Spidey Omnibus Commentary: AMZ S #206

And so continues the commentary for the Spidey Omnibus by Roger Stern.  Today, it’s Amazing # 206.

Pg 1: Opens with a delusional JJ Jameson being tormented by little imaginary Spider-Men floating around his head.  Nice touch to setup what follows.

Pg 2: Villain of the month, Jonas Harrow, outlines his plan to “DRIVE MEN MAD” with an invention he calls the Variator Ray.  Variator … kinda sounds like a Transformer.

Pg 3-4: A lot–and I mean A LOT of text–to give readers a heads up on the story so far.

Pg: 6: Harrow turns his V ray on Dr. Madison and Robbie.  Dr. Madison–while waving a letter opener in the air–actually tells Robbie, “KEEP AWAY FROM ME, OR I’ll CUT YOU!”–hilarious.

The rest of this issue was really pretty “meh.”  Spidey saves JJJ, JJJ blames Spidey for something he didn’t do, and so on.  I guess if the villain had been more of a one note guy, the story would have been more interesting.  Or, at the very least, I would have heard of him before now.

Superheroes in Prose Volume 11: The Princess of Atlantis, on sale Winter 2015

Spidey Omnibus Commentary: PPSS 43

Cindy gave me one of the best-est Christmas presents ever this year: Roger Stern’s Spider-Man Omnibus.  I read a lot of these issues as a kid, and I thought it would be cool to revisit them … and a little cooler to give a running commentary on the experience.

Beginning with the first issues in the Omnibus: Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #43 …

Pg 1: The name of the story is awesome, I don’t care what year you’re in: Pretty Poison (and the “i” is a beaker).

Pg 2: Peter Parker’s hair has a Superman curl.  How long did he have a Superman curl?

Pg 3: Thug uses the sentence “What the devil?!”  It’s my goal today to use that sentence–somehow, someway.

Pg 4: Peter tosses a spider-tracer onto a thug’s ankle, instead of firing it from a web-shooter.  That is geek-ily interesting.

Pg 6: The villain introduces herself: Madam Belladonna.  I dig the name, but it kinda feels like a villain for the Shadow.

Pg 9: Spidey rescues another ingrate.

Pg 11: Peter creates an antidote to Belladonna’s poison: vinegar.  I don’t know if the science behind any of this is accurate, and–really–I’m afraid to look it up.  Anytime something like this proves false, it’s kind of like finding out there is no Santa Clause all over again.

Pg 12: Belladonna reappears, smoking through a cigarette holder.  What an entrance.

Pg 13: The vinegar doesn’t seem to be doing its job. Spidey makes a web-mask.  Man, that thing would have to be an absolute pain in the ass to breathe through …

Last page: Spidey saves the day, but Bella gets away.  In true Peter Parker fashion, our hero spends the last panel kicking himself right in the crotch of guilt.

Fun read.  I’m SO looking forward to the rest of the book.

Superheroes in Prose Volume 11: The Princess of Atlantis, on sale Winter 2015

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Superheroes in Prose Volume 10: Two Rocks and a Hard Place

Volume 10 of Superheroes in Prose is now available in the kindle store!

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