The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones (1983) #21

The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 21

There are a bunch of inkers on this issue. They stay consistent until the finish, when it’s very obvious the inker has changed. The final inker changes Steve Ditko’s pencils so much, it barely looks like the same comic.

Ditko doesn’t do a great job on Jones, but it’s really cool to see his old standard panel arrangements used again. And the eyes. Love the eyes. It’s a shame Priest didn’t write the issue as a retro thing to match Ditko, but given the number of inkers, I’m sure no one at Marvel had any idea who was drawing it when Priest was writing it.

The story itself is lame. It’s a lot of action and some silly villains. Priest continues to flush the romance between Indy and Marion… Not to mention playing up Marcus Brody being tough.

Priest is also really bad with the setting. He writes too modern.

The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 21 (September 1984)

Indy 21 There are a bunch of inkers on this issue. They stay consistent until the finish, when it’s very obvious the inker has changed. The final inker changes Steve Ditko’s pencils so much, it barely looks like the same comic.

The story itself is lame. It’s a lot of action and some silly villains. Priest continues to flush the romance between Indy and Marion… Not to mention playing up Marcus Brody being tough.

Priest is also really bad with the setting. He writes too modern.

p style=”font-size:11px;”>CREDITS

Beyond the Lucifer Chamber; writers, David Michelinie and Christopher Priest; penciller, Steve Ditko; inkers, Bob Wiacek, Steve Leialoha, Jack Abel, Al Milgrom, Carl Potts, Edward Norton and Danny Bulanadi; colorist, Rob Carosella; letterer, Joe Rosen; editor, Eliot Brown; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Daredevil 162 (January 1980)

This issue, from Michael Fleisher and Steve Dikto, is definitely a strange one. It feels like a Batman comic, but a fifties Batman comic. After saving the city from a radiation leak (fifties atomic scare), Matt loses his memory and lives through, basically, what his dad lived through with the crooked fight promoters.

Even the end feels like a Batman comic.

Dikto’s art feels half like Steve Ditko from Marvel’s Silver Age and half like someone doing an imitation. To works out in Ditko’s favor though and the art’s relatively charming.

Fleisher does such a good job with the comic’s mood, one can overlook the huge plot holes–like where does Matt Murdock sleep when he doesn’t know his identity. Or how does he know he’s wearing a costume under his clothes and not long underwear? And does his costume get dirty?

Still, it works, mostly because of Fleisher’s sincerity.

Creatures on the Loose 17 (May 1972)

For some inexplicable reason, probably because he liked to read himself (I don’t think Marvel paid by the word in the seventies), Roy Thomas has his protagonist spouting expository dialogue every panel.

Thomas and Gil Kane do the feature, Guillvar Jones, and it’s beautiful to read. Kane eventually does have some weak panels, but most of them are fantastic. Lots of fluid movement. Just great.

And Thomas doesn’t do bad with the first person narration. It’s fine. All the expository dialogue (protagonist talking to himself) is terrible and narratively pointless, if not incompetent.

The issue also has some old reprints. There’s a pretty good giant sea monster one from Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. The twist is the sea monster is intelligent, but Lee doesn’t explore that point enough. Nice art.

The other reprint is sci-fi (from Lee and Don Heck). It’s fine until the moronic ending.

The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #13

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Peter appears to be pushing Betty away at this point, but he might just be obtuse. The first appearance of Mysterio is decent, but not anything special. Lee spends a lot of time on Mysterio’s origin and the nature of his outfit–Lee’s pacing is great here, the amount of story he fits into the issue, but it’s barely about Spider-Man.

The Spider-Man story this issue is Peter worrying about developing a multiple personality or a Jekyll and Hyde type problem. Well, for a couple pages anyway. Then he’s worried about Aunt May’s mortgage payment (something he paid in full the first or second issue, for a year, so either Lee forgot or it’s been a while… and Peter missed out on Midtown’s summer vacation).

There’s just way too little Peter Parker and when there is Peter Parker, it’s usually as Spider-Man… so it’s not as compelling.

The Amazing Spider-Man 13 (June 1964)

There’s just way too little Peter Parker and when there is Peter Parker, it’s usually as Spider-Man… so it’s not as compelling.

CREDITS

The Menace of… Mysterio!; writer and editor, Stan Lee; artist, Steve Ditko; colorist, Stan Goldberg; letterer, Art Simek; publisher, Marvel Comics.

The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #12

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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 one fight….

This issue’s got a big battle sequence. Spidey and Doctor Octopus fight all throughout the Manhattan skyline. Spider-Man even helps capture escaped zoo animals.

Sadly, Lee seemingly forgot Betty Brant never wanted to see Spider-Man again at the end of the last issue, because she’s over it here. She and Peter’s romance resumes, unfortunately off panel–Jonah yelling at them for their office romance is hilarious).

Ditko’s art’s gotten a lot smoother as the action has gotten bigger.

It’s good, but not great.

Doctor Octopus is a weak villain.

The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #11

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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 this issue–I love how small the fights are in these Spider-Man books. It’s not some grandiose skyscraper battle, it’s a couple guys duking it out on a runaway boat. Makes it feel a lot more… colorful.

Still, besides those action scenes, this issue is pretty weak. Doctor Octopus, now an ex-con (his sentence apparently ran under a year), is hardened and thuggish, not the laboratory scientist previously seen.

As for Lee’s resolution to Betty’s dilemma’s? It’s weak. Not terrible, but weak. It positions her and Peter too melodramatically separated.

Eh.

The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #10

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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 Florida and gives Peter a place to pace.

As bad guys go, the Enforcers are kind of boring, with the Big Man being an interesting idea for a villain, but not particularly thought through (how did Foswell become the Big Man?). But there’s lots of action and romantic drama from Peter and Betty (Lee wrote romance comics, after all).

Besides the developments with Betty, Lee’s got Flash Thompson softening up a lot this issue–so’s Liz Allen. She’s usually egging Flash to bully Peter, but here she’s sympathetic.

It’s good, but not outstanding.

The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #9

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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 in medical danger–she needs an expensive, unspecified operation–and forces Peter to come up with the cost of the operation (see, if we had national healthcare, Spider-Man wouldn’t have had to fight Electro).

There’s also a lot going on with Betty Brant. Peter is clearly becoming split–there’s the Peter who goes to high school and the Peter who works for the Bugle; it’s okay, but it doesn’t really seem likely. High school, it seems, didn’t interest Lee much.

The ending is great. Makes me sad Peter didn’t end up with Betty.