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