Golden Spidey Memories: ASM #62 reiew

After the pulse-pounding saga that just concluded, featuring the Kingpin, his brainwasher, a brainwashed George Stacy, tumult between Peter and Gwen, and other action, this issue is a bit of a breather, that's another way of saying it's mediocre.
We start off right in the action, with a web-swinging spidey coming across Medusa, of the Inhumans fame. I thought she was a long-forgotten character, but apparently Medusa has had a long career in the Marvel U, according to Wikipedia. You lean something every day.
Anyway, Medusa is here to talk to "average people" as sort of a retcon mission to sea if they fear her, in order to determine if the Inhumans can re-enter regular society without a problem. Oh, Stan, this is shaping up to be a pretty dumb issue.
And my prediction is realized by the fifth page, as an ad exec looks out his window and sees Medusa, and her long flowing hair. He determines she would be the perfect spokeswoman for a series of ads for "Heavenly Hair Spray." Oh boy. Anyway, the ad guy sends his flunky to offer this prestigious role to Medusa. she initially scoffs at it, but then realizes it could help her in her mission to interact with regular society, so she accepts.
However, things go wrong when Medusa starts smashing production equipment and making a general ruckus in the ad studio. Spidey tangles with her again, she reveals her true intention, and determines the Inhumans can't mingle in regular society. The only noteworthy aspects of this issue were a scene where Norman Osborn starts to recollect his Green Goblin memories, and a scene at the end where MJ realizes how much Peter cares for Gwen.

Rating. 3.0 out of ten. after a pretty stellar ten-plus issue run, really ever since the kingpin was introduced in ASM #50, this is clearly a throw away issue. Stan really mailed this one in. There is absolutely no reason for this issue to exist, and it does nothing to further any spider-storyline Read more!

Amazing Spider-Man 619 review

The Gauntlet: Mysterio, part 2

Sorry for the delay in posting this, but I just picked up my books from last week yesterday due to it being a very hectic week.

Anyway, the Mysterio/gang war story heats up in part 2, with even more references to classic Spidey characters. When we left off, the Maggia, aided by Mysterio, were at war with Mr. Negative's forces for criminal dominance in New York. Spidey of course is on the scene trying to break up a firefight between the two forces. He talks to an NYPD officer also on the scene, a Capt. Watanabe, who doesn't consider Spidey a dangerous vigilante, since she remembers the now-deceased Capt. Jean DeWolffe saying good things about him. Whoohoo, classic Spidey reference No. 1!

Anyway, along the way Mysterio uses his trickery to make Peter think he killed a Maggia member during the fight, just to fuck with our hero's head. Mysterio does this again during a later scene where Spider-Man comes across a group of thugs. Spidey confronts them and comes face to face with their leader, none other than the Big Man! He hasn't been heard of since since ASM #52, a loooong time ago. But wait, it gets freakier. Spider-Man unmasks the big man only to find that underneath the mask it's actually Captain George Stacy! There's classic Spidey references 2 and 3 for ya. Is it real or illusion? At this point, Spider-Man figures out who's behind all this chicanery, and tells Mysterio this time he's gone too far. Looks like we'll get a Spidey-Mysterio throwdown next ish.

Meanwhile, as this is all going on, CSI tech Carlie Cooper is coming to grips that her long-thought dead father, himself a respected cop, has suddenly reappeared. He tells Carlie that he faked his death with the help of Mysterio years ago because he was secretly working with the Maggia and needed to get away for a while. Carlie can't believe her dad would've been a crooked cop. Is this also another Mysterio illusion? Guess we'll find out soon. Also, Aunt May, who last issue was infected in some way by Mr. Negative's touch, which I guess turns you into a mean-spirited person, berates Harry Osborn and the Reilley family living at her house because her house burnt down. It wasn't their fault May, Kaine did it several issues ago!

Rating: 7.5 out of 10. I have enjoyed the Mysterio arc so far, partially because of the throwback to organized crime-related Spidey stories from the laste '70's and '80's, like "Gang War" and the Kingpin-Maggia stories. The art is another main reason for my enjoyment of these past two issues, Marcos Martin is doing a stellar job as a Spider-Man artist. Read more!

Amazing Spider-Man #618 Review

The Gauntlet: Mysterio

The Gauntlet continues along with the reappearance of Mysterio! I always thought Mysterio had one of the goofiest outfits of any super-villain, what with his green and purple outfit and fishbowl head. Anyway, isn't Mysterio dead? Well, as we all know in comics, deaths are never permanent (Except Kraven's. His death was epic and fantastic. Please don't bring him back and ruin it!!)

Most of this issue deals with the gang war between the Maggia crime family and that of Mister Negative (I always thought that was a goofy name.) In the beginning of this ish, it appears that key members of the maggia are being hunted down by Mr. Negative's forces. This leads to potential Peter Parker love interest Carlie Cooper investigating these various crime scenes, and she also gets humorously put down by the other sops, who don't conside rher a "real" cop. Apparently that's because she doesn't live up to the long shadow cast by her father, a former cop.

Meanwhile, Spidey is at a maggia hideout while Negative's forces, dubbed the "inner demons" attack, and he helps the maggia fight them off, rationalizing that he also has to help save the lives of scumbags too. Afterwards, a maggia member thanks Spidey, which a person on the street hears and surmises that Spider-man is helping criminals. Oh Peter will your luck ever change.

Later, we discover that the maggia members we thought were dead actually are alive. They faked their own deaths thanks to the help of their newest colleague, Mysterio! Also, Mysterio apparently has also created some illusion that causes Carlie's dead cop father to come back alive. This is part one of three, so we'll see more of this story.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.0. This issue reminded me story arcs from the late 70's, early to mid 80's that were organized crime related, like "Gang War". In fact, Silvermane appears to lead the Maggia, in his late 70's, early 80's robot gear. That reminded me of Black Cat-era Spidey story arcs. In fact, I think in the 190-ish issues of Spectacular Spider Man there was a long Silvermane-in-his-robot-gear vs. the Kingpin story arc. This is kinds like that. Read more!

Amazing Spider-Man #617 Review

Gauntlet: The Rhino

I have been greatly enjoying The Gauntlet so far since it started. Like many, I was down on Brand New Day for a while. Not just because they broke up Peter and MJ. I wouldn't have even cared that much if they got divorced or something, but to have a lame retcon via a deal with a demon was incredibly uncreative and lazy.

Further, the new characters and villains introduced in BND were boring. Menace, Jackpot, Mr. Negative, Carlie Cooper etc, who cares! One of the things that makes Spidey great is his distinguished rouge's gallery and cast of characters, and these new folks were not up to snuff.

However, the recent appearance of classic villains in the Gauntlet has been great. This week, it's Rhino's turn. I know Rhino is not considered an A-list Spidey villain, but I've always liked him. As we start off, Aleksei Systevish, aka The Rhino, in his modest apartment in Yonkers with his wife, Oksana. Since the time of the Superhuman Registration Act and Civil War, he has reformed and is living a normal civilian life. His wife even cooks him up a heart-shaped sausage for breakfast. Adorable.

We then see some gangsters talking to an Asian woman, and making derogatory comments to her, in some sort of underground lab. They are asking her about some weapon that they want to buy and how powerful it is. That weapon turns out to be: a new Rhino! In some sort of robo-rhino suit and wielding a sickle with a rhino horn for a blade. He gores one of the gangsters, as the Asian lady makes a smart-alecky comment. New Rhino is later shown speaking to an unknown person, asking where "someone" is.

Finally, we see Pete and his crazy roommate/sometimes lover Michelle Gonzalez burst into his room wielding a shotgun, since Pete screamed after waking up from a nightmare and she thought it was a burglar. Makes sense. She tells Pete to be out of the apartment on New Year's Eve since she has a date coming over, something he does not have for said holiday. Later, Peter is at the Front Line offices where Ben Urich offers him a full-time gig as a pohotog. He says he'll think about it. Norah, however, prematurely claims Peter as her personal photographer and tells him to get ready for their first assignment together.

This leads us back to Yonkers, where the young couple is attending a media event at the Empire City casino at Yonkers Raceway. Quick aside: the writer and artist of this issue have never been to Empire City, as they do not portray it accurately. In the comic, Pete and Norah are seen at a craps table, a roulette table, and she mentions playing Texas Hold em. Well Empire City HAS NONE OF THOSE THINGS! All it has are slot machines and video poker, and it's a depressing place.

Well, as it turns out, Aleksei is now working as a security guy at Empire City. The new Rhino then, conveniently, attacks as Peter and Norah are there. Apparently, the person he was looking for was Aleksei. He decided he had to defeat him in order to ascend and become the one, true Rhino. Peter uses the commotion as a chance to tangle with the new Rhiney, and they smack each other around for a while. Eventually, new Rhino escapes and Aleksei gives a report of what happened to the police.

At the end of the issue, Peter confronts Aleksei on the street. He is thinking of getting his old Rhino suit back to the kill the new Rhino, because he won't let anything hurt his wife. Peter begs him not to, telling him he will just revert back to a life of crime if he puts on the suit again, and to let him and the police handle this. He agrees, and walks into the arms of his loving wife. Lastly, the Kravinoff clan, who are behind this whole gauntlet thing, are shown talking to the new Rhino and telling him to have patience. they're also torturing Madame Web, the poor old lady. We also get a touching back up story about how Aleksei first met his new wife. I liked it.

Grade: 7.0 out of 10. The issue was kind of light on action, but I really enjoyed the parts with Aleksei and his wife. I also liked the backup story, which details Aleksei's release from prison and reform and his meeting with Oksana. The next issue features Mysterio, so I don't know when we'll see more of either Rhino. Read more!

Hollywood ruining Spider-Man film franchise

By now, you've all pretty much heard the news that Sony Pictures is scrapping its plans for Spider-Man 4 and rebooting the franchise instead.

Apparently, there had been several script rewrites for the now-aborted Spider-Man 4, including the idiotic decision to include a "vulturess" character, and from what I read Sam Raimi was fed up with the direction and left the project. Tobey Maguire soon followed suit.

This is a completely stupid decision by the film studio. Unlike the Batman franchise, which hadn't produced a good film in 15 years and benefited from a rebooting, Spidey does not need to rebooted. The first film only came out 8 years ago!! And while the third movie was underwhelming, the first two were superb, and a strong showing in the fourth film could have put a spark back into the franchise and propelled it going forward.

Now, we have to get another origin story focused on Peter's time in high school, JUST LIKE WE DID 8 YEARS AGO!! I love Spider-Man, and I don't know if I can sit through another origin story. Even the most casual fan knows Spidey's origin. If they had to reboot it, why not just start with Peter in his mid-20',already a veteran Spider-Man, introduce a cool villain we haven't seen on scree before, like Kraven or Lizard, and go from there. Everyone knows how Peter became Spider-Man, there's no need to start again from the beginning. Read more!

Amazing Spider-Man #61 Review

Welcome to my spider-blog! As the intro states, I am a lifelong fan of Spider-Man, having first been exposed to the character when I was reading comics growing up in the late 80's-early 90's. Spidey has such a robust cast of characters and rogue's gallery that even after almost 50 years, his stories still remain interesting.

In addition to reviewing current issues and touching on Spidey news of the day, I also plan on reviewing classic tales. I'm going to start with Amazing Spider-Man #61. Why 61? Well, that's currently where I'm at in my reading. So I'm going to go forward from #61, and maybe one day look back at #1-60.

Getting caught up: the Kingpin, a thorn in Peter's side since being introduced in ish #50, has used the services of one of Norman Osborne's researchers, a professor Winkler, to create a brain washing machine? Why, you ask? To brainwash police captain extraordinaire George Stacy, also the father of Pete's love interest Gwen, into committing crimes on his behalf. This has caused the police to have a warrant out to arrest Stacy. Norman, still suffering from selective amnesia and forgetting he was the once the insidious Green Goblin, does not know one his employees is engaged in such criminal behavior right under his nose.

We start with Peter web swinging through New York, frantically searching for Capt. Stacy. Along the way, he chides himself for missing class, but knows his mission is of the utmost importance. This is a recurring theme throughout the years, Peter shirking his academic duties because of his duties as Spider-Man. Sadly, when I used that excuse in school it never worked.

He eventually beats up some of the Kingpin's henchmen (something he does a lot of in these issues) to get info on Capt. Stacy's whereabouts, but to no avail. Cut to Peter's best friend, Harry Osborn, informing the ravishing Mary Jane Watson that no one has seen hide nor hare of their buddies Pete and Gwen in days. It's amazing how shallow, and slutty, MJ was written as in those days, decades before she became Peter's loving wife. Actual MJ quote, after Harry asks her why she's so perky: "Because there are more than two billion people alive today, and half of them are mmmmmales!"

So where are Gwen and her dad? If you said captured by the Kingpin, you'd be correct! But before we get to there, we see Norman Osborn looking troubled at a newspaper picture of the Green Goblin. Apparently, There is some documentary retrospective about this now thought-deceased supervillain. Norman feels strange thoughts about the goblin, but doesn't know why. He asks the aforementioned Winkler about the brainwashing device, which he notices in his lab and doesn't remember purchasing, and Winky tells Norman that it's a basic piece of lab machinery, but Norman is suspicious of him.

After some exposition, where Spidey learns that Oscorp has something to do with the brainwashing machine and Kingpin, he shows up there only to find: the Kingpin! Holding Gwen and George Stacy hostage. After Spidey beats up on the Kingpin, calling him "tubby", Winkler points a gun at Gwen and her dad, telling Spider-Man not to move or he'll kill them.

But what's this? Norman shows up on the scene and tackles Winkler, causing him to fire the gun and mistakenly hit and destroy the brain washing device. This causes an explosion, and Peter leaps to rescue Gwen and Capt. Stacy from falling debris just in time. Norman helps clear George Stacy's name by telling the police, who have arrived on the scene, about the brain washing machine. Winkler dies in the explosion and the Kingpin, sadly, escapes.

Grade: 7.0 out of 10. A fun read, if not earth-shattering. everything got wrapped up a bit too easily at the end, with Capt. Stacy getting his name cleared with the help of Norman. How ironic. Also, I really enjoy the john Romita art, especially the covers, from this era.

Next issue: The name of the dame is Medusa!



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