Marvel Adventures Spider-Man 20

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man 20

Writer-Paul Tobin and Kevin Deters

Pencils-Matteo Lolli, Rob DiSalvo and Joe Matteo

Inks-Terry Pallot, Victor Olazaba, and Joe Matteo

Colors-Sotocolor and Joe Matteo

I was bitten by a radioactive spider. It gave me super human speed, strength, and other awesome abilities. At first it was cool. I used my powers to become a celebrity. Then, my uncle was killed by a man I could have stopped. I’m doing my best to make up for that. I’m Peter Parker, but yu can call me Spider-Man. 

First off, I want to thank Brad (or whoever was responsible) for adding Marvel Adventures to the categories list. For the life of me I could not figure out how to do that.

I also want to thank Brad (or maybe this is his first thanks?) for giving me the opportunity to review books on his cool site. I may not agree with most of the posters here when it comes to current ASM, or what makes a good Spidey story, or politics too, now that I think about it, but this is still my favorite (non porn) site on the web (pun intended). I enjoy interacting with you all, and hope we have a long future of discussing Spider-Man together.

Last, but not least, I want to apologize for the extreme lateness of this review, and the general lateness of my reviews in general. I get mad busy with school, especially recently with finals and what not, but school is out till February, so expect at least my next few reviews to be done in a timely manner.

Plot:

As with the last few issues, this one features two short stories. The first one has Spidey against Sandman, and the second has him facing off against the dreaded Red Ghost and his super Apes.

The first story was really good. Peter and Chat are walking around arguing about movie spoilers. Pete doesn’t see the point in watching a movie if you already know how it’s going to end. Chat counters with the fun part being the journey, and that with a lot of movies you already know the good guy is going to win anyways. Before they can settle things, Pete gets a call from Capt. Stacy about the Sandman.

Sandman has been on a series of bank robberies lately, and has left a note of sorts stating which bank he will rob 24 hours from now. Peter asks how he knows it’s Sandman, while the next panel shows a giant sand statue saying ‘gonna rob your bank’ and signed by Sandman.

Peter spends the next day trying to come up with a full proof plan to defeat Sandy. Finally, he declares he is going to do what he always does, make jokes and punch him. Come the next day, and Spidey is getting his ass kicked. He tries a heat ray to fuse Sandy’s molecules, but all it does is make his sand really hot. He next tries a big fan, but Sandy smashes it before it can really get working.

After that, in front of the media and shocked observers, Spidey gives up and hands Sandy the money. The joke is on him though, as the blue dye packets are actually industrialized glue that prevents the Sandman from moving and avoiding getting punched out by our hero. Later on, when Chat asks him why he didn’t tell her about his plan, he tells her that he wanted to avoid spoilers.

The next story begins with Spidey getting contacted by the Blonde Phantom. For those of you not in the know, she runs a detective agency, and has been given a case of the Red Ghost running a fortune telling scam and bilking people out of millions. He uses his crazy powers of intangibility to trick people into thinking he is contacting the spirit world, and uses it to get peoples account numbers…or something. The story wasn’t real clear on that detail.

Spidey goes around stores looking for a type of bamboo that he knows Red Ghost feeds his apes. Eventually, he uses that to track him to his hideout, where a fight ensues. Eventually, Spidey sets up a projector thing he invented to make it seem as if vengeful ghosts were after Red Ghost for pretending to be a ghost. RG gets so scared he leaves himself open to be punched out by the Amazing Spider-Man! Against Blonde Phantom’s wishes, spidey then makes the pun that the Red Ghost didn’t stand a ghost of a chance, ending the story on a fun note.

There was one more story in the book. It was a Disney thing, but, it didn’t add to the price so it’s cool with me. It’s just a cute little story about elves going around houses getting the places ready for Santa, hanging stockings and leaving out cookies, things like that. Eventually they arrive at Avengers mansion, where the Hulk is awake. They hide under Thor’s helmet, while Hulk eats the cookies. They then run into a Stark security bot that tries to exterminate them. They end up getting away, by using Cap’s shield to sled out of the house.

Commentary:

I really enjoyed this issue. A lot of this series is hit or miss, and this issue was without a doubt, hit, at least with me.

I really liked how the Sandman story portrayed Pete. He was funny, and brilliant at the same time. Brilliant, in that he invented that heat ray in two hours. Two fucking hours! And the blue glue took him even less time. He was also very funny in this story. His first suggestion to Chat, which does not go over well is putting a pie in a dumpster, and closing it after Sandman.

I also appreciated the discussion on how to beat Sandman. I have read a lot of comics in my day, and Pete always seems to beat Sandy by out smarting him, or just getting plain lucky. This story addressed that. I always wondered why that was never brought up in mainstream continuity. I like how Peter actually went in with a plan this time.

The second story was great too. Pete did not want to work with Blonde Phantom to get Red Ghost, because he had a lot of homework. He makes a joke to her about fighting apes being his specialty. The two have a lot of funny moments in this issue. I also really enjoy the Red Ghost and his super apes. They are the perfect counterpart to the FF, and it’s always bugged me that  he is so underused.

Overall:

A very entertaining issue. 4/4