Chronological Read Through Topic

[Constantine]

What is up with David Michelinie's obsession with cocaine? It seems like very other story features it in some way, the most ridiculous so far being the United States buying it all up so they can switch over to a cocaine standard. Anyway, still reading Spidey and still mostly enjoying it. Right now I'm up to #344 of ASM, #72 of Web, and #174 of Spectacular. Don't really have too much to say outside of the fact that I really loved Conway's Spectacular and Web concurrent runs. That is how comics should be written -- a tapestry of story arcs and subplots that tie into each other, a rich supporting cast that is liberally used (he actually made me like Betty Brant), developing the characters and moving their lives forward, all the while paying respect to continuity. The only downside to his runs there was that he seemed to be pushed off the books before he could wrap up every plot, though his final issues did close a lot of them in one way or another. Overall I'd have to say his Spectacular and Web runs combined was probably my favourite run since Stan Lee's original stories.

I also finally got around to see the Amazing Spider-Man, which reinvigorated my efforts to continue reading through Spider-Man. Maybe it was because I went in with low expectations but I really enjoyed the movie. I thought it did well in both staying true to the source material while changing it up enough to be its own vision on the character and his universe thus allowing it to stay fresh. My only real problem with it was some of Peter Parker's characterization.

[Proto Goblin]

What is up with David Michelinie's obsession with cocaine? It seems like very other story features it in some way, the most ridiculous so far being the United States buying it all up so they can switch over to a cocaine standard. Anyway, still reading Spidey and still mostly enjoying it. Right now I'm up to #344 of ASM, #72 of Web, and #174 of Spectacular. Don't really have too much to say outside of the fact that I really loved Conway's Spectacular and Web concurrent runs. That is how comics should be written -- a tapestry of story arcs and subplots that tie into each other, a rich supporting cast that is liberally used (he actually made me like Betty Brant), developing the characters and moving their lives forward, all the while paying respect to continuity. The only downside to his runs there was that he seemed to be pushed off the books before he could wrap up every plot, though his final issues did close a lot of them in one way or another. Overall I'd have to say his Spectacular and Web runs combined was probably my favourite run since Stan Lee's original stories.

I never knew Michelinie had an obsession with cocaine in his stories, then again ive only read sporadic issues of his asm run.

I definetely agree with you on the Gerry Conway thing. I love the issues from that spec/web run of his. The storylines and supporting cast were probably at there best. This run may also be my favorite after lee's, if not not its really close. He did have a fuble with that retconing nonsense of the Gwen Stacy clone in the midst of that also nonsense filled evolutionary war event but besides that he had very few misfires it seems and atleast had something interesting result from that story with the whole Carrion 2 character.

From my understanding Conway left the book because he got a job as a tv producer, not sure if this was when he came on to law and order or if it was some other show at the time. I bleive thats why he had to bail fairly abruptly.

[Constantine]

Yeah, the retconning of the clones as being people who were injected with a virus or some such was really unnecessary. That said, the Gwen Stacy story was really well written outside of that odd decision. Specifically I liked how he used the clone to show how Peter was truly in love with MJ rather than Gwen and allowed him to let go of that part of his life.

Did Conway really leave to become a TV producer? I mean, I know he is one - I've seen him listed as a producer on a couple of shows (Law & Order: Criminal Intent is what instantly springs to mind, he even wrote at least one episode) - but everything I've seem him listed on was made in the mid to late '90s or later. If he did willingly leave, my opinion of him dropped a bit as he really left the whole Chameleon and Hammerhead as mob bosses plot dangling, which was one of his biggest plots during his Spec&Web run.

[Proto Goblin]

According to wiki he relinquished his writing duties on those comics because he became story editor of something called the Father Dolling Mysteries(A television series).

Yes that was one dangling plot thread that needed a proper clear up. They were being set up as a major thorn in the Kingpins side with Chameleon wanting to take over the New York rackets yet I don't think any proper explanation as to why or how they stopped was ever given.

[Constantine]

I... actually didn't hate the Art Attacks arc in Web of Spider-Man #73-76. Tony Isabella (the arc's main writer) had a pretty good grasp of continuity and characterization for the most part. Sure, the first part (written by John Bryne) had almost nothing to do with the other three parts and Kristie's somewhat odd characterization (specifically how she went from being almost obsessed with Peter in Conway's stories to seemingly really disliking him in this arc) was off putting but those are pretty minor. My only major problem with the arc is that the ending is really anti-climatic, making the conclusion seem very rushed and dropping a few plot threads due to that.

Maybe it's because I stumbled onto SpiderFan.org's review of the arc, that made it out to be one of the worst in Spider-Man's history, which made my expectations for it low which in turn allowed me to enjoy it a lot more than I probably should have. It's a really goofy, fun story that, outside of the first part being completely disconnected from the rest and the rushed ending, is pretty well constructed, showing how the rest of the city responds to the crisis during the story, especially the various New York based super heroes like the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. The story really pokes fun at artists, making the Avant Guard trio a bunch of pretentious idiots who constantly spout equally pretentious gibberish about art, which I think the SpiderFan review takes far too seriously. Like I said, it's a pretty goofy, fun story and when looked at as such, isn't a particularly bad one -- I've read a lot worse.

Sadly, I seem to be entering something of a dark age for Spider-Man. 'Web of' from this point forward seems to be taken over almost entirely by mediocre writers until its cancellation/ending at #129 in 1995. Michelinie on Amazing hasn't been doing too bad but he also hasn't really done anything particularly great or exciting, nothing that makes me want to immediately read the next issue like Wolfman, Stern, Conway, and the other greats did. DeMatteis' run on Spectacular seems to be the only bright light, though he only lasts about twenty issues before leaving the book. After that, Tom DeFalco's stuff is the only worthwhile stories from what I remember, which is then followed by New Chapter and during that, I remember Paul Jenkins being the only writer being consistently good during that dark era.

Finally, does anyone remember if Spidey had revealed to the Human Torch his secret identity by 1991? I don't remember him doing so but due to my constant long breaks, my memory for such details is spotty at best. I ask because during the first part of the Art Attacks arc (the only issue of it written by John Bryne) it's really heavily hinted that Johnny knows.

[Spider-Dad]

What is up with David Michelinie's obsession with cocaine?

It was the late '80's and early '90's, with crack cocaine as the new dangerous drug for cheap. It was THE news story for a long time, especially when Marion Barry, (the mayor of WDC) getting arrested and videotaped.

As to the Johnny Storm question...good one. I can't recall the exact timing of that either. Was it Secret Wars II?

[Spideydude]

What is up with David Michelinie's obsession with cocaine?

It was the late '80's and early '90's, with crack cocaine as the new dangerous drug for cheap. It was THE news story for a long time, especially when Marion Barry, (the mayor of WDC) getting arrested and videotaped.

As to the Johnny Storm question...good one. I can't recall the exact timing of that either. Was it Secret Wars II?

It's no different than the clone saga and homeless guys.

[TylerBGoode]

The story really pokes fun at artists, making the Avant Guard trio a bunch of pretentious idiots who constantly spout equally pretentious gibberish about art, which I think the SpiderFan review takes far too seriously. Like I said, it's a pretty goofy, fun story and when looked at as such, isn't a particularly bad one -- I've read a lot worse.

That review was done by Kerry Wilkinson who took it upon himself to review every single issue of Web from to start to finish. It seemed like he got kind of sick of it as he got towards the end and his reviews reflect that. I generally like Isabella's work myself.

[Constantine]

Maybe it was all these hi-tech, almost nothing but action stories going on in the '90s making me nostalgic for the more gritty, down to earth street crime stories of the '80s, but I actually enjoyed Howard Mackie's 'The Name of the Rose' story arc that ran in issues 84 - 89 in Web of Spider-Man. For those of you who don't remember it or just haven't read it, basically Richard Fisk tries again to take down his father, the Kingpin, this time by working from the inside of his organization while also secretly working with a new Rose.

It had a nice brisk pace to it, so I never really got bored while reading it. I was able to get through it in about two days, whereas a lot of other recent story arcs have taken me the better part of a week to get through. I thought Mackie handled Spider-Man's character well, with him going from almost blood thirsty after Aunt May's home is attacked to get at him to realizing being consumed by anger and a want for revenge just isn't who he is. It's something that's been done before and a lot better (e.g. Sin-Eater story), but it gave the story a bit more depth and flavour.

Then there was the use of continuity and past stories, which I always like. Sure, Spider-Man really didn't need another Rose story but tying it to that anchored it to the Spidey universe and made it feel more meaningful than if they had introduced masked mystery character to take the Rose's place. Besides the Rose, there was the use of Katzenberg, a character that hadn't really been used since Conway left, as well as Richard Fisk holding a grudge against Macendale for killing Ned Leeds. It was stuff like that that helped push 'The Name of the Rose' from what would've probably been a pretty mediocre story to a decent one.

Speaking of Macendale, I was disappointed that this story split him and the demon apart. I actually liked the whole demon aspect and insane religious crusade thing Mackie had going on with him for a little while. Yes, it was definitely ridiculous, over the top, and even somewhat stupid, but it actually helped to make him into his own character rather than a poor man's Kingsley's Hobgoblin or Green Goblin. It gave him a personality and his own gimmick, something he sorely needed since he became the Hobgoblin to set him apart from the other Goblins.

Anyway, back to the Rose story, it definitely had its flaws. Of the smaller ones was weird little bits and pieces of the story, like Spider-Man constantly letting criminals run off for little to no reason, and like when, while consumed with anger and going on a rampage to find some leads as to who attacked Aunt May's house and why, he becomes concerned with his own behavior after he slices the cheek of a triad member with his own katana, going on about how horrible doing that was. This might not bad but A) it was only a nick, and B) he had just finished pounding on them like rag dolls, which he didn't seem to have any concerns about. The whole scene just made for a "What the **** am I reading?" moment. A bigger, more important, one of these oddities is that the Rose's men ransack Peter and MJ's apartment and find Spider-Man's equipment there... and the Rose comes to the conclusion that Spider-Man must be Peter's bodyguard.

Of the bigger flaws, two immediately jump to mind. The first being Richard Fisk's characterization. I could buy him joining his father's criminal organization in order to take it down from the inside but by the end of the story, Richard is basically a psychotic, evil bastard, killing and backstabbing everybody for any reason. I think what Mackie intended here was for Richard to be slowly warped due to becoming a lesser version of his father to take him down and then eventually snapping, a sort of letting in the darkness to defeat the darkness kind of deal, but... I just don't think Mackie's a good enough writer to pull that kind of thing off. Instead his transformation thus just feels like a sudden heel turn with little in the way of transition, making Richard seem really out of character.

The second flaw being the ending. Particularly Blood Rose popping up out of literally nowhere. Immediately after Richard kills Blume (the Rose in this story), a guy steps in out of, again, literally nowhere, picks up the Rose's mask, puts it on, and basically announces "I AM BLOOD ROSE.", and then says he must stop Richard and avenge Blume (what his connection to Blume is is never explained). The final moments of this arc then focus on this newly introduced character who popped out from out of left field and how he ultimately kills Richard. I'm guessing Mackie intended for Blood Rose to be Alfredo, as he's mentioned in passing a number of times by Richard as being his best friend, and 'friend' is how Richard and Blood Rose refer to each other as they're fighting at the end. Of course, why/how he would only pop up at the end of his best friend's downfall is never explained, nor his relation to Blume. And, yeah, I'm aware of the later Kavanagh story which retcons Blood Rose as Richard and Richard as Alfredo with plastic surgery or some such nonsense, but given the details of this story, I doubt that was Mackie's intent.

If it wasn't obvious, I didn't think it was a great story or a particularly good one, just an enjoyable one, rounded out by some nice touches. If it were written during the '80s, surrounded by truly great stuff like Mantlo's or PAD's Spectacular runs and Stern's or DeFalco's Amazing runs, I probably would've been much harsher to it. But surrounded by stuff like Amazing's 'Return of the Tri-Sentinel' and adjectiveless Spider-Man as a whole, it shines a bit brighter than it probably should.

Speaking of adjectiveless Spider-Man, I was mostly disappointed in Revenge of the Sinister Six. I had high hopes for it after reading Erik Larsen's 'The Mutant Factor' (#15 of Spider-Man), in which Beast and Spidey talk about having children as super heroes, both figuratively - being a responsible parent while constantly risking your life - and literally - the child possibly having physical and/or mental defects due to their screwed up genetics. That was easily one of the best oneshots I've read in quite some time.

So when I saw that he wrote a six part story, I was really looking forward to it. I had hoped for a great story with a lot of character interaction, like in the Mutant Factor, but instead got one that was almost nothing but action scene after action scene filled to the brim with guest appearances. Its plot lends itself pretty well to an action filled story arc, with the Sinster Six regrouping, hopping over to another dimension, stealing their weaponry, then coming back to ours to wreak havoc. Had it been about how Spider-Man dealt with that on his own, I think it could've been pretty interesting, since it would've forced Spidey to go all out and be creative. Instead, it's basically just the Sinster Six versus Spider-Man and an army of guest appearances. Furthering my dislike for the story was how over the top hi-tech it was. The Sinister Six getting new toys I'm okay with, adding in Deathlok, more robots, androids, and cyborgs, *AND* giving Spider-Man his own cybernetic upgrades was overkill.

To his credit, though, Erik Larsen writes Spider-Man (the character) really well, so I would've loved to see him get his own full run on something like Web of.

Up next is the 'Round Robin' story arc in Amazing, which is written by Al Milgrom. I had originally thought it was by Michelinie, so I wasn't really looking forward to it much, but I actually enjoyed Milgrom's somewhat goofy (and short) run on Spectacular, so I'm interested in seeing how it turns out. I also finally start DeMatteis' Spectacular run, which I've really been looking forward to.

Lastly, I realized I'm about two years away from the start of 'Power and Responsibility', which is the first story arc to kick off the Clone Saga.

[Big Al]

May I just say's I've really enjoyed reading your posts and thoughts on the Spidey books. You do a great job and i hope to see more in the near future. What did you think of the Lobo Brothers, Cosmic Spider-Man and Torment arcs specifically I'd be interested to know? Torment imo was a truly aweful story which I have to admit, due to my age when i read it....I sort of regard as a very very very guilty pleasure. I recognise and agree with every negative comment about it and think its nigh indefencible (besides the art but not everyone likes that style) but nevertheless I have a twisted enjoyment of it myself in particular because I read it after the seminal Kraven's last hunt and it is a kind of pseudo sequel to that

[Constantine]

Lobo Brother's Gang War - I was a bit lukewarm on the actual gang war plot since it was like the billionth gang war story Spider-Man had told by that point, the stuff with Glory Grant falling in love with one of the brothers seemed somewhat unnecessary and rushed, and the finale felt anticlimactic, with one of the brother's being shot to death by Glory and the other just sorta... disappearing. I did like the Lobo Brothers themselves, though. Their supernatural bend, deep loyalty to each other, and more reserved personalities helped to set them apart from the usual gangsters in the book, like Hammerhead and Tombstone. I did really like and enjoy the arc as a whole, however. Even if I wasn't much interested in yet another gang war, Conway's masterful handle on the supporting cast and subplots made it so that there was always something I enjoyed about the story, like the Inferno crossover bits, the Chameleon kidnapping Jonah, Puma's return, and the stuff with Kristy.

Cosmic Spidey - I enjoyed this one. It was fun seeing Spider-Man get a handle on all his new powers, stuff that went way beyond his normal super strength, like matter manipulation. The Acts of Vengeance stuff was fun, too, since it threw a slew of villains that would normally be out of his league at him but, due to his new powers, he was able to put down with some effort. Like the above arc, though, I thought this one also had a somewhat anticlimactic ending. After pitting him against the likes of Magneto and Gravitron, I thought the arc ending with him fighting a giant robot was a bit dull. I think it would've been more interesting if they had him fight Loki instead, having an actual god fight a fairly normal person with newly acquired god-like powers.

Torment - I'm a bit conflicted on McFarlane's adjectiveless Spider-Man as a whole. On one hand, yeah, the stuff is overly long, poorly plotted, and not written well in general, but on the other hand... what did people expect? The book was created, as far as I know, to show off his artistic talent. He had no real writing experience at the time, I don't think, so his stories being poorly written shouldn't have come as a shock and given that they were meant to show off his art, of course they would be drawn out due to every page either being a splash page or only having three panels as to best display his art. Plus, it's not like they tied into any on-going plots in the other books, so nothing of value was lost by skipping it. If you were a kid buying it, you probably did so because you loved his art in Amazing, so you probably got what you wanted out of it, and if you were older you probably had the common sense to realize it wouldn't' be that great before hand.

Still, since they were mostly crappy stories that had no impact on Spider-Man's life at all, they're definitely issues that I'll be skipping if I ever decide to re-read Spider-Man.

[Big Al]

Lobo Brother's Gang War - I was a bit lukewarm on the actual gang war plot since it was like the billionth gang war story Spider-Man had told by that point, the stuff with Glory Grant falling in love with one of the brothers seemed somewhat unnecessary and rushed, and the finale felt anticlimactic, with one of the brother's being shot to death by Glory and the other just sorta... disappearing. I did like the Lobo Brothers themselves, though. Their supernatural bend, deep loyalty to each other, and more reserved personalities helped to set them apart from the usual gangsters in the book, like Hammerhead and Tombstone. I did really like and enjoy the arc as a whole, however. Even if I wasn't much interested in yet another gang war, Conway's masterful handle on the supporting cast and subplots made it so that there was always something I enjoyed about the story, like the Inferno crossover bits, the Chameleon kidnapping Jonah, Puma's return, and the stuff with Kristy.

Cosmic Spidey - I enjoyed this one. It was fun seeing Spider-Man get a handle on all his new powers, stuff that went way beyond his normal super strength, like matter manipulation. The Acts of Vengeance stuff was fun, too, since it threw a slew of villains that would normally be out of his league at him but, due to his new powers, he was able to put down with some effort. Like the above arc, though, I thought this one also had a somewhat anticlimactic ending. After pitting him against the likes of Magneto and Gravitron, I thought the arc ending with him fighting a giant robot was a bit dull. I think it would've been more interesting if they had him fight Loki instead, having an actual god fight a fairly normal person with newly acquired god-like powers.

Torment - I'm a bit conflicted on McFarlane's adjectiveless Spider-Man as a whole. On one hand, yeah, the stuff is overly long, poorly plotted, and not written well in general, but on the other hand... what did people expect? The book was created, as far as I know, to show off his artistic talent. He had no real writing experience at the time, I don't think, so his stories being poorly written shouldn't have come as a shock and given that they were meant to show off his art, of course they would be drawn out due to every page either being a splash page or only having three panels as to best display his art. Plus, it's not like they tied into any on-going plots in the other books, so nothing of value was lost by skipping it. If you were a kid buying it, you probably did so because you loved his art in Amazing, so you probably got what you wanted out of it, and if you were older you probably had the common sense to realize it wouldn't' be that great before hand.

Still, since they were mostly crappy stories that had no impact on Spider-Man's life at all, they're definitely issues that I'll be skipping if I ever decide to re-read Spider-Man.

Speaking of Conway’s run actually thoughts on Kristy Watson generally and/or the whole Jason Jerome affair thing (if you’ve read that far). Do you think MJ should be condemned for her actions cos I was talking about that to someone awhile back

With Torment my only defence of it is that the whole point of it is that Spider-Man is being tormented right that he doesn’t understand what is going on and why and everything from his perspective is one great big confusing muddled fever dream almost....one could argue the writing and the art play into that making the readers experience things from Spider-Man’s perspective...this idea falls apart entirely when you read on in MacFarlane’s run and no that just how he writes.

I have to say though I think (forgive me if I mistake the number) Adjectivless Spider-Man #15 I belive by Erik Larson was arguably one of the strongest single issues in that book’s history (I’m always gonna rank #75 above it though)

One more question if I may who is your favourite artist of the era you are currently reading. I think for me it'd have to be Sal Buscema

[Constantine]

Fair warning: this one will be pretty long. I've read quite a bit in the 20 or so days since I last posted.

For a while was something missing from the Spider-Man titles (the period that I'm reading, that is -- 1991 - 1993) that I couldn't quite place my finger on. After getting about midway through J.M. DeMatteis' Spectacular run, however, it became very obvious what was missing, to the point where I was embarrassed that I originally couldn't place the problem. That missing element being the continuation/evolution of the Spider-Man mythos -- using and developing the supporting cast as well as the existing rogues gallery and moving Peter's life forward.

'Amazing' for a while now has been focusing more on the likes of Cardiac, Venom, and Solo than Jolly Jonah or Robbie, doing more action oriented stories like the Assassin Nation Plot than personal plots that really affect Peter or use his supporting cast. 'Adjectiveless Spider-Man' has mostly been telling stories of little to no consequence that aren't really connected to any other on-going plot. When either of those two books would use Spidey's usual rogues gallery (Scorpion, Doc Ock, and the like) they weren't used to any great effect; you could replace them with some new, almost personality-less superpowered mook and little in the story would actually change. 'Web of' was the only one really adding to the mythos, though due to the overall poor quality of the writing of the book at the time, its contributions are questionable.

As such Spider-Man felt like he was just treading water or spinning his wheels, whatever barely moving/stuck in place metaphor you want to go with. I was still enjoying Spidey but very few stories excited me like Conway's or Wolfman's stuff used to. Then I finally started DeMatteis' Specatacular run and, finally, Spider-Man started to excite me again.

As most know, his run starts with the Child Within, in which Vermin returns, haunted by his past as a human, and Harry, having donned his Green Goblin costume to help fight along side Spidey for a few earlier stories, begins to spiral into insanity once more and become evil yet again, attempting to drag Peter down with him. The story further features the introduction of supporting character Dr. Kafka and Peter coming to terms with his feelings of abandonment and guilt over his parents' deaths via what was essentially an acid trip, as well as uses Liz and Raxton to pretty good effect.

If it wasn't obvious from the above description, I thought this arc featured everything the majority of the Spider-Man stories around this time were missing: great use and development of an old foe, moving Spidey's universe forward, and use of the supporting cast and continuity. Above all else, though, it was just a really well written and exciting story, the first one in a while where I just had to read the next part.

My only problem with the arc is that Peter and Harry's problems seem to pop up out of nowhere. Peter's never really given his parents much thought as far as I can remember and Harry donning the Green Goblin costume again didn't really seem to be adversely affecting him much up until the start of this arc. I think it would've been wise to have written a smaller arc before getting into this one that properly introduced those problems instead of just having them instantly spring up during the Child Within.

His next arc, while not as epic in scale, was just as good, focusing on the Vulture, who apparently now has cancer brought on by his own flight pack. Wanting to make amends for the sole crime he's ever actually felt guilt over, he seeks out Aunt May's forgiveness for killing Nathan, the about the only person he's ever considered a friend. I've always had mixed feelings on the Vulture. While his whole bird motif makes for great visuals (particularly his fights with Spider-Man), he's never really had much in the way of interesting motivations.

Generally he's used as something of a stock character to round out a group of super villains, he's after Spider-Man just because they're enemies and that's what enemies do, he wants money, or he's after revenge for someone who's wronged him in the past, none of which make for really interesting or exciting stories. The only Vulture stories I have enjoyed were this one and the ones by Roger Stern, all of which focus less on the above motivations and more on the Vulture being an aging super villain.

DeMatteis' next arc, 'The Eye of the Puma', has so far been his first and only stumble. Some weird character I've never heard of before, called the Black Crow, take Peter and the Puma on some sort of spiritual quest. Peter's quest is meant to help him find his 'center' due to him feeling like he's losing control of his life, with his Spider-Man life bleeding more and more into his normal life, and Puma's quest was meant to get him off his self destructive path of being an assassin, as his next target is an innocent, which Puma was apparently fully aware of.

Now that may sound like an interesting arc and the idea is interesting, but the execution left a lot to be desired. Firstly, the Black Crow isn't introduced too well (he was apparently a character Dematteis created years before this arc in a Captain America story) and instead just sorta pops out of nowhere and goes, "Hey, y'all goin on a spirit quest so Puma doesn't kill a guy." Then the spirit quest itself is mostly just a lot of well... spiritual mumbo jumbo that wasn't particularly interesting to read. Then there's the ending, in which the Puma fails his quest and still goes to try to kill his target, which is fine -- him becoming savage and lost could've made for an interesting story arc but as far as I understand, the Puma doesn't show back up until years later in another story by another writer, and finally, Peter succeeds in his quest and finds his 'center'... but in the next couple of stories he's still about as anger filled and irritable as he was before it.

DeMatteis recovered quickly with the Death of Vermin arc. I've never been a fan of Vermin as a character, so having him 'die' was, well... pleasing. He doesn't actually die, rather he's cured so that he's human again, but I'll take what I can get. Beyond that, though, it was just a really well written arc about an extremely tormented and twisted man winning against his demons and finding his humanity.

Finally, there's the death of Harry. Honestly, I was somewhat disappointed by it. Starting with the Child Within arc, he had obviously been building up to this story -- a final battle between two best friends turned worst enemies. And, indeed, the bulk of the story is great, with Harry slipping in and out of insanity, one instant being Harry, the family man, and the next being hate filled, insane Green Goblin, and with Peter struggling with knowing that he'll have to ultimately put a stop to Harry, for everyone's safety, but the climax left something to be desired.

It just felt too... impersonal, I guess would be the best way to describe it. Peter gets drugged during their final fight, making him unable to move, effectively making him unable to have any real impact on Harry's final moments, and Harry, after saving everyone from an exploding building in a final moment of lucidity, dies as a result of the unstable goblin formula he took. While I liked that he ultimately died a hero, somewhat redeeming him at the last moment, I really didn't like that he died due to something completely out of his and Spider-Man's control, something that would have ultimately killed him any way, no matter what any one did.

This is getting really, really long and ramble-y, so I'll just sum up my thoughts on other Spider-Man stories I've recently read that I want to comment on:
Amazing:
- Round Robin: While this story basically contained everything I've been disliking about Spider-Man stories during this period and nothing that I thought they really needed, I still liked this arc. Milgrom is a good writer and handled all the guest appearances well, tying most of them into past encounters Spidey had with them, giving it a real sense of continuity. Plus, he's really good at humour, so even though this arc was almost non-stop action there were a ton of funny moments spread throughout it.

- Carnage: Venom never really clicked with me until this arc. I just never really never understood what they were trying to do with his character -- was he some sort of psychotic murderer or some sort of anti-hero? This story merged the two and actually made me like him; he became a kind of psychotic anti-hero who had no problem murdering innocents in order to save innocents, who believed himself to be a genuine white knight. Then there's Carnage, a one-dimensional character but he's that way by design, and I have to say it was somewhat refreshing for Spider-Man to have a villian who just wanted to kill people not because of some personal connection to Peter or because he wanted money or because he wanted control of the criminal underworld but just because he's a serial killer who enjoys killing. Sadly, such a character should only be used sparingly as that same one-dimensional charm doesn't really lend itself to many kinds of stories but Marvel obviously doesn't think so.

- Return of Peter's Parents: Though I know they ultimately end up being fakes in a plan concocted by the Green Goblin and Chameleon, I am actually enjoying this so far. It's finally giving Amazing Spider-Man a more personal touch after a ton of by-the-numbers, mostly action-filled arcs that's giving Peter as much spotlight as his alter ego and finally using a supporting cast outside of just MJ. Plus, seeing Peter going through the stages of finally accepting them has been enjoyable. I actually would've liked if they had turned out to be his real parents and effectively took over Aunt May's role upon her upcoming death. Given that they were spies and worked for SHIELD, I think a lot of writers could've cooked up quite a few interesting stories with them and Spidey.

- Invasion of the Spider Slayers: A thoroughly mediocre story in that there was nothing particularly bad nor good about it. I think I actually enjoyed the back up stories more than I did the main story. The main positive was continuing the fake parents storyline pretty effectively while the two biggest negatives I can think of right now was making Spidey look like a chump during some of the latter issues of the arc in order to make the Black Cat look good as she was reintroduced as a super hero, and the final battle between Smythe and Spider-Man lasting all of about five pages after a six issue build up to it.

Web of Spider-Man:
- Return of the Blood Rose: My final impressions on this story was mainly "What the **** did I just read? How did anyone okay this?" When I first heard that Blood Rose would later return and be revealed to actually be the real Richard Fisk I figured they did that as a way to bring Richard back to life after the first Blood Rose story killed him... but that was entirely unnecessary as he apparently didn't die but instead got swept away to some island where a guy with a futuristic set of armour just happened to be living. It's just a complete mess of a story that itself is filled with plot holes and manages to needlessly create plot holes in Mackie's original Blood Rose story. Easily up there with the worst Spider-Man stories I've had the displeasure of reading. Sadly, Terry Kavanagh is a writer that doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

Spider-Man:
- Return to the Mad Dog Ward: I was completely ready to hate this. I thought the original Mad Dog Ward story was crap and I haven't liked any of Ann Nocenti's other stories. While it's nothing particularly fantastic, she does a good job at writing Peter and MJ and the story itself isn't too bad. My favourite part had to be when Spider-Man gets beat down into a section of wet cement and it ends up drying around him.

Other Crap:
- Venom: Lethal Protector: Up in the first Carnage story I talked about how Venom finally clicked with me. I had hoped they'd retain that characterization when he started getting his own solo stories... but I was wrong. Instead of a killer who fancied himself a hero he became a hero who just punched a bit harder than the regular heroes. Throughout the mini series he only ever seems to knock people unconscious, with it once or twice being mentioned how it's a miracle nobody died. Then there's the story itself; the whole underground homeless civilization who live in perfectly intact buildings despite the fact that an earthquake swallowed them was just rather ridiculous, and did we really need five more symbiotes? No, we didn't.

Alright, that about wraps it up. I'm right at the start of Maximum Carnage, so I'll likely be posting my thoughts on that after I read it.

EDIT:
Something I forgot to bring up -- anyone know the creative origins behind the fake parents storyline? DeMatteis brought up Peter's feelings of some how causing his parents' deaths in the Child Within which started in July of '91 and the fake ones show up in in Amazing exactly a year later in July of '92. Was Michelinie inspired by the Child Within or did he and DeMatteis perhaps plan it from the beginning? I just can't imagine it being a complete coincidence.

[Proto Goblin]

Fair warning: this one will be pretty long. I've read quite a bit in the 20 or so days since I last posted.

For a while was something missing from the Spider-Man titles (the period that I'm reading, that is -- 1991 - 1993) that I couldn't quite place my finger on. After getting about midway through J.M. DeMatteis' Spectacular run, however, it became very obvious what was missing, to the point where I was embarrassed that I originally couldn't place the problem. That missing element being the continuation/evolution of the Spider-Man mythos -- using and developing the supporting cast as well as the existing rogues gallery and moving Peter's life forward.

'Amazing' for a while now has been focusing more on the likes of Cardiac, Venom, and Solo than Jolly Jonah or Robbie, doing more action oriented stories like the Assassin Nation Plot than personal plots that really affect Peter or use his supporting cast. 'Adjectiveless Spider-Man' has mostly been telling stories of little to no consequence that aren't really connected to any other on-going plot. When either of those two books would use Spidey's usual rogues gallery (Scorpion, Doc Ock, and the like) they weren't used to any great effect; you could replace them with some new, almost personality-less superpowered mook and little in the story would actually change. 'Web of' was the only one really adding to the mythos, though due to the overall poor quality of the writing of the book at the time, its contributions are questionable.

As such Spider-Man felt like he was just treading water or spinning his wheels, whatever barely moving/stuck in place metaphor you want to go with. I was still enjoying Spidey but very few stories excited me like Conway's or Wolfman's stuff used to. Then I finally started DeMatteis' Specatacular run and, finally, Spider-Man started to excite me again.

As most know, his run starts with the Child Within, in which Vermin returns, haunted by his past as a human, and Harry, having donned his Green Goblin costume to help fight along side Spidey for a few earlier stories, begins to spiral into insanity once more and become evil yet again, attempting to drag Peter down with him. The story further features the introduction of supporting character Dr. Kafka and Peter coming to terms with his feelings of abandonment and guilt over his parents' deaths via what was essentially an acid trip, as well as uses Liz and Raxton to pretty good effect.

If it wasn't obvious from the above description, I thought this arc featured everything the majority of the Spider-Man stories around this time were missing: great use and development of an old foe, moving Spidey's universe forward, and use of the supporting cast and continuity. Above all else, though, it was just a really well written and exciting story, the first one in a while where I just had to read the next part.

My only problem with the arc is that Peter and Harry's problems seem to pop up out of nowhere. Peter's never really given his parents much thought as far as I can remember and Harry donning the Green Goblin costume again didn't really seem to be adversely affecting him much up until the start of this arc. I think it would've been wise to have written a smaller arc before getting into this one that properly introduced those problems instead of just having them instantly spring up during the Child Within.

His next arc, while not as epic in scale, was just as good, focusing on the Vulture, who apparently now has cancer brought on by his own flight pack. Wanting to make amends for the sole crime he's ever actually felt guilt over, he seeks out Aunt May's forgiveness for killing Nathan, the about the only person he's ever considered a friend. I've always had mixed feelings on the Vulture. While his whole bird motif makes for great visuals (particularly his fights with Spider-Man), he's never really had much in the way of interesting motivations.

Generally he's used as something of a stock character to round out a group of super villains, he's after Spider-Man just because they're enemies and that's what enemies do, he wants money, or he's after revenge for someone who's wronged him in the past, none of which make for really interesting or exciting stories. The only Vulture stories I have enjoyed were this one and the ones by Roger Stern, all of which focus less on the above motivations and more on the Vulture being an aging super villain.

DeMatteis' next arc, 'The Eye of the Puma', has so far been his first and only stumble. Some weird character I've never heard of before, called the Black Crow, take Peter and the Puma on some sort of spiritual quest. Peter's quest is meant to help him find his 'center' due to him feeling like he's losing control of his life, with his Spider-Man life bleeding more and more into his normal life, and Puma's quest was meant to get him off his self destructive path of being an assassin, as his next target is an innocent, which Puma was apparently fully aware of.

Now that may sound like an interesting arc and the idea is interesting, but the execution left a lot to be desired. Firstly, the Black Crow isn't introduced too well (he was apparently a character Dematteis created years before this arc in a Captain America story) and instead just sorta pops out of nowhere and goes, "Hey, y'all goin on a spirit quest so Puma doesn't kill a guy." Then the spirit quest itself is mostly just a lot of well... spiritual mumbo jumbo that wasn't particularly interesting to read. Then there's the ending, in which the Puma fails his quest and still goes to try to kill his target, which is fine -- him becoming savage and lost could've made for an interesting story arc but as far as I understand, the Puma doesn't show back up until years later in another story by another writer, and finally, Peter succeeds in his quest and finds his 'center'... but in the next couple of stories he's still about as anger filled and irritable as he was before it.

DeMatteis recovered quickly with the Death of Vermin arc. I've never been a fan of Vermin as a character, so having him 'die' was, well... pleasing. He doesn't actually die, rather he's cured so that he's human again, but I'll take what I can get. Beyond that, though, it was just a really well written arc about an extremely tormented and twisted man winning against his demons and finding his humanity.

Finally, there's the death of Harry. Honestly, I was somewhat disappointed by it. Starting with the Child Within arc, he had obviously been building up to this story -- a final battle between two best friends turned worst enemies. And, indeed, the bulk of the story is great, with Harry slipping in and out of insanity, one instant being Harry, the family man, and the next being hate filled, insane Green Goblin, and with Peter struggling with knowing that he'll have to ultimately put a stop to Harry, for everyone's safety, but the climax left something to be desired.

It just felt too... impersonal, I guess would be the best way to describe it. Peter gets drugged during their final fight, making him unable to move, effectively making him unable to have any real impact on Harry's final moments, and Harry, after saving everyone from an exploding building in a final moment of lucidity, dies as a result of the unstable goblin formula he took. While I liked that he ultimately died a hero, somewhat redeeming him at the last moment, I really didn't like that he died due to something completely out of his and Spider-Man's control, something that would have ultimately killed him any way, no matter what any one did.

This is getting really, really long and ramble-y, so I'll just sum up my thoughts on other Spider-Man stories I've recently read that I want to comment on:
Amazing:
- Round Robin: While this story basically contained everything I've been disliking about Spider-Man stories during this period and nothing that I thought they really needed, I still liked this arc. Milgrom is a good writer and handled all the guest appearances well, tying most of them into past encounters Spidey had with them, giving it a real sense of continuity. Plus, he's really good at humour, so even though this arc was almost non-stop action there were a ton of funny moments spread throughout it.

- Carnage: Venom never really clicked with me until this arc. I just never really never understood what they were trying to do with his character -- was he some sort of psychotic murderer or some sort of anti-hero? This story merged the two and actually made me like him; he became a kind of psychotic anti-hero who had no problem murdering innocents in order to save innocents, who believed himself to be a genuine white knight. Then there's Carnage, a one-dimensional character but he's that way by design, and I have to say it was somewhat refreshing for Spider-Man to have a villian who just wanted to kill people not because of some personal connection to Peter or because he wanted money or because he wanted control of the criminal underworld but just because he's a serial killer who enjoys killing. Sadly, such a character should only be used sparingly as that same one-dimensional charm doesn't really lend itself to many kinds of stories but Marvel obviously doesn't think so.

- Return of Peter's Parents: Though I know they ultimately end up being fakes in a plan concocted by the Green Goblin and Chameleon, I am actually enjoying this so far. It's finally giving Amazing Spider-Man a more personal touch after a ton of by-the-numbers, mostly action-filled arcs that's giving Peter as much spotlight as his alter ego and finally using a supporting cast outside of just MJ. Plus, seeing Peter going through the stages of finally accepting them has been enjoyable. I actually would've liked if they had turned out to be his real parents and effectively took over Aunt May's role upon her upcoming death. Given that they were spies and worked for SHIELD, I think a lot of writers could've cooked up quite a few interesting stories with them and Spidey.

- Invasion of the Spider Slayers: A thoroughly mediocre story in that there was nothing particularly bad nor good about it. I think I actually enjoyed the back up stories more than I did the main story. The main positive was continuing the fake parents storyline pretty effectively while the two biggest negatives I can think of right now was making Spidey look like a chump during some of the latter issues of the arc in order to make the Black Cat look good as she was reintroduced as a super hero, and the final battle between Smythe and Spider-Man lasting all of about five pages after a six issue build up to it.

Web of Spider-Man:
- Return of the Blood Rose: My final impressions on this story was mainly "What the **** did I just read? How did anyone okay this?" When I first heard that Blood Rose would later return and be revealed to actually be the real Richard Fisk I figured they did that as a way to bring Richard back to life after the first Blood Rose story killed him... but that was entirely unnecessary as he apparently didn't die but instead got swept away to some island where a guy with a futuristic set of armour just happened to be living. It's just a complete mess of a story that itself is filled with plot holes and manages to needlessly create plot holes in Mackie's original Blood Rose story. Easily up there with the worst Spider-Man stories I've had the displeasure of reading. Sadly, Terry Kavanagh is a writer that doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

Spider-Man:
- Return to the Mad Dog Ward: I was completely ready to hate this. I thought the original Mad Dog Ward story was crap and I haven't liked any of Ann Nocenti's other stories. While it's nothing particularly fantastic, she does a good job at writing Peter and MJ and the story itself isn't too bad. My favourite part had to be when Spider-Man gets beat down into a section of wet cement and it ends up drying around him.

Other Crap:
- Venom: Lethal Protector: Up in the first Carnage story I talked about how Venom finally clicked with me. I had hoped they'd retain that characterization when he started getting his own solo stories... but I was wrong. Instead of a killer who fancied himself a hero he became a hero who just punched a bit harder than the regular heroes. Throughout the mini series he only ever seems to knock people unconscious, with it once or twice being mentioned how it's a miracle nobody died. Then there's the story itself; the whole underground homeless civilization who live in perfectly intact buildings despite the fact that an earthquake swallowed them was just rather ridiculous, and did we really need five more symbiotes? No, we didn't.

Alright, that about wraps it up. I'm right at the start of Maximum Carnage, so I'll likely be posting my thoughts on that after I read it.

EDIT:
Something I forgot to bring up -- anyone know the creative origins behind the fake parents storyline? DeMatteis brought up Peter's feelings of some how causing his parents' deaths in the Child Within which started in July of '91 and the fake ones show up in in Amazing exactly a year later in July of '92. Was Michelinie inspired by the Child Within or did he and DeMatteis perhaps plan it from the beginning? I just can't imagine it being a complete coincidence.

Acutally it was editor danny fingeroth who came up with the idea. Infact Michalenie apparently found the storyline frustrating because danny didn't know if he wanted them to be fakes or real and apparently didn't make the decision until just before lifetheft. This meaning david had to write this storyline for roughly two years without knowing if they really were Petes parents or not and thus had problems with setting up clues and stuff since he didn't know what resolution the clues would need to point too.

[Big Al]

What were your thoughts on the 30th anniversary issues?