Saturday Splash Page #203

"Extermination," in ROM: Spaceknight Annual #2, by Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema (penciler), Ian Akin and Brian Garvey (inkers), Ben Sean (colorist), Rick Parker (letterer)

Over the course of its run, ROM had 4 annuals. The the first Annual was a standalone adventure where Rom fights a bizarre alien that comes to Earth, plus a story set in the past, when he was defending Galador from the Wraiths and seemed betrayed by another Spaceknight.

I don't know if it was an edict from editorial or just Mantlo's preference, but the remaining Annuals all tied into developments in the ongoing series to varying degrees. The final Annual was set during the stretch after Rom left Earth to find Galador, and he and his Spaceknight allies run afoul of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard. The third Annual brought back Hybrid, the Wraith/human child that embraced his Wraith heritage, but he's planning to use the girls on the New Mutants as mothers for more hybrid kids, and he somehow makes Brandy Clark human again, wrenching her out of the Starshine armor.

Granted, Rom probably considers that a net positive, since Brandy was growing increasingly brutal in the war against the Wraiths, which he thought was a sign she was losing her humanity. Or she's got PTSD from the Wraiths killing everyone she loved except you and no one is offering therapy, just opportunities for revenge. But the whole "humanity" thing in ROM is always a little curious. Rom is described as a cyborg, that still has organic parts somewhere under the metal. But he's missing half his "humanity" which, along with all the other Spaceknights, is a glowing orb stored in a mausoleum. So it's not some organs that were removed in the procedure, but its restoration transforms a Spaceknight, somehow, back into the flesh-and-blood human they were before.

The end result of Hybrid's actions is Brandy can't fight alongside Rom any longer, or accompany him into space. Meaning she loses the last connection she had to her home, which probably fuels her feelings of loneliness and leads to the Beyonder sending her to what's left of Galador.

The second Annual, is sort of a mix. It's set in the past, at the climax of Galador's war with the Wraiths, as a way for Mantlo, Buscema, Akin and Garvey to introduce some other Spaceknights that fought alongside Rom in a little "squad": Taram the Seeker, Skera the Scanner, Vola the Trapper, Plor the Pulsar, Unam the Unseen, and Raak the Breaker. Their abilities, the personalities (Raak's a loudmouth egoist, Unam tends to wallow in self-pity), their relationships (Skera and Taram are siblings, Unam and Plor were both in love with Vola.)

At the same time, it sets up the entire series. Rom purses the Wraith fleet, but when given the option between following the flagship to the Wraiths' homeworld, or chasing the smaller vessels as they scatter. The end result is Rom banishes every Wraith on the planet to Limbo, but all those smaller ships are free to infiltrate other worlds. Like, say, Earth. So after his Spaceknight Squadron pals help him through a spell the Wraiths cast before being banished, Rom insists they have to keep fighting, to scatter across the stars and make sure the Wraiths can't do to any other world what they tried to do to Galador.

Thus the Wraiths come to Earth, followed by Rom. The Wraiths, suspecting has deprived them of their home, try to make Earth into a new home. The Spaceknight Squadron scatters, leading to Rom eventually finding them during the last year of the book, and several of them have changed in their own ways. Raak's embraced a situation that lets his ego run wild, while Unam's bitterness at the power he received curdles into its own form of monstrosity.

Saturday Splash Page #201

"Interdimensional Bouncer," in ROM #41, by Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema (penciler), Ian Akin and Brian Garvey (finishers), Ben Sean (colorist), Jim Novak (letterer)

If October's Saturday Splash Pages were all Runaways-themed, November's a month for Mantlo, starting with the book based on an unsuccessful (according to Wikipedia) toy!

Rom was a poet on the world of Galador, but when it came under attack by the shape-shifting Dire Wraiths, he was the first to volunteer for a project to turn citizens into cyborg warriors to combat the threat. He and hundreds of other "Spaceknights" successfully drove off the Wraiths, but Rom argued they couldn't leave other worlds vulnerable. So Galador's warriors scattered across the cosmos to finish the job they started. 200 years later, Rom arrives on Earth, and his war starts again.

As far as I know, the only info the toy provided was Rom's a cyborg, has red eyes (apparently red LEDs were cheaper than green) and had three accessories: the Translator, the Analyzer, and the Neutralizer. All that up there is Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema, regular penciler on the book for 50+ issues. Mantlo's Rom is dramatic, prone to big speeches and soliloquies, especially when he's being attacked by Earthlings who think (or have been tricked into thinking) he's some sort of death machine. He's a bit like the Silver Surfer at those times, though in Rom's defense, he's trying to save Earth and its inhabitants from the Wraiths, not serve them up as dinner for Galactus. He's got cause to be miffed.

Rom's also, despite being the one who insisted on pursuing the Wraths, weary of fighting, and not entirely comfortable with it. When under attack from enemies he can't recognize, he brings out the Analyzer first, to discern whether he's up against a Wraith or something else. While the Neutralizer has a lethal setting, Rom has a vow about not killing (how well he keeps that vow is up for debate) and mostly sticks to banishing enemies to Limbo.

The same Limbo Space Phantom hangs out in, not the one Maddy Pryor and Illyana trade control of like it's a stick of chapstick. A dimension from which there is supposed to be no escape. Certainly Rom doesn't haul anyone out of there. Is eternal prison better than death? Guess it depends on what Rom's goal was, mercy, suffering, or just being able to tell himself his hands are clean.

Setting the book in Clairton West Virginia (population 14,000), far from the New York City skyline that dominates Marvel Comics, lets Mantlo show just how far the Wraiths have gotten, and play a bit with the paranoia. (Plus, it's not hard to arrange for the X-Men or Mad Thinker to wander in whenever he feels the book needs a crossover jolt.) Even in this small town, where everyone knows each other, went to school together, worked together, there are aliens that have been plotting for decades to either subjugate or exterminate humanity, without anyone the wiser.

(Not all, though. Rom encounters a few Wraiths who fell in love with Earthlings and renounce conquest, although one dies at the hands of his own child.)

It's hard to believe, especially coming from an enormous metal man with a ray gun that leaves only ashes in its trace. While a camera can apparently capture the doorway to Limbo opening and Wraiths falling in, the average human eye can't. And while Rom's arrival begins to expose some of the cracks in the Wraiths' facade, they're deeply entrenched at many different levels. Even as more evidence comes to light - birth certificates that list the same birthday for people years apart in age, snoopy reporters - efforts at exposure are stonewalled by Wraiths in high places. Newspaper editors, generals, SHIELD agents, captains of industry, telephone switchboard operators. All of them, at different times, can make sure that, at best, a highly edited version of the truth slips out.

Mantlo starts with just one human believing in Rom. Brandy Clark, who nearly drives off the road to avoid hitting him, until Rom catches her car. Brandy sees him disintegrate two people she's known for years, but he doesn't harm her, even urges her to safety when the National Guard attacks. So when she sees him attacked by a weapon like none she's ever heard of, Brandy warns him and Rom saves her, only to fly off, leaving her with few answers.

From there, it builds slowly. Rom eventually talks with Brandy enough she can understand what's going on, and she, with some difficulty and being abducted, convinces her boyfriend Steve there are aliens hiding among them up to no good, and Rom's here to help. Over time, the entire town (the Earthling segment, anyway) come to believe Rom and help him drive the Wraiths out of Clairton. It needs some help from Rom to get going, but humanity is willing to defend itself.

Steve, Brandy and Rom end up in a love triangle. Brandy loves Steve, but feels drawn to the noble and tortured soul within Rom, who fights for people who think he's a monster. Steve respects Rom, but also resents the fact he can feel Brandy falling for the tortured poet inside the metal shell, and is happy when, late in the book's 2nd year, Rom decides he needs to find a way back to Galador to check something a Wraith told him. Rom falls for Brandy, but doesn't see how they could be together and feels she's better off with Steve, a flesh-and-blood man. And Rom respects Steve for his courage in facing the Wraiths with none of the gifts Rom possesses. The specifics of that dynamic shift over the course of the series, for various reasons, but there's no resolution until the very end.

The trip back to Galador hands Rom two pieces of bad news that will haunt him for a long time after his return to Earth. Although it does result in a new ally, as another Spaceknight, Starshine, accompanies him. The tail end of the 3rd year brings two major changes. One, Rom takes his hunt for the Wraiths worldwide. This brings him into contact with more of the wider Marvel Universe - Namor and Shang-Chi, as two examples - which helps spread word of the Wraith infiltration, improving humanity's chances of defense.

The other is a new type of Wraith threat. While there had been Wraiths that summoned creatures that seem to be eldritch horrors, they mostly relied on science. Ray guns and things designed to disrupt Rom's cybernetic circuitry. Magnets, electrical currents, that kind of thing. Buscema drew the Wraiths, minus a few exceptions, as either beings of smoke, or lumpy, potato-shaped things with arms and legs.

Now, we learn that while male Wraiths are science-inclined, the females focus on sorcery. And with a cosmic convergence approaching, their power is on the rise, giving them the impetus to take control of the Wraiths' conquest plans. Mantlo also establishes the two sides don't particularly care for each other, interacting only as necessary (which I feel was also true of the Badoon?)

While kept in shadows or human disguises at first, female Wraiths are revealed as hulking, purple-red beings with squat legs like tree stumps and narrow upper arms that balloon to Popeye forearms, with fingers like a claw game. The most disturbing new feature is a barbed tongue they stab into victim's brain. It not only dissolves the victim's, but downloads all their knowledge into the Wraith, enabling them to more perfectly imitate anyone. It's a more brutal approach, brought forth in response to the fact Rom's efforts are taking a toll, especially now that he's alerting their prey and helping them to arm and defend themselves.

This is also when Ian Akin and Brian Garvey start getting credited as either inkers or for "finished art" over Buscema's pencils. Combined with Ben Sean's coloring, they give a rounded effect not often found in Buscema's work. The backgrounds are more vivid, the armor shinier and more reflective, the things the Wraiths summon kept less physical, allowing more of the reader's imagination to take hold. That stretch, which extends from issue 36 through issue 50, is the best Buscema's art has ever looked to me, but for one reason or another, neither he, Akin, or Garvey could stick around until the conclusion of the war for Earth.

Random Back Issues #147 - Spectacular Spider-Man #160

We'll check back in on these two later.

We looked at the previous issue 4.5 years ago, but today, Spidey's problem isn't random villains attacking him. At least not yet. Today, it's villains - Rhino, Hydro-Man and Shocker - fighting each other in what Spidey describes as beef over guys stepping on each other's turf. Probably shouldn't have used 3 villains primarily associated with the same hero, then. Especially since two of them were in the Sinister Syndicate together. Spidey drops the trio with one blast from his new powers, only to have onlookers start throwing crap and claiming 'super-creeps' like Spidey are 'worse than muties.'

Scumbag paparazzo Nick Katzenberg loves what he sees, hightailing it to Jameson's apartment. Jonah, his wife Marla, and Robbie Robertson's attorney (in prison over something involving Tombstone), Cynthia Bernhammer, are watching Congressional hearings on the proposed Super-Human Registration Act. Jonah is, of course, grousing that he's been telling people for years these costumed types were menaces, only now he doesn't have a paper to crow about it (because Thomas Fireheart, aka the Puma, bought the Bugle out from under him.) In a few months he'll have a new magazine running, but for now, he can only seethe. Katzenberg offers the photos, but wants a salaried position as staff photographer. His other condition? Jonah has to blackball Peter Parker. Oh no, Peter won't be able to work for a skinflint yellow journalist responsible for 20% of Spider-Man's rogue's gallery?

While all this is going on, Dr. Doom's got some guys pulling the TESS-ONE robot out of the muck off New Jersey. One of the guys nearly lets the (adamantium-coated) robot fall (into seafloor mud) due to not properly securing a secondary clamp. Doom considers letting it go, then kills the guy anyway, by shooting his air tank and letting him suffocate, all while lamenting incompetent help. That's what you get for not hiring union labor, Doc.

When Doom brushes off a summons from the other head villains, Loki (in his businessman disguise) and Kingpin pay a visit. Doom's not holding up his end of these acts of vengeance. Doom argues that he's got them a perfect weapon to destroy Spider-Man and has TESS identify Spidey as a super-soldier and smash a big-screen TV with his image. Doom brushes off Kingpin's concerns the robot might turn on them by saying it's under his complete control. Loki astutely, and quietly, notes that's the problem.

Peter returns home, but when MJ makes a comment that his new powers do make him look kind of menacing, he flips out, accusing her of siding with 'creeps and proto-fascists,' then jumps out the skylight before she can get him to calm down. Swinging across the city, Peter reflects he needs to apologize, and that he's still having a hard time not over-reacting to his heightened senses. Which is about when his spider-sense starts screaming, as TESS tears through the building he's clinging to.

Peter monologues how annoying these attacks are getting as he saves an officer worker from falling to his death and keeps onlookers from being hit by debris when TESS smashes what I assume is a statue of Columbus. The onlookers, of course, blame Spider-Man, which brings us back to the image at the top of the post, as Spidey encourages the robot to step into the ring for a few rounds. Let's see how that turned out.

TESS gets knocked clear across town into the Queensboro Bridge, where it begins to repair itself by drawing on the bridge. A new device Doom built into it, with the notion TESS would eventually draw on Spidey's new energy to rebuild itself. For now, the 'bot's content to throw cars. Spidey catches the first, the driver asking him to be careful of the paint. The next, the driver pleads for Spider-Man not to hurt her, even after the robot threw her. Fed up, Spidey unloads with enough energy to blow TESS to bits, shouting, 'I've Got Your Menace Right Here!' Which might be the most New York thing he's ever done, though points deduction for not gesturing to his crotch at the time.

All the drivers decide that, this time, they're better off spitting hate from the safety in letters to the editor and the local bars. Look, it's barely 1990, internet message boards aren't widely available yet (thank goodness.) That evening, Doom plucks what's left of TESS-ONE's head from the river bottom. It couldn't gather enough of Spidey's power to rebuild itself, but it still got a sample, so Doom figures he's made in the shade.

(Note: He is not, in fact, made in the shade.)

{10th longbox, 9th comic. Spectacular Spider-Man #160, by Gerry Conway (writer), Sal Buscema (artist), Bob Sharen (colorist), Rick Parker (letterer)}

Saturday Splash Page #151

"Down the Barrel of a Gun," in Spectacular Spider-Girl #2, by Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (writer/penciler), Sal Buscema (finished art), Bruno Hang (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

A 4-issue mini-series from 2010, where New York City is in the middle of a gang war between Black Tarantula and an old-school Maggia guy enhanced with cybernetics. No, not Silvermane. This guy calls himself Silverback. I guess DeFalco and Frenz thought Silvermane would have to be dead by now or something.

Mayday promised her parents she'd stay out of it, but it's not sitting well with her. But she's got enough problems as it is. There's a horribly-dressed weirdo named Wild Card who keeps kicking her ass and telling her to stay out of the conflict. I mean, the outfit is bad. Like he's trying to fight her by making her go blind. Her clone/sister April is really getting into her Mayhem identity, and is actually working for Silverback.

Oh, and Frank Castle came out of retirement (that he spent in South America, where he still periodically fucked drug lords up) because Silverback was a guy he left crippled as a message before ending his war on the mob. Years of reading Garth Ennis' Punisher leave me unable to see Frank doing either of those things. Not ending his war on the mob, and certainly not leaving a guy alive as a message. "People scare better when they're dying," is definitely a philosophy the Punisher subscribes to.

The story has a feel of DeFalco and Frenz clearing the decks. They probably know this is one of the last Spider-Girl stories they're going to write, and they try to definitively move the old guard off the board, both characters that existed before Spider-Girl, and ones that didn't, but are supposed to pre-date her. Silverback and the Punisher bite the dust. Black Tarantula opts to leave New York with Arana, basically removing him as an issue. Peter (once again) accepts that he needs to trust his daughter can handle things. Even the two goons of Silverback's that are based on DeFalco and Frenz (I guess they didn't de in the wilds of Jersey) end up turning state's evidence in the hopes of being able to start new lives in witness protection elsewhere.

Silverback turns out to be a puppet of another villain, and that villain gets killed by Mayhem. Which sets up April's continuing descent into a "lethal protector" type as Mayday's biggest issue. Especially combined with her desire to assert her individuality as the true, only daughter of Peter and Mary Jane, which would come to a head in Spider-Girl: The End.

And with that, Summer (and Fall) of Spiders draws to a close.

Saturday Splash Page #146

"A Happy Sendoff", in Spider-Girl: The End, by Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (writer/penciler), Sal Buscema (finished art), Bruno Hang and Sotocolor (colorists), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

"The End" was a loose group of comics Marvel did that were essentially the "final" story for a given character or group. The ones in the early 2000s were mini-series. One for the FF, one for Wolverine, 3 for the X-Men, one for the entire Marvel Universe (written by Starlin, so of course Thanos was responsible.) There were some one-shots in the mid-to-late 2000s. Marvel apparently revived it for 4 or 5 books in 2020, but I only learned that researching this post. 

To my knowledge, the best-regarded is Garth Ennis and Richard Corben's Punisher: The End, which basically says Frank Castle would never stop killing criminals, even if said criminals are the last humans left.

Spider-Girl: The End is 180 degrees from that book. Unsurprising, given the respective creative teams. Set after the strips in Amazing Spider-Man Family, Web of Spider-Man (vol. 3), and the 4-issue Spectacular Spider-Girl mini-series (which we'll see next month), we're told the story of how Spider-Girl died by a kindly old woman talking to a bunch of kids in what looks like an idyllic paradise.

The clone/symbiote hybrid, April Reilly, is still after Mayday to admit April's the original, as well as the better hero. They fight, a fire starts, May pushes her sister clear of falling debris, then is able to launch her clear of the explosion via impact webbing. As it turns out, the old lady is April, and we learn (though the kids don't), she tried to take May's place, but their little brother Benjy immediately knew she wasn't May, which tipped of MJ. April flipped, went full "lethal protector", to the point the government combined mercs with Carnage symbiotes, and civilization went down the crapper.

April gets a chance to go back and change things, and does, in the process tying off her own storyline. May returns home, unaware of the near miss, Wes, who had been circling as a possible love interest for a while, drops by and reveals he knows she's Spider-Girl, and that's where the issue ends. An actual happy ending!

Obviously, that wasn't going to last. . .

Sunday Splash Page #343

"A Duck's Defenders", in Marvel Treasury Edition #12, by Steve Gerber (writer), Sal Buscema (penciler), Klaus Janson (inker), Marie Severin (colorist), Joe Rosen (letterer)

I own one issue of Marvel Treasury Edition, courtesy of the first volume of the Howard the Duck collection. Set between issue 7, when Howard accidentally becomes the Presidential candidate of the All-Night Party, and issue 8, when he starts his ultimately unsuccessful campaign, Howard is targeted for assassination by Dr. Angst, master of mundane mysticism, and a pack of losers he gathers with promises that they'll become well-known (also wealthy) if they pull this off.

Except he also promises them "mettle spheres" which will boost their strength, if they help him defeat Dr. Strange, who Howard has by this point encountered after Beverly makes a wrong turn trying to get them to a friend's house for the night. Strange gets kayoed after Angst makes a bunch of tennis balls explode from the Orb of Agomatto, forcing Howard to don the sorcerer garb and fight Angst, while the Defenders and Beverly get teleported into a football game to fight the rest of the crew.

Howard (with Strange's astral guidance) busts out all the classic spells, your Seraphim Shields and whatnot, while Angst is sealing the entrance of the Sanctum with a giant cereal box ("boxed" in), or conjuring a set of 6-ply tires to send at Howard. Angst's goons are beaten in about 3 pages, because the mettle spheres don't actually do anything, except perhaps trick these dopes into having confidence in themselves. Howard's really just hoping Strange can send him home, preferably before Beverly comes back and he has to deal with any awkward good-byes, but by the end of the fight he's so tired, he ditches the notion entirely, settling for a nap, and hopefully cab fare.

Saturday Splash Page #145

"Desperation Flurry," in Spider-Girl #87, by Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (writer/penciler), Sal Buscema (finishes), Gotham (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

Olliffe leaves the book midway through a storyline involving Seth, the Serpent God of Death, handing the art duties to Ron Frenz (who had penciled a few fill-in issues previously) and Sal Buscema, who remain the art team for the remaining 40 or so issues.

I said last week DeFalco and Olliffe mostly avoided bringing back Peter Parker's rogue's gallery to challenge Mayday. That is not really the case for the DeFalco/Frenz run, where the Venom symbiote plays a major role, as well as the Black Tarantula's emergence as a major player in the organized crime world. DeFalco dusts off Carolyn Trainer, the second Dr. Octopus, and finally, near the end of the book, the original Hobgoblin, Roderick Kingsley.

Some of these work better than others. DeFalco has no issue letting the Hobgoblin smack around characters he's established as big deals or competent heroes previously, helping emphasize that this guy is dangerous. Likewise, the symbiote ends up connected to Normie Osborn, which creates a situation where Mayday trusts her friend, but worries the symbiote could be affecting him, and it becomes another secret between her and her parents. Mostly Peter, since he's far less trusting of Normie than Mayday is to begin with.

Along those lines, they try to set Black Tarantula up as a morally ambiguous character Mayday can't decide whether to fully trust or not. He offers her help, even brings in Elektra to train Mayday when she's getting her butt kicked by Doc Ock the Sequel, but he's still a guy consolidating his hold on crime in New York City, and not to dismantle it. So it's a little different than Peter's past friendships or alliances with people straddling the line between good and bad.

(There's also a bit where he seems to be courting Mayday, which I presume is because he doesn't know she's a high-schooler, but is really damn creepy. Not sure if that was intentional.)

Frenz tried to update his style, but it's not an improvement. Mayday ends up looking way too skinny, or with her face oddly shaped or angled. The longer he and Buscema are on the book, the more the art shifts to a place between Frenz's earlier work and Buscema's. By the time we get to Amazing Spider-Girl, it's more Buscema. Which means it's solid, but nothing revolutionary or experimental. It keeps things clean and easy to follow, emotions are typically very easy to read, the action is big, full of haymakers and people getting punched through walls. It's an old-school book in the writing, still lots of subplots and page space for the supporting cast, and the art reflects that.

I'm pretty sure I was buying the book monthly before Frenz and Buscema joined the creative team, probably starting in Olliffe's last year as penciler. I stayed with it until it was finally, truly canceled at issue 100 (it survived at least one more near-cancellation during this tenure, and maybe two.) Of course, Marvel started Amazing Spider-Girl 3 months later, so it wasn't a cancellation so much as a rebranding. 

I don't know if Spider-Girl was ever my favorite book, but there was a reliable, "competence" feels too much like damning with faint praise, level of care maybe, that I appreciated. You know what you're going to get with DeFalco, Frenz, and Buscema. It's not flashy, but they do their best to make sure you get your money's worth of plot, character arcs and action every month.

Sunday Splash Page #341

"Grievous Bodily Harm From Above," in Marvel Team-Up (vol. 1) #82, by Chris Claremont (writer), Sal Buscema and Steve Leialoha (artists), Ben Sean (colorist), Rick Parker (letterer)

It feels like Marvel Team-Up started as a co-starring book for Spider-Man and the Human Torch, only to become essentially a second ongoing for Spider-Man after 3 issues. The Torch gets the occasional starring role in the first 50 issues (18, 23, 26, 29, 32, 36), plus a couple of co-star spots. There are a couple of issues focused on the Hulk teaming up with someone later on (Spider-Woman, Ka-Zar, Heroes for Hire) but it's Spidey's world for ~90% of the book's 150-issue run, so maybe that was always the intention.

Most of the time, each issue stands by itself, with some set of circumstances bringing Spider-Man in contact with another hero, and they have to work together to defeat some greater threat. Chris Claremont takes over as writer in issue 57, starting a 30+ issue stretch. While it wasn't unheard of before that for the events of one issue to spill into the next, Claremont seems to lean into that a lot more, and he sometimes stacks the guest stars, rather than coming up with reasons with last issues hero is gone by the next issue. Spidey gets tangled up in Davos stealing the chi of Shou-Lao from Iron Fist in issue 63, then works with Misty Knight and Colleen Wing in issue 64 to try and help Iron Fist not get killed fighting Davos.

Some of those work better than others. By the end of the story that starts in issue 82, Nick Fury's recruited Shang-Chi to help him, Spider-Man and the Black Widow. Maybe the Master of Kung Fu had some backstory with Viper or Silver Samurai I didn't catch, but it seemed a bit random.

Sometimes Spider-Man gets to be the hero, sometimes he gets bailed out by the guest star, or does something that helps the guest star save the day. Ms. Marvel might be the one who ultimately beats the Super-Skrull, but Spider-Man had to keep him busy until they could set things up for her to have the chance to win. Frog-Man catches the White Rabbit, but after Spidey caught the getaway van and took down the rest of the gang.

Like a lot of books we've looked at lately, Marvel Team-Up lends itself to selective reading. I own 16 issues out of the 150, with 10 of those written by Claremont. Mostly drawn by John Byrne or the Buscema/Leialoha duo. But looking at a cover gallery, there's almost that many other issues I read at some point. The cover promises a character I'm interested in, or at least a wild premise that makes me want to know more about what's actually happening.

Saturday Splash Page #116

"No-Frills Commuter Flight," in Sub-Mariner (vol. 1) #35, by Roy Thomas (writer), Sal Buscema (penciler), Jim Mooney (inker), Jean Izzo (letterer), colorist uncredited

The three issues of Namor's late 1960s-early 1970s series I own are courtesy of Essential Defenders Volume 1. The first picks up from the final issue of Dr. Strange's first series, as Strange enlists Namor's helps defending Earth from the Undying Ones. That issue starts with Namor returning to Atlantis, but having lost his gills as a result of some aliens abducting and experimenting on him 4 issues earlier.

Roy Thomas resolves that within a handful of pages and then sends Namor off to help Strange, although it ends with Strange sending Namor back to Earth and staying behind to fight the Undying Ones himself (the Hulk would later help Strange escape, but Barbara Norriss gets left behind.)

The other two issues involve Atlantean scientists realizing the U.S. Army is building a device which could screw up the entire world's weather. No one's going to listen to Namor with all the times he's attacked the surface world, so he'll have to stop the device by force, and that means allies. The Silver Surfer buys in on the premise of protecting this world of madmen (after the customary misunderstanding fight with Namor.) The Hulk's busy destabilizing a Latin American dictatorship because they decided to shoot at him, but he's on board for smashing some different soldiers.

The two-parter sets the tone for a lot of Defenders stories. Minus Dr. Strange's (or later Valkyire and Hellcat) more level-headed demeanor, Hulk is less a teammate than a natural disaster you can gently nudge in a certain direction. He fights the Army, Namor, the Avengers when they show, Namor and the Surfer again when he tries to just smash the machine rather than letting the Army agree to more study before implementation. The Surfer spends a lot of time moaning about human tendencies towards violence, but is he any better for responding in kind. Certainly not any less annoying. Namor tries to just order everyone around, which goes as well as you'd expect.

Random Back Issues #111 - Spider-Girl #81

Is that what's happening? I thought you two whiffed the high five.

Spider-Girl's fighting Aftershock, who I think was introduced in the only issue of the original 100 issue run not written by Tom DeFalco (issue 51, written by Sean McKeever). Aftershock's not doing so hot here, as the armored car she attacked was empty at the time, which the driver tried to tell her.

What should therefore be a pretty easy win against an idiot goes sideways when Mayday's distracted by her cellphone. She dodges the next attack without thinking and aggravates some recently injured ribs, landing in a pile of garbage. Yep, she's Spider-Man's daughter, all right.

The security guard tries to grab Aftershock and gets electrocuted for his trouble. Spider-Girl manages to perform CPR to save his life before heading home. She also gets a call from her friend Brenda Drago (former legacy Vulture villain Raptor), that Brenda's now engaged to Normie Osborn. So in addition to getting chewed out by her dad for not coming home to look after her baby brother after school (because she was losing to an idiot), she also has to hear Peter bemoan the idea anyone would willingly marry an Osborn.

Mary Jane tried playing peacemaker, but the forecast is chilly at school the next day when Mayday gets a call from the Avengers. Electro showed up at the mansion, demanding to speak to Spider-Man. He initially dismisses Spider-Girl as a 'teen sidekick,' then revises it to 'secretary' when she explains no one gets to see Spider-Man without going through her.

Peter throws on the old costume to meet Electro (who, in a nice touch, recognizes Spidey's walking with a limp, because he's missing a leg from the knee down). Aftershock is Max Dillon's kid, but he's stayed away from her. Partially because the mom insisted, partially because his aura and his daughter's are on different frequencies, so it hurts them both to make physical contact. There's even a picture in the file Max is carrying that shows him and what is supposed to be a baby, but looks like Tiny Gerald Ford reacting badly.

Peter agrees to help, musing how awful it would be not to be able to hold your child. In the middle of that, all the younger Avengers show up, because they all want to meet Spider-Man. Which is cool, that he's considered one of the greats by the next generation, and lets his daughter see a different side of him.

Mayday finds Aftershock robbing a jewelry store. Hopefully she didn't grab costume jewelry. Spider-Girl's holding back, leaping about and just slapping Aftershock instead of full on punching her. All that really accomplishes is pissing the girl off, and she blasts Mayday from the street to a rooftop at least a couple of stories up. Aftershock vows to 'melt the flesh off your scrawny bones,' but the Avengers arrive, and electricity can't get through melt the Juggernaut's kid (or, unfortunately, the flannel shirt he wears around his waist.)

Aftershock's not exactly happy to see her dad, and he considers bailing, but Peter gives him the speech about how parents can't ever give up, and so Max hugs his daughter. This hurts, but it seems like it fades after a few panels. I guess their bio-electric auras adapted or merged with each other given time, it was just Max never stuck it out long enough for that to happen before. Which is understandable. If your kid screams in pain every time you so much as touch them, you would probably stop doing that.

At home that night, the Parker family discuss what'll happen to Aftershock (she's a minor, so a light sentence or paroled into Max's custody is Peter's guess). Peter and Mayday stay up to talk and Mary Jane finds them asleep on the couch at 3 a.m., having apparently buried the hatchet. Except the cover for the next issue reminds me that Normie's about to get bonded to the Venom symbiote, so that'll be another thing to make Peter wary. But haven't we all had a friend our parents distrusted because they were forcibly bonded to a brain-eating alien slime mold?

{10th longbox, 88th comic. Spider-Girl #81, by Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (writer/art breakdowns), Sal Buscema (finished art), Gotham (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)}

Saturday Splash Page #43

 

"Fly-By-Night Operation," in Web of Spider-Man (vol. 2) #1, by Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (writer/artist), Sal Buscema (inker/finisher), Bruno Hang (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

In the late 2000s, Marvel briefly brought back Web of Spider-Man, this time as an anthology title. There was a mixture of done-in-one stories focused on supporting characters, but it was also another place for folks like me to get their "Mayday" Parker Spider-Girl fix.

The Spider-Girl parts only lasted a few issues, and continued threads from earlier stories in Amazing Spider-Man Family, the previous attempt at a Spider-themed anthology book. At this point the big issue was Mayday had a clone of her own, who was actually part symbiote thanks to Osborn. Calling herself "April", the clone tried to integrate into the Parker family life, but tended to resent the fact she felt she was the original and May had stolen her life.

That's woven in with an ongoing gang war involving Tombstone and the Black Tarantula, and then Fury the Goblin Queen up there rushes onto the scene, trying to both destroy traitors and the Parkers once and for all. April has to decide which side she's going to be on (for now, at least), and Mayday's boyfriend maybe figures out her secret. It's pretty standard DeFalco/Frenz Spider-Girl stuff, with Sal Buscema providing the finishes on the art. Lots of melodrama and big speeches. Lot of Spider-Girl triumphing through hard challenges and throwing big haymaker punches.

Oh, and DeFalco and Frenz show up working for Tombstone, only to be killed by Batwing, the character Kurt Busiek and Pat Olliffe created in Untold Tales of Spider-Man (which we'll get to in a month or so.)

Random Back Issues #83 - ROM #45

It's been a while since we looked at an issue of ROM. A lot of things have changed, as the issue opens on Rom burying his own corpse!

He and Brandy Clark (now occupying the Galadorian armor of Rom's old ally Starshine) wound up in Russia, where Rom got duped by Quasimodo into giving up the armor in exchange for a clone body. Which broke down, and forced him back into the cold cyborg armor. He takes it well.

Or maybe not. The two of them are joined by the sometimes pilot of the Titanium Man armor, the Gremlin, who wants to know more about these Wraiths Rom keeps talking about. After a few panels of exposition, Gremlin explains he'd been seeing signs of odd behavior among others in Moscow. He thought it was Soviets jumping at shadows, disabling security out of fear it was going to be exploited by an enemy. Now he figures it was Wraiths impersonating humans, trying to weaken the USSR against an attack.

Agreeing to work together, Brandy uses the "Living Light" to transport them to a secret base Gremlin discovered evidence of before he fled Moscow. Rom gets to blasting, only to have his Neutralizer beam reflected back at him. A Wraith impersonating the Commissar of State Security has duped the Soviet Super-Soldiers - Vanguard, Major Ursus and Darkstar - into defending the facility from invaders set on destroying the Soviet Union. Those three got no love for the State (as explained through another page of exposition), but they do want to protect the people. Darkstar used her power to transport them there, and its Misunderstanding Battle Time!

Brandy and Darkstar square off in a battle of light and dark that begins to escalate beyond either of them. Rom manages to toss Ursus aside, but has more trouble with Vanguard. Random odd thing: Ursus can understand Rom's English perfectly well, but Vanguard admits to knowing only a smattering of the language.

Gremlin, minus any weapons, heads for the facility, with Ursus tracking him. Brandy starts to overwhelm Darkstar and is moments away from banishing the Darkforce from her entirely (which would kill her), but Vanguard throws his hammer and sends Brandy plummeting into the snow. Oh Vanguard, you done fucked up now. Rom snaps, although he always seems about two seconds from a berserker rage that would impress Wolverine. 

He turns the Neutralizer on Vanguard and when Darkstar uses her power to shield her brother, Rom just keeps firing at killing intensity. Brandy snaps him out of it, asking if he intends to kill them or force a surrender, and Rom figures out they're fighting mutants, not Wraiths. Good thing, because Ursus comes staggering back, wounded, with a bunch of Wraith Hellhounds on his heels.

We're still almost two years from the end of the Wraith War to conquer Earth at this stage (by which point Steve Ditko will have taken over as artist), but Rom's globe-trotting adventures will end up paying off in making sure various forces are aware of the danger.

[9th longbox, 14th comic. ROM #45, by Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema (penciler), Ian Akin and Brian Garvey (inkers), Ben Sean (colorist), Janice Chiang (letterer)]

Random Back Issues #74 - Creeper #4

The Creeper eating an alarm clock seems like it would cause digestive problems for Jack Ryder when they transform back, ala the question of, if the Hulk eats a bunch of beans and turns back into Banner, does it rupture Banner's (much smaller) stomach?

Huh, Googum reviewed this issue about two months ago, and it's the one I pulled from for Sunday Splash Page #116.

Having escaped the mental hospital he was in, and Proteus' (a shape-shifting scientist guy, not to be confused with the X-Men villain) attempts to experiment on him, Jack Ryder's trying to figure out what to do next. He's staying in a friend's apartment while she's away, but as you see, the Creeper's not a morning person. He only wants to be out and about when it's time to par-tay.

Up and awake, Ryder looks over some notes that recap the first three issues, including the part where he realized the origin story Ditko originally gave him was some more pleasant fantasy his mind concocted to protect himself. Not sure about that creative decision, but OK.

Jack's gotta pay the bills, so he goes looking for a reporting job, starting at the Daily Planet. He tells Perry White the paper can use a little fresh blood, but is told he'd either be writing obituaries, or supervising the office morgue. Which triggers a flashback to Ryder's own death.

Prior to this series starting, Ryder went hunting for a story in Parador, 'Numb little suckhold postage-stamp South American armpit of the world,' that was in the midst of a revolution. Ryder and the Creeper agreed the yellow guy was better suited to handle this. He wasn't ready for starved, crazed hyenas lurking in the jungle, who killed and ate the Creeper.

Or they tried to, because they apparently couldn't digest him, and the Creeper's parts were barfed up into a mass grave, and gradually merged back together. At which point the Creeper dug himself out, turned back into Jack, and the reporter staggered naked through the jungle until he crossed paths with an anthropologist named Miriam Leary.

Nearly having a breakdown during the interview does not get Jack the job. He doesn't have any more luck at any other newspapers. Including one run by a cigar-smoking publisher who wants proof a certain menace, no doubt wall-crawling, is a threat to decent people.That's OK, he didn't want to work in newspapers again, anyway! He wonders, though, if his past is holding him back. Returning to his family home, he marches into the woods, where as a boy, he once encountered a mysterious skeletal creature. Possibly the "Creeper" his mother warned would eat him if he didn't behave. The creature shows up, and Jack switches to the Creeper, who quickly dismantles it. The Creeper assures her that it'll take care of punishing bad boys from now on, and the ghost, or psychic echo, fades away after telling Jackie he's a good boy.

All of that is somehow useful for Jack's mental state. Closure, I guess. He returns to his friend's apartment and there's a message waiting with an offer from a magazine. (There was also a message from the anthropologist, but the machine cuts off too quickly and we never did learn what that was about.)

[3rd longbox, 13th comic. The Creeper #4, by Len Kaminski (writer), Shawn Martinbrough (penciler), Sal Buscema (inker), Sherri van Valkenburgh (colorist), John E. Workman, Jr. (letterer)]

Random Back Issues #62 - The Mighty Thor #379

I know, just six weeks after the last time we looked at Simonson's Thor run we're back again. We're almost to the end of it now. Thor's just narrowly avoided getting thrashed by some frost giants Loki was collaborating with. Not killed, because Hela's cursed him to be easily injured, never heal, and never die. Meaning no death in battle for Thor. He'd almost given in to despair, but seeing his brother fight an entire horde of frost giants got him moving and he finished his new armor and saved the day.

So Loki wakes up to trashed citadel, no frost giants, no Iceman (who he abducted as part of his scheme) and no Thor. His magic gets the walls to tell him what happened and he predictably throws a hissy fit over Thor saving his life. I mean, it was a terrible idea on Thor's part, but Loki could try bearing it with grace. Instead, he searches for Grundroth and his frost giants, who have traveled to Earth to awaken the Midgard Serpent. It's supposed to die in a final battle with Thor, but with the thunder god being weakened, they figure it can be convinced to take a run at him and break its fate.

 

Loki actually thinks that's not a bad plan, and leaves them to it, focusing on his own plan to get revenge on them instead. Which involves going to some mountain peak on Earth and retrieving a pile of melted metal. The purpose of that becomes clear in two issues.

In Asgard, everyone has fallen prey to a mysterious plague except for the dark elf Kurse, who's fought Thor a couple of times in this run, but is just sort of hanging around right now, and Mick and Kevin. They're two mortal kids Thor brought here after they were orphaned thanks to Justice Peace of the Time Variance Authority (in one of the weakest stories of Simonson's run), who were adopted by Volstaag. Kurse won't speak, but he helps the children reach "President Balder", who's also sick, but has a vial on him Odin's ravens give to the boys. Who have no idea what to do, because they don't speak bird. What are they teaching kids in Midgardian schools these days, when they no longer understand ravenspeak?

Grundroth uses one of his own as the worm on the line for the Midgard Serpent, but instead pull up an all-orange Fin Fang Foom. Neither party is impressed by the other, but after Grundroth declares Mjolnir, 'would make fishbait out of YOU!!', Foom decides to see if this Thor is an actual challenge. Thor's in a park after returning Iceman to X-Factor headquarters, considering how his only chance of getting the curse undone is to go confront Hela. Which he barely managed the last time at full strength, with a whole legion of Asgardian warriors at his back, and it still took Skurge's sacrifice to pull it off. The odds this doesn't end with him a shattered wreck, tormented by Hela and all the foes he's slain for an eternity are not great.

FFF nearly stomps him, then apologizes for a case of mistaken identity. He thought he recognized the cape, you see. This leads to an extended conversation where Thor pretends to be someone else, claiming to be 'familiar with most of the other wearers of such capes.' He eventually refers to himself as 'an extremely local version of a tactical nuclear weapon,' aka a super-hero. He shows he's strong enough to lift Foom's foot, something only managed one other time according to FFF, and the dragon agrees to fly them somewhere else for their battle. 

 

There's a page of debate about what aphorisms are, the value of symbols and what one believes in. It's kind of odd how casual the whole thing is. I'd suspect Thor recognizes his opponent's true identity,  but I guess the dragon is just cocky. They reach a secluded spot, and "Fin Fang Foom" reveals himself as the Midgard Serpent. He proclaims he exists in the deeps of time beyond the reach of clocks, and that's where they are now. On cue, time stops for everyone except the two of them, and the giants, who hurry to see the battle. The Serpent apologizes for having not asked the poor warrior's name, but assures him that once he's dead, Jormungand will assume another illusion and gather all his loved ones to hear their lamentations. What a nice dragon.

Thor's response is he has plenty of names, too, but the one that matters is 'THOR ODINSON the Thunderer, Jormungand's Fear!' The weigh-ins, ring promos, and entrance music complete, it's time for the championship bout. But that's saved for the next issue, which is the all-splash page throwdown, the final issue of the run Walt Simonson draws himself. I think he was drawing X-Factor concurrent with this, so Sal Buscema had been drawing more and more of the issues for a while.

[11th longbox, 126th comic. The Mighty Thor #379, by Walter Simonson (writer), Sal Buscema (artist), EVelyn Stein (colorist), John Workman (letterer)]

Sunday Splash Page #146

 

"Don't Get My Hopes Up, Norriss", in Defenders Annual #1, by Steve Gerber (writer), Sal Buscema and Klaus Janson (artists), D. Warfield (colorist), John Costanza (letterer)

This is effectively the end of Steve Gerber's run on the Defenders. There was one more issue of the ongoing after this, but this wraps up all of what Gerber had been doing with the Headmen, with the strange "Bozo" movement, and with Jack Norriss' abrupt departure a few issues earlier.

Norriss somehow got it in his head that at a point when the Defenders had knocked unconscious by the Headmen in a previous fight, they were given subliminal commands to make them do seemingly bizarre, random acts of destruction or mischief. These would instill fear and unease in the populace, and help the Headmen conquer the world through economic and political means. So he got a bunch of money out of Nighthawk to go try and play secret agent. Complete with knockout gas cuff links. Which prove entirely ineffective against Ruby Thursday. Great hustle, Norriss, ya putz. 

Meanwhile, you've got Nebulon the Celestial Man convincing everyone they're bozos and should abandon individuality and free will to do what he says, granting him control of the world.

The Defenders end up in the middle, and mostly look like chumps, getting shrunk down and put in some tiny city under a dome. Then at the end, they manage to at least defeat the Headmen in a fight. Norriss naturally can't resist raining on the parade by pointing out it does nothing to undo all the damage the Headmen have already done. 

Nebulon gets driven off after Doc Strange does the old, "make him experience all of humanity at once" trick and Nebulon decides we're all too nuts to try and save and bails. Must be nice to be able to just jaunt off across the universe to get away from it all. I'm stuck relying on the blessed oblivion of unconsciousness.

Sunday Splash Page #144

 

"This is Your Brain on Steve Gerber Comics," in Defenders (vol. 1) #36, by Steve Gerber (writer), Sal Buscema, Klaus Janson and Mary Skrenes (artists), Klaus Janson (colorists), Joe Rosen (letterer) 

After Engelhart left Defenders, Len Wein was writer for about 10 issues, most notable for adding Nighthawk to the roster, plus the story where Magneto got de-aged to an infant (which got him off when he stood trial for his crimes later, on the grounds this was a different Magneto). He was then replaced by Steve Gerber, who had a roughly 20-issue run that seems to be the one all Defenders' writers are judged against. 

The Elf with a Gun being a popular part, that Gerber apparently intended to just be random, chaotic violence, rather than some big thing. There's also the Hulk possibly murdering a couple of hunters for killing "Bambi's mom." Which ultimately leads to a sequence where Chondu the Mystic's consciousness is trapped within the deer, while Chondu's brain is in Nighthawk's body, under the control of Jack Norris' consciousness, and Nighthawk's brain is floating in a bowl, going slowly mad.

Namor and the Silver Surfer are absent throughout, so the core roster is Dr. Strange, the Hulk, Valkyrie and Nighthawk. Or put differently, Dr. Strange and three children. Nighthawk's the rich kid who's never bothered to examine anything or think past the surface. Val isn't sure exactly who she is, and the Hulk is the biggest, strongest child in the world. Placid and helpful one moment, angry and lashing out at anyone who tells him "no" the next.

Beyond that, Gerber works in Hank Pym and Daimon Hellstrom off-and-on, and Luke Cage (who already showed up late in Wein's run) and the Red Guardian (world-class surgeon Tanya Belinksy, who I feel like Doc would have courted if this were written today) are constants for the last several issues. Which gives him the opportunity to explore different responses to societal issues, given Belinsky comes from the Soviet Union, and believes in collective responsibility and effort, and Cage has seen very little to suggest society is going to help him, and does his heroing on a cash basis.

And so the Defenders encounter racists, the need for prison reform, income inequality, housing discrimination, questions of individual rights and responsibilities versus the needs of society. And they are, of course, mostly ineffectual at combating these things outside an individual case basis. They're lucky if they can keep from getting hopelessly entangled in those problems, like Valkyrie helping incite a prison riot.

The drag on the run is the presence of Jack Norris, former husband of Barbara Norris, who makes up some part of Valkyrie. Jack seems to start thinking "Valkyrie" is just some weird phase Barbara's going through, and then switches to the notion it's like amnesia and she just needs the right jolt to remember and go back to being the woman he remembers. When he's not doing that, he's hanging around ostensibly as the audience (or perhaps writer) stand-in. Meaning he yells at the Defenders about how they're screwing up this thing, or not paying enough attention to this other thing he thinks is important.

I know comics bloggers prefer to rag on Terry Long as being some unholy abomination of a character. Not having read much Wolfman/Perez Titans I can't comment, but Jack Norris is just shrill and annoying. How he got away with this Peter Gyrich, pompous windbag act without getting thrown into orbit by the Hulk, I don't know. Credit to him for not giving up easy, but one of the high points was when I thought Nighthawk had gotten rid of the guy by paying him enough to get lost.

Sal Buscema's there to make the punching that happens occasionally to break up the talking look impressive. It seems a little strange to have an artist that excels at fight scenes where everybody's throwing haymakers on a title where the writer keeps emphasizing the limited utility of that fighting, but Buscema handles it fine.

Sunday Splash Page #143

 

"The Fish, the Ghost, and the Hood Ornament," in Defenders (vol. 1) #2, by Steve Englehart (writer), Sal Buscema (penciler), John Verpoorten (inker), John Costanza (letterer)

Welcome to Defenders December (and early January)! Most of my Defenders stuff is in Essential volumes, so it's black-and-white for the next several weeks. Marvel decided they should have another team book, except all the remaining popular characters - Hulk, Namor, Doctor Strange, and the Silver Surfer - are unsociable weirdos. Hence the alleged "non-team".

Steve Englehart's workaround in the first year of the book seems to be having missions or crises that flow into one another and force those four to hang around. Namor is nearly sacrificed to the Nameless Ones in issue 1, narrowly saved by Strange and Banner. Namor claims he was ambushed by the Surfer, so they go hunting for him in issue 2. That leads to the Nameless Ones, and ultimately Strange's (and the Hulk's) attempt to help Barbara Norris, which leads to both Valkyrie's recreation, and eventually the Black Knight being cursed to become a statue. Which leads into the Avengers-Defenders War. 

Basically, there aren't many breaks for any of them to say, "Nuts to this, I'm outta here!" Namor does, eventually, take off, and Strange drags him back with magic. The sea king takes that with as much grace and good humor as you'd expect.

Englehart also tried to combat this by adding characters that really didn't have anywhere else to go. Banner, in the moments where he's in control rather than the Hulk. The Surfer, occasionally. But mostly Valkyrie, who isn't sure who or what exactly she is. Len Wein does the same with Nighthawk not long after, who nearly dies standing against Nebulon the Celestial Man and the other members of the Squadron Sinister. Hawkeye, too, for a hot minute, during one of his stints being angry at the Avengers but having no real drive.

Sal Buscema's the penciler, with a variety of inkers over the course of a run that extends beyond Englehart or Wein's tenures. And you pretty much know what you're going to get with him. The art's clean and straightforward. Big, dynamic poses and punches, combined with conventional layouts and in-panel staging. Nothing flashy, but he makes sure you have all the information you need to have as a reader, and that it's easy to follow.

Random Back Issues #47 - Spectacular Spider-Man #159

Has anyone studied it to see how big a pie you can make with 24 blackbirds?

All right, Acts of Vengeance tie-in! It's gonna be a good Friday! (Note that I'm typing this on Monday evening, so the week between now and then may have put that to lie entirely.)

We're in Month 2 of the Spider-books tying into Acts of Vengeance, and Spider-Man is still trying to get a handle on his strange new powers. Which is how he finds himself floating in mid-air without realizing it. Worse, his spider-sense is reacted with almost blinding sensitivity to everything, and he can't keep himself from reacting on instinct. Like when it warns him of a flying camera drone, and he immediately tries webbing it, only for the drone to explode.

Doom's spying on him, trying to understand the source of the new powers, so he can claim it for himself. When the Wizard calls and says he's busted the Brothers Grimm out to send after Spidey, Doom politely suggests they start in the Lower Midtown area and sits back to watch.

The old spider sense kicks in, saving Peter from an awkward conversation/job offer from Jonah (having lost the Daily Bugle to Thomas Fireheart, who made it pro-Spidey as a way to pay off his 'debt of honor' to the webslinger), and directs him to Madison Square Garden. Which promptly lifts into the sky.

When people say no team on earth should be as incompetently run as the Knicks, this is not the solution they were hoping for.

The brothers are using some the Wizard's anti-gravity discs, and now that Spidey's there, start in with the exploding pies and tear gas Easter eggs. None of which does more than annoy Spidey, so they make the anti-grav discs detonate and try dropping the Garden on him.

Spidey does three panels of exposition about how sick he is of random nuts trying to kill him recently, while using his webbing to keep the arena suspended in mid-air. Which is enough to convince the villains it's time to run, not that it does them any good. Spider-Man catches up easily, and is able to make himself stop reacting instinctively to all the different warnings his spider-sense is putting out, and finishes the fight by swinging one Brother Grimm into the other.

Peter's feeling pretty good about himself until his spider-sense goes off again, and he instinctively shoots a webline at the threat, blowing up another camera drone. So much for having things under control.

Before it was all said and done, Doom would throw Goliath (Erik Josten, the future Thunderbolt Atlas), and the TESS-ONE robot at Spidey, both of whom would push him further, but eventually get trounced (and in TESS' case, completely obliterated). Doom doesn't get his hands on the Captain Universe power, either, unless there's a What If? out there I missed.

[10th longbox, 8th comic. Spectacular Spider-Man #159, by Gerry Conway (writer), Sal Buscema (penciler), Mike Esposito (inker), Bob Sharen (colorist), Rick Parker (letterer)]

Sunday Splash Page #116

"You Aren't Supposed to Mention She Shaved," in Creeper #4, by Len Kaminski (writer), Shawn Martinbrough (penciler), Sal Buscema (inker), Sherri van Valkenburgh (colorist), John E. Workman Jr. (letterer) 

Another late '90s DC series, Creeper ran for 12 issues, if you count the DC One Million tie-in that also served as the last issue. Kaminski makes a number of changes from Ditko's version of Jack Ryder and the Creeper (although maybe someone else made them in the couple of decades in between Ditko's last work on the character).

Ryder is closer to a shock jock provocateur journalist, albeit one with a knack for finding interesting stories. More critically, the bizarre behavior the Creeper exhibits isn't an act any longer, as he's now some alternate personality, or some aspect of madness that lurks within Ryder the experiments he underwent gave a way to surface. One that runs in the family, since the skeletal version up there is some remnant of his deceased mother's mental illness.

Yeah, I don't know either.

While revising that aspect of the character, along with a healing factor and the idea that his laugh actually causing a reaction in the brain similar to fingernails on the chalkboard, Kamisnki revises the origin entirely while bringing Proteus back into the mix. The origin as present in Showcase, has the "by the seat of your pants" energy of the era. Where things keep happening at a fast enough clip that the momentum keeps you from contemplating things like why the scientist has expertise in two such disparate fields, or why a costume shop only has a box of scraps available. That's not acceptable in the Nineties, so now that version is an attempt by Ryder's psyche to fashion what actually happened into a more palatable memory.

Eh, I don't know. It works for this series, where Kaminski focuses a lot on the relationship between Ryder and the Creeper, their differing perceptions of things, and how each of them needs some of what the other brings. Most of the issues are done-in-ones about Ryder pursuing a story, and needing the Creeper either for fisticuffs or because his madness perceives something Ryder missed. Except the longer it goes, the more Ryder feels himself losing whatever tenuous control of the situation he has, feeling more reliant on the Creeper. Which pushes him to try and control the Creeper any way possible. Which goes about as well as you'd expect.

Shawn Martinbrough draws most of the series, with Sal Buscema. His Creeper is more wild and rabid. This angular, almost skeletal appearance, overly large smile contrasted with a hunched over posture and with scraggly hair. Ryder's almost rigid by contrast. Broader body, solid, restrained. The guy trying to hold back a tide of something and feeling the toll, going by the lines on his face and the deep shadows. The shadows make for a stark contrast between light and dark, the two halves of Ryder in opposition to each other, even when they're ostensibly working together. The Creeper is planning things, but Ryder doesn't know what until after the fact. He just has to roll with it.

Random Back Issues #17 - ROM #4

It's been a couple of years since I read through Rom, but I don't remember Galadorians being big into Tarzan cosplay. Still, if you're about to surrender your body for an eternity in a cold metal suit, might as well enjoy flesh while you got it.

Alright, we're goin' all the way back to 1980 for today's selection, and find Rom under attack by an Earth criminal by the name of Archie Stryker. Normally no big deal, except disguised Dire Wraiths have convinced Archie Rom is a dangerous alien invader killing humans with his death ray. Rom's actually banishing them to Limbo, but Archie can't see that. The Wraiths have the armor of Rom's old pal Firefall, and put Archie in it to tangle with Rom.

Rom's on defense for most of this, trying to reason with Archie. He doesn't want to use the Neutralizer, because it might kill a human, and he swore never to take a life. Firefall sends him crashing to Earth near a Wraith base he destroyed the issue before. The Wraiths inside see an opportunity, rush out to attack and. . . get immediately blasted into Limbo. Good try, though. Maximum effort.

Of course, as far as Archie's concerned, Rom just killed a bunch more humans, so the fight's on again. Rom clips him with the Neutralizer, and Archie feels it through the armor. Rom explains that Archie is becoming linked with the armor, that it's going to become his new epidermis, but the guy's not having it. Rom is able to counter Archie's "living flame" by lowering the exterior of his body to near absolute zero. This lets him grab the flame and throw it back, then take to the skies.

While all that's happening, Rom's only friend on Earth (and future romantic interest) Brandy Clarke is a hostage of more disguised Wraiths in a car speeding down the highway. Brandy's boyfriend Steve is in pursuit. The Wraiths think Brandy's unconscious, because I guess playing opossum is unknown to them, and she pushes one out of the speeding car when he tries to blast Steve. Because Sal Buscema's drawing this, the guy isn't simply run over by Steve's car, but sent flying. Gravity is a very inconsistent presence in Buscema comics. Brandy causes the car she's in to wreck, which kills the driver, but leaves her unharmed (even though neither of them appears to be wearing seat belts). The driver reverts to his Wraith form and his body turns to dust, convincing Steve Rom's telling the truth.

In the midst of all that, Rom swatted Firefall into the highway nearby, then stops to explain how that armor used to belong to his friend Karas, who once saved Rom from drowning in a river. When the Wraiths attacked Galador, Karas charged in alone, and was never seen again. Archie thinks that's a bunch of bunk, stating he doesn't believe Rom has any feelings, so Rom starts monologuing about his feelings while beating the piss out of Archie.

Rom stops after a couple more punches, to ponder if he's still human, considering he almost killed Archie tonight. Steve and Brandy don't seem worried, telling Rom the guy was an enemy as strong as him sent by the Wraiths to kill him. Rom's not having it, citing the old "if I killed, I'd be no better than they are" line. He worries if he continues fighting this war, he'll eventually be corrupted by it. I know he does snap when he thinks Brandy's dead and just starts beating Wraiths to death with his shiny metal fists, but that's not for another few years.

Meanwhile, Archie's just realizing Rom was telling the truth all along, and he can't get out of the armor. Pretty sure Archie dies in the next issue or two, but Rom will encounter Karas when he gets banished to Limbo. Or he meets a Space Phantom pretending to be Karas. I forget which. Maybe both.

{4th longbox, 60th comic. ROM #4, by Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema (artist), Ben Sean (colorist), Jim Novak (letterer)}