Showing posts with label fern. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fern. Show all posts

Friday, June 11, 2010

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #23- #24, February-March 1987

Slip Slydin’ Away!

Credits: David Michelinie (plot), Len Kaminski (script), Jim Fern (penciler), Vince Colletta (inker), Rick Parker (letterer), Bob Sharen (colorist)

The Plot: Slyde targets businesses with connections to jailed crimelord, Rockwell. Peter Parker happens to come across Slyde as he flees the scene of a robbery. As Spider-Man, he’s unable to stop Slyde, but he does nab a briefcase full of money from Slyde.

The Subplots: On their flight home from Ireland, Joy Mercado berates Peter for his “deal” with Spider-Man and calls him a lazy photojournalist. Aunt May asks Peter to join her on a senior’s junket in Atlantic City, which is where the Vulture shows up on the final page.

Web of Continuity: Slyde was “just another chemical engineer searching for the perfect non-stick coating for cookware” before his firm was bought out by Rockwell, which somehow inspired him to create a non-stick suit and steal from the mob.

*See _________ For Details: Spidey sees an ad in the Daily Bugle classifies from Silver Sable, asking to meet Spider-Man. A footnote points towards Amazing Spider-Man #281. Peter also casually mentions that he plans on quitting as Spider-Man, a subplot from the other books that hasn’t been mentioned at all in this title so far.

Commercial Break: Spider-Man faces the Sogmaster in his desperate search for the missing Cap’n Crunch.

Review: It’s Slyde, the villain so lame the ‘90s Spider-Man cartoon didn’t want him (even Big Wheel got a storyline…if Slyde showed up, I’ve blocked out the memory). Slyde’s just there to provide the action for a few pages, and even Spider-Man seems so bored by him he can’t be bothered to chase after him when he escapes. The real goal of this issue seems to be the resolution of the Joy Mercado subplot, along with a few efforts to place Web in-continuity with the other Spider-titles.

After months of teasing that Joy knows Peter’s secret, Michelinie specifies which secret Joy knew. Going way back to the Stan Lee/John Romita days, it’s revealed that Joy knows about Peter’s arrangement with Spider-Man, which has Spider-Man notifying Peter of his activities and splitting the profits of the photos with Peter. That’s a lie Peter devised after he stupidly confessed to being Spider-Man (because he had the flu of all things), but Joy’s heard the rumor and believes it’s true. I don’t know if Michelinie was always going in that direction, but it is a twist you don’t see coming. She thinks Peter is lazy and unprofessional, and there’s really nothing he can say in his defense. This is the best scene in the issue, partly because it takes place after Peter angrily follows Joy into the airplane bathroom. After they emerge together, a flight attendant gives the Comics Code approved response of “I don’t think I want to know…” Given that Peter actually thought he had a shot with Joy, the scene is even more amusing.

High Stakes

Credits: David Michelinie (plot), Len Kaminski (script), Del Barras (penciler), Vince Colletta (inker), Rick Parker (letterer), Bob Sharen (colorist)

The Plot: Peter joins Aunt May on a seniors’ trip to Atlantic City. There, the Vulture is trying to sell a new plastic that can rig games to casino owner Owen Briosky. Briosky balks at the Vulture’s million-dollar price; the Vulture responds by attacking his casino. Peter sees the commotion, changes into Spider-Man, and faces the Vulture. Their fight is interrupted by the Hobgoblin, an associate of the mob-connected Briosky, who chases Vulture away.

The Subplots: After saving one of the Vulture’s victims from falling off a roof, someone grabs Spider-Man’s ankle and tries to pull him inside the building. Spidey wonders if this is related to the earlier train station incident, since his spider-sense wasn’t triggered. I assume this was supposed to be another early Venom cameo.

Review: If I were Peter Parker, I would wonder why my friends and family always drag me to places where supervillains happen to be nearby. This is Michelinie’s final issue, and it looks like no one’s pretending this book is supposed to be about Peter traveling for Now Magazine by this point. Web is about to enter fill-in mode, and even if this was plotted by the departing writer, it still feels like filler. Perhaps the lack of subplots makes the story feel so thin. I can understand Michelinie avoiding any new subplots in his last issue, but there’s nothing to distract from the dull main story. The only real twist in the issue comes from the Hobgoblin’s cameo, which unfortunately comes across as a last-minute addition. His entrance comes out of nowhere, isn’t played for any dramatic impact, and he’s gone just a few pages later. Adding the Hobgoblin to the mix could’ve been a lot of fun; I could see an entire issue dedicated to Spider-Man getting caught in-between a Hobgoblin/Vulture fight. Instead, he’s just tossed in to give the story a quickie ending.

Monday, January 21, 2008

WOLVERINE #74 – October 1993


Jubilee’s Revenge
Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Jim Fern (pencils), Art Nichols (inks), Pat Brosseau (letters), Marie Javins (colors)


Summary
Wolverine and Jubilee try to escape the Ant Hill, damaging one Sentinel in the process. Another Sentinel tries to protect what’s left of him before his own circuits overload. Jubilee senses that the Sentinel is afraid to die and can’t bring herself to kill it, even if it is a robot. Sentinel 3.14159, the robot brought to life by Spiral’s technology, is fascinated by Jubilee’s empathy for a robot. The Sentinel decides to stop his plan to ignite a solar flare and “create whole new algorithms” to study human emotions. He says this will take “2137.23 years”. Jubilee asks him to send them through Gateway’s warp to Los Angeles. She confronts her parents’ killers, but can’t bring herself to kill them.


Continuity Notes
Wolverine says that Jubilee can use her firecracker powers to kill someone by hitting them in the cerebral cortex and causing a stroke.


Review
It’s hard to say anything about this issue without first mentioning Jim Fern’s bizarre interpretation of Wolverine. His renditions of the Sentinels and Jubilee aren’t that great, either, but I can’t begin to describe how ugly his Wolverine is. If you think the cover’s horrible, the interiors are even worse. It’s hard to believe that this is the same artist who did a solid job on an earlier X-Factor issue, so I’ll chalk this up to either deadlines or bad inking. This is, what, the sixth issue of Wolverine with subpar artwork? It’s hard to believe that Marvel couldn’t have found better artists for one of their best-selling titles. All of these issues have been action-heavy stories that really need strong visuals to work, making this even more frustrating. I like the conversation between Wolverine and Jubilee on the last page, and it is nice to see at least one comic in this era preach against revenge and senseless death, but it’s not enough to save a weak issue.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...