Random Back Issues #70 - Spider-Man #18

I don't normally post splash pages in these posts - that's what Sunday Splash Page is for - but I couldn't pass this one up, just for the absurdity of how all three characters are having entirely different conversations (click to see in greater glory.) It's the strangest improv troupe ever.

This is part 1 on "Revenge of the Sinister Six", following up on "Return of the Sinister Six" which ran in Amazing Spider-Man a year or two earlier. But before Larsen gets to that, he's got several pages of Spider-Man and Ghost Rider fighting a very confused cyborg.

The splash page is pretty indicative of the fight. Ghost Rider won't shut up about vengeance. Spidey won't shut up, period (his mouth is running at a rate I'd associate with Deadpool these days). The cyborg doesn't even seem to know what going on, constantly calling out to people named "Martin" or "Dominic". The battle moves to the skies, then eventually crashes through a water tower. The cyborg goes spiraling out of control and slams into what I assume was a condemned building, since neither of our heroes bother to go looking for any casualties. Ghost Rider is satisfied vengeance has been served, while Spider-Man worries they helped put an 'unintelligible, innocent man, caught in a machine. . . to his death.'

But he'll still give Ghost Rider a lift back to his bike. I thought Rider could call that thing mentally. And the cyborg's not dead anyway, as we see him pick his way out of the rubble as they leave. Elsewhere, Sandman is checking in on the family he used to board with when he was trying to keep a low profile. Doc Ock got him to join the Sinister Six last time by threatening him, and since Sandman turned against him, he worries about retribution.

Good call, because the house explodes right in front of him. Sandman finds at least one injured person in the rubble and and swears he won't quit until Ock is dead. He's even willing to team up with the rest of the Six as part of their scheme for revenge on Ock for suckering them last go-round. As for the villain in question, he's in the middle of reacquainting himself with a set of Adamantium tentacles he had made back in Daredevil #165 (thanks, editor's notes!) They were acquired by an extremely withered looking old man I don't recognize, with a lot of weapons and killer robots. Is it supposed to be the Tinkerer? He wants his money, Ock says he'll have it soon, which is no good. Cash on the barrelhead or GTFO, Octavius.

Yeah, I'm sure he's fine. Ock crows about how powerful he feels while his arms trash the robots, but afterward, he knows he needs more for his big plans. Keep in mind, in "Return of the Sinister Six", Ock's plan was to release a substance into the atmosphere that meant anyone who used cocaine would have horrible seizures, while he held the only antidote. (Turned out the substance he released also ate away the ozone layer). One shudders to think what his big plan is this time. So he helps himself to all the guns and sets out to acquire more.

Sandman's not a complete moron. He doesn't trust the villains who were all too eager to destroy him on Ock's orders last time, so he waits for Spider-Man at the Daily Bugle to ask for help. Spidey agrees, and so he's looking on from the rafters as Sandman, Electro, Mysterio, Hobgoblin and the Vulture confront Ock. Who has been expecting them. Electro declares it's all over, and Otto offers the standard, 'That's what I was going to say to you!' comeback. Right as Spider-Man notes they're laying it on pretty thick, he senses someone big lurking outside.

Before this story is over, Spider-Man will get a metal arm, team-up with 10 other heroes, get the shit kicked out of him at least twice, and the Sinister Six will kill over 100,000 people. But they were aliens in another dimension so it's fine. 

There's also a subplot about Mary Jane being offered a role in an "Arnold Schwarzenheimer" movie, but she'd have to do a nude scene. Peter's not real excited about other guys seeing her naked, and he's worried it'll give Aunt May a heart attack. Considering Larsen draws Aunt May so wrinkled and withered she looks like she'll blow away with a sneeze, I'm not sure that's much of an argument. The color patterns Wright uses on MJ's aerobics leotard can probably give Aunt May a heart attack.

[8th longbox, 24th comic. Spider-Man #18, by Erik Larsen (writer/artist), Gregory Wright (colorist), Rick Parker (letterer)]

Sunday Splash Page #147

 

"The Hulk Goes to Not-So Pleasantville", in Defenders (vol. 2) #12, by Erik Larsen (writer/artist), Gregory Wright (colorist), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer)

After the first volume of Defenders wrapped up around issue 150, there was a brief Secret Defenders series in the early '90s (which we might look at in 8-10 years), and then in the early 2000s, Kurt Busiek and Erik Larsen teamed up for another Defenders series, with all of the Big Four - Strange, Hulk, Namor, and the Surfer - involved.

We talked a little bit about the challenges of having a team comprised of grumpy (or whiny in the Surfer's case) loners in Sunday Splash Page #143. Steve Engelhart took the approach of having them get roped into a series of missions, one bleeding into the next. After that, they're never really together. Len Wein shuffled the Surfer off, and Gerber sent Namor away, although Kraft brought him back, but not until after Strange bowed out. Instead you got a few mainstays like Valkyrie and Nighthawk, and eventually Hellcat, and a bunch of temporary folks like Luke Cage, Red Guardian, or Moon Knight.

Busiek and Larsen decided to lean into the idea these guys didn't really want to hang out, by making it something beyond their control. Hellcat warns them that an old enemy named Yandroth is up to something, and they grudgingly thwart him, arguing constantly. Yandroth dumps a death curse on them, tied to the Earth's life force. Any time Earth is threatened, the four of them get yoinked (with a "POIT!" sound effect) from whatever they were doing and deposited where the threat lies. And they can't leave. If they get too far away, the curse just POITs them back.

As you can imagine, none of them love this development, and the longer it goes, the surlier and more irritable they get. But you can only enjoy reading about a team of people who increasingly despise each other for so long, so Busiek and Larsen were smart enough to add some other, more cheerful characters. Hellcat sticks around, feeling a little guilty that she was the one who alerted them to Yandroth. Altough Larsen reverts Patsy's costume to the primarily yellow one she's mostly had, getting rid of the frankly-very cool-looking one Norm Breyfogle gave her in the Hellcat mini-series he and Steve Engelhart did (which we'll probably see in a couple of years). 

Nighthawk jumps at the chance to get back in the superhero game, and at one point admits he prefers the Defenders to trying to join the Avengers because the Defenders don't waste time on charters or rules. They just go deal with the problems. And the first mission after the curse involves Pluto and Lorelei trying to manipulate a Valkyrie. Nighthawk also had a statuesque blonde bodyguard who seems connected to the Valkyrie deal and that turns into a whole thing. Anyway, those three serve the valuable function of being a) likeable, and b) able to function as a team. Hulk and Namor spend as much time fighting each other as anyone else, and Strange and the Surfer spend most of their time acting like exasperated parents.

After issue 12, the book becomes The Order (although it maintains its numbering) for six issues, as the Big Four seemingly hit their boiling point and decide the best way to protect the world is to subjugate it. That story, and the series, wrap after 6 issues.

I guess the book didn't get a positive reception at the time. They put a quote from Comics International on the cover of issue 8 where it was called 'the worst comic ever produced.' Which seems ridiculous. I mean, what about all those shitty attempts to copy the Ninja Turtles that came out in the 1980s, or any number of Image series with unintelligible plots or indecipherable art? 

It's not Busiek or Larsen's best work, certainly. Busiek was writing Avengers simultaneously with this, among other things, and I think Larsen was struggling with pneumonia for part of the time. Ron Frenz steps in once or twice, and Ivan Reis a couple times as well. Matt Haley draws most of The Order. 

I think trying to force the Surfer in there as a permanent piece was a mistake. He's not really the sort to get drawn into the Hulk and Namor's bickering, and Strange doesn't really need someone else to hang around and be exasperated with him. So he mostly just complains about how insane humans are, which, granted, is 85% of all Silver Surfer stories anyway, but just makes him kind of annoying.

What I Bought 9/27/2019 - Part 2

I'm writing this up last week, since I'm out in the field all this week. Hopefully the river levels aren't up too much, or that's going to make getting to some of the places I need to get rather difficult. Plus, the folks around here really don't need more flooding to contend with.

I left this book for last since it had a three stories, so I figured it could carry its own post.

Amazing Spider-Man: Going Big, by Gerry Conway and Ralph Macchio (writers), Erik Larsen (writer/artist), Mark Bagley (penciler), Todd Nauck (artist), Victor Olazaba, Andy Owens, Dexter Vines (inkers), Carlos Lopez, Laura Martin, and Rachelle Rosenberg (colorists), Joe Sabino and Ferran Delgado (letterers) - I'm not sure I have the energy to write about the actual comic after listing all those people out. Also,I have no idea what's "going big" about this issue. It's not like it's a 100-page special or anything.

So, three stories. Starting from the back of the book, we've got Larsen writing and drawing a story that starts with Spidey fighting Nightshade and a bunch of people she turned into werewolves in a subway. Which makes him late to meet Mary Jane for a movie, and he forgot the tickets, so he has to rush back home to get them. He says he'll be back in four minutes, but the story ends as he's taking off, so who knows if he made it.

Larsen's artwork is about how I remember, except the faces are a bit rounder than I remember. Might be a shading thing, but I definitely think Peter's jaw is less pronounced than it was in the '90s. Also, Larsen always liked to treat white ovals on Spider-Man's mask as being able to can shape to help convey emotion, but I feel like he used it in almost every panel in this story. Webs is squinting more than Clint Eastwood in a Dirty Harry movie.

The middle story is a quick 3-page bit by Macchio/Nauck/Rosenberg about Spidey fighting some disgruntled Oscorp employee in a stolen mech. Spidey took some hits protecting bystanders but can't escape. So he recalls some conversation Uncle Ben had with him about how to handle bullies, complete with little kid Peter throwing an ice cream cone in a kid's face, and then defeats the guy by blinding him with webbing and hitting the mech really hard once. Don't think he should have needed a wise lesson from Uncle Ben to handle that, but whatever gets you through the fight, I guess.

The first story is a 20-pager by Gerry Conway/Mark Bagley, and Victor Olazaba, plus all three of the inkers listed above. MJ's cousin Kristy has gone missing after investigating sex trafficking of undocumented immigrants, and MJ asks Peter to investigate. Spidey finds the right group, but they have super-powered back, in the form of a character I figured we wouldn't see again after his original appearance. Fine with me that he's back, although I hope he's wrong about another villain being dead. Spidey is having a little trouble, because the guy's power is weird, but there's a mysterious someone on a rooftop nearby shooting people when it's helpful. A someone who narrates the parts of the story taking place at the fight, who doesn't like costumed vigilantes (or 'super-suits' as he calls them here), but really hates criminals. Hmm, I wonder who that could be?

With three inkers, the art is a little variable, although I'd say still recognizably Bagley's. The expression work is clear and easy to read. The action is easy to follow and presented cleanly. Nothing special about page design, just making sure to help tell the story. I think he's drawing his spider-sense squiggles differently, though. They used to be a lot more jagged, closer to lightning bolts, and these are either like snakes or like "w"'s. Not a criticism, because I think he might have gone to a more snakelike look back when he was doing Ultimate Spider-Man with Bendis, but something I noticed.

I can only distinguish two different inkers, mostly based on how they shade the eyes on Spidey's mask. One does it in such a way they have a convex appearance, like they bulge out from the mask, and the other they seem to be flat against the mask. It's possible the third inker is doing the flashback sequences of how Peter tracked these guys down (in just 4 hours, no less, beat that Batman). In parts of that, the faces of some of the characters have a much scratchier, busier look than I'm used to seeing on Bagley's stuff, and Peter's head seems more square than normal. But that doesn't hold in all of them, so I don't know.

I was able to find a copy that I guess wasn't in the best condition, so it was a dollar cheaper. I can't tell what the problem was, but I'm fine with it. I wasn't going to buy it for $5, and having read it, that would have been a good call.

Sunday Splash Page #14

 "Hope the X-Men Are Taking Notes", in Amazing Spider-Man #327, by David Michelinie (writer), Erik Larsen (penciler), Al Gordon (inker), Rick Parker (letterer)

Hot damn, I love Acts of Vengeance. Spidey with the serious power upgrade, where suddenly it's everyone else punching out of their weight class trying to fight him. Ahem, outside of the Acts of Vengeance issues, the David Michelinie and Todd MacFarlane/Erik Larsen run isn't a favorite of mine. Too much Venom (although that problem would only grow in next week's run), and I've never really loved Todd Mac's figurework. His people always looked a little too strange.

But there's a Sinister Six story not long after the issue above I don't mind; it continues Sandman's face turn. And another shortly after that where the Black Cat has to keep bailing out a temporarily depowered Spider-Man (who can't help himself when it comes to trying to help people). Although that one ends with Felicia depowered (a status that lasts about 25 issues). This is also when she took up with Flash Thompson, initially as some revenge against Peter for choosing Mary Jane? Oh and there's an Inferno tie-in much earlier that has a few pages of Spidey fighting a possessed Macy's parade balloon of himself. I have a soft spot for that one, strictly for novelty factor.

OK, so it's a mixed bag. The last issue before Larsen departed is a pretty good one involving Doctor Doom, though.

'They Look Like Felix The Cat's'

The above is a quote (as near as I can remember) from Mary Jane, describing the Spidey eyes during the Revenge of the Sinister Six storyline (Spider-Man #18-23), written and drawn by Erik Larsen I think. And it's true, Larsen did draw those eyes freaking huge on the Spider-Man costume, but he used them as a form of facial expressions. They narrowed when a person would narrow their eyes, either from concentration or anger. They seemed to get wider and rounder when Peter had a "Holy crap, what am I doing?!" moment.

True, it didn't really make much sense, when Larsen also drew them getting frequently cracked (Spider-Man had a tendency to get tore up during Larsen's stint on Amazing), which suggests they were made of a glass or plastic, which wouldn't seem to lend itself to that kind of shape-altering (I'd actually wager this was addressed at some point in the letters pages, but I can't swear to that). Still, I did think it was kind of nifty, as one of the problems with drawing characters who have full masks is giving a sense of what they're thinking or feeling (or at least not contradicting what the writer is telling the reader the character thinks or feels), and this seemed helpful in that regard.

I don't know whether Larsen started this or not. Running through Spider-Man artists I remember, there's a Ditko cover (I think it's Mysterio's first appearence) where the eyes seemed narrowed, but Ditko drew the eyes so much smaller than Larsen did anyway, I'm not sure if he started he was going for emotional representation or not. I can't recall either Romita doing it. Maybe MacFarlane, though the main thing I recall of his work (what with not having any of it at my current residence) was him drawing little lines around Spidey's head to signify him being surprised. It's not something Bagley does, nor Sal Buscema. I just really can't think of anyone else who tried, which may say something about whether it was a good idea or not, or maybe just that it was regarded as part of Larsen's essential style, and so unless your art was similar to his, probably best not too copy it.

My questions to those fellow Spider-fans in the audience, who remember the Larsen Spider-Man Eyes, are as follows:

One, was this something that was uniquely his, or was it something done by an earlier artist and Erik Larsen decided it was a cool idea and brought it back?

Two, did you like the expressive Spidey eyes?