The Intermediate Era After the Clone Saga Before the Volume 2 Relaunch

[Mister Mets]

Spectacular Spider-Man #246
In this mostly single-issue story, some of Spider-Man’s lamest enemies have teamed up. It’s ridiculous and fun since they’re not very competent. Artist Luke Ross is able to show off his storytelling and comic timing, which weren’t necessarily a given.
JM Dematteis has a time-honored tradition of focusing on silliness after something grim. Editor Glenn Greenberg is the scripter over his plot, and does a good enough job that this feels like a standard JMD issue. It does set up a new development for two D-list villains that has some fun follow-ups.
There may be some tonal inconsistencies between the silly main plot and the subplots. Flash has a grim scene when he realizes that his drinking has gone too far. A scene where Jonah encounters the new Jack O’Lantern is funny, but sets up a dark cliffhanger. Kafka has troubles at Ravencroft after Chameleon’s escape, and I like how Spidey is conflicted, recognizing that she means well but that her mistake has hurt him.
A-


Tonally, this was a little weird in an issue about Spider-Man fighting his lamest foes, right?

Peter Parker Spider-Man #81
Spider-Man and Betty Brant get involved in a case of a kidnapped child, while martial artist Shen Kuei AKA the Cat attacks New York City’s underworld.
Decent atmosphere and storytelling by Romita Jr. A crime story is in his wheelhouse, and there are some fun sequences like criminals ecstatic to see Spidey.
It is a bit repetitive. This is not the first story where Peter’s complaining about money now that he’s back in college, so he takes on a new assignment. Usually references to Peter’s lost child are handled with more subtlety.
It’s getting to be annoying to have multiple series with their own crime wars, and it’s a bit distracting to consider the implications of the Cat effortlessly beating the holy hell out of various crime figures. He had previously been a Shang Chi enemy, although his last appearance had been a decade earlier and this seems to be the first time he isn’t written by Doeg Moench, so it’s a deep cut. It’s a story Mackie wanted to tell. I just don’t think it’s very good.
C

[Mister Mets]

Flashback month was a weird gimmick where every comic book had a #-1 issue set years earlier, typically seeding some kind of conflict in the main saga.



Spectacular Spider-Man #-1
This is a good use of the format to go into the formative experiences of a supporting character, to provide context for their struggles in the main book. In this case, JMD and Luke Ross explore early encounters between Peter Parker and Flash Thompson.

The style’s a little weird, but it fits the nostalgic mood. The insight into Flash is excellent. The story is messy and complex in its depiction of addiction. It is one of the most “mature” (in the best sense of the word Spider-Man comics ever written.) And it does earn some big moments, like Peter's first encounter with Flash and his realization about the nickname.
B+

Sensational Spider-Man #-1

This is pretty much just filler, exploring Peter’s comic book fandom and since this was before Fantastic Four #1, he’s a fan of Marvel’s late 50s monster comics. Whether you want this to exist or not depends on whether you like the idea of Mike Wieringo and Uncle Ben fighting Silver Age Marvel monsters. I think it’s fine that this exists.
B

[Mister Mets]

Peter Parker Spider-Man #-1
It’s an okay idea to have a spotlight on the Stacy brothers, especially with Arthur Stacy & his children becoming major supporting characters. It’s a story about them getting into conflict with Norman Osborn, due to his connection to a villain who is a proto-Goblin.

Fill-in artist Dan Fraga has a bit on an anime style that was in vogue at the time, but he’s not just on the level of Joe Mad or Pat Lee. There’s an amateurish quality that extends to the writing. It all seems so stiff. Howard Mackie is known as a writer very reliant on his artists, and this shows what happens when he doesn’t have someone on the level of John Romita Jr or Mark Texeira. His biggest talent might be giving star artists flexibility and that just didn’t happen here.
The depiction of Captain Stacy as antagonistic towards Norman contradicts his earlier characterization when they were friends.
And despite the promise made in the issue we never see the Proto-Goblin again. Which is fine by me.
D

Amazing Spider-Man #-1

We get another story about Peter loving comic books when he was a teen, and Bennet’s cartoony style for the dream scenes fits okay. It is a bit of an artistic contrast with flashbacks to the Daily Bugle, and the New York crime scene. I do like the connection between Fortunato and a pivotal scene in Daredevil: The Man Without Fear. I also like that Fortunato has a bigger role in an Amazing Spider-Man comic, since the concurrent crime sagas in this book and Peter Parker Spider-Man are kinda jarring.
There’s also a three page sequence about Peter’s stats before he got bitten by a spider, which is fun, but shows how this issue just seems very disjointed and tossed together. There is still a message about the need for someone like Spider-Man to answer the title question "Where have all the heroes gone?"
B

[Mister Mets]

Sensational Spider-Man #16-18
It’s a structurally weird story with three different artists, separated by the flashback issue, but then there’s the way three different stories interact. The Vulture’s back in town, and someone stole the Prowler’s gear. A back-up saga in the first two issues features DK, an obscure Ben Reilly foe whose method of killing people reminds Peter of how things ended for Ben. And the last issue brings it all together as DK interferes in a fight between Spider-Man and the Vulture.
There’s some good stuff, but it’s kind of a mess. I do like the dynamic of Peter having to work with a really green reporter. Anna Watson is no Aunt May, but there is a decent scene of MJ trying to cover for Peter. I like how the Savage Land saga got buried to Page 17, and the dynamic of Peter being more assertive against Jonah; they’ve worked together for a decade and Peter is confident enough to know when he can call the shots.
The intersections between the different superhero plots are a bit convenient, and it also feels weird in the context of all the other Spider-Man titles. Especially when Kafka’s still in Ravencroft. She seemed to get fired in Spectacular Spider-Man, and given her screw-ups there, it was probably the right call.
B-



Amazing Spider-Man #425
This issue does sell the significant of a rematch between Spider-Man and an silver age villain who is major but not in his top five. The basics work: Electro got an upgrade from a comic boss, but he’s more interesting in resolving old slights than making his bosses money. Spider-Man is still pissed after how the last fight went, when a guy whose life he saved made him beg for his own life. He asks his new buddy X-Man for advice, and the younger version of Cable recommends a lobotomy for Electro.
The execution of the A-plot isn’t bad. Skroce is an acquired taste, and he wasn’t able to meet schedules, but there’s an energy to his work. I like the connection to other titles. The assault on Jonah in Spectacular #246 is relevant here, both to affecting Peter’s mood as well as the subplot of the worst problem in the Robinson marriage.
But it is a bit meh. It seems like the raw material could have been an all-time great Spider-Man comic, but the result here is a comic that’s fine.
B

[Mister Mets]

Spectacular Spider-Man #247-249
This three parter seems to exist mainly to move along subplots. J Jonah Jameson recovers from a vicious beating. Flash Thompson struggles with alcoholism and has ugly encounters with his family. A new version of the Jack O’Lantern calls himself Mad Jack, and seems to have supernatural powers. Kraven the Hunter seems to have returned. Norman Osborn makes a move. Peter’s vertigo keeps acting up. And someone seems to have the ability to control John Jameson, which leads to the closest thing to a standard A-plot for this set of issues.

The result is that these issues are kind of a mixed bag. Luke Ross is okay as an artist, and decent with facial expressions at times, but he doesn’t quite have the subtlety of DeMatteis’ strongest collaborators like Sal Buscema, Mark Bagley or Mike Zeck, and some of his decisions (like cheesecake sequences with Marla Madison taking a shower) don’t quite gel with the serious, psychological tone. A subplot of Mary Jane getting aggravated all the times Peter has to save people as Spider-Man is rather lightweight. There is some decent character development for Jonah, Flash and their families.
B

[exile001]

I'm as big of a Sal Buscema fan as anyone, but I don't know if "subtlety" is a word I'd often use to describe his work. Lol.

Keep the reviews coming, I'm really enjoying revisiting this period.

[Mister Mets]

Peter Parker Spider-Man #82-84
This is an odd stretch of issues in which Spider-Man is hit hard by vertigo, and ends up fighting both the Shocker and the Juggernaut, while the Friends of Humanity (an anti-mutant hate group) starts making inroads in Empire State University.
There’s some good stuff. John Romita Jr remains an impressive artist, and this arc lets him experiment. I like the idea of anti-mutant prejudice affecting the Spider-Man comics. There are some decent character moments, like Peter explaining to Paul Stacy why a door that he had webbed up was so hard to open. Paul’s suspicion of mutants connecting to his feelings about Spider-Man makes sense. There’s a solid scene where MJ has a lonely conversation with a marriage counselor, because Peter’s doing more important things, and it does get to the experimentation that was always part of the Spider-Man comics.

The depiction of the Friends of Humanity is quite clumsy. This is a story that tries to tackle serious issues like discrimination, and that message is lost with all the assaults and efforts at murder committed by mutants and their allies.
The bad guys are not depicted well. First Spider-Man stumbles into a fight with the Shocker while he’s struggling to get down from a building, which makes sense as a potential threat, but the execution sucks. He later stumbles into another fight with the Juggernaut, where they mention Marvel Team Up #150 but not the more famous Juggernaut encounter- a lost opportunity with John Romita Jr on board. The fight itself isn’t that interesting, padded out until Juggernaut realizes that Spider-Man’s not actually getting in his way.

The big vertigo mystery is resolved on the last two pages. That scene has a good sense of Spider-Man’s voice, but a god-awful sense of timing.
C (Grading is weird in that there’s decent John Romita Jr art, but that also suggests that an artist’s valuable time was wasted here. It is worth reading once, so that's my criteria for a C.)

[CaptainUniverse]

I wonder how much of this era of Spider-Man has been collected in trades. I know Identity Crisis was collected in a single volume but I am not sure what else would have this era collected in it.

[bob.schoonover]

I wonder how much of this era of Spider-Man has been collected in trades. I know Identity Crisis was collected in a single volume but I am not sure what else would have this era collected in it.

Gathering of Five, Final Chapter, Spider-Hunt (preceding Identity Crisis), and Hobgoblin Lives (which contains the SSM story Goblin at the Gates) I think are it for Spider-man-centric trades (and I think all of them are out of print). There's an issue of ASM in the second X-Man collection, and probably a few other strays like that, but I can't think of anything else . . .

[IamnotJudasTraveller]

Peter Parker Spider-Man #82-84

I think the only noteworthy thing about this three-parter is how Mackie and Romita decided to use Judas Traveller for a joke. I'd been meaning to bring that up for a long while now but never saw the opening - this is a good one as any. The Shocker starts tailing Spider-Man in the first part, but his silhouette is literally rendered as Judas', with long flowing hair and whatnot. He also keeps going on about wanting to meet Spider-Man "to talk about the past".

Then when he does show up, pretty much all you see is just him suited up as usual, he drops his flowery language about catching up with the past and pretty much goes on about wanting to get rid of Spider-Man for good. Well, unless Mackie WANTED to do a Traveller story and editorial slapped his hand or something but a little too late in the game and he had to pivot. I noticed a few glaring misconnects between DeFalco and Skroce when I reread some of the issues, as I had only gone through them back in the day when they first released, and it's curious to wonder if there was some friction.

One way or another, this gag aside, not only is it a really milquetoast story dealing with Spider-Man, he himself is terribly inefficient and instead of it being a fluke due to his condition with the vertigo, Mackie's string on having Peter not score much of a win will continue for at least two more arcs IIRC.

[HypnoHustler]

I wonder how much of this era of Spider-Man has been collected in trades. I know Identity Crisis was collected in a single volume but I am not sure what else would have this era collected in it.

Beside the trades mentioned, you can find most of the ASM and Sensational issues on Comixology. Spec and adjectivess aren’t collected (I think Spec might have 1 or 2 random issues uploaded). It’s frustrating. Not sure where MisterMets gets his copies, but it’s nice to see some of these old books again.

[HypnoHustler]

[

The big vertigo mystery is resolved on the last two pages. That scene has a good sense of Spider-Man’s voice, but a god-awful sense of timing.
C (Grading is weird in that there’s decent John Romita Jr art, but that also suggests that an artist’s valuable time was wasted here. It is worth reading once, so that's my criteria for a C.)

Maybe I’m a cheap date, but I enjoyed the issue with Devon. It might be my nostalgia due to the Daily Grind cast largely disappearing as soon as Ben Reilly died, but I thought it was a decent issue. No “Nothing Can Stop the Juggarnaut” of course, which it’s copying/homaging but enjoyable.

And I still can’t decide if having Peter’s like 6 month long vertigo subplot being resolved as a mundane inner-ear infection to be a lame anticlimax or an ingenious subversion of expectations. Probably a bit of both.

[Mister Mets]

Spider-Man Unlimited #17
Peter investigates a mystery where someone is donating high-tech custom ties to orphanages, and he realizes that is a likely connection to Mendell Stromm, the Robot Master, who came back from the dead at the tail end of the Clone Saga. Meanwhile, Arthur Stacy decides it’s time for a chat.
The story takes advantage of the double-length format, so that we don’t immediately need to get to the traditional superhero fight scene. I like the procedural aspects as Peter & company actually do some investigative work. It also works to tie up this loose end. Peter has some solid interactions with Betty Brant, and interacts more with Arthur Stacy than he has in the main titles.
Editor Glenn Greenberg takes over as writer. He’s okay. Joe Bennet does the art. I liked him better on ASM 422-423 but he’s fine. When the big fight scene occurs it is quite abrupt. And a lot of this story is things they’ve seen plenty of times in other titles, like Peter being late because of the stuff he has to do as Spider-Man, or being a little morose around children given his recent loss (this does lead to a good scene for Betty realizing what she’s putting Peter through.) It often feels clunky. It's not terrible, but it's not impressive either.
B-



Sensational Spider-Man #19-20
A young woman appears to be possessed by the Living Monolith. This has a slightly odd history, initially appearing during the classic Roy Thomas/ Neal Adams X-Men run, and then returning in a two parter in the Claremont/ Byrne Marvel Team Up run (which has probably developed a higher profile in the last few years than it had at this time when Dezago & company decided it was worth bringing this particular baddie back.
Richard Case is the artist, and he’s a decent fill-in for Mike Wieringo. Their styles are similar enough, and he is a solid storyteller, which is my rule for determining if someone with an atypical style was a good artist. He seems like someone who would be at home at an animated series tie-in, although those books probably don’t pay as well as a Spider-Man satellite.

This is essentially a story where Spider-Man gets involved in someone else’s adventure. That makes sense when you have four ongoing monthly titles, along with the quarterly Unlimited series and various one-shots mini-series and annuals. It’s largely filler, with Dezago having a good sense of Spidey’s voice. The villain is a bit cheesecake at times, and it ultimately ends up being a superhero origin story, although not one anyone cared to revisit.
B-

[Mister Mets]

Maybe I’m a cheap date, but I enjoyed the issue with Devon. It might be my nostalgia due to the Daily Grind cast largely disappearing as soon as Ben Reilly died, but I thought it was a decent issue. No “Nothing Can Stop the Juggarnaut” of course, which it’s copying/homaging but enjoyable.

And I still can’t decide if having Peter’s like 6 month long vertigo subplot being resolved as a mundane inner-ear infection to be a lame anticlimax or an ingenious subversion of expectations. Probably a bit of both.

I think they could have made it work, but the execution was just so lazy, handling it in the last two pages of the comic.

Spidey did get an ulcer in the early 70s under Stan Lee, so the concept of getting vertigo from an ear infection isn't terrible.

I think the only noteworthy thing about this three-parter is how Mackie and Romita decided to use Judas Traveller for a joke. I'd been meaning to bring that up for a long while now but never saw the opening - this is a good one as any. The Shocker starts tailing Spider-Man in the first part, but his silhouette is literally rendered as Judas', with long flowing hair and whatnot. He also keeps going on about wanting to meet Spider-Man "to talk about the past".

Then when he does show up, pretty much all you see is just him suited up as usual, he drops his flowery language about catching up with the past and pretty much goes on about wanting to get rid of Spider-Man for good. Well, unless Mackie WANTED to do a Traveller story and editorial slapped his hand or something but a little too late in the game and he had to pivot. I noticed a few glaring misconnects between DeFalco and Skroce when I reread some of the issues, as I had only gone through them back in the day when they first released, and it's curious to wonder if there was some friction.

One way or another, this gag aside, not only is it a really milquetoast story dealing with Spider-Man, he himself is terribly inefficient and instead of it being a fluke due to his condition with the vertigo, Mackie's string on having Peter not score much of a win will continue for at least two more arcs IIRC.

I did notice that the silhouette version of the Shocker had long hair, but I didn't think about the Judas Traveler reference.

That is probably what they were going for, but I didn't notice since I knew that Judas Traveler disappeared from Marvel until recent X-Men issues.

I'm as big of a Sal Buscema fan as anyone, but I don't know if "subtlety" is a word I'd often use to describe his work. Lol.

Keep the reviews coming, I'm really enjoying revisiting this period.

Fair point. Let's say that Sal Buscema can depict nuance, or various levels of emotional states.

[IamnotJudasTraveller]

I did notice that the silhouette version of the Shocker had long hair, but I didn't think about the Judas Traveler reference.

That is probably what they were going for, but I didn't notice since I knew that Judas Traveler disappeared from Marvel until recent X-Men issues.

The funniest thing to me is that back in the day, when I began reading, I had the luck of the draw of all Spidey comics I managed to get my hands on to never feature an unmasked rendition of the Shocker. So I went "well, okay, he might look like that".

And then I find out many decades after the fact that the guy has consistently looked like this in the mainline universe. I'm sure a long haired Shocker might have happened here and there at one point, he's been around for literal decades as well. But even the mustache? The flowery language?


It was more likely some sort of joke since at that point no one had lost love for J.T. (well, DeMatteis probably did, but the word was out in the street to run as far away from stuff from the Clone Saga as much as possible) and DeFalco was just hurrying along with Greenberg's suggestions to explain him away. Still, for any first time readers (much like myself), you just went "so, why was that guy a big deal and then he was unceremoniously dropped like a stone"? I don't really think Traveller'd become one of the greats in Spidey's rogues or anything, but his exit left a whole lot to be desired and this was (still is, a bit!) a whole lot more confusing than anything else at the time.

This also has nothing to do with anything, but I've just thought about it for a while that were it up to me, I'd honestly title the "intermediary period", such as it is, "The Osborn Years". It kinda crept back up into the late stages of the relaunch, but the guy was literally inescapable at the time (and I do think the books suffered for it - it's one thing to have an overarching antagonist, but this seemed overkill IMO).