spider-man – Page 7 – Coke & Comics

Fourth Day of Classic Comics Christmas

Daredevil and Spider-Man

See my initial post for the context. Suffice to say that I will be sharing my entries to the Classic Comics Forum tradition, “Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas“. This is a cross-post of my fourth entry, representing #9 on my list of favorite comic book Crossovers.

9. Daredevil and Spider-Man
“Devil’s Deliverance”
from Daredevil #8 (Marvel, 1998)

by Kevin Smith, Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti

This was how I got into Daredevil. I hadn’t liked the first couple Daredevil issues I’d picked up as a young child and thus never really collected them. But in 1998, I was interested in Marvel’s “Marvel Knights” line, and brought all 4 new titles. Inhumans remains one of the best comics I’ve ever read. Black Panther was great. And the Punisher series is infamous for turning him into an angel, but I enjoyed it well enough at the time. Probably haven’t gone back to it in 20 years, though.

This is also how I got into Kevin Smith. Not long after reading this I’d see Chasing Amy and Mallrats and finally Clerks, which remains one of my favorite comedy films ever. I’ve since taken every opportunity to see Kevin Smith talk live, probably a couple dozen times by now.

This story is a loving homage to Frank Miller’s work on Daredevil, specifically the “Born Again” series, which I had not read at the time, so did not appreciate. I’ve come to love that series (hint hint) and it’s complicated the question of how to appreciate this homage series in my mind. In “Born Again”, Kingpin tore at Daredevil’s life, trying to take away hope. In this, a MYSTERIOus villain tears at Daredevil’s faith.

The story is mostly wrapped up in 7 issues. The villain stands revealed and dead. But Daredevil is left to deal with the insanity of just how many people, including Karen Page, died for seemingly no reason.

In need of a friend, Spider-Man is there. As Daredevil struggles to make sense of it all, blaming himself and all superheroes for their failings and these mad vendettas they end up entangled with, Spider-Man provides him the needed perspective to restore balance: “You saved that baby girl’s life.”

Third Day of Classic Comics Christmas 2019

Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man

See my initial post for the context. Suffice to say that I will be sharing my entries to the Classic Comics Forum tradition, “Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas“. This is a cross-post of my third entry, representing #9 on my list of favorite comic book Crossovers.

10. Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man
“The Battle of the Century!”
(DC/Marvel, 1976)

by Gerry Conway, Ross Andru, and Dick Giordano

When the word “crossover” was said, crossovers between DC and Marvel immediately sprung to mind. I do love so many of them. And I know exactly what my favorite is, which was set to be #1 on my list, until I read the fine print of this year’s rules and realized I couldn’t have a meeting of their two flagship teams.

So I settled with the classic. The first time Superman meets Spider-Man.

You could tell it was an event. A gigantic comic. So big, that it’s hard to hold. I feel like I need to lay it across my desk to sit on it. But if I do that, the cats try to sit on it. I could shut the door, but then they get angry. Maybe I can sit on the couch with my knee bent to rest it on my leg… look, you try to read this massive comic with two cats who want to sit on your lap and swat at it.

Andru recognizes it’s time for iconic characters to look iconic and draws them as such.

And it’s time for iconic villains. Superman’s archnemesis is pretty universally recognized as Lex Luthor. There is a little more confusion about who Spider-Man’s most iconic villain is. But this comic gets it right: it’s Dr. Octopus.

One less-than-iconic detail that sticks out is the line that Superman fights for “truth, justice, and the Terran way”. It’s an odd phrase. Born out of controversy. The old Superman cartoons had it that Superman fought for “truth and justice”. A good phrase they should have stuck with. But then came the 1950s and McCarthy’s attempts at fascism that led to an epidemic of public displays of patriotism, and the phrase was altered to “truth, justice and the American way”. Out of place for a superhero who should defend all humanity. They seem to be attempting some course-correction here, but they should have just gone back to the original. “Truth and justice” was a good phrase.

It’s also a bit unfortunate that Morgan Edge was Clark’s boss at the time. It would have stood the test of time better if it were Perry White at the bar complaining about his reporters to J. Jonah Jameson. I also wish Peter had met Jimmy, since they’re both photographers. Ah well, can’t win ’em all.

Second Day of Classic Comics Christmas 2019

Spider-Man and The Man-Thing

See my initial post for the context. Suffice to say that I will be sharing my entries to the Classic Comics Forum tradition, “Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas“. This is a cross-post of my second entry representing #12 on my list of favorite comic book Crossovers.

11. Spider-Man and The Man-Thing
from Giant-Size Spider-Man #5 (1975)

by Gerry Conway, Ross Andru, and Mike Esposito

Second Spidey entry. I really could have filled my list with Spider-Man. And a decent chunk of it with this stellar series. But I decided one from this series would have to do. Apologies to the excellent earlier issues where Spider-Man meets Shang-Chi, Doc Savage and Punisher. All contenders.

What do we have here. A lot of focus on character work. Conway uses his page count to shine a spotlight on everybody. It’s during the Clone Saga, so Gwen has mysteriously returned, and everybody is dealing with that. Gwen, Peter, Betty, MJ… we get the first hint of a characterization they will later go all in on for Mary Jane, for better or for worse. We see her on the edge of tears, but then quickly correcting when her Aunt comes in, and putting on a smile and talking about wanting to party. Defalco will later reveal that that’s all she was ever doing, and it will ring untrue.

Conway was more subtle in his treatment of MJ. Maturing her and bringing her and Peter together, while preserving her character.

We also get Curt Connors again turned into the Lizard and see this struggle through the eyes of his wife better than we have before.

We even get solid character work on one random character, a bankrupt chemist on the verge of suicide, whose fate is changed by an encounter with Man-Thing, and who emerges as the hero in the battle against the Lizard.

Not sure if we get good character work on the Man-Thing. You’d have to look closely into his eyes to see what he thinks of these events. All we know is he hears the Lizard’s call with other swamp creatures, and that he seems to respond to intense emotion.

First Day of Classic Comics Christmas 2019

Transformers and Spider-Man

See my initial post for the context. Suffice to say that I will be sharing my entries to the Classic Comics Forum tradition, “Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas“. This is a cross-post of my first entry, representing #12 on my list of favorite comic book Crossovers.

12. Transformers and Spider-Man
“Prisoner of War”
from Transformers #3 (Marvel, 1985)

by Jim Salicrup, Frank Springer, Kim DeMulder and Mike Esposito

I’ll start the countdown with a comic of purely personal significance. To the best of my fading memory, this is the first crossover comic I ever read. It is also the first Spider-Man comic I ever read. To learn how much I like Spider-Man, I recommend just looking at the rest of my coming Christmas list. Transformers was the first series I ever sat down to seriously collect as a new comic reader. By “seriously”, I think I tracked down issues #2-5 in back issues over the course of several months… I would get much better at collecting when I got older.

Side note: That I got #5 confused the heck out of young me given that it’s a 4-issue limited series. It confuses the heck out of old me, too.

Anyways, in this issue, after Peter Parker is sent on assignment to Photograph the Transformers, Spider-Man and the Autobot Gears team up to rescue a human from Megatron.

Speaking of confusing things, this comic came out during Secret Wars. So Spider-Man’s costume was not only different from the one I knew from episodes of the old ’60s cartoon I’d seen on VHS, but it seemed to be somewhat alive. I think I briefly thought this Spider-Man and the other one might be two different characters.

Was marketing the motivation for this crossover? Probably. Isn’t it usually?

But this comic formed a bridge of childhood hobbies. In my earlier years, I watched cartoons like Transformers. Entering the second decade of my life, I would get really into superhero comic books, with Spider-Man being easily my favorite.

This was also certainly my first encounter with Nick Fury and SHIELD. But since the comic only called him “Nicholas”, it would probably be a little later before I learned his name.

Amazing Spider-Man #3

The Strangest Foe of all Time… Doctor Octopus

Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: April 9, 1963
Cover: July 1963
12 cents
Story: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
21 pages

Previous	#70	Next
Tales to Astonish #45	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #43
Amazing Spider-Man #2, Story B	Amazing Spider-Man	Amazing Spider-Man #4

What do I do now? I’ve never been beaten before! But this time my spider powers were not enough! Is this the end of Spider-Man?

I read this story in Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection vol. 1: Great Power.

I’m going to go ahead and confess that I don’t know what the title of this comic is. I often don’t. Many times, the title is in quotes to make it clear. Even though what’s in quotes is often preceded by the name of the title hero with a “versus” or a “battles” after.

For example, Fantastic Four #15 had the opening text: “The Fantastic Four Battle… The Mad Thinker and His Awesome Android!” With the latter part in a much bigger font. Online sources vary.

This is even more confusing because the arrangement of the different pieces make the order unclear.

Possible titles:

Doctor Octopus
Spider-Man Versus Doctor Octopus
The Strangest Foe of All Time… Doctor Octopus
Spider-Man Versus the Stranges Foe of All Time… Doctor Octopus

The internet generally doesn’t agree on which of the above makes sense. For my part, I’m trusting the table of contents in the collection I’m reading this in.

The title page describes Doctor Octopus as “the only enemy ever to defeat Spider-Man!” Not sure that’s accurate. Vulture and Tinkerer both handed Spider-Man initial defeats last issue before Spider-Man was able to come back and win in round 2. Which is basically what’s going to happen in this issue.

Amazing Spider-Man #2, Story B

The Uncanny Threat of the Terrible Tinkerer!

Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: February 12, 1963
Cover: May 1963
12 cents
Story: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
10 pages

I read this story in Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection vol. 1: Great Power. Scans are taken from Marvel Tales #139, a 1982 reprinting.

Spider-Man meets his 2nd elderly super-villain in a single issue!

OK, now I’ll have to admit that not every Spider-Man story is a masterpiece. But even at their worst, they’re a cut above. When the issues have an “A” and “B” story, it seems like the effort went into the “A” story.

Even here, we see a lot of the greatness at play. Steve Ditko’s art, of course. But also the coherence of the story, tangling together Peter Parker’s story seamlessly with Spider-Man’s.

The name “Cobbwell” brings to mind “cobweb”. Coincidence? Probably.

There is some type of rule that each of these superheroes must fend off an alien invasion by their second issue. It’s very out of place here.

Amazing Spider-Man #2

Duel to the death with the Vulture!

Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: February 12, 1963
Cover: May 1963
12 cents
Script: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
14 pages

Previous	#59	Next
Strange Tales #108, Story C	Reading order	Amazing Spider-Man #2, Story B
Amazing Spider-Man #1, Story B	Amazing Spider-Man	Amazing Spider-Man #2, Story B

He thinks I’m just a typical teen-age kid! Good! That’s the way I like it!

So I am going to try something new with this blog. I have mostly been stealing pictures I could find on the internet, but I now have a large nifty scanner working and want to try to make my own scans. Now, for various reasons related to my lack of independent wealth, I don’t own Amazing Spider-Man #2, but I have many reprints.

I’ve largely been reading comics in thick collections, which can be hard to scan with my flatbed scanner. But I have smaller reprints from this story. It was reprinted in Amazing Spider-Man Annual 7, but that is still a bit thick for optimal scanning, and the binding isn’t entirely perfect. I also have it reprinted in Marvel Tales #139. Let me try a few scans for comparison.

Amazing Spider-Man #1, Story B

Spider-Man vs. The Chameleon
Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: December 10, 1962
Cover: March 1963
12 cents
Script: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
10 pages

Previous	#47	Next
Amazing Spider-Man #1	Reading order	Strange Tales #106
Amazing Spider-Man #1	Amazing Spider-Man	Amazing Spider-Man #2

How much does the job pay? I figure I’m worth your top salary!

We come now to the fourth and final Marvel superhero milestone of December 10, 1962

Milestone #1 of December 10, 1962:
Fantastic Four meet the Hulk!
Milestone #2:
Iron Man
Miletone #3:
Amazing Spider-Man #1
Milestone #4:
Fantastic Four meet Spider-Man!

A pretty exciting day in the history of Marvel superheroes indeed.

While the first story of Amazing Spider-Man #1 was largely a character-focused tale, this one gets more into the superhero action.

There are two main thrusts. The first is the meeting between Spider-Man and the FF! And of course, when they meet, they fight. The FF were understandably unhappy about Spider-Man breaking into their headquarters, and Spider-Man saw taking them on as a way of proving his worth to them.

In fairness, the FF get into fights with everybody, including each other.

He thought joining the Fantastic Four would be the secret to solving his money woes, but he learned they are a non-profit organization that pays no salary.

Amazing Spider-Man #1

Spider-Man
Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: December 10, 1962
Cover: March 1963
12 cents
Script: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
14 pages

Previous	#46	Next
Tales of Suspense #39, Story C	Reading order	Amazing Spider-Man #1, Story B
	Amazing Spider-Man	Amazing Spider-Man #1, Story B

I say that Spider-Man must be outlawed! There is no place for such a dangerous creature in our fair city!

Spider-Man is back! He appeared briefly, set to be a recurring star in Amazing Fantasy, a comic which was cancelled immediately after he appeared. Sometime between making that decision and now, we learn the publisher received lots of letters and postcards, so now Spider-Man gets his own comic. Probably good they brought him back, as he’ll go on to become Marvel’s most enduringly popular character.

We are still on December 10, 1962. A day with four major Marvel superhero milestones. The first was the crossover between the Fantastic Four and the Hulk. The second was the debut of Iron Man. The third of these is Spider-Man getting his own series.

Milestone #1 of December 10, 1962:
Fantastic Four meet the Hulk!
Milestone #2:
Iron Man
Miletone #3:
Amazing Spider-Man #1

The tale begins with a 2-panel recap of his origin from Amazing Fantasy #15. But, strangely, they leave out what most today would consider the most pivotal part, Peter’s culpability in Ben’s murder by letting the burglar run past him. True, it’s only two panels, but they seem to go out of their way to not mention it. He instead uses phrases like, “All because I was too late to save him!” and “…while I was busy showing off…”; so they keep Peter’s feelings of guilt but leave off the reason he feels so guilty. It seems like a rather intentional and conscious decision. But I don’t know why they made it.

POSTLUDE: Ultimate Spider-Man #5

Life Lessons
Release: January 3, 2001
Cover: March 2001
$2.25
Story: Bill Jemas and Brian Michael Bendis
Script: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Inks: Art Thibert
21 pages

They have lowered the price by a quarter. Maybe that will sell the comic better than the awful cover.

This concludes our look at the first 5 issues of Ultimate Spider-Man. This final issue sticks pretty closely to the last 3 pages of the original Spider-Man story. Although it does open with 3 irrelevant pages about Green Goblin.

This really has nothing to do with anything.

We then get 4 pages at the crime scene, including a double-page spread.