Take A Seat

 

As I was compiling subject matter for this post, the first thing that came to mind was this guy:

Who looks like he's traveling through space seated on some kind of contraption--at least that's what I'd assumed, having never read the story. Except that this character, Orion, isn't seated on anything, but simply hunched over, gripping what he calls his "power rods." Yet there is a seated character among those Orion mingles with in New Genesis--Metron, who appears to be persona non grata among the others and flits about time-space in his "Mobius Chair" advancing his own agenda.

And thus, the New Gods have unknowingly summoned us to hear another

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Marvel Trivia Question

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What Marvel characters look to chairs for their status, and/or their power?

(Or, in Ben Grimm's case, their life??)

The Return Of... Everyman!

 

You remember this guy, don't you?
(You can be sure those covering the scene aren't likely to forget him.)

A creation of writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist Mike Zeck, we first met Everyman in his PPC profile that saw him going up against Captain America in 1982--on a mission to avenge those like his deceased father whom he felt had suffered for the false promises of the American dream. Consequently, Everyman's enemy became the man who best epitomized that dream.

We can see that Everyman bears little similarity to writer Tony Isabella's "everyman," Stuart Clarke, aka Rampage, a character who limited his own wrath to government policies which led to the 1973-75 recession. What the two men do share is a hatred for their circumstances that caused their respective losses--but while Rampage feels he's justified in stealing from F.D.I.C. banks to revive his bankrupt company, Everyman lashes out at the man who in his mind deserves every bit of his rage.

When Everyman reneges on his promise to free his hostage, Cap settles his hash, and Everyman is subsequently sent to a mental institution to treat his unhinged mind. A year and a half later, DeMatteis revisits the character in a two-issue story in Marvel Team-Up, where our former Everyman, Larry Ekler, looks up a "relative" whom you may recognize, a man who quickly realizes that Larry may have fabricated the reason for his newfound freedom.

A World They Never Made

 

Continuing the PPC's look at the House Of M crossover event from 2005, we turn our focus away from the title series to others whose lives were affected by the rise of mutants in the world, where a brief synopsis tells us the circumstances of not only the clinging existence of homo sapiens, but of those heroes who now unknowingly find themselves in different lives than those they led.

The earliest two books out of this gate comprise those who, in our reality, saw their characters meet very early in their respective careers. But the reality we're exploring in this series was created by the disturbed mind of the Scarlet Witch--and in the world that she brought into existence, Spider-Man never met those we know as the Fantastic Four, and their histories are radically different here where mutants reign supreme, and where their lord, Magnus, has fulfilled the goals he long fought for but could never achieve in adversity.

Peter Parker, as well, has seen his dreams of happiness and fulfillment come true--but if that is so, why does he feel uneasy in a life where he's achieved everything he ever strove for? And if Reed Richards and those who accompanied him into space were killed during their flight, as we learned previously, then what four people have taken their place?

Two! Two! Two Annuals In One!

 

The year 1979 saw the character of Spider-Man at the height of his popularity, featured in three titles (Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Team-Up, and Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man (while also having racked up his share of the Giant-Size books) with, unbelievably, even more on the way. It was fair to wonder at times what depths were being dredged to come up with all the new story material that required taking into account Peter's double life and revolving cast of characters (anyone here remember Marcy Kane?), to say nothing of the artists tapped to churn out story after story of the web-slinger's adventures along with the travails of the stretched-to-the-limit Peter Parker, who somehow, somehow, managed to combine his activities as Spider-Man with his college, Daily Bugle, and family responsibilities while squeezing in something of a social and/or love life and hopefully some sleep, all in a 24-hour period. The coordination between the writing and art staff must have been nothing short of a trapeze act.

The one thing that Peter didn't have to worry about, of course, was a shortage of villains--with one of his deadliest pulling double duty in that year's Amazing/Spectacular annuals which shared the same plot, thanks to writers Marv Wolfman and Bill Mantlo teaming with artists John Byrne, Terry Austin, Rich Buckler and Jim Mooney. To help keep track of the events occurring in both and figure out where things are headed, the PPC ties these two annuals together in one post, as Spider-Man attempts to head off a scheme which could see Dr. Octopus launch his greatest and most ambitious plan--one that might well lead to a nuclear holocaust!

Parting Of The Ways

 

Marvel 100th Anniversary Issues

FEATURING:

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #100

By 1985, it's safe to say the thrill was arguably gone from celebrating the achievement of a title's 100th issue. The major books, most of which dated back to the Silver Age, threw their confetti in that respect in the '70s, with the last issue I recall still in the general neighborhood being The Defenders #100 from October of 1981, followed by Marvel Two-In-One #100 in June, 1983. Thanks to the X-Men spin-offs, however, two other X-titles were able to have their own landmark 100th issues as late as the turn of the century--X-Factor #100 in 1994, and the anniversary issue of the second X-Men series in May of 2000. Todd McFarlane's Spider-Man book, later renamed Peter Parker Spider-Man, fell just short of the mark of receiving its own recognition, ending with issue #98 at the end of '98 (quite a coincidence there). That would leave Web of Spider-Man (which I dropped pretty early in the series), which published its 100th issue in 1993, as well as Ultimate Spider-Man #100 in 2006.

The Spectacular Spider-Man issue, clocking in at thirty-nine pages, bills itself on its splash page as "a momentous milestone in the life and times of the spectacular Spider-Man," which would indicate a significant change or development occurring in Spider-Man's life. Whether or not that actually takes place is debatable (and more on that shortly); but regardless, there's little in the story to indicate we're holding a book considered as an achievement in the series, while its cover design by artist/writer Al Milgrom lauds the anniversary aspect yet clutters and slants the magic number so as to all but obscure it. As for its guest-stars, there are two who are singled out on the cover as being prominently featured in the story--but depending on how you feel about the Black Cat and her facile preoccupation with Spider-Man, you may find yourself grateful for, of all people, the Kingpin of Crime.

The Brutal Betrayal of Debra Whitman!

 

We've recently taken a look at the strange saga of Debra Whitman, a young woman from the midwest who ended up in New York and met Peter Parker while he was attending Empire State University. In time, she became attracted to him, though the relationship failed to really go anywhere despite her hopes to the contrary, even as things were further complicated by Debra's suspicions that Peter was also Spider-Man. Eventually, the situation led to Debra developing a fragile state of mind that was only stabilized by Peter admitting the truth while in costume, a gesture which instead served to shock Debra out of her supposed delirium and finally take stock of her life after thanking Peter for going to such lengths just to help her.

Cut to twenty-four years later (our time) to early 2007, where Debra is now living with her mother (with good reason, as we'll learn)--while in New York, we find Peter at the point in time where he has revealed his identity as Spider-Man to the world in compliance with the Super-Human Registration Act. What effect would that revelation have had on Debra, you may well ask--a woman whose mental health was compromised by Peter's lies on the subject in addition to allowing her to leave town under the mistaken impression that his revealing himself in costume was only a ruse to shock her back to "reality"?

For Debra, the effect might be a toss-up between feeling either betrayed, or played.

And unfortunately for Peter, it turns out there's someone else who wants to jump on the revenge wagon.

Amazing Spider-Covers

 

While one of the pleasures of browsing a comic book store (or even a comic book display in a store's book or magazine section) is letting your eye wander across those eye-catching covers that are doing their best to entice you to take that issue home, the experience becomes even more of a reason to kill some time when the cover artist is being innovative not only with the character(s) portrayed but also with other elements of the overall image. (Bill Sienkiewicz's work might be one example that would come to mind in that respect.) And so having recently been preoccupied looking through various Spider-Man titles, I thought I'd pick out a few such issues to share which were especially eye-catching to me, where even the issue's masthead at times became collateral damage.

Let's start with what may be a surprising choice to some of you--artist/writer Ed Hannigan, whose work you may remember from The Defenders but whose covers from Amazing Spider-Man and Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man in the early 1980s were at times groundbreaking in terms of bringing more artistry to a cover image than what you were expecting.

The Woman Who Unmasked Spider-Man

 

In the fall of 1979, as he was beginning a teaching assistant position in the office of Dr. Morris Sloan, Chairman of Empire State University's Biophysics Department, Peter Parker met and became friends with Dr. Sloan's secretary--a young woman who, in time, began to see Peter as more than a friend, feelings which she struggled to see reciprocated.

As they began to spend more time together, the situation became complicated--just as it was with Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson--by Peter's responsibilities as Spider-Man, which all too often forced him to rush off from outings with this lady at a moment's notice, incidences which she couldn't help but take personally while Peter essentially treated those slights as something to be put on the back burner for the time being, if regretfully.

(And you've only seen the tip of this iceberg.)

We can debate the issue all day, and rightfully so, in regard to one person's hurt feelings weighed against what Peter accomplishes as Spider-Man in terms of a refusal to stand by while danger threatens innocent lives, while also factoring in the picture he presents to Sloan et al. as a slacker whose grades don't merit the efforts of those trying to help him. As for our distraught young lady, however, her storyline would continue without resolution for over three years before coming to a head in early 1983. Until then, however, readers were left to wonder: Just what did her writers have planned for her during this build-up? How long would she be presented as a casualty of unrequited love? Would these encounters between them come to constitute little more than a running joke?

A situation which has us running into yet another

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Marvel Trivia Question

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What was the story behind the strange saga of Debra Whitman?

Spider-Man and Dr. Strange v. Dr. Doom Dormammu The Dread Dilby

 

It wouldn't surprise me if those of you who picked up the 1980 Amazing Spider-Man Annual found it to be something of a mixed bag--enjoyable, but falling short. There's the teaming of Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, an unexpected chemistry between the characters which has worked out well in past stories but here is practically nonexistent. There's the prospect of the teaming of the two against the surprising pairing of Dr. Doom and the Dread Dormammu (the prospect, mind you). There's the artwork of Frank Miller, who is more than adept at laying out a story and who encloses this one in a clever and stylish theme comprised of passages from the Book of the Vishanti. And there's writer Denny O'Neil, who gets high marks from those within the industry and whose approach to a story I almost always find to be compelling, but whose scripting on Invincible Iron Man during the early 1980s I still recall as a trudging, enduring disappointment. In this issue, however, he turns in engaging work for nearly all of the featured characters. (O'Neil and Miller would also work on the succeeding year's ASM Annual.)

Combined, the issue's cover and its splash page give every indication of a page-turner story to look forward to:

But, caveat emptor. The cover caption, in particular.

In actuality, our two villains make little more than cameo appearances. (You'd think the Vishanti would have divulged that up front.)

Todd McFarlane's Marvel Comics Work, 1988-91

 

From the sources I've seen on the subject, there appear to be mixed opinions among readers, and among those in the comics industry, on the work which Canadian artist/writer Todd McFarlane produced in his time at Marvel Comics during a nearly four-year period. Having been a reader throughout those years, I remember my interest waning not long after his new Spider-Man series was launched in the fall of 1990, a book he would produce as both artist and nascent writer. (Though it bears mentioning that the early 1990s presented me with a number of books which had me questioning the quality and direction of Marvel's offerings.) In the beginning, however, when McFarlane joined writer Peter David on Incredible Hulk, I found his approach to be fresh and bold, a unique style for the Hulk that was just as surprising and interesting as that of artist Jeff Purves in the character's subsequent Joe Fixit phase.

McFarlane's time on the title ended after just seven issues, though by that time he had been brought on board Amazing Spider-Man during the run of writer David Michelinie, a gifted scripter and storyteller.  (Michelinie would also later compliment McFarlane as a talented storyteller he was pleased to be partnered with.)  Like many before him, Michelinie gave Peter Parker his share of ups and downs--a certain Christmas Eve being one of the latter instances, surely.

Reportedly feeling dissatisfied at the lack of control over his work and wishing to have more of a say in the direction of stories, McFarlane was appeased with his own Spider-Man title where he would have creative control--coming into the project as a profitable talent for Marvel and taking a turn toward a future for himself that was his to chart. Yet it was a run that would last just a little over a year, which saw McFarlane eventually develop more dissatisfaction in regard to his differences with editors on story and character direction as well as artistic choices for heroic characters that would have done the Marauders proud. By this time, his variant covers were also contributing to the growth of the speculator market which preceded the near-collapse of the industry--while there was also a curious recycling of previous cover styles to coincide with costume changes.

Whether you consider McFarlane's writing at this point in time to be compelling and entertaining is a valid debate to have, with McFarlane himself weighing in on the fact that he was just beginning to dip his toes into the field. In his later work for Spawn, published by Image Comics, he eventually (i.e., after an early rough patch) came into his own in that regard; but though riding a wave of popularity at the time of Marvel's release of a new Spider-Man book, and showing promise in his first issue, it became apparent over the course of the run that the strength of his artwork wasn't supported by equally robust storytelling for a character we were growing increasingly unfamiliar with.

Following his exit from the book, McFarlane would go on to join Rob Liefeld, Erik Larsen, Marc Silvestri, Whilce Portacio, Jim Lee, and Jim Valentino to found Image Comics, a company not without its own problems but which would turn out to be a stepping stone for McFarlane to even greater exposure and profitability, steadily establishing a media empire for himself which exists as a testament to his persistence and drive as well as his obvious affection for comics. You might find informative a 2000 documentary on the man produced by Kenton Vaughan, with appearances by McFarlane as well as industry peers; in addition, there's a column by David Wallace which covers most if not all of McFarlane's growth in the comics field. The opinion that McFarlane's best overall Marvel work can be found in his partnership with Michelinie in ASM is one that I agree with--but I found myself pleased to see how he built on his beginnings to excel in his chosen field, and remarkably so.

Spider-Man: Marked For Death!

 

Twenty years to the month from the first appearance of the vigilante criminal nemesis named the Punisher comes a tale which at first glance has history repeating itself. Except with one important difference:

This time, the Punisher would hit his mark.

In this 1994 What If story, writer Chuck Dixon provides a rather gruesome outcome for Peter Parker by the hand of the Punisher, cutting short the hero's life and accomplishing what a host of villains (and the Punisher himself, in our reality) failed to achieve--his attack instigated at the behest of the Jackal, a character who has his own agenda against the wall-crawler. Here, there will be no meeting of the minds between Spider-Man and Frank Castle as we witnessed in their original encounter--only a cold, and fatal, encounter with an assassin.