Essential Avengers volume 7

Essential Avengers volume 7 consists of issues #141 to #163 and Annual #6 plus Super-Villain Team-Up #9. The writing see Steve Englehart finish his run to be followed by Gerry Conway and then Jim Shooter, with a few issues seeing overlaps and #150 incorporating part of issue #16 scripted by Stan Lee. The main story in the annual is by Englehart and a back-up by Scott Edelman whilst the Super-Villain Team-Up is written by Bill Mantlo. The bulk of the art, including the main story in the annual, is by George Pérez with other issues by Don Heck, Keith Pollard, John Buscema and Sal Buscema, with issue #150 reusing part of the Jack Kirby drawn #16, the annual back-up by Herb Trimpe and the Super-Villain Team-Up by Jim Shooter.

I don't normally comment on the other credits in a volume but there's a notable disjoint in this volume and it appears to come right around the period of Editor-in-Chiefship that can be dubbed "The Conway Weeks". I say "appears" because until the late 1970s, after the end of this volume, Marvel was rather loose with the credit "editor", sometimes giving it to a series's regular writer (even on fill-in issues by other writers), sometimes to another staff member who now appears on the canonical list of Editors-in-Chief which seems to involve some retroactive determination, and sometimes to someone else altogether. As a result it's difficult to determine at a glance just when one Editor-in-Chief replaced another, particularly in the period from 1972 to 1978 when there were no less than seven in post and one could be credited for a few months on material all basically approved under their predecessor. But here there seems to be a clear point of changeover with consequences engulfing the series as a long-term regular writer suddenly drops out to be replaced by the incoming then outgoing Editor-in-Chief who then lasts barely half a year, to be succeeded by another staffer who would go on to be Editor-in-Chief when the music finally stopped. The result is an example of an all too common situation in comics whereby big ideas and plans from one writer get taken up by another with minimal interest in them, grand storylines get finished by different hands and in different ways from those intended by those who started them, and there's fill-ins and reprints at completely the worst moments. All this contributes to a volume that is trying to live up to the levels of its predecessor, admittedly quite a daunting task in itself, but which instead winds up plodding along.

The worst moments are the aforementioned fill-ins. Issue #144 is part of the Serpent Crown saga and ends on a critical moment as the Avengers set off for the Squadron Supreme's home dimension. Yet this cliffhanger is not continued until issue #147 and in the meantime we get a two-part fill-in that openly leaves the question of its place in chronology up to the readers as they endure a two-part fill-in as the mysterious Assassin seeks to take the team down one by one. Given its length it may have been prepared for Giant-Size Avengers before that series switched to all reprints or else for an annual, but its presence here is just an irritating interruption. Also suffering is issue #150, where the cover promises "A Spectacular 150th Anniversary Special" but inside what was clearly structured as an extended meeting to refine the active team membership interspersed with a news reporter taking us through the history of the team in bite-sized chunks is instead paused after just six pages and the rest of the issue is padded out with sixteen pages lifted from Avengers #16, reliving the first major change in the membership. There's no denying the significance of that issue, and in later years of giant-sized anniversary issues with some reprints it would have been an obvious candidate for inclusion, but here it just shows itself up as being used as padding in what must have been one of the most eagerly anticipated issues at the time. Issue #151 has the rest of the issue with some drawn out bits to make up the extra pages but overall the whole thing is a very disappointing end to Steve Englehart's run on the series.

Englehart's last issues are not as well known as his earlier ones, and are dominated by the first part of the Serpent Crown saga. Building upon a plot device from other series we get an interdimensional tale in which the Serpent Crown is linked to its counterparts across other dimensions, leading to an encounter with the Squadron Supreme under the most obvious of titles - "Crisis on Other Earth", though the following issue's "20,000 Leagues under Justice" is also less than subtle. The Squadron Supreme's role as a pastiche of the Justice League of America has never been more obvious than here, with a further team member introduced in the form of the Amphibian, clearly the counterpart of Aquaman. Also show is the Squadron's base, a satellite orbiting the Earth. More surprising are the main agents the crowns operate through. On the normal Earth the crown is worn by Hugh Jones, of the Brand Corporation, but on the Squadron's Earth the crown is worn by the President of the United States, who here is none other than Nelson Rockefeller - this world apparently never having experienced Richard Nixon. What the real Rockefeller, then Vice President, thought of this is not known but it was a kind of success after three failed bids for the Presidency. I wonder who would be placed in the role if the story were created today? Next year may show who the perennial also ran candidate is. The story also allows for some polemicism as the Beast lectures the Squadron on blindly accepting orders from politicians and businessmen, to the point that when the Avengers return home the Squadron declines to pursue them. Thus it's only the Avengers who face down Brand in the initial climax, in which the corporation deploys Namor's old foe Orca the Killer Whale.

The earliest issues also contain a coda to the Kang saga. Hawkeye's attempts to recover the Black Knight have led him to travel through time where he gets knocked off course and arrives in the American West in 1873. He is followed by Thor and Moondragon for a final battle with Kang in which the time travelling warlord's weaponry overloads, destroying him. Just to confirm his fate, Kang's future self Immortus sends a projection to explain his role in his younger self's downfall and then to fade out, confirming he has now never existed. It's a rather low key ending for someone who had been arguably the Avengers' greatest foe and it also raises the whole question of how time travel works and just what has and hasn't been changed by Kang's death. With the Serpent Crown storyline also running through these issues it feels rather underwhelming, as though it was an after thought.

More surprising is the team-up with five of Marvel's western heroes, the Two-Gun Kid, the Rawhide Kid, Kid Colt, the Ringo Kid and the Night Rider (who was published under the name "Ghost Rider" but has since been renamed multiple times). It's a bold move to fully incorporate them into the Marvel superhero universe. At the end of the adventure the Two-Gun Kid successfully petitions to be allowed to visit the Avengers' own time where he and Hawkeye settle for adventures and work out on the western ranches. There may have been big plans for the Two-Gun Kid's adventures in the present day but very little seems to have come of them and he's reduced to an occasional humorous side moment such as when the telephone rings at a time of great crisis but the Kid just casually shoots it as he doesn't understand what the device does. Still it's good to see that no Marvel character will ever be truly abandoned.

Also not abandoned is Patsy Walker who shows up at the mansion to demand the Beast repay the debt he owes her and she gets caught up in a raid on the Brand Corporation. There she discovers the discarded costume of the Cat, now Tigra, and dons it, becoming the superhero Hellcat. Her story is one of contrasts, with now ex-husband Buzz Baxter now a jaded cynic after his experiences in Vietnam and working for Brand whilst Patsy retains the optimism of her teenage years. She's clearly being built up as the next member of the Avengers but when it comes to finalising the line-up she's whisked away by Moondragon for a period of intense training, no doubt at the behest of incoming writer Conway. It's a pity as Hellcat shows a lot of promise, but fortunately she would soon reappear in another series.

The change of writers coincides with a revised line-up. Moondragon departs, taking Hellcat with her, but not before she's sewn doubts in Thor's mind about being a god working alongside mortals and he too drops out. Hawkeye has already stepped aside and so the team we get is made up of Iron Man, the Wasp, Yellowjacket, Captain America, the Scarlet Witch, the Vision and the Beast. But they are soon joined by a surprise return - the resurrection of Wonder Man.

The second half of the volume meanders through a string of forgettable encounters with old and new foes. If there's one clear theme it's of the Vision's extended family with storylines focusing upon his "brother", his "brother"'s brother, his father-in-law & brother-in-law, his father and his "grandfather". Wonder Man is revived as a "zuvembie" by a new Black Talon but gains full revival thanks to the effects of the Serpent Crown worn by the Living Laser and then the Golden Age Whizzer shows up once more seeking help in dealing with his son Nuklo, with the adventure concluded in the annual which also shows the Vision facing off against Whirlwind. Later Avengers mansion is invaded by the Grim Reaper who has come to determine which of the Vision or Wonder Man is truly his brother. Then Ultron embarks on a strange scheme to create a female android with the mind of the Wasp to be his mate in a display of a classic Oedipus complex, with his "father" Yellowjacket abused and brainwashed into thinking he's Ant-Man in the early years so as to help his creation without knowing it. The female android is not fully brought to life but would go on to become the appropriately named Jocasta.

There's also a forgettable crossover with Super-Villain Team-Up as the Avengers get caught up in the battle between Doctor Doom and Attuma, but it has all the feel of wandering into another series by mistake without ever really explaining things and leaving no real impression here. Worse still it takes up no less than three issues of Avengers. Then there's an encounter with the possessed stone body of the Black Knight in what feels like another filler. The most notable new foe is Graviton, a man who has acquired power over gravity until it goes awry. There's also the beginning of what feels like a greater use for Jarvis as he takes initiative and rescues one of Graviton's victims. Finally there's a clash with the Champions at the behest of Hercules's old foe Typhon.

It would be wrong to imply the first half of the volume is truly spectacular when it actually feels like it's only marking time and tying up loose ends, with the next big thing to come later. But it nevertheless keeps up enough momentum from the previous volume to maintain the promise. However it all gets derailed by reprints, fill-ins and a change of writer, leaving the series stumbling around with a few good ideas such as the resurrection of Wonder Man and a lot of dull ones like the crossover. Only towards the end does it start to get exciting again. Overall the whole volume feels rather disappointing.

Essential Captain America volume 6

Essential Captain America volume 6 consists of Captain America and the Falcon #206 to #230 ("and the Falcon" is dropped from #223 onwards) plus Annual #4 and the crossover issue Incredible Hulk #232. The early part of the volume, including the annual, is written and drawn by Jack Kirby. The rest of the run sees a lot of creators including writers Roy Thomas, Don Glut, Steve Gerber, David Anthony Kraft, Peter Gillis, Roger McKenzie and Roger Stern plus a couple of back-ups by Scott Edelman. The most persistent artist after Kirby is Sal Buscema; others include George Tuska, Dave Cockrum, John Buscema and Mike Zeck plus Bob Budiansky and Steve Leialoha on the back-ups. One issue also contains a framed reprint of a Human Torch story from Strange Tales #113 drawn by Jack Kirby and scripted by Stan Lee. The Incredible Hulk issue is plotted by Roger Stern, scripted by David Michelinie and drawn by Sal Buscema. And with so many creators, invariably there's a separate labels post.

The early part of this volume contains the tail end of Jack Kirby's 1970s return to the title. And whilst the art remains as powerful as ever, the writing still doesn't feel terribly spectacular with the only long term addition of note being the geneticist Arnim Zola. Truly an artist's creation he has replaced his original body with a new one that has the brain in the more protected chest, with a camera in place of a head and a video screen to display a face on his chest. Zola has created all manner of creatures that he deploys, of which the most notable is Doughboy, an organism that can adjust its entire body to form itself into the equipment Zola needs to hand. Zola is certainly a bold creation but some of his impact is limited by the revelation that he's working for the Red Skull and undertaking a project to give Hitler's brain a new body. Hitler surviving by some strange scientific means was a common trope in 1960s and 1970s science fiction but today it feels cliched. It's also a sign of Kirby's habit of ignoring Marvel continuity where it suited him and it would eventually fall to the final issues of Super-Villain Team-Up to tidy the various Marvel accounts of the last days of Hitler.

Issue #207 contains a scene that has caused quite some debate, especially due to the panel on the right. As Steve changes costume in the Latin America jungle, he thinks about his experiences and the sadistic prison commandant:

Whoever runs that banana jail seems to get his kicks out of kicking the inmates! This man they call "The Swine" must be typical of the kind of bully that flourishes in these two-bit dictatorships. But this is not my country and not my place to fight for causes I know nothing about. My immediate problem is to beat this jungle -- find my way to a fair-sized town and... home!

This triggered off some debate in the blogosphere a few years ago - see Scott Edelman: Shame on you, Captain America!, Kirby Dynamics: "Shame on you, Captain America?" Part 1 and Kirby Dynamics: "Shame on You Captain America" Part 2 for the main posts on this (although be warned they drift into the different matter of 1970s Marvel staffers' attitudes about and actions to Kirby). On its own though this feels like a very clumsy attempt both to move beyond the simplistic morality of Golden Age and early Silver Age comics and also to reflect the changed outlook on US foreign policy in the post-Vietnam era. The idea that every situation has clear-cut goodies and baddies and that heroes should jump aboard every rebellion going was now being challenged, not just in the comics themselves but also in the wider world as once heroes of liberation and independence had become authoritarian dictators. The problem is the dialogue isn't terribly nuanced and the situation up to now hasn't really been presented as such. Instead the Swine has been portrayed as a latter day Nazi, right down to the uniform (but not insignia) and even drawn to resemble Himmler whilst dealing out sadistic torture. Nor is Captain America acknowledging the complexities of the situation. Instead he's just turning his back on the matter and looking to flee the land. This is not a man weighing up the difficulties of what is worse out of the current situation or the potential chaos that can be unleashed by simply overthrowing a regime without a clear successor infrastructure. Nor is he declining to back an ambiguous group of unknown rebels because they may contain even worse elements. Rather this comes across as a "None of my business" dismissal even if such cack-handedness was never the intention. And indeed the story doesn't see Cap take on the dictator but instead the Swine is killed by one of Zola's creatures, with Zola himself taking Cap back to a castle in Switzerland for the rest of the story.

There's some improvement on Kirby's earlier issues in regards the treatment of women with both Leila (who has had a massive quick recovery from her brainwashing at the end of the previous volume) and Sharon showing greater boldness and intelligence. In particular Sharon holds her own with the Red Skull. However it's also clear that Kirby had little time for the Falcon, keeping him largely out of the picture during most issues. The final two see a temporarily blinded Cap in hospital where the shady Corporation sends the Night Flyer to assassinate a patient known as "the Defector". The Falcon has a run-in with the Night Flyer but it's Cap who ultimately triumphs despite his temporary blindness. The final piece of 1970s Kirby work in the volume is the annual which sees Cap battling Magneto for the fate of a strange mutant with two separate bodies. It feels rather run of the mill with Magneto a rather generic cackling villain who wants the smaller body to investigate a tiny spaceship. All in all the Kirby run on the title has been so-so and not the return to the greatest ever days of Cap that it was hyped as.

Kirby's departure leaves a hole in the series and its not really filled for the remaining sixteen issues in this volume. Instead we get all the hallmarks of a series in creative chaos as no less than seven writers (not including the reprint or the Incredible Hulk issue) struggle with key storylines without really knowing where they're going or how long they'll last for. (The art is, however, more stable from issue #218 onwards with Sal Buscema providing at least breakdowns on all but one issue.) There are fill-ins, although efforts are made to actually include them in the ongoing narrative, and two other staples of a series in a rush - a retelling of the origin and a reprint.

These both come at the start of a run in which Captain America is slowly exploring his past to find out just who he is and who Steve Rogers is, The reasons behind this level of introspection are never made totally clear; nor is it explained just why Cap appears to have amnesia about his life before he received the Super Soldier Serum. But the result is an exploration that doubles as an exercise in retroactive continuity as new elements are added and some of what we were told before is shown to be questionable at least. The origin retelling in issue #215 runs through all the basics but for the first time in the series the two replacement Captain Americas of the late 1940s are included, following a What If? story that reinstated to continuity the Cap stories published in 1945 to 1950 as well as the All-Star Squadron. Also recapped is the previously seen Captain America of the 1950s. Following this we get a single new page as the real Cap sets out to discover about the one other Captain America, but we never learn if he does and instead enjoy a reprint of the Strange Tales story where the Human Torch battled a fake Captain America who was actually the Acrobat in disguise, complete with a floating helicopter platform including a rocket ship & launcher plus an asbestos lined lorry. It's reprinted as in the original with no attempt to explain away some of the early Silver Age silliness or just how Cap could maintain a secret identity when it was published in comics the Torch read as a child.

Back in the present, Cap's quest for his past brings up the notion that his childhood in New York was an invention and he was actually from a small town in Maryland. Through returning memories and a chat with a local he learns how Steve Rogers was a weak younger brother, more interested in art than in following in his elder brother's footsteps as first a sports star and then a soldier, much to his father's disapproval. However news reports from Europe and his brother's death at Pearl Harbour led him to attempt to enlist but he was rejected on medical grounds until a government agent identified him as suitable for a project. Although Steve's weak physique had long been an established part of the character, his family background feels like an attempt to increase his identifiability with the presumed readership of this era. It also feels like an attempt to root him in a stereotypical small town America rather than the exceptional urban New York, though with his family all dead it seems hard to build much on this at this stage and it's not followed up on in this volume.

More bizarre is another adventure told in flashback as the series sets out to explain how, in looking back at the end of the Second World War, Cap could recall falling off a missile launched from the coast of the English Channel and land in waters off Newfoundland. This could have been explained away as a confusion caused by a disoriented man just revived from suspended animation or a case of poor geographic knowledge, or just become a lettering error to be corrected in reprints. But instead we learn how Cap was picked up by a submarine commanded by renegade Nazi scientist Lyle Dekker, then taken to a base on Newfoundland before escaping in a plane carrying nerve gas , only to be shot down with the gas interacting with the Super Soldier Serum to put Cap in suspended animation with amnesia of his last battle.

There was simply no need to complicate the wonderful resurrection story by adding on this interim adventure. Nor is Dekker a particularly memorable foe even after he transfers his consciousness into the oversized artificial body dubbed the Ameridroid, who soon realises he has sacrificed his humanity for no great gain. This is retroactive continuity for the sheer heck of it and adds no more than another flashback tale in which Cap plays himself in a wartime movie serial of his life. Ultimately the search for Cap and Steve Rogers's past just rings hollow and seems to make no significant addition to the character or the series at all.

Making an addition of a rather different nature is the Corporation storyline. Picking up a thread from the last of Kirby's issues the battle with this sinister organisation runs through the second half of the volume, and also in the contemporary issues of the Incredible Hulk, before climaxing in the crossover at the end. There are a number of long-term changes in the series in the interim, including the ending of the team-up between Cap and the Falcon. Sam has been largely relegated to a bit part in many adventures here before he accepts the role of leading the Super-Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a short-lived team of new and obscure super powered beings including Marvel Man (later Quasar), the Texas Twister, the Vamp and Blue Streak. The team doesn't last long with the last two members revealed as agents of the Corporation whilst the Texas Twister leaves in disgust at the Vamp's brutal killing of Blue Streak (in fact to silence her fellow agent). Another Corporation agent is Veda, supposedly the daughter of a wartime agent present when Cap first received the Super Soldier Serum. She briefly becomes Cap's new romantic interest, with Sharon running away in pain, only to be killed off in internal power struggles within the Corporation without Cap even realising it. Other Corporation agents include the Hulk's past foes the Constrictor and Moonstone, plus the alien Animus who turns out to be the real form of the Vamp. There's also a separate attack on Cap and S.H.I.E.L.D. by the Red Skull. Tensions between Cap and Nick Fury are increasing ever more, with the former sick of being used by the agency so often.

The crossover at the end is a rare one that builds on events in both series, bringing a climax to the separate struggles with the Corporation as well as establishing the Falcon as the uncle of the Hulk's sidekick Jim Wilson. All the plot threads are tidied up which is no small achievement given the high turnover of writers. However some of the characters and events from the Incredible Hulk are not really introduced for readers of Captain America only. Consequently the whole thing can be a little confusing when read on its own.

Overall this is frankly a dull pedestrian volume. Neither Kirby nor those who followed him have been able to lift the series to new heights and instead we've had a mix of rather slow and dull adventures plus some needless retcons that try to fix things that frankly weren't broke in the first place. Captain America is a difficult series to do well and needs good long-term writers to have a real impact. This volume fails to find them.

Essential Defenders volume 3 - creator labels

Yet again we have a volume with a lot of creators, so here's a separate post to carry the labels for some of them.

Essential Marvel Horror volume 2 - creator labels 1

We have a volume with a huge number of creators, so here's a separate post to carry the labels for some of them.

Essential Spider-Man volume 8

We turn now to Essential Spider-Man volume 8 which reprints Amazing Spider-Man #161-185, Annual #11 and The Man called Nova #12, which contains half of Amazing‘s first-ever crossover with another title. As a bonus we also get the cover for Giant-Size Spider-Man #6 (an all reprint issue as the line entered its final days) and the entry on the Green Goblin from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

A quick word on Nova. This series lasted from 1976 to 1979 and featured a new young school student who suddenly gains special powers from aliens. (There’s a whole lot more about intergalactic police forces and things, but none of that comes up here.) It was an intentional homage to Spider-Man, and a less intentional homage to the Silver Age Green Lantern, created by Marv Wolfman (who wrote the series) and Len Wein.

Most of the stories in this volume are written by Wein, from #161-180, with Wolfman writing #182-185 and also the Nova issue. In between, we get a single issue by Bill Mantlo, who also scripts the main story in Annual #11 over a plot by Archie Goodwin. There’s also a short second story by Scott Edelman which is, I think, his only Spider-Man work. Almost all of the regular issues are drawn by Ross Andru apart from #181 which is by Sal Buscema, who also does the Nova issue. The main story in the annual is drawn by Don Perlin and the back up by John Romita Jr, doing his first ever Spider-Man work (although he had a thanks credit way back on Amazing #78 for suggesting the Prowler). What the above may not make too clear is that issue #181 is by the-then regular Spectacular team, and has all the hallmarks of a fill-in, right down to the preceding #180 announcing as next what turned out to be #182’s contents.

Publication-wise this is the period when the restraints on using Spider-Man really began to loosen. (As I’ve said previously, Spidey Super Stories doesn’t really count in this context.) We get the first ever crossover between Amazing and another title, whilst Spider-Man’s third regular title, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man launched the same month as Amazing #163. In addition Marvel Team-Up had its first annual just about the same time as Spectacular was launching, whilst the Amazing annual came out about the same time as the Nova crossover. And on top of all that 1976 also saw the publication of Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man. Whereas at the time of Giant-Size Spider-Man there was a notable restraint that, whether deliberately or not, prevented the character from appearing even three times in a single month, by 1977 such restraint was slipping out of the window. Okay it wasn’t yet at the point where Spider-Man had five monthly titles, most with annuals, a quarterly, various limited series and one-shots (some of which are essential chapters in the continuity) plus a few spin-off series and crossovers with other titles, but it was drifting that way.

(And if all that wasn’t enough this is also the period when The Amazing Spider-Man began on television. I’ve seen no more of that show than the odd clip on YouTube so I can’t comment on its quality (although other live action adaptations of Marvel characters were generally poorly received by fans until the Blade and X-Men movies, with the partial exception of The Incredible Hulk TV series). Overall it doesn’t seem to have overtly affected the comics – there was no attempt to introduce Captain Barbera or Julie Masters, let alone alter J. Jonah Jameson to match his screen portrayal – but from issue #184 onwards the legend “Marvel’s TV Sensation!” appeared on the cover of the issues. It may also have contributed to the decision to move Peter on from undergraduate to postgraduate study, though there had been a long running debate in the letter columns over whether he should graduate or not so this may just be a coincidence.)

The main saving grace of multiple titles and specials is if each of the various books has its own distinct niche and generally doesn’t require readers to pick up the other titles just to know what the heck’s going on. The latter was a problem back at the time of the original publication when most readers relied on newstand distribution but is equally a problem with the Essential series when the other titles may not yet have been reprinted, or else are not easily available on the bookshop shelves (and even when they are the price stacks up for multiple volumes) whether because they’re out of print or limited stock selection or whatever. In this regard Amazing does quite well at this stage (I’ll address the other titles when I get to those volumes), with only a few references to other books and the only “seen first elsewhere” appearance is the Hitman and it’s not really a problem. Far more of an issue is the return of Silvermane now restored to adulthood but noticeably younger and more active than before he sought to youthen himself. (This was covered in issue #123 of Daredevil, reprinted in Essential Daredevil #5.) The only other point of surprise is that in issue #173 Peter gets a letter stating he won’t be graduating this year due to too many failed grades, only to (almost) graduate in #185 – okay they’re a year apart publication-wise but the story speeds through far more quickly and presumably Peter made up (nearly) all the missing grades in night school, perhaps over in Spectacular but it’s not explicit.

I’ll start with the irregular material. Least essential is the cover to Giant-Size #6 – yet curiously the back cover reproduces it and trumpets a team-up with the Human Torch, suggesting copy written by someone unfamiliar with the contents – similarly Stan Lee is listed as an author on the front cover. The story in question originally saw print in Amazing Annual #4 and is available in either the original edition of Essential #4 or later editions of #3. The other single page is the Green Goblin’s Official Handbook entry from the early 1980s, possibly doubling as an unspoken advert for the Essential reprints of those. There’s a few new details in there such as birthplaces and physical statistics, but what really caught my eye is the absence of any reference to Norman Osborn having super strength due to the chemical explosion, suggesting this is a latter day retcon. Of the “bonus” stories, both pieces in Annual #11 are rather forgettable and whilst the main situations are new, some supporting events such as Mary Jane being left alone to her annoyance are starting to grate. Aunt May is shown at her most feisty as she goes protesting (more on this later), but compared to a similar scene in the regular issues it’s surprising her health can stand it.

The crossover with Nova may have been an important event in that title (or not, I’ve never read it but there is an Essential Nova reprinting the whole run), but from Spider-Man’s perspective it’s a completely ignorable story with no repercussions outside it. I wouldn’t be surprised if overseas reprints skipped it altogether. It just feels like a simple way to bring Marvel’s biggest and newest stars together. No real attempt is made to explore the similarities between the characters even though one hero’s uncle has just been killed. Really this story should have run in Team-Up but it was probably trying to boost sales on Nova.

The other unusual tale is #181, which as I noted above is a fill-in issue by the-then Spectacular team. It also feels like it was hanging around on file as it shows Aunt May up and about midway through an extended hospital stay, triggering a caption saying it takes place before all that. (However it may have been a rush commission – both Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema were particularly good at doing fast fill-in issues – and the error down to poor communication.) The story is a very simple vehicle for extended flashbacks to Spidey’s origin and the main characters in his world. It’s what the industry might now call a “jumping on” point that introduces all the extended details in one go. This might have been best run in Spectacular early on (ideally as the second story in a double-sized first issue but they didn’t do those back then), but here it can’t disguise its filler purpose.

What about the regular run? Well we’re on a roller coaster of events, but we also get one of my bugbears – subplots that appear very infrequently and take years to resolve. We get a particularly bad one here with the mystery of the Spider-Clone photos – back in issue #151 (in the previous volume) Spidey sensed he was being watched when disposing of the clone’s body. It’s not until issue #168 that we learn photos were taken to expose him, and it’s only in issue #180, over a year after Peter’s persuaded Jonah they’re fakes in #169, that we find out who took and sent them. It’s all too long given the overall importance of the incident. Another dangler comes in issue #170 when a mystery man rents Aunt May’s house, being willing to pay any price, but there’s no follow-up at all in the remaining fifteen issues in the volume. There’s a difference between carefully nurtured seeds and long forgotten ideas, and these veer towards the latter. On original reading it must have seemed an eternity between advancements (and even in the Essential era the time between volumes can mean more lengthy weights between threads).

Better handled are the developments relating to Harry Osborn and his psychiatrist, Dr Bart Hamilton, leading up to one of the best known stories in the volume, the third Green Goblin saga. It’s a good epic that combines may of the threads of Wein’s run, giving a suitable climax for most of the characters particularly Harry who finds redemption as he finally conquers the curse of the Green Goblin in a rather Freudian way and finds a happy ending. However we also get another round of Aunt May being taken ill by a sudden shock and I’ve lost count of just how many times that has been now. You can understand why some fans were just wishing she would just die and get it over with. And whilst Hamilton has a reason for his actions it’s still a Silver Age throwback “explanation” in lieu of a substantially fleshed out motive. Still it’s good to see a Green Goblin doing something other than torment Spider-Man/Peter for the first time in over 150 issues. Even if it is the same old “control the city’s underworld” aim – although that’s credible in the aftermath of the Kingpin’s apparent death in issue #164. And I don’t mind the killing off of the new Green Goblin – he’s a strictly one-story character and there’s always the possibility that one day something might make Harry re-don the costume so there’s no substantial loss.

The Kingpin drowning is equally not a problem as a standard “villain seemingly perishes but no body is seen” moment that doesn’t write the character off for good, comes at the end of another little epic, albeit one that doesn’t actually reveal itself as one until the final two issues where we learn that the Kingpin was behind schemes seen in various past issues as part of a master plan to bring his son Richard back from near death. This does, however, bring some more silly science and silly handling of scientists, as Spider-Man’s life force is transferred to Richard, then he staggers to Curt Connors’s who just happens to have the knowledge and equipment to temporarily re-energise him, then whip up a gadget to permanently recover the life-force. The whole transferable life-force idea sits uneasily with me anyway, but it’s also a bit silly that Connors seems to be an expert in just about any field of science that Spider-Man might have a major problem with, rather than a more specific biologist. Awkward problems often require such awkward solutions.

The other major ongoing thread are the developments in the life of J. Jonah Jameson as he continues his occasional schemes against Spider-Man, both trying to expose Spidey as having murdered Peter Parker and then taken his place (his interpretation of the Clone photos), and then he commissions a new Spider-Slayer, but this time from a different scientist, Marla Madison, and in the process is shown falling for a woman for the first time in the series. On a more tragic note he learns that his son is seemingly incurable of the Man-Wolf curse, giving us a chance to see a father’s grief. It’s good to see the character being developed beyond the easy cliché that he can so often be.

The series adds only a few villains to the Rouges’ Gallery and none of them are at all memorable for the right reasons – as well as the brief third Green Goblin and Spidey’s first encounter with Doctor Faustus (more normally a Captain America foe), we get just Jigsaw (although in the long run he’s more usually a Punisher foe), Will o’ the Wisp and the Rocket Racer in Wein’s issues. Marv Wolfman only has four issues in this volume but he gives us both the White Dragon and the Big Wheel. Yes stop laughing at the back. (It was quite a time for the sillier villains as the Big Wheel debuted just three months before the Hypno Hustler over in Spectacular.) Fans tend to split on the character between those who see him as a monumentally bad move for the series and those who just see a so-bad-he’s-good villain you have to laugh about. I’m inclined towards the former view as this isn’t a one-off story but a part of the continuing saga of the Rocket Racer (who, it has to be said, is another silly jump-on-the-latest-fad villain) and the storyline is presented in quite serious terms. Furthermore the same two issues we get a major development in Peter and Mary Jane’s relationship and really that shouldn’t be combined with intentional silliness.

That development comes as he asks her to marry him and she declines. Now the issue of Spider-Man marrying is always a touchy one that can set keyboards raging so for now I’ll primarily limit this to whether or not marriage was a good idea at this stage in the run. In my mind Peter Parker has always been the type who would settle down with the right woman if he met her and she would say yes. He may be young – only just about to graduate – but in a number of ways his values are those of an earlier generation. Remember he was raised by his aunt & uncle, a couple significantly older than most of his contemporaries’ parents – there are references in some stories that indicate they got engaged during the Great Depression. (And in the real world Peter Parker was created by two men both born in the 1920s. Stan Lee started work at 17 and got married in his mid twenties. Nobody seems to know anything about Steve Ditko’s personal life.) During his teenage years Peter was generally an extreme loner with the exception of his close relationship with his aunt & uncle. All of this points to his being quite likely to have an outlook on marriage that is at least a generation older than his contemporaries’, which probably includes couples not living together beforehand. And for a long time May (with some help from Anna) has played Cupid, introducing Peter and Mary Jane and then later encouraging both of them at key points – and here on her hospital bed she drops a blatant hint. Finally this is a time of great change for Peter as he’s about to graduate and move onto the next stage of his life and it’s understandable he doesn’t want to take that step on his own. So I can see this is entirely natural for Peter. And Mary Jane is a plausible wife – at this stage she is a university student and occasional actress, though as shown in Annual #11 in this volume her career is still at the crowd extra stage, who is on much the same level as Peter. Whilst she has her flaky, party loving side we’ve also seen a more serious side to her, as she’s come to care not just for Peter but also for May over their troubles – and she picks up on May’s hints faster than Peter. Ultimately at this point there would be nothing implausible about the two taking the next stage. Would it have aged Spider-Man? Well Spider-Man had been ageing for a while anyway – he started off midway through high school and the proposal comes just before he graduates with his first degree – a pretty major step forward in a person’s life. A couple being married in their 20s don’t automatically age overnight so from one perspective a marriage at this stage between these characters would have been quite workable and a natural development. Plus marriage was present in Peter’s circle of friends already, with Ned and Betty having tied the knot only recently, whilst Harry and Liz were now engaged and involved in wedding planning. So it’s not as if either marriage or changes to the status quo were alien to the series.

But Mary Jane says no, stating that she’s too free a spirit to be tied down. Which again is plausible. We don’t actually know very much about her background and family at this stage beyond having been a regular visitor to her Aunt Anna rather than being raised by her, and she’s less likely to have grown up being isolated from all but her parents, natural or de facto. So whilst Peter has the views and expectations of May’s generation, Mary Jane’s outlook is far more that of a younger generation where people were more cautious about rushing into marriage at so early an age. Plus there’s the elephant in the room or rather the Spider – could Peter really marry Mary Jane without revealing his identity to her first? After all several of his foes had already worked it out and this was the reason Gwen died. In the real world there are many married police officers et al, with spouses potentially at risk of reprisals, but they know about their spouses’ careers and have made an informed choice over a period of time. Could Peter really have gone through with this without telling her? The track record on married heroes is mixed in this regard but it’s one that would have to have been faced. Whereas Aunt May’s health was a justification for not telling her, with Mary Jane there could be no such excuse and that could have been the stumbling point, especially if he suddenly sprung it on her.

Finally from the point of view of story possibilities a marriage at this time would have cut off various options. At this point Spider-Man had not yet had any relationship in his costumed identity or even had any woman developing a crush on him. There were also other possibilities to explore for Peter Parker, such as an ex on the rebound. Which we get almost immediately with the return of Betty Brant Leeds who has found life with Ned in Paris impossible to take and so she returns to New York and seeks out Peter. Coming in the penultimate issue of the volume we naturally don’t get very far with it, but there are hints that she wants to renew things with Peter, whilst he is worried about where it’s going. In my review of the previous volume I noted my surprise at Peter serving as Ned’s best man, but here that brings a potential additional angle to these developments as there’s probably no-one it’s more hurtful to lose your wife to than your best man.

The remaining tales in this volume are more incidental, but still generate thrills and excitement as we charge through events. The very last story is a short six-page affair sees two major developments, one in the narrative and the other in production. Ross Andru did a five-year run on the title and bows out here (and largely stayed bowed out from Spider-Man for the rest of his life, drawing only a couple of annuals and a graphic novel in later years). He’s not the greatest Spider-Man artist of all time, but he brought to Amazing both an ability to maintain strong visual continuity with what had gone before and a solid dramatic style that complemented the action over five eventful years. Thus he leaves big shoes to fill.

In-story the final development is Peter Parker graduating – or not as the case may be! He’s one measly credit short because he failed to take a gym class – of all the things for Spider-Man to miss! But he can take that final class over the summer, and so we get a final page as Peter stands on the university steps facing the future with confidence. All in all this volume is a strong one with only a few individual lapses that don’t detract from the energy moving the series forward.

(Apologies for a rather longer piece than usual, but given one of the topics raised by this volume I felt extra space was needed to do it justice.)