Mini Marvels Magic

Jack loves Chris Giarrusso’s G-Man books and his Mini Marvels work (which I’m also a fan of)! So having the opportunity to meet the man in-person at Mid-Ohio Con was a pretty big deal. The kiddo took his copy of G-Man for Giarrusso to sign. Walking away Jack looked inside the book to find that not only did Giarrusso sign it, but he also did a little G-Man sketch in it, too! So the kiddo had to run back to the table to thank him again!

When I saw that Giarrusso was doing 8 ½ by 11 sketches for just $20 a pop, Jack and I talked about it and decided we couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I have had Hawkeye on the mind since wrapping up the piece I just wrote for the upcoming spring issue of Back Issue magazine, so I knew right away what I wanted. For Jack, who has always loved the three-legged Iron Spider-Man gag in “The Iron Avengers” Mini Marvels story, it was also a no-brainer. We couldn’t be happier with the results!

Some Quick Thoughts on Annuals

I haven't read a lot of annuals since returning to comics in the last few years. Certainly not in the way I devoured them back in the day, but I read Amazing Spider-Man Annual #37 earlier this week. I enjoyed the main story and art well enough. It was a fun, two-part tale of Spider-Man and Captain America taking place between Avengers #11 and #16. Karl Kesel’s writing really captured the sense of awe a teenaged Peter Parker must have felt meeting an icon like Captain America. And, in a lot of ways, hasn’t that always been the strength of Marvel Comics? The idea that, although these heroes inhabit the Marvel Universe, they are not necessarily commonplace and it’s still an amazing event when they are encountered. When Marvel does that, and does it well, they succeed in pulling kids and adult readers alike firmly into this world, making it all the more believable.

The first part of the main story finds Cap assisting Spidey against the Sandman, stepping in just the nick of time and leaving Spidey a bit star struck. The second half of the tale gets a little wonky as the heroes team up against the Rogue Scholars, but I rolled with it and let it take me where it wanted to go. Throughout, I really dug Paulo Siqueira’s art. It felt sketchy and rough, but in the best possible way, and Fabio D’Auria’s colors had a muted tone that served the story well.

The backup story was a bit of a letdown for me. As someone who was out of comics during the ’90s, I wasn’t familiar with Untold Tales of Spider-Man, and as much as I’ve enjoyed Pat Olliffe’s work on Peter Parker, I wasn’t really digging on his stuff here. The Kurt Busiek story starring Spider-Man and Stan Lee is the kind that sometimes works and sometimes falls flat. Here, flat. It was 15 pages I would have rather seen devoted to expanding the main story to something a little more epic. This is an Annual, after all.

Not to get all crotchety and “get off my lawn, you damn kids,” but I don’t remember backups that felt like filler in the annuals of my youth. I remember the annuals of the ’80s as king-size versions of the Spidey/Cap tale here. Like Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 from 1982, which tells the origin of Monica Rambeau’s Captain Marvel and guest starring the entire Marvel Universe! (That one had a couple of nice one-page pin-ups: “The Many Loves of Peter Parker” and “Imagine How Much Fun It Must Be to Work at The Daily Bugle” that felt appropriate and right at home.) Or Fantastic Four Annual #18 from 1984 with the wedding of Black Bolt and Medusa. On the other hand, this 2010 Amazing Spider-Man Annual felt kinda like a regular issue with a backup story tacked inside.

I think it's time I pulled out that '82 Spidey annual and give it another read...

MTU122

Conspicuously missing from my Summit City Con recap is my Dave Wachter commission. And that was by design… because it deserves its own blog entry!

When it comes to comic-related money well spent, Dave Wachter will always have my support. I didn’t buy anything at the Summit City Comic Con. Although technically I wasn’t charged for it until this week when the campaign ended, the Athena Voltaire page I got from Steve Bryant was already accounted for when I pledged my support weeks ago. And the commission I requested from Dave was paid for at least a month ago, but, man, was it worth the wait!

I have always loved Marvel Team-Up #122, featuring Spider-Man and the Man-Thing. It’s one of the issues I reference in Deus ex Comica and falls squarely in the category of “indelibly tattooed in that portion of my brain still ruled by a 12-year-old boy.” I also have come to know Dave as a master of monsters. He loves drawing them, and that affection comes through in his painstakingly gorgeous art. So it was a no-brainer to commission him to recreate this classic cover from my youth.

Dave gave me a sneak peak at the piece when we were at the Pittsburgh Comicon. It was basically finished then, but without the lettering and cover dress. He mentioned to me then his ideas for how he was going to do the issue title and all, but it didn’t really sink in for me until we were standing at the bar at the Summit City after-show party and he explained the effort and time he invested in getting that lettering just right that I truly appreciated what he’s accomplished here.

Dave has once again outdone himself.

The Return of Marvel Adventures

I pick up quite a few single issues for the kiddo each month. The Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Super Hero Squad, all based on their respective animated shows, are always on the list, along with miscellaneous other books that either strike my fancy for him while going through Previews or pique his interest on trips to the comic shop.

In my April DCBS box, there were two reboots of the Marvel Adventures line I had ordered for the kiddo: Spider-Man and Super Heroes. I am a big proponent of all ages and age-appropriate comics for kids, and when I saw these in Previews I knew I needed to give them a try and support them.

I don’t regularly read the comics I buy for the kiddo. I’m confident as an informed consumer of what I’m letting him read, so it’s more about him having something that gets him jazzed about comics. But I couldn’t pass up giving these two books a go for myself. (Plus, I love the look in the kiddo’s eyes when I come to him asking if I can read one of his comics that says, “You want to read something of mine? Sure you can, Dad!”)

Both of these Paul Tobin-written books are a lot of fun. The Spider-Man is one-and-done, but has the feel of something that will have some continuity to it over its run. There’s dirty politicians, a young Captain Stacy, high school drama, and a cranky J. Jonah Jameson. And I think I enjoyed this single Spidey issue more than the five-issue Bob Gale-penned Peter Parker mini currently underway.

The Spidey book also benefits from two Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius backups. The kiddo and I are both big fans of Chris Eliopoulos’ work, so it’s nice to have these here, along with his Zabu (Ka-Zar’s sabretooth tiger) backup set in the Savage Land in the Super Heroes book.

Tobin’s work in Super Heroes is the kind of story you can’t help but get excited about. Inside the Iron Man cover, it’s actually an Avengers story with Shellhead, Cap, Black Widow, Thor, Nova, Invisible Woman, and Vision on the team battling Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants. Based on the “Next Issue” teaser inside the back cover, it looks like Marvel is going to rotate the “headline” character in this book, with Thor getting his turn above the title next month.

Tobin seems to have carved out a nice little corner of the all-ages Marvel Universe for himself, and I couldn’t be more appreciative. The kiddo and I both enjoyed Tobin’s Fantastic Four Giant-Size Adventures one-shot last year, his Black Widow and the Marvel Girls trade paperback arrived in the same box as the Spider-Man and Super Heroes issues, and I have his Spider-Man and the Secret Wars trade paperback on order.

I love having some books that both the kiddo and I are digging. For me, these two single issues were like a wayback machine to the stories I first discovered as a kid. And for the kiddo, I hope these are the books that are among his earliest memories of issues leaving a permanent impression on his comic reading psyche. I hope more people buy these books and keep them going. For our part, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man and Marvel Adventures Super Heroes will stay on our pull list as long as Marvel continues to offer them.

(And, on a similar note, Roger Langridge and the ever-awesome Chris Samnee’s Thor: The Might Avenger, launching in July, is already queued up to join Tobin’s books this summer.)

Marvel Unbound - Spider-Man: Death of the Stacys

There are just two characters left in the Marvel Universe whose death you don’t mess with: Uncle Ben and Gwen Stacy. (Bucky Barnes used to be in that group until Ed Brubaker’s masterful resurrection and reintegration of the character on the pages of Captain America.) I know the story of how Gwen Stacy died, but had not actually read the two-issue arc that took her from Peter Parker and secured her place in the Spider-Man mythos until now.

Outside of Peter’s blood relatives (i.e., Uncle Ben and Aunt May), the Stacys has to be the family most devastated by their relationship with Peter, losing both a father and a daughter because of their involvement with the Webslinger. The Spider-Man: Death of the Stacys Premier Hardcover presents chronologically Amazing Spider-Man issues #88-92, and issues #121-122. The first five issues contain the death of Gwen’s father, Police Captain George Stacy, the last two issues the death of Gwen.

The setup for Captain Stacy’s end is wonderfully subtle as the opening three-issues unfold effortlessly. Spidey’s multiple battles with Doctor Octopus are interspersed with glimpses into Peter’s relationship with both Captain Stacy and Gwen. After Captain Stacy’s honorable death indirectly at the hands of Doc Ock, we watch Gwen and Peter deal with the loss and witness Gwen misplace blame for her father’s death with Spider-Man.

As nuanced as this story is, it also struck me how similar the Gwen/Peter/Spider-Man dynamic is to the Harry Osborn/Peter/Spider-Man dynamic in the 2002 Spider-Man movie: the holding of Spider-Man responsible for the death of Captain Stacy/Norman Osborn by their offspring Gwen/Harry, who is in a relationship/close friends with Peter. That is not to diminish storytelling of either body of work; if anything it’s a testament to how time-honored the comic book’s premise is, and how well-translated that was by the movie’s screenwriters.

The story is continued on the pages of the next couple of issues (also collected here) with a political corruption plotline that paints Gwen into a weak, naïve position in its attempts to illustrate just how distraught Gwen is over her belief that Spider-Man killed her father. Even J. Jonah Jameson has more dynamic character growth over these couple of issues than the easily manipulated Gwen. I get why you continue the story (how could you ignore it?!), but the handling of Gwen feels clumsy at best.

Where the story of Captain Stacy is spread over five issues and given room to breathe, the story of Gwen’s death and its immediate aftermath are a study in concise narration, with not a single panel or word wasted. The weight heaped on issues #121 and #122 is staggering. These two 1973 issues have shaped Peter Parker’s world, the Marvel Universe, and comics as a medium.

Gerry Conway’s storytelling is economical, moving the story swiftly but with impact from beginning to end. On these 40 or so pages we witness the madman’s reemergence in Norman Osborn, the raw anguish in Spider-Man, and the beginning of the evolution of Mary Jane Watson from party girl to more mature young adult.

As stunning as “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” is, “The Green Goblin’s Last Stand” is every bit as shocking in its portrayal of Peter’s reaction to Gwen’s death. Spider-Man brutally attacks the Green Goblin, exacting a vengeance on his archnemesis usually reserved for the likes of Punisher. Every ounce of pain is squeezed from Peter over three pages of a vicious fight, ending in the same inadvertent death-by-his-own-hand that the Green Goblin experienced in Spider-Man movie. (Of course, Norman’s death in the Marvel Universe didn’t quite stick the way Gwen’s did.)

There are some misses in the lettering – words omitted, etc. – but I’m not sure if that’s a problem with the reprinting process, the original comics, or as it was intended. The art, on the other hand, is faultless. The use of montages throughout these seven issues by Gil Kane and John Romita, Sr. are pitch-perfect. While they are used enough to be noticed over the course of these books, they fit flawlessly with the tone of both the stories and era they are representative of, and colors pop off the page.

There is no sentimentality over the death of Gwen on Conway’s part. His introduction from 2007 is fairly coarse. He takes credit, by way of penning Gwen’s death, for emboldening Jim Starlin to kill Captain Marvel and Chris Claremont to create Dark Phoenix. He comes right out and admits he never liked Gwen, found her boring, and really just wanted to write about Mary Jane. It sets a terrible tone for the collection, and I would have much rather seen this as an afterword. I think Marvel editor Ralph Macchio’s 1999 essay “I Remember Gwen,” presented here as one of two afterwords, would have been much more fitting as the introduction of the collection. The other afterword is by artist Romita, Sr., along with his original character design for Captain Stacy.

Reprints of the Todd McFarlane covers of Marvel Tales Featuring Classic Spider-Man from the late ’90s that presented the Captain Stacy arc, the double-sized Gwen Stacy epic Marvel Tales reprint, and the cover art from the various previous collected editions round out the extras.

I understand the implications of Gwen’s death and have read stories supplementing these events long before I read Spider-Man: Death of the Stacys Premier Hardcover. A few years ago I was dazzled by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross' Marvels and was moved by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Spider-Man: Blue earlier this year, both of which deal directly with the tragedy in part or as a whole. But it’s something else entirely to read the actual event as it unfolded across the pages of Amazing Spider-Man nearly 40 years ago.

Marvel Unbound - X-Men and Spider-Man

I remember seeing the first issues of the X-Men and Spider-Man miniseries on the shelf at my local comic shop when it was first released and thinking how cool it looked. But over the last year, I have slowly and consistently moved to trade-waiting. So I consciously made the decision to not buy the singles and pick up the collected edition down the road.

I was excited when it was released and showed up in my DCBS box the first week of the New Year. Unfortunately, the story turned out to be a confusing mess. I read the four issues in one sitting, hoping with each turn of the page that things would improve. I wasn’t so lucky.

The concept, I think, could’ve been really cool. Each of the four issues takes place during a different era of Marvel history. Beginning, naturally, with the late 1960s, the first issue is by far the most entertaining. It holds in its pages the promise of an engaging story. It begins with Kraven the Hunter announcing on television that he has discovered Spider-Man is a mutant. The rest of the issue is a fun collision between Peter Parker’s world (including Gwen, MJ, Harry, and Flash) and the original X-Men, who are seeking out Spider-Man to offer their assistance (they know he’s not a mutant, but feel they should warn him about all the new enemies and bigotry he might encounter if the world believes he is a mutant). The last page sets up some intrigue and reveals Mister Sinister as pulling the strings behind the scenes, but also becomes the recycled blueprint for everything that follows.

As we move through the subsequent issues, the novelty of seeing the characters in different eras wears off quickly as the repetition of the heroes joining forces, battling the Marauders and Mister Sinister, then Carnage and Mister Sinister, then clone Kraven (Xraven. Seriously.) and Mister Sinister wears thin. It was kind of neat to see Spidey with the various incarnations of the X-Men, but I had a bad feeling about things as soon as the second issue started.

As if the subject of clones isn’t convoluted enough in every comic book universe, writer Christos Gage piles on the meta here. Issue #2 finds a black-suited Spidey and a powerless, Mohawk-sporting Storm leading Wolverine, Dazzler, and Rogue against the Marauders, ultimately destroying incubating clones of the original X-Men. Spider clone Ben Reilly, the Spider-Man of issue #3 (who doesn’t know he’s a clone), teams up with an Adamantium skeleton-less Wolverine, Archangel, Cyclops, and Storm in an attempt to stop Mister Sinister from procuring a piece of Carnage’s alien symbiote. The final act features Spider-Man and a Cyclops/Wolverine/Nightcrawler/Kitty/Colossus team battling Mister Sinister’s hairless, albino Kraven clone. The story finally runs out of gas when they defeat Xraven by – yeah, I’m gonna spoil this mess because you should save your money – hurting Xraven’s feelings, who then turns on Mister Sinister.

When I finished reading the book, I turned to the back cover in hopes of finding a synopsis of the story that might make some sense of what I’d just muddled through. Sadly, based on the three-sentence attempt at a summary, I’m not sure Marvel really knows what this is all about either.


What Marvel does know, however, is damn fine art. And Mario Alberti’s work on these four issues is gorgeous. Every page of issue #1 shines, from the awesome page one Hulk cameo to a great Scott Summers to a sexy Gwen Stacy! Hank McCoy, Marvel Girl, Kraven? They all look stunning. And the atmosphere Alberti infuses into each panel adds depth to the world the characters inhabit. Unfortunately, the subsequent issues get bogged down by too much visual noise from the action, but the individual character renderings are beautiful. I’d let Alberti draw every single entry in an Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe just to drool over how he would craft each character.

For bonus material, we get a reprint of the first meeting between the X-Men and Spider-Man, which took place on a single page of X-Men #27. Then we’re given a full 20-page story originally presented in X-Men #35, “Along Came a Spider…” (You have to wonder how many times over the years a variation of that phrase has been used in comics where Spidey guest-stars.) It’s a fun Roy Thomas story that includes a Banshee cameo over the first few pages to set things up.

Maybe if I was better-schooled in the clone history of the Marvel Universe (I missed Spidey’s Clone Saga altogether in the ’90s while I was away from comics), I might have appreciated X-Men and Spider-Man more. As it stands, I got away with paying less than cover price for the original single issues by picking this up in trade, but I could have saved even more if I’d just bought the first issue and walked away.

Marvel Unbound - Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Color Series

I am a Marvel guy at my core, but since returning to the comic book hobby as an adult, I read most anything that strikes my fancy, regardless of publisher. That includes taking in some Batman stories: Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke, Frank Miller’s Absolute Dark Knight, and Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s The Long Halloween and Haunted Knight.

I’m not reading the Red Hulk books and am not a fan of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, so those Batman stories and the Fallen Son mini-series after the death of Captain America are really my only exposure to Loeb. I enjoyed what I’ve read well-enough, so I’m not sure where all the Loeb hate comes from. No writer can satisfy every reader, and I have never heard a convincing argument for the extreme dislike. It all strikes me as knee-jerk fanboy posturing.

Regardless, I figured if I enjoyed the Loeb-Sale team-up on Batman so much, I wanted to see what they’d do in the Marvel sandbox. I picked up the first-edition hardcovers of Daredevil: Yellow, Spider-Man: Blue, and Hulk: Gray cheap on eBay late last year and have finally worked my way through all three of them.

The concept here is a creative take on key moments in each titular character’s life. Not reimaging so much as fleshing out events that formerly took place off-page or providing a different point of view of what was originally presented.

I read them in the order in which they were released, which almost proved a misfire because I really didn’t care for Daredevil: Yellow. Sale’s art is a sight to behold, and every page in these six collected issues is a layered, shadowed experience. But the story really left me feeling kinda “meh.” I love Daredevil, but this was very much a Karen Page story. And I’m clearly not as good a student of that particular part of the Daredevil’s history as I needed to be in order to fully enjoy Daredevil: Yellow.

Thematically, I loved the way the series titles each played off Murdock’s father’s boxing career: “The Championship Season”, “The Measure of a Man”, “Stepping Into the Ring”, “Never Lead With Your Left”, “Against the Ropes”, and “The Final Bell”. And the covers of the original single issues reveal the evolution of Matt Murdock, with a larger-than-life Daredevil in the background, watching over his alter-ego. Beautiful work by Sale, but this was the first time a Loeb story fell short of my expectations and had problems holding my interest.

Whereas Daredevil: Yellow’s conceit was a written letter from Matt Murdock to his lost love Karen Page, Spider-Man: Blue is framed by Peter Parker tape-recording a letter to the love of his life, the Green Goblin-murdered Gwen Stacy, on Valentine’s Day.

Like with the first book, Sale’s artwork is striking. His reimaging of Peter, Gwen, and Mary Jane Watson is retro sexy and perfectly stylized. But unlike Daredevil: Yellow, the characterizations Loeb unfolds quietly across these six issues is nuanced and restrained. Loeb and Sale used iconic moments in Peter’s life as touchstones for filling in perspective. We see Spider-Man saving Norman Osborn’s life, we meet Anna Watson’s niece for the first time along with Peter, and we witness the organic beginning of Peter and Gwen’s romance.

I don’t know how true to the characters of Peter and MJ they are, but I really loved the last three pages of Spider-Man: Blue. They capture a soft moment between husband and wife, yet it feels so important, even cinematic. There was a satisfying sense of closure to the book that I really felt was missing with the first one.

Whereas Daredevil: Yellow and Spider-Man: Blue are essentially love stories, Hulk: Gray explores relationships more broadly: the influence of General Ross’ dead wife on his relationship with his daughter Betty, Betty’s love for Bruce Banner, Hulk’s love for Betty, and General Ross’ hatred for Hulk.

The framing device here is Bruce turning to his old friend Doc Sampson in the present day, looking back at those crucial hours immediately after the Hulk was “born” in the gamma bomb accident. I thought Loeb took a lot of liberty (maybe too much?) retconning an encounter with Tony Stark’s Iron Man into this origin expansion, but the story was compelling from start to finish. It’s amazing how much emotion a character like the Hulk can convey.

Until I watched the DVD extras for the 2008 Incredible Hulk film, I had no idea director Louis Leterrier used Hulk: Gray as his primary influence. I don’t think knowing that or having seen the movie first really colored my reading of the Loeb-Sale book in any way, but I can now fully appreciate book and movie’s connection.

There was supposed to be a fourth title in the Loeb and Sale color series, Captain America: White, but it has only gotten as far as an issue #0 book. The prologue story was released back in September 2008, but seems to have been canceled after that. I don’t have that issue, so I can’t say what it’s about or how it would fare against the other three completed series, but it would have been nice to have the creator’s complete vision to judge as a whole.

In all, I enjoyed two-thirds of the color series. As a Daredevil fan and a fan of Loeb and Sale’s Batman collaboration, I’m glad I read Daredevil: Yellow, but it didn’t live up to my expectations. After stepping away from the series for a few months and tempering those expectations, I thoroughly enjoyed Spider-Man: Blue and Hulk: Gray, both of which presented nuanced, emotionally charged stories and gorgeous art.

Marvel Unbound - The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man

I just finished reading The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man. I picked this hardcover up from the local comic shop’s half-off bin. It’s one of those collections I’d never heard of before seeing it, but couldn’t resist the attraction. This 200+ page volume collects three Spidey stories penciled, two penciled and co-plotted, and one scripted by Miller. Plus, there is a gorgeous gallery of the 22 Spidey-related covers Miller produced over the years.

It’s great to have all of Miller’s limited work on the Webhead in one place, compiled chronologically. The book opens with a two-part Bill Mantlo-scripted Spectacular Spider-Man story spread across issues #27 and #28 from February and March 1979 (both of which were collected together under the cover of Spider-Man and Daredevil Special Edition in 1984). It’s a grim little tale that picks up mid-action, with Spidey getting some assistance from Daredevil in dealing with the blindness caused by the Masked Marauder in a previous issue. It’s a dark tale in both storytelling and composition that works well with what we’re given. Issue #28 wraps up with a cliffhanger because, although Spidey has regained his sight, he’s being stalked by Carrion, who knows Spider-Man’s secret identity and holds Peter Parker by the throat, choking the life from him.

Next up is the 1980 Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14, scripted and co-plotted by Denny O’Neil and penciled and co-plotted by Miller. This is a fun Doctor Doom and Dormammu up against Spidey and Doctor Strange story that includes Spider-Man’s alter-ego Peter Parker heading down to the Bowery for some midnight punk at CBGBs. Doctor Strange, resident deus ex machina of the Marvel U., can be such a prick. It’s great how he sends his astral self out to look for assistance – looking everywhere and when he can’t find anyone else, he settles for asking Spidey for help. And then at the end of the story, after Spidey has given everything to save Doc Strange and the day, Doctor Strange up and leaves, refusing to tell Spidey exactly what they just fought and what they just saved mankind from! Classic.

Following that is the other Miller penciled and co-plotted offering of the collection: Marvel Team-Up #100. Co-created by Miller and Chris Claremont, this December 1980 issue marks the debut of future New Mutant Karma as Spidey and the Fantastic Four team up to straighten things out. There is a hilariously scripted cameo by Professor Xavier as we see him on the phone with Reed Richards while directing Storm, Colossus, and Wolverine through a Danger Room exercise. All in all, though, it was a really solid character introduction for Karma – one I’d not read previously.

The 1981 Marvel Team-Up Annual #4 written by Miller is a great example of what made annuals so awesome back in the day! Marvel seemed to take an “everything and the kitchen sink” approach to annuals of the ‘80s, giving the books an event feel to them, like this was something special, and this one is no exception. Here, Spidey teams up with not one, not two, not three, but four heroes! The always awesome Daredevil tag-teams with Spidey to tackle the Purple Man and the Kingpin with a little help from Heroes for Hire’s Power Man and Iron Fist, and Moon Knight’s also along for the ride. Miller also lets us know that even though Peter Parker might be a nerd, he’s a hip nerd who listens to pub rock godfather Elvis Costello by way of working “Oliver’s Army” into the story.

Last in line is the 1981 Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15. Scripted by Denny O’Neil, this gorgeous epic battle between the Punisher and Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus and J. Jonah Jameson is penciled by Miller and finished by Klaus Janson. Miller’s work here is incredible, nuanced. Nearly every rendering of the Punisher is simply stunning, including an early close-up that was positively menacing. The story is framed by a continual need to change the front page plate of the Daily Bugle, resulting in six very cool images of the Bugle’s changing headlines acting almost as chapter stops.

What are missing from this collection are the covers from all the collected issues. I get why they aren’t found here: This is only work by Frank Miller. So we do get every Spider-Man related cover Miller did work on, including two Amazing Spider-Man Annuals and three single issue covers. We also get a Marvel Team-Up Annual cover and five individual issue covers by Miller. Miller drew 10 covers for Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man that are found here, along with the front and back cover of the Spider-Man and Daredevil Special Edition mentioned earlier. Good stuff.

My favorite of the covers is, hands down, Marvel Team-Up #95 from July 1980 that marks the debut of everyone’s favorite battle stave-wielding heroine, Mockingbird! This gorgeous cover with Mockingbird vaulting over a downed S.H.I.E.L.D. agent while kicking Spidey off balance is beautiful and colored perfectly. The yellow titles, green backgrounds, blue-favored center and purple/black foreground flow amazingly well with the art.

If you’re a fan of Spidey or Frank Miller and can find The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man, I highly recommend it. There have been two printings of the book, a 1994 leather-bound version with a three-quarters dust jacket, and a 2002 second printing with a full length dust jacket and markings on the spine that line the book up nicely with the other oversized Marvel hardcovers on your shelf. But, ultimately, you should be picking this up for what’s contained under the wrapper.

Marvel Unbound - Spider-Man/Red Sonja

The Spider-Man/Red Sonja crossover miniseries from Marvel and Dynamite Entertainment was loads of fun! The miniseries, written by Michael Avon Oeming and drawn by Mel Rubi, is fantastic! I have been a fan of Oeming since discovering him through his collaboration with Bendis on Powers. I enjoyed his writing on the Ares miniseries and love his work with Bryan J.L. Glass on Mice Templar. He turns in a solid story here, continuing the struggle of Kulan Gath’s attempts to take over the Earth with magic.

Originally debuting in the pages of Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian comic back in 1972, Kulan Gath soon became a Red Sonja rogue. In 1979, Red Sonja joined Spidey in Marvel Team-Up #79 to battle Kulan Gath in what amounts to a single-issue version of the story retold and expanded on by Oeming and Rubi here two decades later.

But it’s not just Kulan Gath playing in this sandbox. Some classics from Spidey’s rogues gallery show up, too, like Scorpion, Lizard, Hobgoblin, and Venom. Venom’s actually crucial to the story as Kulan Gath takes control of the symbiote, eventually ripping it from Eddie Brock and becoming Kulan Venom. Joe Robertson is used to fine effect, as well as J. Jonah Jameson in a bit part. Mary Jane in the lynchpin of the five-issue arc just as she was in the original Marvel Team-Up tale. A modern-day Red Sonja herself, I imagine she’s a fun character to write, and Oeming seems to have a good time using her here.

There are some nice extras for being a fairly slim trade paperback collection. Michael Turner’s original covers for all five issues are included, along with his variant covers for issues #1 and #2. His Red Sonja is stunning and sexy. You also get two pages of Rubi’s character sketches – a full page of Spidey, plus a page of MJ, Red Sonja, and Venom. The best extra in this collection, however, is the inclusion of Marvel Team-Up #79. And if you’re not familiar with this Chris Claremont and John Byrne written, co-plotted, and penciled story, you’re in for a real treat! In fact, I would seriously recommend you read this story in the back of the collection first, before reading the update by Oeming and Rubi.

In short, with Spider-Man/Red Sonja you get a fun, expanded update on a classic Marvel tale, some gorgeous art (and eye candy), and a bonus from-the-vaults story by a couple of legends reprinted to boot, all for under 15 dollars! That’s good stuff!

Marvel Unbound - Giant-Size Marvel

With today's Marvel Noise podcast comes the third edition of "Marvel Unbound", a new entry here on Random Thoughts Escaping, and fresh opportunity to bandy about the topic in the Marvel Noise forum's "Marvel Unbound" thread. Enjoy!

I picked up the Giant-Size Marvel trade paperback at a comic book show recently. I had flipped through it on the shelf of my local comic book shop numerous times, but couldn't justify pulling the trigger at full price. So when I saw it at the show for half-off the cover price, I figured I had little to loose. To be honest, I was buying it largely for the Giant-Size X-Men #1 issue, which I don't think I had ever read previously, but I was treated to a couple of surprising personal undiscovered gems, along with suffering through a clunker or two.

There are seven "Giant-Size" issues included in the collection with cover dates ranging from June 1974 through June 1975. The defining characteristics of a "giant-size" Marvel comic of the mid-'70s -- a part from the original comics boasting "68 Big Pages" -- appears to be the parsing of the stories into "chapters". And that breaking up of the work into multiple parts sometimes felt a bit forced in a couple of offerings here, particularly in the Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1 and Giant-Size Creatures #1.

The stories captured in Giant-Size Avengers #1 and Giant-Size X-Men #1 are both foundational to their respective titles. The Roy Thomas Avengers issue features the All-Winners Squad in flashbacks and reintroduces the Whizzer to the Marvel U. This is really the first chapter in a storyline that isn't fully resolved until eight years later in the pages of Bill Mantlo's Vision and the Scarlet Witch four-issue mini-series (one of my favorites, and the trade paperback is a potential future installment of "Marvel Unbound"!). Len Wein and Dave Cockrum's X-Men offering turned out to be a solid introduction of now-iconic characters like Storm, Nightcrawler, and Colossus. For being the reason behind this purchase for me, it lived up to the hype.

The Giant-Size Invaders #1 and Giant-Size Creatures #1 were the least satisfying of the bunch. I have never been a huge Invaders fan despite liking Namor, and the Creatures story included here -- featuring Werewolf by Night, Tigra (as "The Were-Woman"?!), and HYDRA was tedious at best. Giant-Size Fantastic Four #4, on the other hand, with the introduction of Madrox, was a lot of fun! And so was Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1 featuring Spider-Man! I had never read a Morbius story before, but have been meaning to get my hands on one since "Backwards" Dave McFall featured the character in his "Bring 'em Back" segment in episode 26 of Marvel Noise. I thought the issue was a lot of fun -- including the use of John Jameson and pulling the Daily Bugle's Joe Robertson in to move the story along, and subtle details like Jameson being on a date at a restaurant with a 666 street number was amusing.

My favorite find in this collection, though, is Giant-Size Defenders #4. Man, what a fun story! I'd forgotten how great the dynamics of this non-team team can be. By way of an Egghead beat-down, Hank Pym's Yellowjacket is cleverly drawn into the story, eventually joining Nighthawk, Doctor Strange, Hulk, and Valkyrie in their battle with the Squadron Sinister. Steve Gerber's oversized tale is wonderfully creative and thoroughly entertaining. By far the most satisfying read of the collection for me, it was a great surprise to find here!

Despite the lack of extras in this collection, the pair of foundational stories, the trio of solidly entertaining books, and even the couple of stories better left in the vault, provide an entertaining snapshot into what the House of Ideas looked like in a thirteen month period nearly 35 years ago. Giant-Size Marvel is worth your time even if you have these buried in a long box somewhere in your collection!