Twelve recommended Essentials

For my final post, I have decided to pick twelve volumes that especially stand out. The only restriction is that there is no more than one from each series. These aren't automatically the best stories - and the nature of the beast is that there are times when the incredibly good is collected with the incredibly dire - but twelve cases of the Essential series at its best. And the order has been chosen by lot.


Essential Moon Knight volume 2

Contains: Moon Knight #11 to #30

Moon Knight began as a foe for the Werewolf and then developed in the direction of a Batman clone but also acquired his own themes and the unique feature of his multiple identities that started to take on lives of their own. It took a while but soon it had found its own niche and cult following. This was one of the first series to be sold only in the direct market and it took full advantage of the shift to offer varied length stories that are free of the Comics Code Authority restrictions yet never being puerile or gratuitous just to show off its freedom. This volume represents by the middle issues of the series when it was at its height.


Essential Captain America volume 4

Contains: Captain America and the Falcon #157 to #186

Captain America was originally created during a great wave of patriotism and revived during another. But by the 1970s the US was changing and Cap seemed a man out of time in more ways than one. Then came new writer Steve Englehart who, together with artist Sal Buscema, set out to explore just what Cap's role is in this new world where the old certainties are gone and it's no longer so clear just what "serving my country" means anymore. The height of this approach comes in the Secret Empire story as Cap discovers a conspiracy that goes to the very highest levels, which in turn leads him to abandon his costume and the Falcon steps up to the forefront as the country is still facing threats.


Essential Dazzler volume 1

Contains: Dazzler #1 to #21 plus X-Men #130 & #131 and Amazing Spider-Man #203

When this was first announced many declared "Essential Dazzler" to be an oxymoron. But the Essentials have brought attention to many obscure series and characters, allowing them to be assessed anew without listening to decades old myths and assertions. This volume collects the first half of her series, allowing readers to judge for themselves and see a series that isn't the disco chaser of myth but instead shows a strong independent ordinary character trying to get by in life with the added complication of her powers. The Essential volume is a well-deserved rescue from obscurity.


Essential Black Panther volume 1

Contains: Jungle Action #6 to #22 & #24 and Black Panther #1 to #10

"Panther's Rage" was one of the first comic storylines to be written as though it was to be collected as chapters in a book and this volume does that and more so. Very often the biggest developments in comics are made in obscure series starring less well-known characters, and here is almost the definitive example of a hidden classic plus the start of "The Panther vs. the Klan!", taking the character to further heights. Sadly the volume also demonstrates how the Essentials scoop up the bad as well as the good with the start of Jack Kirby's run on the title that might as well be from an alternate reality, but that doesn't detract from the majesty of the bulk of the volume.


Essential X-Men volume 2

Contains: X-Men #120 to #144 and, in later editions, Annual #3 to #4

The All-New All-Different X-Men burst forth in the mid 1970s, presenting a highly crafted team of strong, well-defined characters who were put through a variety of situations. This volume covers the latter part of the Chris Claremont and John Byrne run when the team faced a range of scenarios from Alpha Flight trying to reclaim Wolverine for the Canadian government to Arcade subjecting them to his funhouse of horrors, but the high points come with two of the most influential X-Men stories of all time, the "Dark Phoenix Saga" and "Days of Future Past" which explore the problems with controlling great power and the dangers of anti-mutant prejudice run wild respectively.


Essential Rawhide Kid volume 1

Contains: Rawhide Kid #17 to #35

Marvel have printed many titles in numerous different genres over the years but haven't reprinted too many of them in recent years. But when they do it's often an eye opener. This volume is the sole Essential representation of the western genre, offering a good set of done in one enjoyable stories that mix the adventures of the lead character with other generic tales of the west. Very much a representation of the Atlas style before the Marvel superhero revolution, this volume is nevertheless a good, light fun read.


Essential Ghost Rider volume 4

Contains: Ghost Rider #66 to #81 plus Amazing Spider-Man #274 and New Defenders #145 & a bit of #146

It's rare for a long running series to end in a truly satisfactory way but Ghost Rider got one of the best conclusions going, allowing him to ride out on a high in what almost feels like it was the long term plan. The Ghost Rider may have begun as a fusion of the horror and stunt fads of the 1970s but he outlasted the fads to become something much stronger. Here the long running saga of the battle between Johnny Blaze and the demonic Ghost Rider reaches its climax here but there's time taken to remind and reintroduce the key elements for readers who haven't been along for the whole journey before the final end.


Essential Thor volume 3

Contains: Thor #137 to #166

Thor was a title that took a good while to really find its feet and get a long term permanent creative team but once it did Stan Lee and Jack Kirby proceeded to produce an amazing run of tales that combine Norse mythology and cosmic space adventure, with occasional interludes on Earth. By the time of this volume they had found out what worked and defined the character, with the stories here representing the absolute peak of their collaboration, ranging from battling the Mangog in Asgard to the conflict between Galactus and Ego the Living Planet in deep space. Truly this is the definitive Thor.


Essential Marvel Team-Up volume 2

Contains: Marvel Team-Up #25 to #51 plus Marvel Two-in-One #17

There's a sense of fun to a team-up book, often allowing the chance to enjoy both the regular and guest heroes in some nice one-off tales that don't require too much familiarity with the guests to follow them. But when in the right hands they can be even more. This volume contains some of the best of all the team-ups, ranging from the silliness of a team-up with Hercules where he tows the island of Manhattan through the seas to the deadly grittiness of a time travel saga that takes Spider-Man back to Salem in 1692 for a dark battle against the backdrop of the witch trials. This is a book that knows how to put together an epic out of several different guest stars and put the leads, whether Spider-Man or the Human Torch, through adventures they'd be unlikely to have in their own titles.


Essential Punisher volume 4

Contains: Punisher #41 to #59 and Annuals #4 to #5

The Punisher has always been a difficult character to handle because the approach of a self-appointed executioner is often at odds with conventional superhero ethics whilst the high fatality rate amongst both his foes and allies leaves limited scope for character development. It took a long time before he received an ongoing series and then in turn it took longer to really flesh it out but by the time of this volume it was coming together nicely. Here we get a mixture of traditional one-off tales against individual foes done well along with steps towards greater development with the handful of foes who have greater lasting power, most notably "The Final Days" epic that puts the Punisher in a marathon of endurance under pressure from the Kingpin.


Essential Warlock volume 1

Contains: Marvel Premiere #1 to #2, The Power of Warlock #1 to #8, Incredible Hulk #176 to #178, Strange Tales #178 to #181, Warlock #9 to #15, Marvel Team-Up #55, Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2

Warlock was a highly experimental strip that routinely sought to push the boundaries of what was possible, most notably with its approach to religion. The volume collects the two 1970s epics that saw Warlock first go to Counter-Earth to drive out a dark force and redeem it and then into deep space to take on the corruption and hypocrisy of an inter-galactic church presided over by none other than his evil future self. The title character has no desire to be a hero and is merely a good man searching for himself but gets caught up in the horrors all around him. Twice the title was cancelled but each time the saga showed it could survive by resolving itself in another series with a spectacular climax.


Essential Spider-Man volume 1

Contains: Amazing Fantasy #15 and Amazing Spider-Man #1 to #20 & Annual #1

This volume encapsulates just why Spider-Man took off the way he did. It covers the single most creative period in the character's history, introduces most of the top villains and tells some amazing stories all at once. Spider-Man broke the mould in many ways and even today these tales stand up well as a strong set of adventures that need no replacement. Bringing big chunks of the Silver Age at affordable prices was one of the aims of the Essentials and it hit the ground running. This was the very first Essential I ever picked up and it's still great to this day.

Essential Dazzler volume 2

Essential Dazzler volume 2 contains issues #22-42 of the character's solo series plus the four issue mini-series Beauty and the Beast, Marvel Graphic Novel #12 entitled "Dazzler: The Movie", and Secret Wars II #4. Writing wise the volume covers the end of Danny Fingeroth's run on the series and the concluding run by Archie Goodwin. In between is a turbulent period with issues written by Steven Grant, Frank Springer, Jim Shooter, Ken McDonald, Mike Carlin, Linda Grant and Bob DeNatale. Most of the issues are drawn by Frank Springer and the last ones by Paul Chadwick; other artists include Mark Bright, Geof Isherwood and Tom Morgan. Shooter writes both the graphic novel and the Secret Wars II issue, they are drawn by Springer and Al Milgrom respectively. Finally Beauty and the Beast is written by Ann Nocenti and drawn by Don Perlin. Given the page lengths of some of these the result is the single largest Essential volume to date. So it's no surprise that some of the labels are in a separate post.

This volume comes in a period when the concept of a family of X-Men titles was starting to come together, and would climax at the end of 1985 with the introduction of X-Factor. In the process Dazzler gets ever more drawn into the core themes of the mutant titles as prejudices grow. Appropriately for this shift the very last panel sees the Beast raising his new team with her, though instead a resurrected Marvel Girl would take the place. Was Dazzler axed to free up the character with the intention of using her in X-Factor? It's hard to say though as the last few issues contain all the signs of a series in desperate straits and making a last ditch attempt to turn sales around - the series had been bimonthly for a while, and now it had a new creative team, a new costume and a new logo - then it's doubtful that the series would have lasted much longer anyway.

Sadly this volume shows the series drifting, with changing creative teams changing the premise as they go. In the process Alison Blaire/Dazzler gets moved from New York to the West Coast for not particularly convincing reasons, ditching her supporting cast as she goes and never really replacing them. For most of the run the premise of a superpowered being who has no interest in being a superhero but just wants to live an ordinary life is adhered to, but with limited input as Alison drifts through life and romantic interests, with the series steadily going off the rails. Her original stage costume disappears after issue #26 (bar a brief reappearance in the Beauty and the Beast limited series) and a replacement doesn't arrive until issue #38. It's true the original costume bore all the hallmarks of the disco era that had long passed by this time, both in the series and in wider society, but it always gave Dazzler a distinctive appearance. I'm glad to see that a cover featuring it (#26) was used for the front cover of the volume, as the new costume introduced in issue #38 has dated even more and is extremely generic.

From issue #27 to #35 each issue was graced with a highly stylised painted cover by Bill Sienkiewicz. Painted and photographic covers can look amazing but they are also extremely vulnerable to publication flaws. Unfortunately the black and white reproduction is exceptionally harsh on them, turning many into very dark pages that remove the attraction of them. Worst of all is the cover of the graphic novel, though at least it hides some of the 1984 hairstyles. Is it me or was the fashion of 1984 the ultimate in bad taste?

One area where the series does improve a lot on the issues in the first volume is in having a much lesser reliance on the wider Marvel universe, with many more issues focusing upon characters original to the series. But that's not to say there aren't some appearances and at first we still have the Angel flying about in the early issues, then when in danger Alison engages the Heroes for Hire, Power Man and Iron Fist, then later she's recruited by the Inhumans and encounters practically the entire Royal Family. In the last few issues she trains with the X-Men, then has the Beast come to save her at the end. Then there's the villains such as the slightly renamed Sisterhood of Evil Mutants, consisting of Mystique, Rogue and Destiny, mutant hunters sent by regular government arsehole Henry Peter Gyrich, the duo of Moonstone and Blackout and finally Tatterdemalion. And there's even a surprise appearance by none other than Millie the Model, complete with her rival Chili Storm. Millie now runs a modelling agency that Alison signs for, only to discover sinister goings on with the finger seemingly pointing at Chili. The Marvel universe also intrudes with two wider events, one a mega crossover, the other a theme month.

Issue #30 fell in Assistant Editor's Month, when the Marvel editors went off to the San Diego Comics Convention and left power to go to the heads of their assistants. Here that's more literal than most as Alison briefly flees Los Angeles and accepts a lift to the convention with none other than editor Ralph Macchio, unaware a military group are tracking her and the second-in-command is determined to sort the problem out during his brief period in charge. Meanwhile in New York power has also gone to the head of the assistant editor, a young Bob Harras as he gets ever more dictatorial, demanding all manner of bizarre changes on his titles... until Ralph phones in and suddenly the power drains away. All these years later and Harras has since  been Editor-in-Chief at both Marvel and now DC, so I wonder how he and other creators now feel about this portrayal. Amidst all this the main story of Alison fighting a soldier who is mutated into a dinosaur man due to a military device is almost an afterthought.

The other wider Marvel event the series ties into is Secret Wars II. Issue #4 is included here and it sees the Beyonder trying to understand the concept of "love", picking on Alison to woe. Eventually she seemingly succumbs and he empowers her to be his equal but then he realises his mistake and releases her form his mind control. He then returns her to her previous situation in issue #40 but gets briefly tied up in a battle in her own series. This particular Secret Wars II crossover is frankly a distraction from the regular series, neither offering a special character piece that shows the series's star in an enhanced light nor a one-off adventure that can be easily brushed aside but instead just adds a needless element to the series's final storyline. All in all it demonstrates the tick-box approach to crossovers that seek to take in every series no matter how awkward this is.

In the meantime the series introduces some more original characters but with one exception it doesn't really develop them. Early on Alison befriends Lois London, her half-sister who turns out to be another mutant. Lois is horrified when she discovers she has the power to generate energy in moments of stress, and believes she's killed a man. This causes her to flee, with Alison leaving New York to help her, but even after Lois is cleared, Alison doesn't return home. In Los Angeles Alison befriends Janet McEntee, one of her aerobics students but not much comes of this. Then at the end she is captured and then aided by O.Z. Chase, a grizzled bounty hunter, and his fierce dog Cerberus, who has a strong appetite for beer and cigars. Chase and Cerberus make for a slightly comical pair as they drive across the country in pursuit, with Chase often declaring how much he hates the dog yet he can never get rid of him.

There are also a number of new foes include Flame, an arsonist for hire and Revenge Inc, a group of mercenaries who carry out elaborate retributions for clients. There's also less superpowered ones with Alison having to handle a deranged obsessive stalker, soldiers sent to tackle the mutant "threat", and the Racine Ramjets, a nasty all-female gang. Finally in an extended story at the end of the series, Dazzler is pursued by Dust and Silence, two individuals who survived horrific drug experiments that have left them trying to survive by bizarre means, and the hordes of offspring of others subject to the drugs, arranged as the "New Wave" including Deathgrip, the Outriders, a trio a powered motorcyclists, Jared and Chunk. And then there's a succession of Hollywood sleazeballs in the graphic novel.

I've written about my dislike of graphic novels in previous posts (namely Essential Killraven volume 1 and Power Pack Classic volume 2) so I'll refrain from going through my general criticisms of the format yet again. However here we see some specific problems caused by using them to feature major events in the life of a character with an ongoing series. As well as all the accessibility problems, any delay on such a graphic novel forces a series either to have a jump in the narrative or else to tread water for up to months on end. The latter seems to have been the strategy adopted here, with the result that Alison has been in Hollywood and around Roman Nekoboh for a while, making some of her naivety hard to swallow whilst his pursuit of her seems even less natural.

"Dazzler: The Movie" frankly isn't worth the build-up or any contemporary extended wait. Whilst the art looks good even when muddied by the reproduction that turns the unremovable colour into an excess of grey, the story is very pedestrian, focusing upon the sleazy side of Hollywood and the way Alison lets it consume her. Men try to indirectly buy their way into bed with her, and she eventually succumbs to the advances of Roman Nekoboh after he showers her with attention and gifts, fakes an affair for the media to get her to play along, chases her, commits sexual harassment if not sexual assault and fakes a heart attack to make her care for him. Nekoboh (the name is Hoboken backwards - Frank Sinatra's birthplace - and the forename is the clincher) is an aged once-great movie star who doesn't realise that he's in the has-been phase of his career. Bald, overweight and short-sighted, he wears a wig, corset, contacts and false teeth to present a younger, slimmer image to the world, a sign of the fakeness of the environment Alison has stepped into. Her submission is a sign of the poor way she's handled here. Moving beyond her singing career she tries her hand at acting - a combined career that's surprisingly common in the industries - and winds up making a movie with Nekoboh. But her naivety persists and she finds herself taking part in a stunt to reveal her to the world as a mutant, in the hope of boosting the movie's profile and overcoming prejudice by showing the capacity for mutants to do good, but it backfires spectacularly when her powers overload, causing fear and hatred. It's possible to see foreshadows of more recent storylines that focus on how the world reacts to having potentially dangerous superpowered beings in their midst, as well as a parallel to the real life problems many LGBT celebrities have faced when they've come out or been forced out. But the graphic novel is let down by the poor treatment of the central character, showing her as a fool who succumbs to the sleazy side of Hollywood, to the point where she takes a look in the mirror and sees herself as an ever fattening smoker, realising what's she's become and hating it. (It also misses a trick by not exploring the obvious comparison with her mother's life.) Eventually she discovers how she's been manipulated all along by a man whose advances she rejected when working at a gym club and then quit her job when he purchased the club to try to have her. What we're left with is some good ideas but badly executed with a fall out on the main series, both by forcing it to tread water to line up with the graphic novel but also by shifting the character away from her roots and pushing her into a marginalised existence as she tries to survive despite infamy and prejudice, making the series into something very different from before. And Alison doesn't learn all her lessons with the Secret Wars II issue, also written by Jim Shooter, showing her once again quickly succumbing to the advances of a man who abuses his power to shower her with gifts and fakes being in danger to get her to care for him.

As well as the graphic novel, the end of 1984 also saw the launch of a limited series. Beauty and the Beast is an odd little series that appears to have been named first and only then had the contents devised. It sees Alison and the Beast (Hank McCoy) drawn into a theatre comprised completely of mutants, a hotel for other mutants to hide at, and a struggle between Doctor Doom and his alleged illegitimate son. (Doom's presence in the story was a major continuity mess as it came in an extended period when the original Doom had been killed off, bar his explained appearance in Secret Wars.) Hank is drawn to pursue Alison for no particular reason though the two find themselves falling for each other, seemingly just to meet the demands of the story. All in all this is a convoluted mess that distorts characters and continuity in order to tell a rather turgid and forgettable story.

Looking at the main series the same thing happens with the biggest problem being the abrupt shift away from New York. Initially this appears to be only temporarily as Alison helps Lois run away, since Alison has a highly successful album out. But she soon settles on the West Coast and drifts into a succession of other jobs whilst waiting for her career to take off again. The graphic novel and limited series then forcibly drag the regular series into the realm of anti-mutant prejudice but it feels off. Finally the last issues see a new creative team effectively abandon the singing and move Dazzler ever more towards being a conventional superhero, with an extended struggle against powerful foes during which her father is killed. It's all rather jarring and the result is a meandering before a final crash. The last issue also sees her death faked with the result that she believes she can have freedom from prejudice and the ability to continue her singing career - but it's never easy to climb back into the closet so just how is she going to sing in public without being recognised? It seems more likely she is going to be a regular superhero, though not on the initially planned team.

And so a once promising series crashes upon the rock of creative and editorial incompetence. Given the graphic novel was written by the-then Editor-in-Chief, it's easy to guess where the forced new direction came from. Sadly it left the character and series wrecked and attempts to either salvage the mess or move beyond it just didn't come off. The cover of the final issue declares "Because you demanded it! The last issue of the Dazzler". Despite the length of the volume I wasn't screaming for it to end, but the sad state of the series makes it hard to mourn too much. It's a pity because the series had launched so well, offering something different from the norm and giving us that extreme rarity, a female lead who existed for more than just intellectual property protection.

Essential Dazzler volume 1

Essential Dazzler volume 1 contains the title character's first appearances in X-Men #130-131, Amazing Spider-Man #203 and then issues #1-21 of her own series. Issue #1 was ground-breaking in its day as one of the first ever comics released solely in the Direct Market of print-to-order-no-return comic shops (as opposed to the newsstands that work on a sale-or-return basis), though later on the series appears to have been newsstand distributed as well.

The early Dazzler issues are written by Tom DeFalco who is succeeded by Danny Fingeroth for the rest of the volume. The first few issues are drawn by John Romita Jr, with help from Alan Kupperberg on one issue, before Frank Springer draws the rest of the run. The X-Men issues are scripted by Chris Claremont, co-plotting with artist John Byrne whilst the Amazing Spider-Man issue is written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Keith Pollard.

The credits on her first issue include "Conceived by Alice Donenfeld, John Romita, Jr. and Jim Shooter with some help from Stan Lee, Al Milgrom, Roger Stern and Tom DeFalco." (Donenfeld was Marvel's in-house counsel and Vice-President of Business Affairs.) That's a lot of cooks around the broth. There are multiple accounts of the Dazzler's creation flying around on the internet and it's a little complex to work out which is correct, but Jim Shooter: The Debut of the Dazzler seems to be the account from the closest person available. The basic plan was to have a singer-superhero with a real-life singer doing promotional appearances. The tie-in failed to materialised and the character rested on the backburner whilst the disco scene started fading away, but there were a few guest appearances and eventually her own title materialised. I've previously written about the highly derivative nature of most female solo stars and it's a pleasing change to find one who isn't a female spin-off of an existing male character. However it's less satisfying that she's another mutant - Dazzler was an early example of an all too lazy approach to origins and powers whereby characters simply acquired them through the genes rather than more original means. By all means have many mutants as X-Men focused characters, but at this stage of her career (despite the location of her introduction) Dazzler was grounded in the wider Marvel Universe and deserved something more imaginative.

Judging by the slightly different cover designs used on issues #1 & #2, and the existence on the Marvel Comics Database wiki of a scan of the cover of issue #2 with the alternative design to the one reprinted here, I'm guessing that it was only the first issue which was released solely in the Direct Market and the series became available on newsstands thereafter. I'm in mixed minds about the way issue #1 was released, though the point is rather academic now. But in an era when large portions of comic readers did not have comic shops within easy reach of them, Direct Market only issues were thus out of their reach even if they had a good advance order and reservation arrangement with their newsstands. A pin-up in issue #2 carries at its base a notice of where to write off to in order to get a list of dealers who still had the issue in stock (which seems in incredibly slow and inefficient from the perspective of the internet era) - considering the huge numbers ordered for issue #1 (c420,000 according to some and the fact the series went to newsstands so quickly certainly suggests sales were high enough to support such a move) I'm sceptical that there was an actual shortage of copies in comic shops so perhaps Marvel quickly realised they had excluded a large portion of the fanbase? It was an early sign of the way that comics steadily became ever more inaccessible, selling to those dedicated enough and lucky enough to have access to a specialist comics shop, with many titles unavailable to the total audience base despite them being key issues for understanding crossovers and the like. Sometimes publishers would make an effort to keep the newsstands in the loop - there were some interesting one-shots that reprinted an issue of an otherwise Direct Market only title - but sometimes the readers there would be left with holes in the narrative. Oh sure there are all the issues about the economics of the two systems and the problems comics were facing on the stands, but there were times in subsequent years when it seemed the industry jumped too far in one direction. (I must admit to being a little biased as for most of my comic collecting days I have lacked a specialist shop in my hometown and it was only through the luck of having a season ticket for travel all over the nearby metropolis that gave me reliable access to shops and enabled me to really get into the habit.)

Dazzler has long been dismissed as a joke, a product of Marvel trying to leap onto a fad that was already fading by the time she debuted. Normally when it is noted that her series was outselling Superman, it's invariably to make a big point about DC's poor sales in the era rather than to highlight how well Dazzler was doing at Marvel. And when Essential Dazzler was announced there were many who joked that the title was a contradiction in terms. (In slight fairness the term "Essential" isn't the best for a series dedicated to long sequential runs of titles, but I guess that when the name was picked it was never realised the series would last for so long.) Others even declared their fear of embarrassment when buying the volume. Was this a remnant of the backlash against disco or was it a specific reaction to the character? Or was it perhaps the product of myths that had built up around her, often repeated by people who hadn't checked out the original series themselves?

In a way this volume is ordered almost by readership, or at least modern readership. The two X-Men issues are part of the Dark Phoenix Saga, one of the most celebrated storylines of this era of comics if not of all time, and amongst the most reprinted. Unfortunately whilst the artwork captures Dazzler's design pretty well and gives her prominence on the cover of #130, it's clear the writing brief was incredibly limited to "Disco singer with power to transform soundwaves into light". Nothing is given about the character's real name or background and she is ultimately rather incidental in two issues that are really focused on the steady development of Phoenix and the introduction of Kitty Pryde (who later took the identity "Sprite", then "Shadowcat"). The Amazing Spider-Man issue is slightly better as it's more standalone, though the villain is the rather forgettable Lightmaster and once again the writer hasn't really been briefed on the character, at times resorting to possession in order to cover the gaps in characterisation. The issue notably ends with Dazzler and Spider-Man in a very suggestive situation but it wasn't followed up. (This was the tail-end of probably Spider-Man's most crowded period with women, having in the space of a couple of years gone through a proposal & break-up with Mary Jane Watson, an affair with Betty Brant-Leeds, plus the introductions of Cissy Ironwood, the Black Cat, Debra Whitman and Marcy Kane. Maybe the time just wasn't right for Dazzler.) Instead the character faded away from the Spidey-scene, though she did later pop up in at least one issue of Marvel Team-Up.

But didn't I say above that Dazzler #1 sold 420,000 copies? That's the most common figure cited and whilst I don't know if that's an accurate report of the sales records or just a garden rumour passed around (though it's repeated by the-then Editor-in-Chief), it certainly seems impressive. But as a Direct Market only issue, it doesn't mean 420,000 people individually went and purchased an issue. Rather it means there were 420,000 sales at the wholesale level, on a no-return basis, including those that were over-ordered by retailers and just sat around gathering dust. And as an early DM only release (I'm not entirely sure if it was the very first - I've seen conflicting reports) it's possible that the comic shops mispredicted demand (or thought they had a potential investment from back issue sales at a significant mark-up) and over-ordered, as they did in later years with some of the record breaking issues. Nor do we know if there were many speculator collectors who purchased the issue and immediately stored it away in the expectation of its value increasing - again a common practice in later years. So I suspect the number of people who actually purchased & read the first issue at the time is somewhat lower than this headline figure suggests. And of course the comics industry has seen much turnover of fans so many since may have never read the first issue or any of the series at all. If they've encountered Dazzler's early days outside of this volume then it's most likely to have been through her X-Men appearances.

But even reading X-Men #130-131, Amazing Spider-Man #203 and then Dazzler #1-2 can still perpetuate one of the myths about the character. Because it's only really in these issues that the character is explicitly based around disco. (Fortunately the original plan to name the character "The Disco Dazzler" was dropped.) Afterwards she is a more generic singer who can and does take up work in all manner of genres. It's surprising that she doesn't change her stage outfit at any point in this part of her series, but her look had already been established by this time and visual continuity is often key in comics. Nevertheless there are often times when she doesn't stop to change and instead deploys her powers whilst in civilian clothes.

Dazzler's début story is split across two issues and full of guest stars. Is it really the best way to start a new series by having the lead character rescued from thugs by Spider-Man? Similarly in the fourth issue she doesn't escape from Doctor Doom at the end and it's only the arrival of the Human Torch that makes him flee. In the second issue the Enchantress strikes at a night club where Dazzler is singing and several pages are taken up with a battle between the Enchantress's demons and various members of the X-Men, Avengers, Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. It probably made commercial sense in 1980 to lure readers in with the established stars but it also means the title character is crowded out in her own book. She may not have a desire to go into the superhero profession - in the X-Men issues she turns down membership of the team after all - but that doesn't stop trouble finding her and we get other heroes either guest starring or cameoing in the following issues: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #9, #10, #11, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20 & #21. The appearances range from brief scenes giving Dazzler help, such as the Beast doing some quick research for her in issue #5, to substantial interactions such as the two-part Hulk story in issues #6 & #7. (One particularly fun scene comes in issue #2 when chaos breaks out in a nightclub and Peter Parker races into the gents to change into his costume - only to find every cubicle taken by other heroes doing exactly the same thing!)

Similarly many villains from other Marvel series appear, including the Enchantress, Dr. Doom, the Enforcers (Fancy Dan, Montana and the Ox), Klaw, Terrax, the Grapplers (Titania, Screaming Mimi, Letha and Poundcakes), Dr. Octopus and the Absorbing Man. Throw in the presence of Galactus as well and it's a wonder there's any room to breathe. It's not until issue #8 that we get the first clear new villain (although there are generic gangsters and shady characters before that), the Techmaster. And although he's used twice, he falls into the trap of being motivated by revenge on an individual and it's often difficult to open out such characters into more general recurring villains. Unfortunately the next new villains, Johnny Guitar and Doctor Sax, are again seeking revenge upon members of the supporting cast and offer limited opportunities to be opened out into more general recurring foes. In spite of all this there's a concerted effort to keep Dazzler away from some of the conventions of superhero comics, with the real focus being on her developing her career as Alison Blaire and trying to keep her powers secret and away from the more standard heroics, but frequently this fails to stop many situations coming her way.

The aforementioned supporting cast is at least developed quite well into a rather diverse set as we meet the likes of record producer Harry S. Osgood, his secretary Cassandra Ferlenghetti, field manager Lancelot Steele, band members Beefer, Hunch and Marx, and young singer Vanessa Tooks. Away from the music industry there is Paul Janson, a doctor who meets Alison in hospital and dates her for a while before finding her disappearances too much, and Ken Barnett, a lawyer who successfully defends her from the charge of murdering Klaw. On the costumed front there's the Blue Shield aka Joe Cartelli, a crime fighter operating undercover within the New York rackets. Finally there's her family - her supportive grandmother Bella, and her hostile father, Cater Blaire, a judge who believes his daughter is wasting her life with music and should have followed him into law. It's nice to see a case of parental disapproval over two different career paths, instead of a career vs. being a housewife as seen with Ms. Marvel. Then at the end of the volume we meet Alison's long lost mother, Barbara London, in a touching story that explores the rifts in her family as Alison faces similar dilemmas that her mother did, but overcomes them differently.

At its core the series is about a young woman seeking to follow her own dreams and hopes, and not the expectations of those around her. Alison wants to entertain others, not follow her father into law or become a superhero in spite of her powers and the situations she regularly encounters. Consequently there's quite a bit of focus on her day to day struggles to raise enough money just to pay the rent and eat - with some hilarious results as she has to take what singing jobs she can get no matter how embarrassing - and her interactions with those around her. What's also noticeable is just how much of an independent woman Alison is and how little this has to be said explicitly. She's not clingy and dependent upon any man, expect perhaps her producer for signings, and nor is she constantly struggling to overcome expectations of her gender. She isn't a female derivative of an existing male character but is instead her own independent woman, defined by herself and no-one else. Despite the series being over thirty years old, this approach keeps the character fresh and the stories do not feel particularly dated for it. Some of the situations may be a little forced in order to bring Dazzler into contact with either the villains or guest stars, but she reacts like an ordinary person with extraordinary powers. This was the first ongoing solo series to headline a mutant character and we get some glimpses of the problems that would beset them in later years - the struggle to keep their powers secret from all around them despite the need to use them for safety, the hostile reaction of those they've saved and the difficulty in controlling their powers. This latter problem leads to a particularly dark moment when she confronts Klaw, a being composed of solid sound, and is unable to stop her powers from absorbing him completely. At a subsequent trial Dazzler is found not guilty but cannot expunge completely what happened. But the trial also brings the second of her three romances in the volume. In succession she dates Paul Janson, a doctor who bails out on her when he can't stand her disappearances - and he tries to avoid a confrontation by delivering the news in public at a restaurant - then Ken Barnett, the lawyer who successfully defends her and so who is aware of her powers from the outset. But then the Angel takes a shine to her and starts throwing his money around, as though he can simply buy his way into her affections. This leads to some tense moments, but his attempts to woe her do have their upside, as he becomes a strong support to her grandmother when Carter Blaire sinks into depression. The volume ends on a high note as Dazzler performs at Carnegie Hall, wins her father's approval, meets her mother again and finally dances away at a party afterwards.

When I first picked up this volume I wasn't sure of what to expect, given the longstanding mocking of the series. But the more I read, the more I felt that either the problems stem from material yet to come in the second volume (which collects not just issues #22-42 but also the graphic novel Dazzler: The Movie and the Beauty and the Beast limited series) or perhaps even from her later appearances after the series ended, or else Dazzler has been dismissed by generations of half-remembered points and myths. This series is not some over-ripe disco chasing nonsense but instead a good portrayal of a likeable and well developed character who aims to follow her dreams and not conform to the norms. Perhaps too many wanted her to conform to the norms and be a conventional superhero series, but instead we get something highly original. The artwork is good to even better, especially under Frank Springer, and the writing strong. Oh and her costume is a delight - it may have been dated even at the time, but it's a pity it was subsequently changed.

What other Essentials has Spider-Man appeared in?

Happy New Year everyone!

Next month will see the release of the next Spider-Man volume - Essential Marvel Team-Up volume 4, containing issues #76-#78, #80-#98 & Annuals #2-#3. I'll be reviewing the volume in due course and also adding my thoughts on issue #79, which has been omitted due to rights issues.

In the meantime, this post is response to another enquiry about a minor aspect of the Essentials, namely which volumes from other series include issues from the various Spider-Man titles. I've already covered the issues not yet reached by their own volumes, but for the sake of completism here is a full list of all the volumes that contain any issues from the various Spider-Man series. The individual issues are linked to the posts containing the relevant reviews and the relevant volume links are to those reviews. As ever the co-stars of Marvel Team-Up issues are identified:

Essential Classic X-Men volume 3

• Amazing Spider-Man #92
• Marvel Team-Up #4 featuring Spider-Man and the X-Men

Both issues come from after the X-Men's original series was cancelled and replaced by a reprint run. The Amazing issue would appear to be the first significant appearance of any of the X-Men post-cancellation.

Essential Werewolf by Night volume 1

• Marvel Team-Up #12 featuring Spider-Man and the Werewolf

This was one of the earliest Marvel forays into traditional horror following reforms to the Comics Code Authority in the early 1970s. As with so many other Marvel characters, the Werewolf popped up across the Marvel universe and invariably met with Spider-Man.





Essential Punisher volume 1

• Amazing Spider-Man #129 
• Amazing Spider-Man #134 
• Amazing Spider-Man #135 
• Giant-Size Spider-Man #4 
• Amazing Spider-Man #161 
• Amazing Spider-Man #162 
• Amazing Spider-Man #174 
• Amazing Spider-Man #175 
• Amazing Spider-Man #201 
• Amazing Spider-Man #202 
• Spectacular Spider-Man #81
• Spectacular Spider-Man #82 
• Spectacular Spider-Man #83 

As noted previously, Essential Punisher volume 1 is an odd entry in the series as it collects the character's earliest appearances from multiple series rather than concentrating solely on his own titles. However it's not the only Essential volume out there to take such an approach...

Essential Marvel Horror volume 2

• Marvel Team-Up #24 featuring Spider-Man and Brother Voodoo

Essential Marvel Horror is one of the more unusual of the Essential series as it collects stories based around the various horror-based characters, mostly from the various anthology series, rather than a chronological run of an individual series. Volume 2 brings together stories featuring the likes of the Living Mummy, Gabriel the Devil Hunter, Brother Boodoo, Golem, Scarecrow and Modred the Mystic. Note that the stories in the Marvel Horror volumes are not always in chronological order...

Essential Marvel Horror volume 1

• Marvel Team-Up #32 featuring the Human Torch & the Son of Satan
• Marvel Team-Up #80 featuring Spider-Man and Dr. Strange and Clea
• Marvel Team-Up #81 featuring Spider-Man and Satana

...hence Volume 1 appearing on this list after Volume 2. The first volume carries stories featuring either Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan, or his sister Satana. (I am astounded that Marvel was able to get away with using the name "Satan" in the titles of any of its series in the 1970s.)

Essential Defenders volume 2

• Marvel Team-Up #33 featuring Spider-Man and Nighthawk
• Marvel Team-Up #34 featuring Spider-Man and Valkyrie
• Marvel Team-Up #35 featuring the Human Torch and Dr. Strange

Although the Defenders are famous for their "non-team" status, some characters were more Defenders than others and all three of the above guest-stars fall into this category.

Essential Killraven volume 1

• Marvel Team-Up #45 featuring Spider-Man and Killraven

This is one of the odder series Marvel has ever put out. Having obtained the comic rights to H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, Marvel created a sequel series set in a post-invasion apocalypse future in which the protagonist was a freedom fighter battling against the Martians. Whilst time travelling back from the 17th century Spider-Man accidentally wound up in the era and teamed up with Killraven.

Essential Marvel Two-in-One volume 1

• Marvel Team-Up #47 featuring Spider-Man and the Thing

This was half of the first ever crossover between any of Spider-Man's titles and another series, bringing the stars of the two main rotating team-up books together. It's a pity there was never a crossover with Super-Villain Team-Up to round things out.

Essential Warlock volume 1

• Marvel Team-Up #55 featuring Spider-Man and Warlock

Following the cancellation of Warlock's own series (for the second time) his story was partially continued in this issue of Marvel Team-Up. The climax then came in a two-part story run in Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2. The latter part saw Spider-Man show up to help save the day, and it is discussed in my second post on guest appearances.

Essential Nova volume 1

• Amazing Spider-Man #171 

As previously discussed, this was the first crossover between Amazing and another series, bringing together Marvel's biggest star and their newest (and the Nova issue also appears in Essential Spider-Man volume 8). Looking back it's astounding to think that Nova was seriously expected to be the next Spider-Man. But then predicting The Next Big Thing has never been an easy science.

Essential Iron Fist volume 1

• Marvel Team-Up #63 featuring Spider-Man and Iron Fist
• Marvel Team-Up #64 featuring Spider-Man and the Daughters of the Dragon

I believe the latter issue is the first time "the Daughters of the Dragon" were billed under that name. More normally they were part of Iron Fist's supporting cast.

Essential Man-Thing volume 2

• Marvel Team-Up #68 featuring Spider-Man and the Man-Thing

The title of this volume makes many people laugh but back in the 1970s Marvel actually went one further and produced a comic with the title Giant-Size Man-Thing. How on earth did that one ever get past the Comics Code Authority? (And yes, every issue was printed with the CCA seal of approval.)

Essential Moon Knight volume 1

• Spectacular Spider-Man #22 
• Spectacular Spider-Man #23 

(Contrary to some early reports and many online listings, Marvel Team-Up Annual #4 is not included.)

Similar to the Punisher, Moon Knight began life as a one-off villain in another series (in this case Werewolf by Night) but proved so popular he kept returning and eventually graduated to a series of his own. His encounter with Spider-Man came midway through this journey.

Essential Dazzler volume 1

• Amazing Spider-Man #203

Dazzler was being steadily built up to be one of the Next Big Things from Marvel as part of a wider tie-in with a record company, but for various reasons the tie-ins were cancelled before they could happen and her actual series didn't materialise until 1981 when the disco fad was already fading. But before then one of her earliest appearances was in Amazing Spider-Man, an issue which ends rather suggestively between Spidey and Dazzler but unfortunately this was never followed up on.

Essential Spider-Woman volume 2

• Marvel Team-Up #97 featuring Hulk and Spider-Woman

Well okay Spider-Man himself doesn't actually appear in this issue, one of the few of the later Marvel Team-Ups without him, but I've included it for completism's sake and in any case Spider-Woman does.

Essential Defenders volume 5

• Marvel Team-Up #101 featuring Spider-Man and Nighthawk
• Marvel Team-Up #111 featuring Spider-Man and Devil-Slayer
• Marvel Team-Up #116 featuring Spider-Man and Valkyrie

Once again these are team-ups with some of the more regular members of the Defenders in this era.

Essential Defenders volume 6

• Marvel Team-Up #119 featuring Spider-Man and Gargoyle

...and yet again we get a team-up with one of the main Defenders.

Essential Ghost Rider volume 4

• Amazing Spider-Man #274

Notably Ghost Rider himself doesn't actually appear in this issue, but instead we get Zarathos, the spirit previously bonded to him. This issue was also a crossover with Secret Wars II.

And so that's all the volumes I'm aware of. Unsurprisingly the vast majority of volumes reprint issues from Marvel Team-Up due to the policy of collecting some significant appearances of characters alongside their own series. However Essential Punisher volume 1 balances out the numbers somewhat.

More non-essential Spider-Man Essentials

Time now for another look at Spider-Man's guest appearances. Today I'm looking at a stretch from 1972 until 1981, ending at the twenty year mark which is also broadly at the point where the Essentials start getting bitty – in particular the Fantastic Four and Avengers series don't (yet) get beyond here and most of the other series that start in the Silver Age are even further behind. It's not the neatest of points but it serves its purpose. With that said:

Daredevil and the Black Widow (to give the book its full cover title at the time) #103, written by Steve Gerber and drawn by Don Heck, reprinted in Essential Daredevil volume 5

This issue tied in with Marvel Team-Up #12 (a Man-Wolf issue) which saw Peter sent to San Francisco to get photographs of Daredevil and the Black Widow, who had teamed up and were briefly relocated there. This issue continues Peter's efforts to get the story – curiously he's written here as a journalist as well as a photographer. Peter makes it into the Black Widow's mansion where he's secured the chance to get the story, but suddenly new villain the Ramrod shows up, stealing a box of papers for his shadowy masters who reconstructed his body after an accident. Daredevil and the Black Widow pursue him, with Peter changing to Spider-Man and following at a distance, recovering the papers. The fight continues on the skyline until the Ramrod loses his grip and plunges to his doom. Spidey takes off and Peter shows up to finally get his interview. Whilst it's nice to see Spider-Man interacting with other heroes on good terms, rather than hot-headedly getting into a fight, this appearance feels rather short and certainly not a substitute for the lack of an early Team-Up with Daredevil and/or the Widow as the interaction between them and Spidey is limited to the actual fight. And Spider-Man doesn't really contribute much to the right that Daredevil or the Widow couldn't have done themselves. Peter seeking an interview also feels out of role – I suppose one could argue Jonah wanted to save on air fares but in Team-Up #12 he was specifically sent on a photo assignment. Ultimately this is a gratuitous unnecessary appearance.

An issue I'm going to have to skip as it hasn't yet been Essentialised is Sub-Mariner #69 written by Steve Gerber and drawn by George Tuska. As before if the Essential Sub-Mariner gets further volumes and reaches it (this one would be in volume 5 by my reckoning) I'll try to remember to return to this post and add my thoughts on the issue. However I suspect that won't be for many years yet.

Howard the Duck #1, written by Steve Gerber and drawn by Frank Brunner, reprinted in Essential Howard the Duck volume 1

Amazing as it may seem, Howard the Duck was once one of Marvel's biggest properties, leading to a much publicised creators' rights dispute over Howard's ownership, followed by a notorious mid 1980s movie often considered one of the worst films of all time. Before that came Howard's own series which launched in 1975 (and was reportedly more popular than the contemporary revival of the X-Men!). The key to understanding the series is that it's an existentialist satire in which the difference between seriousness and silliness is a point of view. With that said...

Spider-Man makes a short guest appearance in the first issue in which Howard encounters Pro-Rata, a cosmic accountant who lives in a tower made of credit cards located by a river in Cleveland and who sends Howard through a portal to a dimension of barbarians in order to retrieve the missing key for the Cosmic Calculator, which will allow Pro-Rata to become the Chief Accountant of the universe. Steve Gerber made this up, not me. Midway through the issue Jonah sends Peter to Cleveland to get photos of the mysterious talking duck sighted there, and late in the issue Spider-Man follows the sound of the explosion to reach the tower where he and Howard in turn save each other's lives. It's a fairly gratuitous appearance by Spidey that doesn't really add anything other than to lure readers in. Unfortunately the issue plays the guest appearance for straight rather than making a wider comment on the conventions for comics to do such appearances, missing an opportunity. Spider-Man makes a further brief cameo appearance in issue #10 (also in this volume) when Howard has a breakdown and several past characters appear in a surreal nightmare. It's notable for the image of Howard turning on a tap only to get webs as Spidey comes out of it. It's an example of the sort of madness that happened in Howard's series.

To keep this listing complete I'll just note Marvel Two-in-One #17, written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Sal Buscema, which is reprinted in Essential Marvel Two-in-One volume 1 but which has also appeared in Essential Marvel Team-Up volume 2 as it crossed over with Team-Up #47 (which in turn is also reprinted in the Two-in-One volume). My thoughts on the issue are in my regular piece but I'll just repeat my comment that the creative teams on the two series seem to have been swapped around, and there's some dialogue in one series that would more suit the other, suggesting that the chapters were originally created to appear in the opposite series as someone got the schedule mixed up and assumed the issues would come out the other way round, then when the mistake was discovered the two stories were simply swapped over. Ah the mess of arranging crossovers.

Another one that I've already covered in the main run is The Man Called Nova #12 written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Sal Buscema. This crossed over with Amazing Spider-Man #171 and both issues are reprinted in Essential Spider-Man volume 8 and also in Essential Nova volume 1. This time at least the chapters appeared in the books they were specifically created for. Later on in the series issue #15's cover promises an appearance by Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man and the Hulk, but it's very brief and they're only robot duplicates so like a lot of other brief cameo appearances I haven't included it in this overview. As previously noted, Nova was created in part as a deliberate homage to Spider-Man (and less deliberately drew upon elements of Green Lantern) so the series may be worth checking out to see how such a homage worked out in practice. It's all contained in that single Essential volume.

Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2, written and drawn by Jim Starlin, reprinted in Essential Marvel Two-in-One volume 2 and also in both Essential Avengers volume 8 and Essential Warlock volume 1

This was a continuation of the story from Avengers Annual #7 (in which neither Spidey nor the Thing appears), which in turn served as the conclusion to the saga of Adam Warlock and Thanos that Jim Starlin had been telling back in Warlock's own series before it was cancelled. The storyline climaxed with Thanos combining the power of the six Soul Gems (later renamed the Infinity Gems) and assembling a giant space fleet to wipe out much of the universe as a gift to regain the favour of the embodiment of Death. In the first part the Avengers, Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock attacked, destroying the main star destroying weapon but Warlock lost his life to Thanos and his own time-travelling younger self (it's a little complicated to summarise here) and was drawn into the world of the Soul Gem.

The Marvel Two-in-One annual opens with Peter Parker sleeping, receiving a telepathic message from Moondragon about how Thanos re-gathered his forces, overwhelmed and captured the Avengers and now plans to use the last surviving Soul Gem to destroy Earth's sun. Spidey sets out for the Baxter Building, observed by Master Order and Lord Chaos (two cosmic entities making their first appearances) where he gets the help of the Thing and they set off in the Fantastic Four's space shuttle. Once aboard Thanos's flagship they battle Thanos's army but get captured and brought before Thanos who rapidly subdues the Thing. Spider-Man panics and actually swings away until he realises he's doomed anyway so decides his best chance is to free the Avengers, which he does by throwing himself into the machine holding them in stasis. All the while Order and Chaos comment on how Spider-Man is meeting path of destiny they've set out for him but the ultimate job is to bring forth Adam Warlock. As Spidey recovers he finds himself strangely drawn to the Soul Gem which he releases from its container whilst at the same time Adam Warlock finds himself being called from inside the gem back to reality for one last missing. Warlock's spirit bursts out and turns Thanos into living stone. Thanos's army surrenders and the heroes bury Warlock then head for home.

As you can gather from that outline this is quite a different sort of story from the type Spider-Man is normally involved in, even in some of the more fantastic Marvel Team-Ups. Indeed in the story itself both Spidey and the Thing comment on this. I'm also not too comfortable with the whole idea of Order and Chaos manipulating Peter Parker's destiny so that he would become Spider-Man in the first place – the idea of mortals being micromanaged by powerful cosmic entities is so far detached from the norm for Spider-Man stories that it really sticks out. However this is a guest appearance so a little latitude can be allowed and Spider-Man is ultimately the catalyst for saving the Earth. I guess Marvel's leading solo hero has to do that at least once. And Two-in-One was a team-up book so his appearance wasn't even gratuitous. Still I bet a few Thing fans thought the regular hero should have had a greater role.

Spider-Man made another debut issue guest appearance in The Human Fly #1, written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Lee Elias. However this is another issue that has to be omitted in this run as the Essentials haven't yet touched the Human Fly (nothing to do with the Spider-Man villain who sometimes go by this name and sometimes as just "the Fly", although Spider-Man is investigating the similarity of names), which seems to be one of the most obscure of all Marvel series. It was reportedly based on a real-life stuntman although there has been a degree of uncertainty about this.

Defenders #61, written by David Anthony Kraft and drawn by Ed Hannigan, reprinted in Essential Defenders volume 4

This story sees the Defenders trying to catch a serial killer who murders lawbreakers who has been striking on the Empire Statue University. Trying to lure him out they decide to erect a statue to a lawbreaker – and choose Spider-Man, in hideous modern art. Both Spidey and the vigilante show up but the latter knocks out the Valkyrie's flying horse and throws the statue's tarpaulin over Spidey, then uses the distraction to escape. Spidey and the Defenders agree to dismantle the statue. Whilst the Defenders was a series that made a virtue of a high number of guest stars (to the point that Defenders membership was never formally defined until the New Defenders era), Spider-Man's presence is largely unnecessary and any fugitive or criminal could have served as the basis for the statue. The fight is chaotic with too many heroes taking on one lone killer who escapes all too easily. This is yet another gratuitous appearance.

Fantastic Four #207, written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Sal Buscema, reprinted in Essential Fantastic Four volume 9

When I originally wrote this post, Essential Fantastic Four had not yet reached this issue so I had to make do with a promise to come back to it when it eventually arrived. As that's now happened I can give my thoughts on this one.

This issue sees Peter on his first photo assignment for the Daily Globe and might have made a reasonable addition to Essential Spider-Man volume 9 because it shows him being hired by the Daily Globe, a precise point jumped over a bit in Amazing #194. In the space of less than one page Peter enters the Globe office, gets put on the salaried staff with an understanding about his time commitments and sent on his first assignment! Said assignment involves obtaining photographs of the students at Security College, a specialist institution for the offspring of the rich and famous who might otherwise be subject to kidnap attempts, including one Johnny Storm. The debate on journalism ethics has come a long way in the last three decades so it may just be the passage of time, but I was surprised Peter so readily accepted an assignment that effectively involves intrusion of privacy, even if he is photographing students out and about on the campus rather than in their private rooms. During the course of his attempts he discovers that the students are being hypnotised and used for nocturnal stealing by the Fantastic Four's old foe the Monocle. He convinces the Human Torch this is happening and they bring down the operation. The Monocle himself escapes the two heroes, but he'd tried to break away from the Enclave who blow up his rocket. All in all this issue feels rather awkward. The rest of the Fantastic Four don't appear at all as they're off on the planet Xander dealing with the left-over events from Nova and although Johnny's attendance at Security College was built up in previous issues, the whole thing feels as though it was scripted as a potential (fill-in?) issue of Marvel Team-Up. This is probably the reason why we get such a rushed introduction to Peter's career at the Globe and in the wrong series to boot – the script probably originally had him receiving a standard assignment but then the issue went out at a very awkward point in his own titles for this. However that doesn't excuse running part of a major development in Peter's life in another series.

Uncanny X-Men #123, scripted by Chris Claremont and drawn by John Byrne, reprinted in Essential X-Men volume 2

This is really quite a short appearance by Spidey that helps to establish continuity with the Marvel Team-Up issues with Captain Britain by bringing back the villain from that story, Arcade. Spidey bumps into Cyclops and Phoenix in New York, then sees them captured by Arcade's garbage truck and rushes to warn the rest of the X-Men by phone – only for it to be answered by Arcade who tells him he's too late. Spidey then smashes the phone box in rage. He doesn't appear in the rest of the story and really only served to provide a degree of continuity and explanation to introduce the story's villain.

Although not yet reached in its own Essential series, Fantastic Four #218, written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by John Byrne, has been reprinted in Essential Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man volume 2 as it crosses over with issue #42 of that series, and thus my thoughts on it are in my review of that volume.

Dazzler #1-2, written by Tom DeFalco and drawn by John Romita Jr, reprinted in Essential Dazzler volume 1

As I touched upon in my introduction piece about Spider-Woman, the Dazzler originated in a plan by Marvel to have a singer-superhero with a real-life singer doing promotion appearances. Eventually Marvel launched her in their first direct market only title in 1981. As part of the run-up to introduce here, she guest-starred in Amazing Spider-Man #203 and Spidey returned the favour in her own title. The first issue includes a cameo as the Dazzler takes on a group of muggers but falls into trouble and is helped by the arrival of Spider-Man. She goes on to get a job as the singer in a top nightclub, where in the second issue the opening night sees the attendance of about half the heroes in New York. When the Enchantress shows up, seeking a cosmic rift that will open on the site giving her great power, everyone joins a battle with her and the monsters she conjures up. The Enchantress is defeated but the night club is destroyed in the process; however Dazzler is given a tip for an interview about a singing contract- and all the heroes go to give her support and make sure she gets auditioned. Spider-Man's appearance here is very much a part of crowd support, both within the story itself and for sales (he's quite prominent on the cover of issue #1, reproduced as the Essential volume cover) but he gets a few good moments such as when Peter rushes into the gents to change into his costume and finds the other heroes have taken all the cubicles!

Given Dazzler's origins in the disco scene, there was rather a missed opportunity for her to fight one of Spider-Man's old foes. Why did no one think to pit her against the Hypno-Hustler?

(I've decided to leave out the What If series. Quite apart from it not having been Essentialised yet, it is by definition explicitly set in alternate timelines and often takes characters in quite unusual directions. Plus in most appearances Spider-Man was invariably a banner feature, not a guest star.)

Okay that's everything from 1972 until 1981. There's only a few guest appearances I could find that haven't yet been in the Essentials. Again it's surprising that there weren't more such appearances but I guess that Marvel Team-Up was able to meet a lot of that demand.

What's surprising about the appearances covered here is that in contrast to guest appearances in the 1962-1971 period there's far less of a hot-headed jerk in the Spider-Man costume. Equally there's very little of the resort to the stock formula of the hero being assumed to be a criminal, either inadvertently or deliberately due to a villain framing them. Instead we get Spider-Man interacting with other heroes on more respectful terms. The character was steadily developing in his own series and these guest appearances reflect that well.