Rating:  -
One of the BEST Spider-man Essentials, I gotta say...the stuff in here is GOOD! We open up with a couple issue arc involving Aunt May, Doc Ock and Hammerhead, move over into the Destroyer story, a two-issue Spidey and the Hulk BEAT-'EM UP in Canada, then KAPOW!! The Green Goblin returns, kills Gwen Stacy, turns the comic book universe into the dark side of the moon, and subsequently dies at his own hands (later retconned in...that...clone saga...ugh...) And from there it's a riptide of friends, foes, and heartache all in the classic Spidey fashion! From Man-Wolf to the PUNISHER (cough cough) to the Tarantula and the Molten Man, to the return of Liz Allen and the Vulture's sickening schemes, Doc Ock and Aunt May's marriage (WHAT??!!!), all concluding in a nice little, innocent two issue story where we learn (Although they build up to it for about 14 issues) that Peter's best friend has gone insane, rigged himself in the kooky outfit that Gwen Stacy's killer wore, and threatens to destroy everything Spidey holds dear!
Well now, the writing of this milestone in Spidey history is okay, I liked Stan the Man better, but Conway takes up the stead all right, although killing one of the nicest characters in the Spidey mythos makes him branded for sure. This begins with Gil Kane's art, which is now (thankfully) a LOT better than his TERRIBLE run from Spidey #99-105 (He did alright in the issues before that...doesn't make sense) and slowly moves in to Ross Andru's art which I actually like EXCEPT for when he once drew Mary Jane...yuck.
All in all, this is a great collection that any Spidey fan should surely add to their collection.
Rating:  -
He is considered by many, including myself, to be one of the GREATEST comic-book pencillers EVER. The man has a point- it IS generally accepted that kane's faces are some of the worst in the biz... they seem to have "snouts," I kid you not - but his layouts, composition, and anatomy (don't know WHERE that guy gets off) are brilliant. In fact, I find Kane's spidey to be one of the best renditions of the post-silver age, and LOTS of people seem to agree... and spidey doesn't even HAVE a nose while in costume, so Kane's facial eccentricities don't even come into play as it concerns our favorite web-headed wallcrawler. Jeez, the gall to dis GIL KANE...?!?! Next we'll be hearing how "terrible" Ross Andru's work was, and how "flawlessly rendered" Frank Miller's initial attempts at Spidey were...sheesh!
If anything, the WRITING is pretty weak and dated in these stories... I gotta go with the guy who was talking about Morbius being one of the most ridiculous spidey villains EVER! But classics are classics, and this is as classic as they come, so if you like spidey, pick it up already!
Rating: -
The sixth volume in the Essential Spider-Man series does not disappoint. Though Stan Lee steps down as script writer and artists change, the integrity of the original series is maintained admirably. True, story and art quality tend to be somewhat uneven from time to time, but the overall tone and spirit of the comic still shines through--Spider-Man as the good and decent but always beleagered super hero, eternally faced with agonizing decisions, choices, losses. Characterization in the first Spider-Man series was always unusually good for a comic book, and it is something of a minor miracle that reasonably consistent high quality was maintained through four decades, although the series tended to grow darker and edgier over time. In any case this volume, like the five that preceded it, was a joy to read for a long-time fan like me, who grew up in the sixties and seventies. It's a thousand pities that the second series, which revamped the whole Spider-Man saga, lacks the heart, wit and appeal of the original. With insipid art, sophomoric humor, and cynical tone, the second series is unlikely ever to make it into an "essential" format, nor is the embarrassingly adolescent character now portrayed as Spider-Man likely to win over all the fans the original did. Sarcasm passes for humor, sexy innuendo for tenderness, and a scrawny, awkward-looking little gremlin takes the place of the once-grown man in hero's costume. Luckily the original still lives on in the "essential" volumes, and, with all the comic stores and web sites selling back issues, the original Spider-Man will be with us for a long, long time.
|
