notably the Fantastic Four (with the Galactus Trilogy) and Conan (with Barry Smith’s Red Nails) editions.  Nuff said!

Last Sunday, I wrote about the amazing Silver Surfer #1 poster from Asgard Press.  Asgard Press also makes the perfect gift for any classic Marvel fan, their Vintage Marvel Comics 2010 Calendar.  I must confess that I was given this as a gift by someone at the company, but that doesn’t sway my recommendation at all.  I had been eyeing this calendar for weeks at Flying Colors Comics (in Concord, CA, my favorite LCS close to home).  Please note that all images shown here and in my previous post are scans taken from other sources than the actual calendar.

The calendar (around $19) features 16 Giant-Sized Marvel covers ready for framing at an 11"x14" size.  Even if you don’t need a calendar or buy this mid-year, it’s a great gift.  Asgard Press has designed this calendar so that you can separate the cover image from the calendar through perforations on the top or bottom, and it’s in perfect condition (no holes from thumb-tacks or nails). 

The inside front cover features Steve Ditko’s cover to Amazing Spider-Man #33—one of the defining moments in Peter Parker’s life, with the hero pinned under a giant piece of machinery.  The Ditko cover isn’t displayed on the back or even on Asgard’s website, and it’s a great bonus print.

Amazing Spider-Man #68, by John Romita Sr., is also included.  The famous cover blurb Crisis on Campus! reflects the anti-war and civil rights protests in 1968.  Marvel Comics were popular among college students, and Stan Lee decided to put Spidey smack dab in the middle of current events.  This cover was previously made into a poster by Marvel a couple of years after it came out.  I had that on my wall as a kid, so I’m glad to get this again.  BTW, the paper used for these reproductions are on good, thick, sturdy paper stock.

Giant-Size Marvel readers who also share my love for The Vision will be pleased by the inclusion of Avengers #57 in the calendar.  Note that the scan above shows this cover with colors that are extremely vibrant (probably taken from a Masterworks collection).  The Asgard Press covers are reproduced in a way that mimics the feeling of the original comic book.  At any rate, I certainly plan on framing up this one in my comic-vault garage.

You can find the Vintage Marvel 2010 calendar on Asgard Press Marvel site, along with their line of Marvel posters.  On my previous Silver Surfer post, you can see the Surfer covers that are also in this calendar.  Nuff said!

Here’s a nifty little pinup that John Romita Sr drew, featuring Captain America, She-Hulk, and Spider-Man standing together in a group hug.  I think I saved this scan from Romitaman.  Nuff said!

My big plan to do a weekly review column was too ambitious.  I haven’t reviewed a modern comic since July!  The problem is that I switched to a monthly discount comic book service.  Out of the stack that I just received, here’s what I liked the best.

Captain America Reborn #3 continues to amaze with Steve Rogers becoming unstuck in time while his friends and enemies try to fish his body out of the time pool.  I won’t reprint the amazing wraparound Hitch cover that you’ve all seen—but I think this alternate John Cassaday cover featuring his take on the Invaders is pretty nifty.

The Slaughterhouse Five device allows Bryan Hitch to revisit classic Marvel moments, such as the one above where Namor accidentally releases Captain America from his icy entombment.  This scene was originally presented in the classic Avengers #4 by Jack Kirby in a few panels.  Hitch opens this scene up in breathtaking cinemascope, as you can see in the above double page splash.  Ed Brubaker described his experience working with Hitch on Word Balloon (Part 2 The Brubaker Testimony Sept 2009).  Sequences such as these were supposed to last a page or two, and Hitch opened them up and added even more to the action.

The best thing about getting a monthly package is reading four issues of Amazing Spider-Man in one sitting, including ASM # 606-607, which features the return of the Black Cat.  This story by Joe Kelly is pure fun, with great execution by artist Mike McKone. One of the great things about the new Brand New Day era is seeing Peter Parker’s romantic entanglements.  Peter’s made a faux pas after sleeping with his roommate Michele, and in this story, spends the night with the Black Cat.  As a result of Mephisto’s gift (yeah I don’t call it a curse, you One New Day whiners)—Black Cat has no memory of Peter’s identity.  Since she’s more enamored with his costumed persona, they make love in the dark.  We’ll see if she made good on her promise not to look at his face while they were asleep.

Dark Reign The List Daredevil has really proved that I have to continue buying this comic now that Andy Diggle has taken over.  The idea of Matt Murdock leading the Hand is just too irresistible.  Diggle has placed him against both the Kingpin and Norman Osborne, with Bullseye and Lady Bullseye also in the mix as well.  The final splash page by Billy Tan, showing Daredevil leading the Hand (now with new hornhead-inspired ninja costumes) promises great things to come.

Not to mention this lineup of Liltin' Landmarks: 

Ghost Riders Heavens on Fire #2:  I’ve loved Jason Aaron’s Ghost Rider since he took over the series.  Any comic that features the Son of Satan (Daimon Hellstrom) teaming up with Johnny Blaze is great in my eyes.  They’ve restored a lot of Hellstrom’s classic elements—the inverted Satan symbol on his chest, his trident pitchfork, and even his hellish chariot made an appearance in the first issue.  The only thing I don’t like is that Hellstrom looks Anton LaVey (Aaron’s idea) now.  I had no idea how Johnny Blaze was going to get to heaven, but we learn how by the end of this issue: Danny Ketch has sold his soul to the Devil.  Yikes, now I gotta wait a month to see what happens.

Spider-Woman #1:  I honestly wasn’t sure Alex Maleev was the right artist for this series.  Hoo boy, was I wrong, Maleev’s art is superb.  He does the inking and coloring as well.  I have to say that Maleev’s work has never been better as a result, as you can see in the above panel, with Jessica Drew in Madripoor.  Bendis’ story is wonderfully I-Spy in the Marvel Universe, as Agent Brand from SWORD recruits Jessica to hunt down all kinds of nasty aliens lurking in the dark corners of the world.  Bendis is also interviewed on a recent Word Balloon (Part 2 The Bendis Tapes Fall Edition 2009) where he says that Maleev should always color his own work—I wholeheartedly agree!  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.

Amazing Spider-Man has never been better since Brand New Day.  There's been a number of Internet fans upset over One New Day, but I think Joe Quesada is a saint for pulling that off.  Erasing Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane was long overdue, but the masterstroke that no one saw coming was bringing back Harry Osborn.  I didn't think too much of it at the time, but Harry's conflicts have become as much a part of the drama as Peter's.  Harry is constantly tempted by his girlfriend and father to return to a life of insanity and evil.  In Marc Guggenheim's Character Assassination, Peter wouldn't have survived his battle with Maniac unless Harry had intervened.  Harry finds inner sources of strength to do the right thing, which, given his troubles in the past, make him even more impressive than Peter.

Amazing Spider-Man #598 is the next chapter in Harry's evolution, as he finally learns the truth about what Norman Osborn and Lily have really been up to all this time.  I enjoyed the side of the story that centers around Harry; the one surrounding Spider-Man doesn't seem that great to me.  There's something inconsistent about that black costume Reed Richards whipped up for Peter to impersonate Venom.  The costume can repel a gunshot fired at point blank range to his head.  Yet in issue #597 it did not appear to repel Bullseye\Hawkeye's arrows.  Why didn't Peter's Spider-Sense kick in and allow him to dodge those arrows anyway?  Peter was just too easily captured in that chapter.  He's tortured pretty badly by Bullseye in this chapter--at least he has trouble running away at the very end.

The Adventures of Harry Osborn part of the story is getting me through American Son.  What the heck, l am buying this book no matter what.

The cover to Dark Avengers #6 was very enticing.  I have to say it's one of the best covers I've seen in a while:  Captain Marvel (Noh-Varr, Marvel Boy, whatever) hunted down by the Void.  Wow, this is the moment when Marvel Boy finally becomes a man and a force for good.  I've waited a few years for this.  It should be amazing, right?

Well, it's not, because the scene on the cover doesn't take place inside this issue.

Not that Bendis doesn't tease you a little.  Marvel Boy slept with Moonstone\Ms. Marvel in the previous issue, and she blurted out the truth (the new Avengers are really villains) to him in bed.  He seemed stunned by the news.  In this issue, as the team gathers for breakfast, Noh-Varr is AWOL.  He never shows up at all.  I'm curious why they had this cover made when the event never happens.  Although I shouldn't be surprised--New Avengers #50 was the same deal.

What does happen in Dark Avengers #6 is still interesting--we're seeing Norman Osborn slowly become unglued with each chapter of this series.  After a rogue Atlantean splinter cell attacks Los Angeles, Osborn assembles the Dark Illuminati--including the Sub-Mariner--to discuss how to fix it.  Osborn screams at Namor, who doesn't take kindly to orders from a human.  It was exactly as Doom predicted in the Dark Illuminati special.  Osborn takes steps to correct the situation without their help, using the Sentry as his weapon.  Osborn appears to be able to communicate with both the Sentry and the Void, but it's a delicate negotiation--one mistake and the Void could be unleashed against the Dark Avengers.

I'm very curious to see what happens over the next few weeks and months.  Namor is going to be really pissed off at Osborn.  But we've already seen Namor on upcoming covers with the Dark X-Men.  How do these two events get reconciled?  Since Matt Fraction is writing the next few Dark Avengers issues, there has to be a reason.

Thor had a tremendous giant-sized anniversay issue #600, where Loki's greatest scheme paid off big time.  Thunder God was stripped of his Monarchy and exiled from New Asgard.  While Balder has become the new King and led his people to Latveria (with some bad advice from Loki), Thor is dealing with the unthinkable-- a broken Uru hammer. 

In Thor #602, he gets help from the one person who can help--of course--Doctor Strange.  Strange can repair Mjolnir, but it will cost the Thunder God the Odinforce he inherited after his father's death.  This is kind of cool in a way--I've been thinking that Thor is way too powerful anyway.  He can't be threatened by the Absorbing Man if he can move Asgard around like it's nothing.  In another way, it's bringing Thor's world back around to the status quo--before Ragnarok, before his monarchy.  I wouldn't be surprised now if Odin eventually comes back.  Most changes in comics get reset back eventually, don't they?

By the end of the issue, the dangling plot thread with Sif (trapped in a dying woman's body) is finally resolved.  It's not that unusual--what is great is that Thor sacrificed a tremendous amount to get her back.  It feels a bit rushed in the execution.  It seemed like this took plotline took forever, because of this title's uneven publication history.  

The big news this week is that JMS is leaving Thor in September 2009.  His last issues will be Thor #603 (in August) and a Giant-Sized special in September.  In his exit interview at CBR, he drops some tantalizing hints about Marvel's next big event that involves the Thunder God.  Possibly the end of Dark Reign and the start of something new?  At any rate, I am sure Thor will be published more frequently when a new creative team comes on board.  My vote for a new writer:  Matt Fraction.  He did a great job on that Thor God-Sized special.

Not to mention this lineup of Liltin' Landmarks: 

New Avengers 54:  I was really, really prepared to hate this issue.  Taking my beloved Brother Voodoo and making him Doctor Voodoo seemed dumb.  But the execution in this story makes the change fun and exciting.  Any story that brings together Doc Strange, Brother Voodoo, and the Son of Satan together is pretty cool in my book.  I enjoyed this joke that Spider-Man made over Daimon Hellstrom's doom and gloom warning:  You...should write greeting cards.  Really.  Made me laugh out loud.

Daredevil 119:  The Kingpin looks to be double crossing Daredevil and getting himself back in position to become New York City's crimelord.  Matt Murdock, how could you be so naive?  All changes in comics get reset back eventually.  Nuff said.