Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes, page 93

Book Review: Essential Spider-man 2

Essential Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 2 by Stan Lee

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This second volume of the Amazing Spider-man collected Amazing Spider-man Issues 21-43 and Annuals #2 and #3.

Is this as amazingly good as the first Volume of Spider stories? Not quite. There's really not a comparison to facing off against the Sinister Six, but there are plenty of great stories that feature the world's greatest webslinger in amazing exploits that showcase his character as we get to see Peter Parker grow up.

Some highlights. We have a guest appearance by the Human Torch (issue 21), Green Goblin (23, 26,27, 39, 40), and Spidey thinks he’s going insane (24), gets attacked by a corny robot (25), and graduates High School (28), he has to battle the Master Planner and save Aunt May’s Life (31-33) and then there are two big battles with the Rhino sandwiched by one with J Jonah Jamison’s superpowered sons (41-43), the introduction of Mary Jane (42), .and then the book wraps up with Spidey’s first tryout for the Avenges (Spider-man Annual #3).

Beyond the highlights, Spider-man remains a thoroughly enjoyable title. As a Character, Peter shows some solid growth as a person as well as some great heroic moments. I love the story arch where he’s desperately trying to save Aunt May from his sickness caused by a transfusion from his radioactive blood and has to go through one of his toughest foes get it.

Avengers Annual #3 has Spidey facing a great dilemma when the short-handed Avengers offer him membership. His mission is to bring them the Hulk. Avengers membership would give him respectability, but Spider-man’s compassion and decency lead him to make a choice that is costly and painful.

I don’t know if I could ever fully appreciate the revelation of the Green Goblin’s identity in Spider-man #39. I’ve known it since I was a teenager. But Stan Lee kept it under wraps for 2 years even while Gobbie became Spidey’s toughest opponent. It was a great story as were the other Goblin stories in the book.

Issue 39 also saw the art chores change from Steve Ditko to John Romita who may have even become more beloved among Spidey fans. The best Romita moment was in Issue 42 with the creation of Mary Jane Watson who Peter had been avoiding meeting for Months. The intro of Mary Jane may be one of the best pieces of comic art created.

There’s something about Mary Jane. She’s perhaps the most beautiful comic book woman ever created. A lot of comic book artists can draw a sexy women, just by exposing breasts and legs and creating a whole lot of superficial stuff. What Romita does with Mary Jane in the famous “Face it tiger, you hit the jackpot.” frame is that we actually only see her from the waist up, and what Romita’s art communicates more than anything else is confidence and vitality. While other women in the comic books look more like comic book characters, there’s something very real about the way Romita draws Mary Jane and that’s a definite highlight.

Even stories that have Spidey battling lesser villains such as the Molten Man and the Looter, Spidey’s tricks and his line of patter make for great adventures.

If I had one complaint, it would be that the break up with Betty Brant was really painfully drawn out. But that’s a minor point.

Overall, this is classic Spider-man with all the action, adventure, and honor that made him such a great character. This is a truly essential title.




View all my reviews

Fly Another Day on Countdown Special

The Kindle version of my book, Fly Another Day is on countdown special. Currently, it's 99 cents and will be for the next 3 days before jumping to $1.99. It's typical retail price is $3.49.

Daredevil v. Captain America Debate

I debate with Blaine over at Bureau 42 on which is better Captain America or Daredevil with me arguing for Captain America. Click here to check out the debate.

Book Review: Spider-man/Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure

Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure by Brian K. Vaughan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In the five issue Negative Exposure miniseries, Brian K Vaughn latches on to a little thought of part of the Spider-man legend. Peter Parkers earns money taking front page photos for the Daily Bugle as a freelance Photographer, but what about other professionals who find themselves being knocked off the front page by Parker's pictures?

Jeff Brasi is a staff photographer for the Bugle who fancies himself an artist and is tired of being constantly upstaged by Peter Parker. He's determined to get his work on the front page and achieve the prominence he deserves for his art. He gets to the scene of some great Spidey battles only to be scooped by Parker.

Doctor Octopus notices Brasi's obsession and plots how he can use it to escape from prison and defeat Spider-man once and for all.

The story reads like an old fashioned morality tale about the dangers of being too ambitious and willing to achieve anything to succeed. Brasi become almost a monomaniac in search of the front page picture: willing to risk his reputation, the lives of others, his girlfriend, and his life in pursuit of the front page story. The dangers of envy are also on display. The book also includes Vaughn learning a key lesson about his art---way too late.

Spider-man features in the story but shows mostly to battle the bad guys which include not only Dr. Octopus, but also the Vulture and Mysterio. If you have any prior exposure to Spider-man, you'll appreciate how brilliantly wrong Brasi is and how much he's twisted by envy as he imagines life as a bed of roses for the web slinger.

The art is solid, if not spectacular. The book r stares clear of any sexual content or graphic violence making it a decent read for even younger teens, but it will probably only be appreciated with a lot of prior exposure to Spider-man.



View all my reviews

Book Review: Fantastic Four/Spider-Man Classic

Fantastic Four/Spider-Man Classic by Stan Lee

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Fantastic Four and Spider-man: They were the two most popular comics in the Marvel Age of the 1960s. This book collects stories of Spider-man and the Fantastic Four together in stories from the 1960s, 80s, and 90s (well sort of.) The trade paperback draws from Amazing Spider-man #1, Spectacular Spider-man #42, Fantastic Four #218, Marvel Team Up #100, #132, and #133, and the 1996 Untold Tales of Spider-man Annual.

Amazing Spider-man #1 includes the Fantastic Four and Spider-man's first meeting as Spidey attempts to join the Fantastic Four to support his family and decides to give himself a tryout. It's a classic and puts the relationship between the two Marvel icons to a rocky start. Still, it's a classic must-read. Though the version that appeared in Fantastic Four Annual #1 may have been a better choice as it had an expanded battle scene without the extraneous story of Spider-man chasing down the Chameleon. Grade: B+

Spectacular Spider-man #42/Fantastic Four #218 is a 1980 story that shows the Frightful Four trying to destroy Spider-man and the FF in one fell swoop. Again, that's the type of epic battle you're looking for. Grade: A

Marvel Team Up #100 features Spider-man and the Fantastic Four is written by Chris Claremont of X-Men fame wrote this issue from December 1980 which features the FF and Spidey facing dangerous mutants who can take control of Spidey and members of the Fantastic Five. Superb writing on this one. Grade: A+

Marvel Team up #132 and #133 is a 1983 two part story that has Mr. Fantastic and Spidey having to battle the almost undefeatable Everyman, the son of a friend of Reed's and then Reed moves on to face Dr. Faustus, the master of the mind in Issue #133 in a story that has a lot of twists and turns. Big downside is Reed and Spidey's constant emphasis on the rightness of Everyman's general point, but otherwise a strong story. Grade: A-

Untold Tales of Spider-man Annual: The Spidey-Torch relationship has been one of the most interesting non-romantic stories in Marveldom. This tale takes place in the 1960s before Reed and Sue had tied the knot. Torch intentionally steals the spotlight from Spider-man on patrol. Spider-man decides to try and get under Torch's skin by inviting Sue on a date. However, when the neglected Sue accepts, the hot headed torch heads to Atlantis and gets Namor to go after Spider-man by telling him Spidey actually kidnapped Sue. A lighter story with a great payoff. Grade: A

Overall, these are some great stories. We could have used at least one story where the Thing figured prominently. And it has to be said that at $17, it was originally over-priced for a 152-page paperback book. However, if you can pick it up cheap on Amazon, this actually a great read.



View all my reviews

Thoughts on the Dr. Who Franchise

Tonight, at my wife's request, I went to see the Day of the Doctor. I was reluctant, mainly because so far we'd only watched episodes with the first and ninth doctors. (I know weird.) Though, we hope to add the second and tenth to our list of doctors seen and somewhat familiar with by about the end of the year.

I wondered how many people would show up to this in Boise at the 10 o'clock and the answer was enough people to fill the Coliseum theater at Edwards on a Monday night. Mind you my wife and I ended up taking those seats at the front of the house that are so close that our mothers would doubtless have warned us about the fate of our eyesight, but mom, sorry all the other seats were taken when we got there five minutes early...

Without giving much away, the movie was good, with some high quality moments with every doctor included in some way through the power of archival footage, and a few guest appearances.

The audience was clearly more doctor-aware than we were, cheering as favorites came on, David Tenant (tenth doctor) got a lot of love, and yes, even the archival footage got the cheers.

One thing that's of note with Doctor Who is that it's fifty year history is a huge plus and not a minus. And that does seem to be a marked difference from other science fiction franchises.

Star Trek is a good example of this. The 2009 movie, in effect, created a new time line in which nothing we saw happened before to make the series more accessible.

Our usual focus here is superheroes and its worth noting that DC has rebooted its entire continuity twice in the last twenty-five years. And why the Marvel universe hasn't decided to go through a, "Let's junk our whole universe phase," they've junked some parts of continuity in the stupidest ways. (Yes, One More Day, I'm looking at you.) It's also tried to start new fresh universes to win new fans.

Ultimately, this is exactly what Dr. Who hasn't tried to do. And certainly, there are people who would have. The show has certainly changed over the past fifty years. We've gone from a weak old man running and trying to outwit Marco Polo to a young eleventh doctor and now to an older twelfth doctor.

Coming back in 2005, after a 19 year absence, they could have gone away from the show's past. Instead, they rolled with it. Certainly, they're not doing the same kinds of stories or putting out the same quality as 1963, but they're still honoring that past and pluming those prior stories for concepts and continuity.

And I think that maintaining that respect for what's gone before, while finding fresh story ideas is the key to the series' success.

Book Review: Amazing Spider-man Masterworks, Volume 3

Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 3 by Stan Lee

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book collects Amazing Spider-man #20-30 and Annual #2.

First of all, this Volume in Spider-man's adventures was not quite as good as the prior two particularly Volume 2. However, the quality doesn't drop much. The first two collections contained the introduction of Spider-man's most amazing foes, the Sinister Six, and the superb story arch from Amazing Spider-man #17-#19.

This book is less groundbreaking. As he did with Fantastic Four, once Lee has a good stable of established villains, he tends not to tinker too much. Issue 20 sees the introduction of the Scorpion and Issue 28 sees the introduction of Molten Man (definitely not in Spidey's pantheon of memorable villains) but the book does have some great return appearances by Green Goblin and Mysterio. Then, of course, there was the precursor to the Spider Slayers in Amazing Spider-man #25, which was an absurd looking but powerful robot with J Jonah Jameson's image on it that would later be adapted to the 1960s cartoon series.

In addition, we see some key milestone for Peter including his high school graduation and a break up with Betty Brant in Amazing Spider-man #30. Comic relief comes into play when Peter loses his costume after battling the robot in AS #25 and he spends the next two issues trying to manage with a costume store knock off that ironically saves his secret identity.

Overall, this is Spidey the way Stan Lee made him: fun, with lots of problems, and a great cast of villains. Five stars all the way.



View all my reviews

Interview with Hoosier Ink

I was interviewed by Jeff Reynolds at Hoosier Ink. It was fun interview. Be sure and check it out.

Book Review: Spider-man Family: Untold Team Ups

Spider-Man Family: Untold Team-Ups Digest by Jeff Parker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects Issues 4-6 of Spider-man Family with a variety of Team Ups.

The book opens with a story featuring the villain known as the Puppet Master doing a good turn for a kid who gets a very special Spider-man puppet in a nice fantasy.

Then Spidey teams up with Agents of ATLAS when strange events occur at a Broadway play. Agents of ATLAS is a group of characters who had appeared 1950s comics by Marvel predecessor ATLAS. It was fun, but a little confusing.

Issue 5 leads off with a team up with Dr. Strange, that's kind of fun. The contrast between the two characters makes the story servicable. You also get an explanation of how magic works in the Marvel universe and why mystic beings like Strange don't use their powers to heal people. This does at least help readers understand why Dr. Stange couldn't help the wounded Aunt May during One More Day. In the back up story is Spider-man meeting Kraven the Hunter on an illegal urban safari and telling off a duo of wealthy and immoral teenagers who paid Kraven. It was an okay story, but it just didn't fit Spider-man.

Issue 6 has Thor transformed into a frog and about to be dissected by a High School attending Peter Parker. The story's fun with some decent sight gags. Wrapping up, Spider-man has to babysit and get to know Ka-zar's cat Zabu in a story that's touching as the young Spider-man begins to understand the cat's loneliness and tries to help.

This volume is definitely target towards kids and nothing therein violates its all ages rating. In the end, this is a decent albeit not essential read for Spider-man fans.



View all my reviews

Book Review: The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told

The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told by Mike Gold

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a very ambitious project. DC sought to identify the best stories from the Golden Age of Comics told by their original companies (Detective Comics and All American Comics) as well as Quality Comics which was bought out by DC. Unfortunately, at the time of publication, they had some writes issues with republishing stories from Fawcett, so Captain Marvel makes no appearance.

The task was not enviable but overall they acquitted themselves well. Most of the usual suspects are here: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Plastic Man, and the Golden Age Green Lantern and Flash along with some lesser known characters such as Kid Eternity, the Sandman, and the Spectre. The Spirit doesn't appear, but there may have been other rights issue in 1990 that the editors didn't address with their introductory material. Also Superboy and Green Arrow are limited to 1-page PSA ads.

Among the highlights for me:

The origin of Wildcat (from Sensation Comics #1): I'd seen this character on a couple Justice League and Batman: Brave and the Bold cartoons, but his origin story is something else. They generally didn't do origin stories but this one had some real pathos.

The Rise and Fall of the Norman Empire (from All Flash Comics #14): I wasn't really impressed with the first Flash comics in the Golden Age Flash Archives, but this collection is something else. It has the Flash battles a mathematical criminal genius who plays cards for the life of the DA. Both Joan Williams and Jay Garrick are pretty well developed as characters in a very fun story.

Slam Bradley (from Detective Comics #1);Batman appeared in Detective Comics #27. This helps to answered what appeared before that. Bradley is tough as nails and moves like a steamroller. The story was written by Jerry Siegel and drawn by Joe Shuster as could be told by the art. The story may be un-pc but its actually pretty good.

The Black Condor: The President's Been Kidnapped (from Cracked Comics #19): One of the Quality entries, this one is an action packed 9 page thriller that has FDR kidnapped and a puppet whose getting the US to back away from the allies in his place. This really works. There's some great tension and really just an incredible story.

Johnny Quick: The Day that Was Five Days Long (from Adventure Comics #144): Johnny gives a bitter man who was sent to jail for five years for a crime he didn't commit his powers, so that he can try all the things he'd wanted to try during the five stolen years. Actually some thought provoking and profound how it plays out.

Among my least favorite are: a stupid humor strip called Scribbly the Midget Cartoonist (All American Comics #6), a boring Starman story (Adventure Comics #67), a hard to follow and unengaging story featuring the Vigilante down under (Action Comics #128). The Wonder Woman story wasn't among the greatest and was also hard to get into.

The book included a 37-page Justice Society story at the end that was solid for having a team of supervillains in it (the Injustice Society), but also seemed to be struggling with adjusting to 37 page stories rather than 64 pages earlier in the decade as some parts were glossed over with the worst part being Wonder Woman and Johnny Thunder captured off screen.

While I disagree with some of the choices, I have to be really impressed with the scholarship shown, there's some introductory and explanatory material with guys who know comics like Roy Thomas, Mark Waid, and Mike Gold taking a hand.

With limited items available for reprints, and space limitations, no one could get this perfect. Still, this is a great book for fans of the golden age of comics and a series effort, particularly for its time.





View all my reviews