The Amazing Spider-Man: Red-Headed Stranger

The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) (Collected Editions) #30

by Fred Van Lente, Brian Reed, Barry Kitson (Illustrator)

The Chamelion returns with a terrifying new mission that has Mayor J. Jonah Jameson squarely in his sights! Meanwhile, the Anti-Spider Squad narrows its dragnet around the Wall-Crawler, and Peter Parker gets a brand-new job - will it bring him closer to the newly-returned Mary Jane, or push her further away?

Collects Amazing Spider-Man #602-605.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Spider Man, Marvel, Comic Book, Superheroes, Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published December 9, 2009

About the author

Fred Van Lente is the New York Times-bestselling author of comics as varied as Archer & Armstrong (Harvey Award nominee, Best Series), Taskmaster, MODOK's 11, Amazing Spider-Man, Conan the Avenger, Weird Detective, and Cowboys & Aliens (upon which the 2011 movie was based), as well as the novels Ten Dead Comedians and The Con Artist.

Van Lente also specializes in entertaining readers with offbeat histories with the help of his incredibly talented artists. He has written the multiple-award winning Action Philosophers!, The Comic Book History of Comics, Action Presidents! (all drawn by Ryan Dunlavey), and The Comic Book Story of Basketball with Joe Cooper (Ten Speed September 2020).

He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Crystal Skillman, and some mostly ungrateful cats.

Reviews

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was quite good and fun!

When Chameleon takes over the life of Peter Parker as he is in the mayors office and kind of perfects and messes his life at the same time with dating Michelle and doing some things for Harry and MJ and when Spidey returns, its the battle between two old foes and who will win and will Pete's life be the same again? In another story we follow MJ as she returns from LA back to NYC and see what her new job is and her new status quo in the books and finally a story with Peter trying out online dating and what happens when Spider-man goes on a date? Nothing can go wrong right?

This was such a fun volume and has some great character moments especially for Peter and will make you laugh out loud in some moments and the new status quo for MJ was okayish yet skippable and finally a bonding moment for Harry and Peter. I really needed this volume the day of writing this, just makes me grateful to have a volume which is not that complicated and is just pure fun and makes you love Spidey and the chaos he brings, but the smiles by the end. Van Lente writes it really well and the art is a treat for sure! High recommend!

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Das Hardcover enthält die Hefte ASM 602-605.

Die Hauptstory (602-604) ist spannend und die Artwork ordentlich. Das Chameleon will die New Yorker Anti-Terror-Einheit ausschalten und kidnappt dafür ausgerechnet Peter Parker, um in dessen Haut zu schlüpfen. Denn mit J. Jonah Jameson als neuem Bürgermeister der Stadt hat Peter als Hausfotograf Zugang ins Rathaus. Spidey goes 24: "You don't have to be Jack Bauer (...)"

Jameson als Bürgermeister ist eine wirklich superschrille Vorstellung. Und natürlich hat sich der Herausgeber des Daily Bugle überhaupt nicht verändert, sondern betreibt auch im neuen Amt Hetze gegen Spider-Man und verkündet fleißig "alternative Fakten", um Spidey zu schaden.
Ich weiß gar nicht, warum Jameson mich an einen bestimmten amerikanischen Präsidenten erinnert, die Story ist ja immerhin schon 10 Jahre alt. Und auch Jameson laufen die Vertrauten und Mitarbeiter weg, ja, ja, Geschichte verläuft zyklisch.

So offene Mitarbeiter haben Präsidenten und Bürgermeister nur selten:


Auf Kritik reagiert mancher Politiker ungehalten und lässt es sich anmerken:


Die zweite Story dreht sich um MJ und um Peters katastrophales Liebesleben. Sie hat mich leider nicht unterhalten und mir schlichtweg nicht gefallen.

[RG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doc Ock remains as a villain and MJ has returned

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Best part of this was the Chameleon story which I wish the whole volume would have focused on...it was a kinda creepy serial killer type of villain. But the other half of the book featured random run-ins, so meh...

[Wing Kee]

I’m such a sucker for MJ stories.

World: The art was alright, although the best arc was in the MJ issue with her in L.A. (That one was lovely). The world building here is good, it’s a reintroduction of sorts to MJ since Brand New Day and we get a little bit of character based world building. We also get the pieces of the current Peter world where we see moving pieces set up for greater stories later (like Harry at Pete’s house and also the Chameleon). Solid.

Story: The Chameleon story was solid, it was a bit short and I think one more issue of mayhem and stuff would have been good but overall that was an enjoyable story and having him wreck but also fix a new little status quo for Peter was smart and well done (that way we can have Peter do it but not Peter do it, have his cake and eat it too...smart!). The relationships are good here, I like that we had time away from the endless fighting to actually breath and let the characters and their movement sink in and play out. JJJ also was done well this time around with the fallout and him dealing with that. Overall this was a solid character arc, I rather enjoyed it. As I said, I’m a sucker for MJ.

Characters: I liked how we have an MJ issue finally since Brand New Day. We see her and we see this reason for coming back to New York. It’s not original, it’s been done so many times and the emotions of the Parker/Watson relationship is played out again and again but hey I love MJ as a character and other than Lois Lane, I think she’s the second most important female character in modern comic books and many don’t know how to write her without putting her on a pedestal, let’s see what this run does with her. Peter is Peter and his life has been like this for the longest time so I’m not surprised here. I miss the teacher days but oh well, this is the result of Brand New Day, I wish there was more forward momentum with him and not just day to day and same old same old, it’s getting...old.

I like this arc, it was not original and there are a lot of retread emotions here but I am always a sucker for it.

Onward to the next book!

[Tesutamento · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chameleon geri dönüyor ve bu kez bir terör saldırısı peşinde. Planı için gereken kimlik Peter Parker! Belediye fotoğrafçısın Parker'ı gafil avlayan Chameleon Peter'ın bir gününü yaşıyor. Kimliğine büründüğü kişilerin hayatlarında iz bırakmaya kararlı bu adam Parker'ın özel hayatını allak bullak ediyor. Tam da MJ New York'a dönmüşken daha kötü ne olabilirdi. İlk iki bölüm bu hikayeye ait. Oldukça komik anlar barındırırken keşke bir bölüm daha olsaymış dedirtti.

Bir bölüm Mary Jane'in New York'a dönüş kararını vermeden önce yaşadıklarına dair bir hikaye veriyor. Peter ile olan kavgasını anımsarken kendisini zor ve çirkin bir olayın içinde buluyor. Pek üzerinde durulacak bir şey yoktu bence.

Son bölümde de Peter Chameleon'un da yardımıyla düştüğü zor durumdan kendini çıkarmanın ve Mary Jane'i unutmanın derdindedir. Harry'nin yardımıyla online randevu sitelerinde takılan Peter için işler tabi ki yolunda gitmiyor. Peter olarak yapamadığını Spider-Man olarak yapma imkanı buluyor fakat Parker Şansı yine şaşırtmıyor. Randevu sitesindeki profiller oldukça eğlenceliydi.

[Kurt · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5.

[Thomas Crawford · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this is my least favorite of the post-OMD stories so far. The way women are written in this series is rarely amazing, but it’s pretty offensively bad here, particularly Michelle and Pete’s cousins. Fine to skip this one imo

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chameleon's rampage does all sorts of havoc to Peter's life, but it's the death trap that's the hardest to swallow. (Or rather, the inexplicable yet inevitable escape therefrom.)

Van Lente crafts a fun and inventive romp through Parker's life, with a few dark moments to make sure we remember we're at the adults' table. Kitson's art is suitably good to keep up appearances.

The villain battle/intrigue is all well and good, and usually it's most fun when reading a comics that faces our hero off against a really powerful, inventive or just somehow insurmountable foe by which we can measure how great the hero is.

So perhaps that's why the most startlingly fun and evocative moments of this book are when Peter Parker faces down the torrential disaster that is his romantic "life". Van Lente gives us a great look into just how badly Peter wants something to come home to after a good swing, and just how out of reach any romantic fulfilment truly is for a hero like this who constantly sacrifices his own good for that of the greater.

Brian Reed gives us an excellent treat in his own mini-story to add to Peter's miseries.

[Blindzider · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm one of the people that wasn't happy about One More Day so reading the return of MJ to Peter's life was a big deal. It's handled really well without wrapping everything up nicely, adding some emotional tension to the book.

The Chameleon returns and he is portrayed a little more menacing this this time around, along with making Peter's life even more complicated. It also has a nice tie between another Spider-Man villain's origin and a new villain.

There's a one shot giving focus on MJ, and there's another one shot dealing with Harry trying to get Peter back into dating which was pretty funny.

What can I say, I'm a Spidey fan and enjoyed this one.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Peter gets a job working for Mayor J. Jonah Jameson, he is targeted by the Chameleon, who steals his identity and begins impersonating him, unaware that Peter is also Spider-Man. When he escapes the Chameleon's lair, Peter then has to foil the supervillain's plot before going on to tackle the mess that has been made of his personal life in his absence.

I was surprised by just how dark this story went in the first half, with it being revealed that after stealing a person's identity, the Chameleon straps that person to a chair and lowers them still-living into a vat of acid. It was a proper dark serial killer vibe which I've never seem the character have before and it leads to a shocking scene where we see Peter lowered into that vat of acid. I don't think it will surprise anyone that he survives, but there is still a significant impact to the panel where the chair rises back up from the acid empty.

For me, this book was held back by one significant factor, which may be different for other readers. I am and always have been a huge fan of MJ and Peter as a couple. That means that seeing their awkward interactions here and the reaffirmation of them being over robbed the book of what would've been a romantic core that absolutely would've hooked me. It seems cruel to plaster MJ all over the cover and then just have her and Peter be slightly awkward friends.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Muzaffer Gümüşsu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Vasat bir cilt. Enfes kapağı ve "MJ şehre dönüyor" hype'ını asla yeteri kadar karşılamıyor. Zaten bu konu, ister istemez One More Day'in yarattığı kötü etkinin bir devamı olduğu için Mary Jane'in dönüşüne heyecanlanmak oldukça zor. Bukalemun hikayesi iyiydi ancak ciddi ve karanlık bir hikaye olabilecekken yine iki fasikülde oldu bittiye gelmiş. Yazar, Bukalemun için "yüzünü çaldıklarımın hayatına bir gün bile olsa olumlu etki bırakmalıyım" mottosu ile güzel bir derinlik fırsatı yakalamış aslında. Bütün cilt bunun üzerine kurulmuş olsaydı çok daha tatmin edici olurdu. Çizimler de beklenmedik derecede kötüydü.

[Mr. Stick · Rating 4 out of 5]

"WITH MY SPIDER-SENSE I SUPPOSE I COULD HAVE DODGED THAT. BUT THIS IS THE FIRST PEACE AND QUIET I'VE HAD IN DAYS. EXCEPT FOR THAT MOUSETRAP ON MY BACK. EH. SHE IS PRETTY HOT THOUGH."
- Peter's inner-monolog after getting dropped by a left hook from his very angry roommate (with benefits), Michelle.

Peter gets kidnapped and impersonated by Chameleon, which is one of the reasons his roommate is upset with him.
Many of the last several issues events are reviewed, but from MJ's perspective.
Peter's three (hot!) cousin's from Boston are STILL visiting, and Harry has noticed.
Finally, Harry helps Peter find love online.
Four stars.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt like another filler piece - a set of stories that were designed to fill in the minor gaps around Mary Jane's return to New York. We didn't absolutely need to know these stories but it's certainly nice knowing. Throw in an unusual encounter with the Chameleon that further complicates Peter Parker's life and you have a lot of quirky side stories here and there all coming together to stress just how weird his life ends up being.

[Amanda Shepard (Between-the-Shelves) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Aside from the fact that I really dislike this cover, a pretty good Spider-Man volume! The Chameleon storyline was probably the best aspect of this volume, as it was the most tense. I was hooked while reading it, and Peter Parker really can't catch a break. We get a little re-introduction as to what's been happening with MJ between now and Brand New Day, which was a helpful refresher. The art wasn't always my favorite, but you know. It is how it is.

[Roman Colombo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's how you know Peter Parker sucks at life. In less than a day, Chameleon, posing as Parker,repairs his relationship with MJ, saves his best friend from relapsing, and gets Peter's roommate Michelle--who hates him--to fall in love with Parker anyway. There wasn't even enough time for crimes along the way, so "Spider-Man duties" doesn't count.

[Crazed8J8 · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Rounded Up

The Chameleon stuff was great! The other stories felt like filler, and the art on those were mediocre. MJ seems like a but out a mean girl, and I'm not a fan.
Onto the Black Car...

[Kris Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fred Van Lente is a solid Spider-writer, having cut his teeth with the character on the kid-friendly Marvel Adventures Spider-Man and now in the big leagues with this title. ASM remains a great read, and is my favorite title that Marvel is currently publishing.

[Whatslifeanyways · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fucking horrible holy shit why they gotta write peter as a complete dipshit and everyone else as huge assholes. Chameleon stuff was mildly interesting but other than that just filler stuff with worst writing ever

[Fuuma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just left something to be desired.

[Diego Francisco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Camaleão é um ótimo personagem aqui

[Keegan Schueler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chameleon taking over Peter’s life is always a banging comic storyline and this doesn’t have resolution but still great.

[Enes Aktürk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chameleon'un geri dönüşüne tanıklık ettiğimiz fena olmayan bir hikaye. Mary Jane'in de Los Angeles'daki aktörler hayatından kısımlar görüyoruz.

[MC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spider-Man: Red-Headed Stranger is a volume that is unique in that the entire story not only is focused almost exclusively on Mary-Jane Watson, the titular “red-headed stranger”, instead of our web-slinging hero, but also in that Spidey hardly shows up at all in the narrative, except for a few scenes and a flashback here or there.

As the story begins, Peter Parker (Spider-Man) is thinking of how he has seen his ex-wife (or is it ex-girlfriend? ex-fiance? You really can't tell where the continuity is these days in some comics.), Mary-Jane for the first time in a while. She had moved out to LA for a successful career in acting, and then came back suddenly. He has no clue why, but it trying to figure it out.

Unfortunately, he has little time for this at first, as the Chameleon kidnaps and tries to kill him to steal his identity as Peter Parker. Now, it's not what you might assume. The Chameleon has no clue that Peter is really Spider-Man. It is Peter himself that Chameleon needs to imitate, in his new job as the photographer for newly-elected mayor J. Jonah Jameson. The super-villain is being paid by some very nasty terrorists to unleash a dirty bomb at NYC's secret anti-terrorism nerve center. The mayor's personal photographer just may be able to pick up clues to the location of this facility, the Chameleon reasons. Unfortunately, while Peter would normally evade any problems, he is so tired and distracted that his spider-sense can't warn him in time of the attack, and so he is kidnapped by the villain, and disposed of, in acid.

Because of this, for the rest of the volume, except for a comedic issue at the end, Peter is gone, and the Chameleon is Peter. This is not a problem as the whole “terrorism” angle from the Chameleon's employers is really a side-plot. The main plot is Peter Parker's life and relationships through the eyes of our Big Bad and others. Most of all, his relationship with “MJ” Watson, which is really complicated, to say the least. Though I will say that how Peter survived was really neat, though a bit contrived. It did work for his power-set, though.

The reason I liked this one was because the title fit in so many ways. MJ is a stranger to Peter after so many months. She, along with Harry Osborne and others, are strangers to the Chameleon, who feels bound to make Peter's former life (as Chammy thinks Peter's dead) to be better. That he feels bound to do this for all of his victims is part of his insanity, I think. And finally, MJ finds that she is a stranger to herself. She can't feel happy with the way her life is going, but can not put her finger on just WHAT she is searching for in life.

Surprisingly, though the above may sound rather angsty, it really wasn't. That seems to be the hallmark of the character of Spider-Man, in that he has so many issues and problems, but he doesn't wax melodramatic on them or wallow in them. Okay, he does wallow in them, but not in an unrealistic manner. In many ways, the story of how he authentically deals with his problems, as do those around him, reminds me of the current Batgirl series under writer Gail Simone. In some comics, the issues are all overly-angsty, with the characters almost basking in their problems. Not so here, where they are dealt with in a very sensitive, true-to-life way.

The only major problems I had with the issue were that Peter is kind of an idiot at times, and the political strawman in the form of J. Jonah Jameson. Peter is someone who has a gorgeous, smart roommate who is crazy about him, but he turns her down for dating. What? I can understand not wanting to take advantage of someone you don't love, or to deal with her sometimes crazy nature, that is not his reason as much as seemingly pining for Mary Jane. Not everyone gets their “true love” as the movies or romances put it. Sometimes, you have to take what you have, and his friend there would have been a great mate for him, instead of pining over someone else all the time.

Then there is the strawman. Jameson is made out to be a truly pathetic and vile caricature of the worst and most untrue portrayals of conservatives. If this is just the writers poking fun, then it is annoying, but I can take it. I like the show American Dad occasionally, so I can take a joke. But if I'm giving them too much of the benefit of the doubt, and they really do think this is how conservatives are, then it's kind of frightening that they can be so misinformed. They really might need to go see “fly-over country”, and learn not to view their political adversaries with such hatred. If they want to poke fun, then they should do some halfway decent satire, and not cheap shots like the comic book writer version of schoolyard bullies.

Despite the above issues, this was a comic I really enjoyed, and I am looking forward to getting into Marvel Comics more in the future. I may never end up preferring it over DC (except for the movies, but that's another discussion), but I can see that it does have some quality stories.

[Nicolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Chameleon is one of my favorite villains and I enjoyed watching him screw up Peter's life. The only downside to that is that the story was a little light on Spider-Man. Still, a fun read.

Tune in to my special interview with author Fred Van Lente over on the All the Books Show. https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/of...

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

The villain replaced the hero then said and did things that the hero should have all along, plus shenanigans ensued! Now that's original storytelling! Except that time I saw it on Buffy. And Angel. And...right you get the idea. MJ's return apparently meant that both she and Peter would act completely out of character, get completely shitbagged, and in Peter's case have unprotected sex with his roommate. So we have Three's Company covered too! Is it too late to bring J Mike back to Spidey writing duties? Original thoughts do occur to him.

[Talk Comix · Rating 4 out of 5]

So the spiderman books havn't been great up until this point. I felt election day was a turn for the better. Red-headed stranger is actully a very good soap opera. The storyline had a great idea of the Chameleon getting to be peter parker for a day. Looks like Dan Slott took a leaf out of Fred Van Lente's book. It's actully quite well written and Fred does a great job keeping the reader engaged with strong narative. I could take or leave issue #605 which really just didn't match the rest of the book.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the fun excess of the anniversary last collection Red Headed Stranger is a more laid back and fun couple of stories. Firstly we get what turns out to be a nice little Chameleon story with some really nice insight into how he takes over the role of the people he masquerades as. Then we get some more focus on MJ and her return before setting Pete up with some dating mishaps. It's lighthearted and fun which is refreshing in Spider-Man every now and then.

[Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

MJ is back in Peter's life what will she and the old Parker luck have in store for Spider-Man? The Chameleon masquerades as Peter and either improves or worsens his relationship with friends (depending on how you look at it). MJ is in his life for good will they rekindle their relationship? Only time will tell. A fun look at both Peter's life as a hero and his love life as both civilian and hero.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collects Amazing Spider-Man issues #602-605

Mary Jane made her return in the last collection, "Spider-Man: Died in Your Arms Tonight," but this collection explains why she came back to New York.

Chameleon is the main villain of this collection, and I found that story to be very intriguing. He is one of my favorite villains.

A lot of this collection was devoted to deconstructing and analyzing Peter Parker's life and choices. It was a pretty fun read.