Is He a Good Guy or a Bad Guy?

 

cover art by Bob Budiansky

Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #2 (1980) is hardly a perfect comic book. There are pacing issues; a page panel during a fight scene that is ridiculously dialogue-heavy; and the new character introduced in the issue fails to make any sort of significant splash in the Marvel universe.

But, heck, it's still fun to read.  So I'll forgive its weaknesses. Writer Ralph Macchio and artist Jim Mooney rack up more positives than negatives before the story comes to an end.

It starts with Spidey and a new vigilante called the Rapier stopping a heist at the docks. The Rapier thanks Spidey for the help, then walks away into the night without giving any information about himself. That's fair enough--Rapier himself points out that Spider-Man doesn't give out personal information either. 

Well, there's more going on at the docks than one botched robbery. There's a crime wave going on and, the next day, Peter and Ned Leeds are threatened by thugs when they try to investigate. When Peter returns to the Daily Bugle, he finds yet more thugs. The mob boss Silvermane is there as well, threatening J. Jonah Jameson over crime exposé articles that the Bugle is running. 

One of the strong points of the story is that Macchio remembers an important aspect of J.J.J.'s character. He might be a greedy jerk much of the time and he might have a hang-up about Spider-Man, but he is a determined journalist who doesn't back down from threats. He WILL print the truth. Later, Jonah is obviously affected when Robbie Robertson--perhaps his only real friend--is roughed up. But he still goes ahead with the exposés.

Spider-Man visits Silvermane and, after a nifty fight against the mob boss's goons, threatens Silvermane and tells him to lay off the Bugle. In the meantime, we learn more about the Rapier. He's not a crimefighter looking to help the innocent. Rather, he's a former partner of Silvermane who was double-crossed and left for dead. His goal is to kill his former partner.

Rapier arranges to meet Silvermane at the Met Cloisters--a monastery-turned-museum that is indeed a visually cool place to have a superhero fight. 

Silvermane, of course, tries to cheat by bringing some henchmen along.  Rapier takes them out, reveals his identity to Silvermane and zaps him with an electrified sword. He's about to finish off the mobster when Spider-Man (who had earlier planted a Spidey Tracer on one of Silvermane's men) shows up.

Rapier slashes off Spidey's webshooters and tosses him a sword. What follows is yet another nifty fight, though this is were the dialogue-heavy panel comes in. Even taking into account that Marvel Comics has always cheated a little in how many quips it's possible to make during a fight scene, Spidey delivers an absurdly-long philosophical treatise about the differences between himself and Rapier.

Rapier's girlfriend has arrived and, worried about the man she loves, bashes Spidey over the head. But this just annoys Rapier. Everything has to happen on his terms and Clarissa has spoiled it all. Now he has to start over. He can't finish off Spider-Man. He can't finish off Silvermane. It's all been spoiled.

It's spoiled even more when Silvermane shoots him in the back while he's leaving. Though badly wounded, he does still manage to get away.

That's pretty much it. Introducing Rapier in an annual might indicate that there were hopes the character could make more of a splash, but he pretty much disappears from continuity until he's unceremonously killed off a few years later.  

There is too much dialogue overall and the pacing is therefore too slow in places. But Jim Mooney's fight scenes are all fun and the issue does tell a well-constructed story within the parameters of Aristotelian storytelling conventions. It's an advantage that comic books have over many other storytelling mediums: though great artwork might make us pause to dwell on a particular page or panel, comic books are overall a quick read. As long as there is something good, this allows us to overlook faults. 

Next week, we'll visit with Sgt. Rock. 

Cover Cavalcade

  JUNE IS AVENGERS vs JLA MONTH!!!

February 1976: The Avengers cover is by Gil Kane and the JLA cover by Dick Giordano.

Blowing up Yet Another Super Weapon!

 

cover art by Walt Simonson

Writer David Michelinie and artist Walt Simonson bring this fun and exciting two-parter to a close with Star Wars #52 (October 1981).

Remember where we were? Luke, Leia, the droids and Chewie are aboard the Tarkin, the Empire's new superweapon. They want to destroy it. Darth Vader is also aboard and, sensing Luke's presence, is setting a trap. A cadre of Imperial officers, tired of their comrades regularly getting force-choked by Vader, are planning to assassinate him.

In this issue, we learn that Lando, who had not been assigned to the mission, stowed away on the Millennium Faclon to prove he is indeed now a loyal member of the Rebellion.

This latter plot twist is a happy one, as Lando manages to run a con on some stormtroopers to keep them from confiscating the ship.

Aboard the Tarkin, the Rebel party splits up. Chewie and the droids are to take out the power source for the tractor beam, which Chewie does in a magnificent manner--he throws a stormtrooper into the generator. 

Leia is to secure an escape pod for leaving the ship. She doesn't have as much luck. Though she kills a number of stormtroopers, she has to run for it.

Luke is taking an explosive to the reactor room that powers the superweapon. Vader is waiting for him, but one of those dissatisfied officers opens an airlock in an attempt to blow Vader into space. Both he and Luke manage to claw their way to safety, but Luke has lost his chance to sabotage the weapon.

With some help from R2, who plugs into the ship's computer and uses a deluge of fire-fighting foam to help Luke escape from stormtroopers, everyone rejoins near the hangar deck. 

They steal a transport and escape the Tarkin. Lando, in the Falcon, saves them from some TIE fighters and takes them aboard. Vader comes after them with his personal fighter, but Luke improvises a tactic that leaves Vader's ship damaged. 

The Tarkin attempts to destroy the Falcon with the superweapon, but it turns out that Leia, while running from the escape pods, had taken an opportunity to rewire the weapon. It essentially backfires and blows up the Tarkin.

As I mentioned last week, Star Wars Expanded Universe stories revisited the "Empire has a new superweapon" idea too often, but individual examples of this were often great stories in and of themselves. THIS is a great story. The action aboard the Tarkin is fast-paced, exciting and allows eash of the protagonists to show off his or her skills. Lando's surprise inclusion fits into the tale perfectly. The idea of Imperial officers wanting to kill Vader because he's always killing them is an excellent idea. Simonson's art continues to bring this version of the Star Wars universe to vivid life. 

And Chewie destroying the tractor beam by throwing a stormtrooper into it is the best thing ever.

Next week, we'll return to Earth and visit Basil the Royal Cat.

Cover Cavalcade

  JUNE IS AVENGERS vs JLA MONTH!!!

From February 1975. Nick Cardy drew the JLA cover and Ron Wilson drew the Avengers.

Yet Another Imperial Super Weapon!

 

cover art by Walt Simonson

After the release of The Empire Strikes Back, Marvel's Star Wars comic was in an interesting place. The writers would have no idea how the cliffhanger of Han being captured and frozen would play out. They had no idea what position either the Rebels or the Empire would be in when the next movie eventually came out. So the comic had to come up with good stories that didn't upset the overall continuity too much. Sadly, they had to also avoid using Han Solo. 

It's notable that they still succeeded in telling some good Star Wars stories. In Star Wars #51 (September 1981), writer David Michelinie and artist Walt Simonson give us the first half of a pretty nifty two-parter.

An X-Wing with a dead pilot reaches its base ship. The pilot had been on a spy mission and set the X-Wing's course before he died, knowing the information canister he had was vitally needed by the Rebellion.

What's in that canister? It's a minor irony of the comic that we find out the Empire isn't building a second Death Star (though we learn in the next movie that they were), but are taking the Death Star's planet-destroying laser and strapping engines and defensive systems to it. Same idea, but more compact and defensible. The new weapon is called the Tarkin. Though why you would name it after the ol' Grand Moff after the Death Star was destroyed on his watch is an open question.

If I might digress for a moment, the expanded Star Wars universe really did overdo the notion of the Empire continually building superweapons. The idea is revisited in a number of novels. If the sequel trilogy produced in the 2010s really existed (and we all know now that these films were a collective nightmare that DON'T REALLY EXIST), then we'd have to add the sun-destroying whatever-it-was from The Force Awakens to the list. But many of these stories were individually good, such as the one we are reviewing here.

It also gives Simonson a chance to draw a fantastic full-page panel image of the Tarkin. Simonson was the perfect artist for Star Wars. Or, for that matter, just about any science fiction comic. His imagination and artistry brings SF worlds to vivid life. 

It's decided that the rebels who escaped the Death Star were the perfect commandos to sneak about the Tarkin and somehow destroy it from within. Leia and Luke (each with one of the droids) are on separate missions to find a location for a new Rebel base after the evacuation of Hoth. Chewbacca is with Lando on the Millennium Falcon, searching for Boba Fett and Han. Each group has a mini-adventure of their own before being recalled for their new mission.

Lando is left behind, with a scene that tells us not everyone trusts him after his betrayal of Han on Bespin. The others travel to a spaceport from which workers are being transported to the Tarkin. They mug a couple of workers for uniforms and Luke uses the Force to convince a Stormtrooper they are all on the passenger manifest so they can board the next shuttle to the Tarkin.

But Vader is aboard the Tarkin as well and he senses Luke's presence. And, to add to the complexity of the situation, the issue ends with a panel that tells us a bunch of Imperial officers, sick of Vader's habit of killing anyone who makes a mistake, plan to assassinate the Sith Lord. 

It's a good story with a great setup for the next issue. Simonson's art is perfect. The mini-adventures might have existed because the page count would have been short otherwise, but they are fun in and of themselves. They also give each of the protagonists a chance to shine. Besides, in Star Wars, a hero really can't go anywhere without getting into some sort of adventure. It's that sort of galaxy.

It's a story set when the original SW heroes were still heroes, not grumpy, cynical old men. It's a story written during a time when Star Wars was still fun.

We'll look at Part 2 next week. 

Cover Cavalcade

  JUNE IS AVENGERS vs JLA MONTH!!!

From February 1974. The JLA cover is by Nick Cardy; the Avengers by Jim Starlin.

Man-Wolf Goes to Space, Part 4

 

cover art by George Perez

Marvel Premiere #46 (February 1979) brings Man-Wolf's epic Space Opera adventure to a close. The script is still by David Kraft. For this final issue, George Perez does the breakdowns and Ricardo Villamonte does the finished art.

We left off last time with Man-Wolf and one companion (Gorjoon) seeking to rescue their companions from the palace of Tyrk, the ruthless dictator. 

The trouble is that Tyrk's palace floats in the air well above them.

But the moonstone is still increasing Man-Wolf's strength. Using this strength means that a rope tied to a spear will give them a way to climb up. 

There's some great dialogue between Man-Wolf and the scared but still determined Gorjoon during the sequence, adding a little bit of humor to the otherwise tense situation. But when they reach the palace, things get tense once again. His companions who were captured in the previous issue are chained and about to be tortured. Man-Wolf violently objects to this and soon, after freeing some other prisoners as well, he's leading the good guys in a charge towards Tyrk's throne room.

But the charge is stopped dead when they reach the throne room. Over the last few issues of this story, there's been a sub-plot set back on Earth in which someone has kidnapped John's girlfriend Kristine Saunders. Now we find out that it was Tyrk who did that kidnapping.

Man-Wolf has a choice. Surrender or watch the woman he loves die. (Tyrk, of course, is planning on killing her no matter what.)

Man-Wolf opts to take a third option--allowing himself to access the full god-powers of the stone. Soon, stuff starts exploding.

It turns out, though, that only the bad guys blew up. Kristine is safe and the dimension is free from its evil ruler. 

There's one more scare before the story ends. Kristine goes through a portal back to Earth. But before Man-Wolf can follow, a not-quite-dead Tyrk destroys the portal. At first, it seems John Jameson is getting the tragic ending that all werewolf characters seemed destined to get. But John is able to use the last of his god powers to force himself through the dimensional barrier to Earth.

Hey, a werewolf gets a happy ending! 

Kraft and the artists bring this epic to a satisfying conclusion. Villamonte does justice to Perez's breakdowns, bringing the well-written story to vivid life. And the happy ending fits. Not every werewolf story has to end tragically. This time, the happy ending is earned.

What'll we look at next week? Well, with Disney doing such a good job of destroying Star Wars in modern day, it might be nice to look back at a time when Star Wars was still fun. 

Cover Cavalcade

 JUNE IS AVENGERS vs JLA MONTH!!!

From February 1973: The JLA cover is by Nick Cardy and the Avengers by Rich Buckler. 

Cover Cavalcade

 JUNE IS AVENGERS vs. JLA MONTH!!!

Two Neal Adams covers, both in issues cover dated February 1972.

Cover Cavalcade

 MAY IS POST-APOCALYPTIC FUTURE MONTH!!!!

Killraven is having a bad day in the Herb Trimpe cover from 1974.

Man Wolf Goes to Space, Part 3

 

cover art by George Perez

Three stinkin' years. That's how long it had been since the publication of Creatures on the Loose #37 in 1975, after publishing the second part of a 4-part Man -Wolf/Space Opera epic. I wonder what the sales for the next two issues of Marvel Premiere were. In those ancient days, many of us were still depending on spinner racks at the local 7/11 to find our comics. We may have long forgotten poor Man-Wolf's dilemma by the time Marvel Premiere #45 (December 1978) came out, or we might have missed it on the inconsistently stocked spinner racks. 

Well, if nothing else, that George Perez cover is eye-catching.

And his interior art, (with the script by David Kraft), is equally awesome. The story left off with John Jameson and three warriors from another dimension escaping a space station and heading for the moon. But the moonlight turned Jameson into Man-Wolf, who (unlike his human counterpart) is not a skilled space pilot.

So we pick up with the ship crashed on the moon and the three warriors unconscious. Man-Wolf, though, rips his way out of the ship. Something protects him from the lack of atmosphere and temperature extremes as he's drawn in a particular direction.

He enters a cave, passes through a dimensional gateway and ends up in another dimension. (The three warriors join him soon after, linking up with the other people Man-Wolf meets.)

Suddenly, Man-Wolf can think--Jameson's personality is in control. And he can communicate telepathically with the others. He discovers that this dimension's Stargod had grown old and created the gate to travel to our moon and die there, thus sparing his home dimension the effects of his decay.

John found the Stargod's stone, but not enough energy from the Stargod's home dimension leaked through to give John access to the stone's full powers. Thus, he was stuck being a mindless werewolf until now.

There's quite a bit of exposition here, as we also learn that this small band of warriors is battling the ruthless dictator who rules the dimension. But the information is delivered to us quickly and Perez's art continues to pop off the page, so the pacing of the tale does not suffer.

Man-Wolf agrees to help them. They charge into battle on flying beasts and are soon locked in combat with the dictator's undead minions.

So an astronaut/werewolf armed with a sword leads a ragtag band of extra-dimensional rebels flying dragon/pegasus hybrids into battle against undead warriors. THIS is why I love comic books.

The battle does not go well. Two of the rebels are killed. Man-Wolf and another rebel are knocked out of the sky. The remainder are captured.

But the war isn't over. When Man-Wolf sees the corpse of one of the rebels, he vows revenge.

One can argue that the moon-stone that turns John Jameson into a monster didn't need any more of a back story than "it's magic/super-science of some sort." But here, David Kraft and George Perez give that stone a super-cool origin that tosses Man-Wolf into a Space Opera epic, effectively stitching together a lot of bizarre cool elements to satisfy the nerdist of nerds. And it ends with a very effective cliffhanger.

But we will not be looking at the conclusion next week, I'm afraid. My wife and I are off to Germany to take a river cruise down the Danube and (I'm assuming/hoping) use brilliant deductive reasoning to solve a murder along the way. That means a two-week break in both Wednesday and Thursday posts. Be patient. We'll look at the last part of this story in three weeks.