The Stop Button
blogging by Andrew Wickliffe
Category: Spider-Man comics
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And another half issue. Probably takes about three minutes to read. It’s not like Bagley’s art is something to be examined either, so Bendis and Marvel must have been pretty darn clear about what they were doing with this format. I mean, nothing happens… the fight finishes. Again, some interesting elements, of course. I mean,…
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Oh, man, it’s half the best issue so far. Then it stops. How did people stand reading this comic monthly? It’s so frustrating…. Very amusing is the open at the Bugle, however, with a full Superman: The Movie homage. It immediately softens the reader, maybe so he or she doesn’t realize there isn’t a story,…
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A two minute read. I mean, I suppose Lee and Ditko did this part of the story in two or three pages, maybe less, so it’s only appropriate it should read fast…. There’s a big logic hole here. Not really for the characters, but in what Bendis is trying to present. He flashes back to…
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Bendis recovers this issue. Maybe not in terms of pacing (when am I going to get used to “decompressed” narrative again–it’s been way too long since I read mainstream ongoings), but definitely in terms of content. He kills Uncle Ben right after the speech, right after the “great power, great responsibility” speech. Maybe more importantly,…
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How many pages of ads ran in these things? Because I really do not feel like I got a full issue’s worth of story. In Ultimate, Bendis has Peter wrestling as Spider-Man to earn money to pay for Flash Thompson’s hospital bills, anonymously helping Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Bendis juxtaposes this effort with Peter…
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I have an affection for Mark Bagley, based on Ultimate Spider-Man, but apparently it’s an overall thing. I mean, when I think of teenage Peter and Mary Jane, I think of Bagley’s rendition of them. However, his art is far from flawless, as this issue frequently shows. His faces are often way too rough and…
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What Bendis does, right from the start–which Lee didn’t do–is make Peter Parker the hero; sure, Bendis is dealing with more pages so he has more time, but it took Lee issues to form Peter Parker. Bendis does it right away here. Maybe he does it a little easily–I mean, the scene in the mall…
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It’s so bad. It’s so bad I’m not even going to go on a super-rant about it because I think Byrne had to know it was terrible and it doesn’t seem sportsmanlike to kick him after such an absurdly bad comic book. It retells the Sandman story from Amazing, but sets it later in Spidey’s…
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Oh, wow. This issue is actually the worst. The dialogue is so unbearably bad, it doesn’t even matter Milgrom’s inks are a little better than last time. Spider-Man gets in a fight with Giant-Man and the Wasp–who Byrne portrays as being entirely narcissistic and without any heroic qualities whatsoever, but still forces the reader to…
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And there you have it… I say something nice and this issue’s my reward. This issue might be the worst. I mean, maybe not in terms of scenic writing, but certainly in terms of plotting and art. Milgrom’s inks here are atrocious. The only panel he doesn’t seem to ruin is a close-up of Johnny…
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This issue might actually be the best one of the series (so far). I mean, the Daredevil appearance at the beginning is awful–actually, wait, the whole beginning is awful. Actually, everything’s awful except the fight in Central Park against Kraven and the Chameleon. And even it has bad art–Al Milgrom is a terrible inker for…
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Artistically speaking, I don’t depend on John Byrne for much. Solid layouts maybe, everyone looking the same definitely, a decided lack of backgrounds as well… but I guess I also depend on him not to do Liefeld-like proportions and he closes the issue on one. It’s hideous. But it’s also a mystery–he draws Norman Osborn…
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This issue–even though it’s got Betty Brant and I doubt Byrne’s going to have a chance to foul up their flirtation–might be the worst so far. Again, I don’t care (does anyone care about Chapter One? I know even Byrne distanced himself from it, though I swear I read he once said “anyone who doesn’t…
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This issue, with Byrne eschewing most of Electro’s origin, not to mention the Lee and Dikto issue featuring him, is maybe more what all of Chapter One should have been. It’s got Byrne’s fingerprints all over it, versus a more direct “retelling.” For example, Byrne adds a huge Human Torch fight sequence this issue–the Torch…
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Wow, it’s worse when Byrne only tries to retell a single Lee and Ditko length issue. He does half the Doctor Doom story (ignoring the initial meeting between Doom and Spider-Man, again, a somewhat interesting omission) and half the Lizard story. The originals probably took fifteen minutes to read. Maybe more. Byrne’s retelling is a…
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Reading the original issues, I noticed how money concerned Peter’s actions often were during the first few issues. Bryne seems to have noticed it too, turning it into something of a plot point–Spider-Man realizes he should be selfless or some such thing. The problem with Byrne’s take is how lousy it suggests Spider-Man was before…
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It’s somewhat interesting to see how Byrne adapts the originals–for example, he sets up a cliffhanger on something from the middle of an original (Spidey’s initial defeat at Doctor Octopus’s hands). But interesting isn’t good. Or worthwhile. Here, Byrne introduces a previously unknown Superman and Jimmy Olsen relationship between Spidey and Flash Thompson. Byrne continues…
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Byrne’s approach to retelling the first “year” of Amazing Spider-Man issues is pretty simple, at least from what’s going on here. Gut the teenage Peter Parker drama and put in all Spider-Man and supervillains. Given how much of the originals Lee spent on the teenage drama, I imagine it had something to do with their…
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It takes Byrne twice as long to tell the Spider-Man origin this issue. Retell, sorry. I’m trying to think if there’s a single thing he does in the comic worth mentioning. He adds black people, he makes Peter’s classmates really vicious, Liz Allen in particular. Otherwise, it’s not much different than a padded retelling of…
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You know, it’s not terrible. I mean, it’s kind of dumb in a nineties rehash kind of way–if Byrne ever got so thorough in his thinking of Superman’s origin, he never showed it in Man of Steel and just let a lot go unmentioned–but it’s nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. Maybe because…
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I can’t believe no one’s ever talked about Lee’s plotting pattern. It’s pretty apparent here, twelve issues in–Spider-Man somehow gets beat in the first fight, wins in the second. Meaning there have to be at least two fights a comic book. How things have changed… Marvel comics now do a cliffhanger in the middle of…
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I always forget how small the Marvel Universe is–if you’re going to get broken out of jail, might as well have Doctor Octopus do it. If you’re going to be a mobster and have a lawyer, it might as well be a lawyer whose sister is Spider-Man’s girlfriend. There’s a lot of cool action in…
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So I’m not imagining things–Lee was getting sick of the high school constraints. He sends Aunt May (all better after her operation, though she does need a blood transfusion, which apparently weakens Spider-Man, but it’s hard to gauge his abilities since… well, Lee always fluctuates them anyway to add drama to a fight) off the…
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I was going to open with a smart remark about Lee calling this issue a “book-length” story, but he really does fit a lot in. The whole arc with Electro, with lots of fight scenes, heist scenes, an origin and a prison break, plays second fiddle to the Peter Parker story. Lee puts Aunt May…
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So, there’s a point to about seventy percent of this issue. The rest is a back-up with Spider-Man battling the Human Torch, then the rest of the Fantastic Four, because Spider-Man wanted to show off for the Torch’s girlfriend. It’s an addle-brained waste of pages. The only possible purpose would be if Sue Storm ever…
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When I started reading these comics again, I had no expectations. I read them as a kid, but as I grew up, I really only read Silver Age on recommendation and no one ever recommended a reread of these. Most of these issues, so far, are absolutely fantastic. This issue, with the Vulture returning, has…
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Lee gets back on track (subtly developing Peter Parker too–the flirtations with Betty Brant at the Bugle give him the courage–apparently, it’s never pointed out–to ask Liz Allen out on a date), not just introducing the Lizard, but also sending Spider-Man to Florida. The comedy scenes with Peter and Jonah heading down are absolutely hilarious.…
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Guess who wins in a fight between Doctor Doom and Spider-Man? Guess who wins in the rematch? If you guessed Doctor Doom both times, you get a twelve cent sucker, which is what this issue cost when it came out. It’s a twelve cent sucker too. Lee opens it with some expository paragraph about how…
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It’s the first appearance of Betty Brant. I hadn’t been expected it, but now I’m looking forward to it. She and Peter’s romance was always effecting. Even here, her thought balloon foreshadows the eventual dating. Lee fits a bunch into this issue (oh, it’s the first appearance of the Sandman too), including the first battle…
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Besides the first appearance of Doctor Octopus–and the Spider-Signal–there are a couple other things I noticed. First, Spider-Man’s catching bad guys at the beginning of the issue. That brief scene is the first suggestion he’s actually been out crime fighting. Second, the banter starts this issue, between him and Doctor Octopus (or am I supposed…
The Stop Button 