Web of Spider-Man 48 - Inferno

The All-New All-Daring Jason Macendale the Replacement Hobgoblin pursues Spider-Man into the sewers.

Web of Spider-Man #48

Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciler: Alex Saviuk
Inker: Keith Williams
Letters: Rick Parker
Color: J. Cohen
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

Spider-Man briefly hallucinates about the demons and flees the Daily Bugle. Coming to his sense he realises New York is even worse then he imagined and sets off to find Mary Jane. Others deal with the demons in their own way. Gloria Grant's date Eduardo Lobo takes out a fork-lift truck with a pipe, winning her affections. The Kingpin punches a demon into oblivion, irritated by the distraction. Meanwhile the Hobgoblin is struggling with the changes inflicted on him and thinks he's mad when he sees a giant lizard the size of a man. Spotting Spider-Man he follows him as the wallcrawler reaches the studio where Mary Jane had a session then goes down into the sewers where the model and her crew are under attack by demons. The Hobgoblin catches up with Spider-Man and is now much faster and more powerful, with Spider-Man at times barely able to sense his foe's blasts. Meanwhile Mary Jane comes up with the idea of setting off a gas explosion to deal with the demons and when Spider-Man and the Hobgoblin come into view the latter's cape proves highly flammable. Out in Queens Aunt May sees the storm over Manhattan and worries about Peter.

Although Inferno still has two more Spider-Man issues to go we've come to the climax of the Hobgoblin part of the story. However with so much else going on in the issue we get little more than the Hobgoblin coming to terms with how he's been changed, with his face taking time to become truly demonic, and then a brief fight with Spider-Man. But it's sufficient to establish the Hobgoblin's new enhanced powers and gives the character a sense of dignity and menace for about the first time since he took over the costume. It somewhat puts the character's weakness in earlier issues in perspective as they have been setting up his search for strength and greater power whilst it also provides a personal angle to the conflict as the Hobgoblin blames both Spider-Man and Harry Osborn for the events that led him to become a demon and now seeks revenge.

There's a few scenes of other characters with some interesting moments. Harry Osborn pops by Aunt May's and from his thoughts it seems as though he knows Peter helped him last issue - so has he remembered Peter's identity? It's a subtle moment not touched upon for a while. Another mystery comes with the strange super strength of Eduardo Lobo but the standout moment has to be with the Kingpin. Coming out of his office to find his henchman the Arranger and various thugs cowering from a demon in the reception the Kingpin calmly destroys it with one punch and then tells his subordinate to get back to day to day business whilst he makes further plans for dealing with Daredevil. Despite being less than two pages long the scene is promoted on the cover and provides a fantastic moment that is all the better for its briefness.

This issue is struggling to balance the immediate needs and the ongoing storylines but manages to provide a good set of moments to bring a satisfactory conclusion to the Hobgoblin saga that serves to re-energise the character and make him a viable threat going forward.

Web of Spider-Man 47 - Inferno

The series finds a writer who will last a good while.

Web of Spider-Man #47

Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciler: Alex Saviuk
Inker: Keith Williams
Letters: R. Parker
Color: J. Cohen
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

Whilst New York continues to experience random demonic madness and Peter and Mary Jane briefly stay with Aunt May, placing Kristy with her for a time, the Hobgoblin is searching for something first at the ruins of the Osborn chemical factory and then later at Harry Osborn's home out just outside the city. Peter is visiting Harry to find him obsessed with finding something when the Hobgoblin attacks demanding Harry give him some unspecified formula. Peter becomes Spider-Man and fights back but the Hobgoblin is only sent away when Harry claims the formula can be found in the safe at his factory. The whole situation is contributing to Harry's anxiety as he realises the face in the mirror was his own.

Web of Spider-Man had long been the runt of the litter. Launched back in 1984 as a replacement for Marvel Team-Up (at a time when team-up books where generally fading away; reportedly this was because it was one of the concepts that did not transfer well from the newsstands to the direct market) it soon got into a creative mess. A glance at the credits would suggest that a new Spider-Man editor ditched the initial creative team of Louise Simonson and Greg LaRocque (carried over from Marvel Team-Up) too rapidly then struggled to find not only replacements but also a purpose for the book. There was a brief period when it focused on Peter Parker going out of New York with reporter Joy Mercado on assignments for Jonah's magazine but that ended after a terrible story involving the Troubles in Northern Ireland with David Michelinie and Marc Silvestri hurriedly moved on and the series then drifted into an almost permanent fill-in without even making a virtue of being a showcase book. The presence of Spider-Man's name in the title kept it as one of the top sellers but something had to give. By this time the series had finally found a lasting penciller with Alex Saviuk having reached nearly a year (albeit with the odd issue skipped for other projects) and he would go on to chalk up nearly seven years in total on the book but no writer had done more than seven issues in a row. Until now.

At first glance it appears that this and the next issue were simply assigned to a regular writer on one of the other Spider-Man books simply to make it easier to co-ordinate the crossover. But after one further issue by a passing writer Conway would stay around for nearly two years and together with Saviuk the title would finally get some stability. Perhaps some warning siren should have sounded that only two lasting Spider-Man writers could be found at any given time and maybe there should have been a reassessment of the need to have three separate Spider-Man titles on the market although it probably wasn't commercially viable at the time to simply cancel one and permanently double the frequency of another. But for now big things were finally happening in the title.

This is the second Hobgoblin and already signs of problems with the character are apparent. How the original Hobgoblin's identity was revealed and the situation that led to the character being killed off and replaced by Jason Macendale (previously Jack O'Lantern) has been discussed in many places as a sign of the general editorial mess in an earlier period of the title. It's not worth going into detail here save for noting that one consequence was that one of Spider-Man's major foes was now a character generally treated as a loser whose incompetence often led to his downfall. Here it's notable that he charges in on the attack and doesn't stop to specify just what he is searching for. A more rational approach would have been to capture Liz and little Normie Osborn as hostages then calmly present his demands to Harry. This is basically what the original Hobgoblin had done although by that stage the only secrets of the original Green Goblin to be discovered was a notebook with a duplicate list of hideouts already raided. But this Hobgoblin was never written as being on the same level as the original. Instead he was all too often a mindless thug to hit first, think later and was sometimes used to demonstrate other foes' strength such as when Tombstone had thrown him out of the Kingpin's window in one of his earliest appearances. Although he presents a clear danger to civilians such as the Osborns and does make good use of some new weapons such as a tear gas sprayer, one way or another something needed to be done about the legacy of the Green Goblin to have a more dangerous goblin foe.

The Hobgoblin's not the only one who doesn't think things through too carefully. Peter is very concerned that Harry may come to remember his identity as Spider-Man yet he changes into costume to deal with the Hobgoblin all too quickly and makes no attempt to protect his identity such as suggesting he's been following the goblin or declaring that he's got Peter to safety. At the end he swings away to go to Manhattan with no indication that Peter would make a further appearance. It may be a convention of the genre that those around the hero don't notice such things very often but this is in a storyline when Peter is especially concerned about keeping his secret.

This issue serves to reintroduce the Hobgoblin and set him up as a threat to Harry Osborn but also demonstrates well how something needed to be done to get past the mess that had been left by replacing the character in the first place. It also shows a Spider-Man surprisingly casual about his secret identity. This may have been a rush assignment given the wider problems on the book but it isn't the best start for a permanent writer.

Web of Spider-Man Annual 4 - The Evolutionary War

Spider-Man finds a book tour takes him into chaos in the Everglades.

Web of Spider-Man Annual #4

1st story: Sweet Poison
Writer: Steve Gerber
Artist: Cynthia Martin
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colorist: Janet Jackson
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

Peter Parker is on a tour promoting his book of Spider-Man photographs and gets caught up in the attempts by the Slug's men to secure a reserve supply of drugs for New York, following up on the supply problems established in the Punisher and Amazing Spider-Man chapters of The Evolutionary War. Meanwhile the High Evolutionary has sent his Eliminators and Purifiers to the Everglades to find the Nexus of All Realities in order to locate alien genetic pollutants that make it through and bond with human hosts, seeking the eliminate both the host and its offspring. The host turns out to be Cecilia, a maid at Peter's motel who has a double life as the being Poison with a second entity inside her. Poison confronts and destroys the Purifiers when they come to her home to eliminate her and her son, then the alien inside her separates off to return home. Meanwhile Spider-Man finds a hidden reserve supply of cocaine in the swamp which leads to a battle between him, the Slug's men, the Eliminators and the Man-Thing.

If this sounds chaotic it's because it is. The cover promises Spider-Man will be battling the Slug (an existing foe previously seen in Captain America) but the Miami drug lord only actually appears on a couple of pages in phone conversations with the Kingpin and demonstrating his ability to use his own fat to asphyxiate a man and he never encounters Spider-Man directly. It's a sign of the problems with this annual as it doesn't really know what it's about.

This story sees the return of Steve Gerber to mainstream Marvel books after many years (and an abortive lawsuit) and a few strips in Marvel Comics Presents but it's not a particular triumph. Far too many elements have been thrown into this story and they don't all meet up. Gerber was never the most conventional of writers but sometimes this could work against him. Web of Spider-Man was a title that still had a reputation for an inability to get a lasting permanent creative team and frequently functioned as little more than a set of fill-in issues though Alex Saviuk was now half a year into what would turn out to be nearly a seven year run so it's unsurprising that the annual wound up being written by an irregular writer. However Gerber doesn't seem to be especially interested in Spider-Man who is used only sparingly with a lot of attention instead devoted to his own new creation Poison, of whom more in the second story. All in all this is easily the worst chapter in The Evolutionary War so far.


2nd story: Night Stalking
Writer: Steve Gerber
Artist: Alex Saviuk
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colorist: Janet Jackson
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

This is the origin story for Poison, telling how Cecilia was one of the Cubans who came to the US in the Mariel boatlift. A university student who got pregnant by Vassily, a Soviet diplomatic attaché, she found her world crumbling around her when she was discovered and Vassily blamed her. Then when giving birth she was visited by the extra dimensional being Ylandris who merged with her and gave her power that remains even now they are separated. Poison is now hunting Vassily for revenge and searching the streets for him.

If this story was setting out to make Poison a viable recurring character to use it fails heavily. Already succumbing to the cliche of an immigrant Hispanic maid and giving her a costume that makes her look like a prostitute, she is now shown walking the streets on a mission of vengeance. There's very little to this story to open the character up for a viable ongoing use and so it's unsurprising that for many years her only other use was a multi-part story in Marvel Comics Presents by Gerber. The origin does make her sympathetic but does nothing to explain why she expects to find Vassily on the streets of Miami.


3rd story: The High Evolutionary: All My Children
Story: Mark Gruenwald
Pencils: Ron Lim
Finishes: Tony DeZuniga
Letters: Ken Lopez
Colors: Gregory Wright
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

This is a relatively sedate chapter, focusing upon the aftermath of the battle with Cthon as the High Evolutionary finally accepts the existence of the supernatural and that his partner really is possessed by a sixth century sorcerer. But the main focus comes with various children around the mountain. Jessica Drew is released after decades in suspended animation to be raised by the New Man Bova with no real mention of where her father is now that his body has been restored to him. But it's the twins Pietro and Wanda who get the highest turnover of parents. Their birth mother Magda disappears without an explanation given here and so the Evolutionary commissions an aid to find a couple to raise them. The first candidates are Robert and Madeline Frank, whose thoughts touch on their heroic past but they are not explicitly identified here. Madeline is pregnant and the plan is to present all three children as hers which seems a little fanciful. However she dies in childbirth with her own baby stillborn. The twins are presented to Robert as his own but upon news of his wife's death he runs away at super speed. Eventually the twins are given to a Romani couple Django and Marya Maximoff who lost their children in the Second World War with a caption telling us they will grow up to be Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch.

If this seems convoluted it's because there had already been two retcons of their parentage over their years, first to make them the children of the Golden Age heroes the Whizzer and Miss America and then to make them the children of Magneto. The original stories had sought to explain why each set of parents had been absent from their childhood whether through death, desertion, ignorance or a desire to hide the children's existence from their father out of fear of him (this version predated Star Wars). As a result each version wrote one explanation on top of another and now this saga recounts it all. This is also one of the chapters that could do with more narrative captions to establish the context, particularly of just who the Franks are. It also highlights an inadvertent theme of absent parents as no explanation is given as to where Jonathan Drew now is when his daughter is finally revived even though his possessed body has only recently been at the mountain.

This chapter does its best with what was already a huge continuity mess (and which has been since changed yet again) and manages to present a coherent narrative out of the order of events but can't hide the difficult nature of it. Normally Mark Gruenwald can be given a pass in this saga as he was working with what others had come up with but he was one of the co-plotters of the Avengers issue that introduced Magda to the story and so bore at least some responsibility for what he was working with. What's also surprising is the way that the Maximoff's own children are explicitly identified as having died in the Second World War. Although no date is given for when this chapter is set (beyond Magnus having been there for a decade) even in 1988 chronological problems with linking characters' personal histories to the war were clear and also the original telling of these events didn't mention it. Fortunately the chapter works to present everything in an understandable order but it can't hide the mess it's working with.

Other material includes "The Year in Review!" which is a series of pin-ups by artists including Arthur Adams, John Romita Sr & John Romita Jr, Mike Zeck & Bob McLeod, Cynthia Martin and others not explicitly credited. It's hard to escape the sense that at least some of these are from inventory and were intended as covers and/or promotional pieces rather than being specifically drawn for this annual. Still it's handy to have a catch-up on one of the most intense years in Spider-Man's life which included his wedding, the introduction of one of his most popular foes, the abandonment of his black costume and one of the contenders for his most popular story of all. However this might have been better placed in the first of the three Spider-Man annuals to come out that year instead of the second.

Web of Spider-Man was a title that was still struggling even in its fourth year, having not yet found a writer that would last more than half a dozen issues or so and this annual was at the point where its longest lasting artist had only just reached that particular milestone. So it's natural to expect this annual to be a forgettable tale by a fill-in writer even before coming to the contents. However the main story is just utterly unfocused in trying to balance numerous different elements and the needs of the title character against the desire of the author to push his own creation. The second story doesn't redeem it being the origin of a new character instead of a tale from the regular series's world whilst the saga chapter is a recounting of what was already one of the most convoluted parts of the whole origin. This is a highly disappointing entry in the event.

Web of Spider-Man 65 - Acts of Vengeance

"The Last Act of Vengeance" is the title of this issue and many readers (and perhaps even some editorial staff) were no doubt going "We hope!" It concludes as the group of villains seek money from the Kingpin whilst Spider-Man has to find a way to get back down to the ground.

Web of Spider-Man #65

Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciler: Alex Saviuk
Inker: Keith Williams
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colourist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Spidey's solution of webbing a plane and then clinging to it until it lands and Graviton's power wears off is somewhat on the fantastical side but, as often with Acts of Vengeance, there's a famous Silver Age precedent, here Spider-Man's mission to repair a space capsule in the very first issue of Amazing Spider-Man. Elsewhere the Chameleon has abandoned the hideout and left faked documents implying he's working with the Kingpin, causing the six villains to go and seek the money they expect from him. It's such an obvious ploy it's amazing that they fall for it, but numerous villains have been gullible over the years.

After some localised subplots about the Daily Bugle building having been so damaged as to have to be condemned and Mary Jane discovering that Harry Osborn has the Green Goblin costume and equipment stored in his flat, we get to the final battle. Once again Spider-Man takes advantage of some of his foes' lack of experience of working with each other to pick them off one by one and it's a pretty straightforward fight. Strangely there's a moment where Titania leaps on Spidey and they both fall a long way before he breaks clear and leaves her falling, assuming she's strong enough it will only stun her. However on landing she gets hit by a bus and there's nothing in the story suggesting Spider-Man's even aware of this yet it's the classic type of situation that would give him a major guilt trip. The Kingpin watches the fight bemused, unaware that this is all a set-up by the Chameleon to destroy his rival's reputation.

This issue is ultimately almost as light as something Graviton has used his powers on. There's not much substance, the team-up between the six villains doesn't provide any further insights and Spidey quickly proves he's able to take each and every one of them down with greater strategy. This epilogue is ever more distant from the big crossover and it's a relief that this is the final book with an "Acts of Vengeance" banner on the cover.

Web of Spider-Man #65 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011)

Web of Spider-Man 64 - Acts of Vengeance

Three months after the conclusion of "Acts of Vengeance" came this issue of Web of Spider-Man with "Acts of Vengeance is Back!" on the cover. This issue and the next provide a further epilogue to the series. The story sees the Chameleon arrange the release of several of the villains Spider-Man defeated in the saga and then offers them $500,000 between them to kill Spider-Man.

Web of Spider-Man #64

Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciler: Alex Saviuk
Inker: Keith Williams
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colourist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

It's yet another throwback to the Silver Age where numerous villains sought to defeat Spider-Man in order to cement their position as the leading crime lord in the city. This time the Chameleon isn't bothering with trying to do it personally but has instead made an offer to a group of foes with mixed powers who all want revenge now that Spider-Man no longer has his powers. The villains are a motley group - Titania, Graviton, Goliath, the Brothers Grimm and Paste Pot Pete the Trapster - but they prove sufficiently willing to work together for a mutual goal, given leadership and incentive. It stands in stark contrast to the squabbling committee of the leading super-villains during the crossover.

As Peter Parker, Spider-Man is facing further problems as Nick Katzenberg, the sleazy rival photographer at the Daily Bugle, produces photos showing Peter dressed as Spider-Man for a shoot, leading to editor Joe "Robbie" Robertson sacking him with a rant about journalistic ethics, perhaps because of his own lingering guilt at having failed to report Tombstone in his youth that recently put him in jail. It's often been speculated that Robbie has deduced Spider-Man's identity but keeps it to himself, but his reaction here, even disagreeing with J. Jonah Jameson who is willing to overlook it all as it isn't a news photo, suggests otherwise. Peter storms off and has an angry confrontation with Katzenberg before storming off.

The later battle shows some repeat tricks, with Graviton once again lifting up the Daily Bugle building, but also the need for better leadership in the field as Spidey manages to trick the Brothers Grimm and the Trapster into taking each other out, but Graviton's powers proved rather harder to defeat with strategy.

This is an odd issue. After such a long crossover there wasn't really a crying need for yet more "Acts of Vengeance" issues. These also came out in the run-up to a major story in Amazing Spider-Man entitled "Return of the Sinister Six", reuniting more conventional Spider-Man foes so yet another story involving a group of villains teaming up feels repetitive even if it did manage to come out first. Nor does it present much of a lesson in how teams of villains can work effectively, since Spider-Man is able to play off the limitations and lack of expectations. This is just another demonstration of the problems of having three monthly titles for one character without distinctive purposes, leading to a speedy rehash of recent events.

Web of Spider-Man #64 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011)

Web of Spider-Man 61 - Acts of Vengeance

We come now to the penultimate Spider-Man issue in the crossover, though we'll be seeing Spidey rather more than just one further time in this crossover. However this chapter has all the hallmarks of a filler designed to mark time.

Web of Spider-Man #61

Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciler: Alex Saviuk
Inker: Keith Williams
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colourist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

As noted before, Web of Spider-Man was often the series that didn't seem to know just why it was there and this especially shows here as we get a chapter putting the hero through a classic cycle of quitting his role only to come running back at pretty much the first sign of trouble. It's easy to lose track just how many times this has been done with Spider-Man now. Sometimes it works as part of a broader plot or even relaunch. But at other times it becomes all too simple a plot device. There is admittedly the added complication that he's struggling to handle the additional powers he's gained, but Peter should know all too well by now that no matter how often he tries, he can never ditch the web slinging for good. And it seems his foes know this as well, with both the Kingpin and Doctor Doom doubting the Wizard's reports of what he's heard. Nevertheless the Wizard decides to use a discarded mask as a scent to send Dragon Man to find and destroy Spidey.

(Noting the continuity errors surrounding the leading villains can be tiresome but two things stand out here. Firstly it's not clear how the Wizard could just casually bring Dragon Man to the meeting room and hide him behind a curtain, especially given the Red Skull's failure to bring the Controller into the room. And the Mandarin is wearing his hideous bare-chested costume rather than the blue armour he donned nearly a year earlier and which he wears in most of his other appearances in the crossover.)

The actual fight with Dragon Man is extremely straightforward with Spidey ultimately just exhausting the android's flames before webbing it up, though it's good to see a positive reaction from the people he's saved. But otherwise this issue advances a number of plots, with Doctor Doom trying to assimilate the energy that Tess One absorbed from Spider-Man, a plan that worries the mysterious stranger who assembled the villains. Doom's plans reach a conclusion here but it's such an anti-climax it's as though developments in the main parts of the crossover were suddenly brought up, necessitating a speedy resolution. Elsewhere we get a scene with Mary Jane and her bulimic cousin Kristy. This was a storyline that seems to have started out with good motives, though appears to have been targeting a non-existent part of the audience and so fizzled out. It's a pity as one of the features of Peter and Mary Jane's marriage should have been to introduce complications from the in-laws but Kristy seems to have been about the only one ever used and fading out fast rather than hanging around a good while and becoming another obstacle for the secret identity to navigate.

This issue is clearly just marking time before the conclusion of the cosmic powers story and it's a pity, though it continues to confirm the problems of giving one hero three titles with relatively little to distinguish them.

Web of Spider-Man #61  has been reprinted in:

• Spider-Man: The Cosmic Adventures (1993)
• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)
• Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Cosmic Adventures (2013)

Web of Spider-Man 60 - Acts of Vengeance

Spider-Man's cosmic adventures continue as he faces ever bigger foes but also the curse of awkward continuity.

Web of Spider-Man #60

Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciler: Alex Saviuk
Inker: Keith Williams
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colourist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

A glance at the cover suggests that Alex Saviuk did not receive complete information about the lead villains in "Acts of Vengeance" as Magneto is depicted in the costume he wore for a few years in the mid to late 1980s rather than his more traditional garb which he had recently returned to. Inside Magneto is in the right costume but Gerry Conway  also seems to be somewhat misinformed as he writes the Kingpin, Dr Doom and Magneto as all working together out of a specific headquarters rather than meeting as a central committee and otherwise largely carrying out operations independently of one another as has happened elsewhere in the crossover so far (though some villains have been shown as rather more active than others). It wouldn't be the first or last time that a big crossover event saw inconsistency on the details, but these things do erode the ability to appreciate the story as a coherent whole.

Rather than simply finding a foe of the week for Spider-Man to fight before the other titles bring further developments, here we get some right now. Spider-Man now discovers he has the ability to fire energy blasts from his eyes whilst Doctor Doom finally manages to start analysing the cosmic powers. Peter also seeks Aunt May's advice about how to handle having power over life and death, a poignant subject for a woman whose fiancée (Nathan Lubensky) has a terminal heart condition. Amidst all this the latest goings on around the Daily Bugle as Thomas Fireheart continues to push a pro Spider-Man line seem trivial.

Once again Spider-Man has fought this issue's foe but not in this form. He's been Power Man, the Smuggler and now Goliath, with the complication that two of those names have also been used by heroes at various stages, but his previous fight with Spider-Man came before either of them received their current powers. And so we get a battle between a cosmically powered webslinger and a giant, then in the rematch later in the issue Goliath absorbs Spider-Man's energy blasts to grow ever larger, albeit at a risk to his heart. This story is taking on the concept of ever greater power quite well as Spider realises both he and Goliath are becoming ever greater dangers.

This chapter of the story is that surprisingly rare thing - an important issue of Web of Spider-Man. It shows that when a determined effort is made the series can turn in important developments and handle them in an effective style. It's just a pity there's a noticeable discontinuity between here and other parts of the crossover.

Web of Spider-Man #60  has been reprinted in:

• Spider-Man: The Cosmic Adventures (1993)
• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)
• Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Cosmic Adventures (2013)

Web of Spider-Man 59 - Acts of Vengeance

The problem of finding villains who haven't fought Spider-Man recurs in this issue, though here there is explicit acknowledgement that Spider-Man and Titania have fought before in Secret Wars, although not their subsequent encounter a few years later. But it makes a mockery of Doctor Doom's claim that Spider is "a less-familiar opponent - against whom you will be equally fresh, unsuspected and irresistible."

Web of Spider-Man #59

Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciler: Alex Saviuk
Inker: Keith Williams
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colourist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Rather this issue sees Titania again trying to overcome her irrational fear of Spider-Man that has made it difficult for her to beat him on previous occasions. It's also interesting that this time round it's Doctor Doom who sends a foe after Spider-Man, after the Kingpin and the Wizard dispatched Graviton and Paste-Pot Pete the Trapster in earlier issues. Maybe the leaders of the alliance are rotating who takes charge of dealing with a particular foe or maybe there's a taxi-rank principle that sees the next one available step in. But also Spider-Man's new powers have already attracted Doom's attention and he seems personally interested, suggesting the alliance leaders are not quite all working for the same ends.

Meanwhile the Daily Bugle has been making itself even more of a target since it was brought out by Thomas Fireheart, aka Puma, as part of his attempt to repay a debt of honour to Spider-Man, with the result that it is now running ridiculously pro-Spider-Man coverage and this makes Doom suggest it as the best target to draw the wall-crawler out. The eventual battle is rather disappointing, with the complications of Puma intervening, Spider-Man still struggling with his enhanced senses and Titania being unknowingly boosted by one of Doom's devices. As a result Spider-Man comes across as confused and clumsy, only winning through because of his new powers and ultimately lashing out in a rage.

This issue is from about a year into Gerry Conway's run on the title and two from Alex Saviuk, bringing a stability it had previously lacked but there's still a real sense that this is one Spider-Man title too many, existing purely for the sake of having a third title on the stands. It also means that Spider-Man's new powers are being developed at a frankly tedious pace. Historically it was actually quite unusual for the different Spider-Man titles to run the same story at this stage - including three sets of annuals this is only the eighth time it had happened and five of those (including two sets of annuals) were part of wider Marvel crossovers. Perhaps it would have been better to allow each series to handle the concept in its own way rather than putting them all together for such an extended length.

Web of Spider-Man #59  has been reprinted in:

• Spider-Man: The Cosmic Adventures (1993)
• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)
• Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Cosmic Adventures (2013)

Spider-Man: Parallel Lives

Spider-Man: Parallel Lives is a graphic novel originally published in 1989. Written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Alex Saviuk, it retells and enhances the story of Peter and Mary Jane's lives before their famous first meeting, and then shows them coming under attack from Doctor Octopus in the (then) present day.

The first two-thirds focuses upon retelling their lives, drawing on material both from the original Stan Lee/Steve Ditko and Lee/John Romita tales and also from Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz's fleshing out of Mary Jane's childhood in Amazing Spider-Man #259. The two future spouses are compared and contrasted through their teen years - it's especially interesting to see that just as Peter was resisting Aunt May's attempts at matchmaking, Mary Jane was equally resisting her Aunt Anna's. However this story takes a number of liberties with previously established continuity. It's easy to overlook the retelling of Spider-Man's origin working solely from Amazing Fantasy #15 and ignoring the additions of later years. More problematic is the presentation of Peter's dating in high school - the implication is that he didn't start dating Betty until after Amazing Spider-Man #15, by which time May and Anna were trying to set him up with Mary Jane. It may avoid the original awkwardness that May was trying to find Peter a woman when he already had one, but changing the original stories is rarely a satisfactory way to solve problems. We also get a repeat of the claim first made in Conway's 1970s run that Peter dated Liz Allan in high school until they broke up at graduation, rather than her just having an unrequited crush as shown at the time. Also left out is the infamous meeting of Mary Jane, Betty and Liz, long before Peter first saw MJ.

But the biggest change is the revelation that Mary Jane knew Peter's secret from the start. Until her return in the #240s of Amazing Spider-Man there had never been any hint of her actually knowing, and indeed on a number of occasions her reaction to Peter's disappearances suggested quite the reverse. Then when she finally confronted Peter with the knowledge, it seemed more like she had deduced it rather than seen it - her reaction to the Black Cat swinging into Peter's flat was "It's true!", like someone who has deduced their spouse is having an affair but not yet actually caught them with the other person before confronting them. Yet here we are expected to believe Mary Jane had known all along. Nor can this be dismissed as an out of continuity story, as this point was subsequently absorbed into the regular titles.

Otherwise we have the contrast between Peter's happy home life, albeit with the shadow of his absent parents, but unpopular and lonely beyond there, with Mary Jane's ever popularity on the party scene but coming from a broken home and seeing a succession of failed marriages and angry exchanges. She finds herself drawn to Spider-Man for also enjoying life and wearing a mask, and then discovers he is actually Peter Parker, making her both curious and afraid. Eventually she succumbs to finding out and the famous meeting finally happens.

Interspersed throughout this are glimpses at Doctor Octopus, another shy introvert. One of Conway's most notorious storylines from the 1970s involved Aunt May nearly marrying Doctor Octopus. Here he represents the time the scientist rented a room at May's and found himself drawn to her, making the connection a little more plausible, until Peter intervened and destroyed the chances of a true bond. This anger continues to the present day when the sight of Peter and Mary Jane's wedding drives Doctor Octopus into threatening the Parker family to lure out Spider-Man, only to be defeated and seemingly destroyed in battle. This strand of the story is the least satisfactory, though it allows for a conclusion in which Peter and Mary Jane address head on the dangers they could face and that they've chosen life over fear.

Overall this tale is an interesting character study and a response to those who argued that the coupling and marriage was inconceivable. (Which makes it curious that Marvel reprinted it as a stand alone release in 2012, some years after undoing the marriage and when that year's film featured a different woman in Peter's life.) By skipping some twenty years (real time) of continuity it doesn't cover either how Mary Jane's knowledge of Peter's secret altered her perspective during their on and off years, or the speed with which they got engaged so soon after Spider-Man broke up with the Black Cat. So it doesn't answer all the questions already floating about nor the ones it raises with its own revelations.

Saviuk's art does a good job of recapturing the Silver Age but doesn't do so well in distinguishing the modern era - it takes more than altering Mary Jane's hairstyle and giving Doctor Octopus a suit of armour (one that looks like it was left over from the early years) to generate a modern feel. Conway certainly tries to bring the various strands together, but DeFalco and Frenz had already done the job of showing Mary Jane's party girl persona to be a facade and the placing of her discovering Peter's secret creates more problems than are needed. Overall this graphic novel looks good and does partially reinforce the case for the two being an item, but it isn't the most convincing case for them that has ever been made.

Star Brand Classic volume 1

Star Brand Classic volume 1 reprints issues #1 to #7 of the series. The series is written by Jim Shooter with one plot scripted by Roy Thomas. All but one issue is drawn by John Romita Jr, the exception is by Alex Saviuk.

This may seem a stable line-up compared to some New Universe titles but as the other two Classic volumes go up to issue #9 then in the interests of comparison it's worth noting that Star Brand's next two issues were both written by Cary Bates and one was drawn by Arvell Jones and the other by Keith Giffen.

Being written by the Editor-in-Chief and originator of the New Universe, it's natural to expect this series to be the flagship of the line and a template for how to do it right. But instead this is a series that fails to conform to the model of the ordinary universe until one single event unleashes changes upon everything. Instead we get a series that's more of an alternate take on the Green Lantern origin with a twist. Earth may be depicted as "the world outside your window" until a change happens but that's not true of the wider universe and we get a series based upon an encounter with aliens and all the consequences that flows from that. We also get a protagonist who is very different from the usual types encountered in Marvel comics. For all that was revolutionary about the Marvel Silver Age heroes, they ultimately conformed to the traditions of superhero ethics. They might have doubts and insecurities but ultimately they could always be relied on to do the right thing and a big fuss was made whenever they temporarily lapsed. Outside of the costume they were generally respectable people as well.

Star Brand is a very different take on it all. The lead character, Ken Connell (note that "Star Brand" is the object that gives him power, not a superhero code name) is not the most likeable of men. Most notably he's in two relationships at once, with one girlfriend kept ignorant of the other, and he's willing to cheat on them both, doing so with a woman found on a distant beach and even contemplating bedding a seventeen years old babysitter, though not going through with it. Otherwise he's an ordinary person whose career has seemingly stalled as a car mechanic in a large garage and whose hobbies include motorcycling.

The series does its best to present a more realistic approach to an everyday guy suddenly getting powers. He doesn't immediately rush out to stop crime and save lives. Indeed on one occasion he decides not to go and save four men from a collapsed building, in part because he can't get the time off work. When he does venture out he's concerned about concealing his identity and this makes him cautious. There's a moment when he tracks down terrorist students but instead of attacking them he simply breaks open their car boot full of weapons and then calls the police. In another he goes to save a boy trapped down a well but fear of recognition makes him take a long distance route of digging a tunnel and in the meantime the boy is rescued by Jenny Swanson in her robot suit from Spitfire and the Troubleshooters.

More generally this is a world where powers have consequences and special abilities don't come automatically. Ken may be able to lift a sofa when testing his strength, but it damages the roof in the process. When dealing with terrorists he finds a gun, but hasn't a clue how to use it effectively. Ken may be able to fly at great speed and even into space but he hasn't a clue how to know which way to go and has to resort to following coastlines, rivers and roads before taking maps with him. Disappearing from day to day activities gets him in trouble both at work and with one of his girlfriends. His flight gets noticed and his face recognised by terrorists, whilst it's only after the event that he realises he's left his fingerprints all over a gun and can be potentially traced. He contemplates revealing himself to the government but is then told he would be treated as a threat, experimented upon and disposed of. And the Star Brand itself comes in the form of a transferable tattoo but finding a place to hide it isn't easy.

The supporting cast are a mixed bunch. Most prominent are Ken's girlfriends. At one point he proposes to Barb and moves in with her and her two children, Laurie and Bobby. However they're put at danger by the alien who originally gave Ken the Star Brand, though the relationship ultimately crashes when Barb finds out about Debbie. Whereas Barb is slightly older than Ken and a working woman, Debbie seems younger and less with it. She is nicknamed "Duck" and often says "Quack" when the nickname is used. Ken uses her as both an emotional crutch and a confidante, yet she sticks by him no matter what and cannot bear the thought of their relationship stopping. The other cast members are less developed, such as Myron Feldman, a psychiatrist and Ken's friend who starts billing him for their time together, or various work colleagues such as his foreman, John Eberhardt.

This series doesn't go down the route of conventional bigger than life villains with the exception of the mysterious "Old Man" who gives Ken the Star Brand in the first place. His name is unpronounceable and we have only his word for his motives, which seem to be to recruit a young, malleable person to take part in a distant interstellar war. Otherwise the most recurrent foes are Libyan terrorists, reflecting the obsessions of a lot of 1980s fiction, with Ken even flying to Libya and destroying a military base. Beyond this Ken deals with minor annoyances, some with more success than others.

Although the writer and artist are generally consistent, there are signs of errors and laziness creeping in. Some names, particularly Kath, get used more than once whilst both the art and colouring can be a little inconsistent making it difficult to keep track of which minor character is which. Scenes at the end of issue #3 are meant to take place after dark bit are coloured as though it's broad daylight. The start of the same issue implies that it's the morning after issue #1, overlooking issue #2 in the meantime. It's hard to escape the idea that this series was almost thrown together to get it out without much care, which is shocking for the flagship book of such a major launch.

Overall Star Brand is very different type of series from a typical Marvel book, which means it meets at least one set of expectations. But it stops short of some of the hype, retaining the alien races that the New Universe was supposedly going to do without. It's also still feeling its way a lot of the time, trying to figure out just how much time should be spent on Ken's day to day life as opposed to his powers, and it doesn't always get the balance right. This is very much a concept in the experimental stage and it would have been better to have tried the idea out as a low key one-off series to refine it first, rather than such a high profile launch of a whole line. This is not a bad book in itself but it doesn't live up to the contemporary hype.