Spider-Man Visionaries: Roger Stern

Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #206, Spectacular Spider-Man #43-52, #54
Written by Roger Stern, Marv Wolfman, Steve Leialoha.
Penciled by John Byrne, Marie Severin, Mike Zeck, Jim Mooney, Steve Leialoha, Denys Cowan, John Romita Jr.
Inked by Gene Day, Steve Mitchell, Alan Gordon, Bruce Patterson, Jim Mooney, Dave Humphrys, Josef Rubenstein.  


J. Jonah Jameson, publisher of the Daily Bugle and Spider-Man's harshest critic has gone insane. He's been forced to step down from the Bugle and been committed to a mental hospital. The source of Jameson's mania turns out to be mad scientist Jonas Harrow' s Response Variator Ray. 

Jameson escapes from the hospital, but his freedom is short-lived as he is captured and imprisoned by Harrow. At the same time, Harrow has aimed the Variator Ray at the Daily Bugle offices, causing Bugle employees to attack one another. Only Spider-Man can save Jameson and stop Harrow.

Spider-Man avoids Jonas Harrow's Response Variator Ray.

Later, Spidey finds himself in the middle of a gang war that starts in the fashion world. A crime boss who calls herself Madame Belladona and her gang target designer Roderick Kingsley for stealing her fashion ideas. Spider-Man saves Kingsley, but Belladonna gets away, after stunning the webhead with her neo-atropine gas.

Belladonna gasses Spider-Man & escapes.

Next, Spidey's old foe the Vulture is back in New York. This time he's working with his nephew Malachai Toomes and attempting to take over organized crime in the city. Another crime boss named "Black Alfred" Tooks challenges the Vulture and Spidey is caught in the middle. Vulture comes closer than ever to finishing Spider-Man.

Spidey battles Cobra on a rooftop.

Following that battle, the Cobra escapes from Rykers Island. He leaves his partner Mr. Hyde behind in prison and heads for New York. Spider-Man catches Cobra in the act of robbing a jewelry store and a battle ensues. 

Shortly thereafter, a murder occurs and Spider-Man investigates. The killer is the Prowler, a former criminal who has since renounced crime. Spidey is shocked by the Prowler's return to villainy, but it turns out to be a new Prowler. We soon learn that the Prowler was hired to make the hit by Belladonna.  Things change fast when she turns on the Prowler. Spider-Man must bring them both to justice and try not to get killed in the process.

The Prowler takes a shot a Spidey in the Garment District.

Subsequently, Spider-Man recognizes a member of a criminal gang and chases him. This leads Spidey to a smuggling operation headed by a costumed criminal who calls himself the Smuggler. Spider-Man quickly dispatches of Smuggler and his gang, then turns them over to the police.

Spider-Man slugs it out with the Smuggler.

The next day, Peter and his girlfriend Debra Whitman meet up with Aunt May for dinner. Peter's a bit nervous, since May is bringing along her fiance, Nathan Lubensky. He's not sure how he feels about someone marrying his Aunt, who has been like a mother and who is all the family he has left.

Peter & Aunt May's lunch is interrupted by alien waiters!

But before Peter and May have a chance to talk, they're attacked by aliens. These aliens have fought Spider-Man before, when they worked as minions of the Terrible Tinkerer. But this time they've teamed up with Mysterio! Peter lets Mysterio and the aliens take him prisoner (so they won't harm Aunt May). But they're in for a shock when they learn they've unknowingly brought Spider-Man into the picture!

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At the same time, the White Tiger (who is also Peter's friend Hector Ayala) is investigating the murder of his family. This brings White Tiger face to face with a paramilitary organization led by the super-villain known as Gideon Mace. This results in Mace shooting White Tiger. Ayala survives the shooting, but his career as a crimefighter is over. Spider-Man sets out to capture Mace and pursues justice for the White Tiger.  

White Tiger investigates his parents' murder.

Last but not least, Spider-Man must rescue the Smuggler. The NYPD tells Spidey that the Smuggler had been working for the Maggia crime organization. When Maggia learns that the Smuggler is planning to turn state's evidence, they capture him from police custody. We also learn that the Smuggler is Erik Josten, who suffered many defeats to the Avengers under the name Power Man.  

Spidey & Smuggler team up against the Maggia samurais.

Spider-Man learns that Josten is being held captive on a boat called the Chrysanthemum And The Sword, which is a floating Japanese restaurant. The Maggia owns the boat and has it protected by samurai warriors. Spidey and the Smuggler will have to team up if they want to make it off the boat alive.

Review:

I have to confess to being a bit biased here. Back in 1980, I received a copy of Spectacular Spider-Man (SSM) #43 as an Easter present, and I remember buying Amazing Spider-Man #206 off the spinner racks like it was yesterday. But after re-reading these stories, I can say objectively that they're still very good.  

Story:

The first story reprinted here presented Roger Stern with a difficult task: J. Jonah Jameson went insane and disappeared from Amazing Spider-Man (ASM) for the better part of a year. Stern had to bring him back in a fill-in issue. It's a good story and Stern does a nice job returning JJJ to the Spidey-verse and restoring the status quo.

The bulk of this tpb contains stories from SSM. At the time, it was considered the "lesser" Spider-Man title, but Stern treated it like an A-list series and I can say these stories are better than what was offered in ASM at the time. 

These tales are reminiscent of early Stan Lee-Steve Ditko Spidey stories. The wall-crawler mostly deals with gang wars and street-level baddies rather than super-powered would-be conquerors. It's nice to see Spider-Man placed in some grittier-than-usual scenarios.    

But we also get appearances by classic villains Mysterio and the Vulture. Plus, Stern gives us a good retcon involving Mysterio and his "alien" flunkies. And Stern brings back an obscure villain as well, but I won't "spoil" that part of the story.  

Some of my favorite Spider-Man stories are the ones that take advantage of the New York setting.  Stern gives us a great fight scene that takes place in Grand Central Station:

Spider-Man & Vulture battle inside Grand Central Station.

One thing that separated SSM from ASM was its supporting cast. It tended to focus more on Peter Parker's life as a student at Empire State Univsersity, rather than on his Daily Bugle co-workers. We get some nice scenes of Peter working in the ESU lab, interacting with fellow students Phillip Chang and Steve Hopkins.  

But the most important character to come out of SSM was Debra Whitman. She was Peter's first girlfriend after Mary Jane rejected his marriage proposal. Their relationship never went very far because Parker would often run off during their dates to be Spider-Man, leading Debra to believe he didn't care about her at all. Spidey scribes didn't know what to do with her, and she later went (temporarily) insane and was written out of the series. But Stern writes her as a brave, intelligent woman here. Debra stands up to Mysterio and even engages him in hand to hand combat, helping Spider-Man defeat the villain (go Deb!).  

Debra Whitman whacks Mysterio & breaks his "fishbowl" helmet!

I'm a big fan of Stern's work (this is my second review this week of a Stern-written tpb), but I have to call him out about one thing here. These stories include the first appearance of fashion designer Roderick Kingsley. I won't post spoilers about Kingsley, but let's just say he became a very important character in the Spider-Man titles later in the 1980s. But he's written (and drawn) here as an ugly stereotype. Madame Belladonna even calls him a "flaming simp" in the scan below. I won't hold Stern to the standards of today for a 1980 story, but it needs to be pointed out. Stern later changed Kingsley a bit via retcon, so I'm guessing he regretted his initial depiction.  

Belladonna raids Kingsley office while Spidey prepares to intervene.

There's one fill-in issue co-plotted by Marv Wolfman and  Steve Leialoha. It looks like they coordinated the plot with Stern's storyline, because the next issue written by Stern picks up right where the previous issue left off.   

Art:

This book contains reprints of twelve issues and it's drawn by eight pencilers and seven inkers. So it lacks a consistent look, but the art is generally very good, if not great. John Byrne and Gene Day are a nice art team on the first story. Day was a penciler in his own right, but their styles mesh together very nicely. Mike Zeck and Steve Mitchell are the best art team here in my view. Marie Severin and Steve Leialoha give us some very Ditko-esque art in their issues. The reprint of #50 features art by John Romita, Jr. and Jim Mooney. That art team would later collaborate with Stern during his tenure at ASM.

Denys Cowan also does a nice job illustrating the White Tiger stories that were originally published as back-ups in SSM.

How does it look?:

Great. Just look at all the scanned pages above, and here's one more:

Steve Hopkins & Peter Parker work in ESU's lab while a gunman busts in.

Extras:

There's a nice 5-page interview with Stern in the back of the book. He discusses his opinions of Spider-Man, how he got the job writing SSM, his collaborations with the artists on the book, etc. Good stuff.

Spider-Man Visionaries: Roger Stern Vol. 1 is a fun book worth picking up. Roger Stern knew how to write Spider-Man better than anyone since Stan Lee. Marvel has reprinted some of Stern's later ASM stories (my review is forthcoming). But it would be nice if they would give us another book of Stern's work on SSM, since he wrote the book through issue #60. Recommended.

My rating:

3 Sals.

Avengers: West Coast Avengers Assemble

Reprints West Coast Avengers Vol.1 #1-4, Iron Man Annual #7 and Avengers #250, plus material from Avengers #239, 243-244, 236 and Avengers West Coast #100
Written by Roger Stern, Bob Harras and Roy Thomas.
Penciled by Bob Hall, Al Milgrom, Luke McDonnell.
Inked by Brett Breeding, Peter Berardi, Joe Sinnott, Ian Akin, Brian Garvey, Roy Richardson.


After an extended absence, Hawkeye returns to the Avengers' Mansion and introduces the team to his wife, Mockingbird.

A short time later, at a team meeting, the Vision is selected as the new chair of the Avengers. He has an important announcement to make: a new team of Avengers will be formed and are to be stationed in Los Angeles. Vision announces that Hawkeye will lead the West Coast branch and the West Coast Avengers are born!

Vision & Government Liasion Raymond Sikorski
announce the forming of a new team of Avengers.

Hawkeye and Mockingbird set up headquarters at an old Hollywood mansion and decide to call it the Avengers Compound. Wonder Man, Tigra and Iron Man are all contacted by the Vision and called to the compound. Unbeknownst to the others, the man in the Iron Man suit is James "Rhodey" Rhodes. He has taken over as Iron Man because Tony Stark has had a relapse of his alcoholism.

When Tigra is contacted by Vision, she has been working in San Francisco as a Private Investigator. She departs for Los Angeles in a hurry, prompting her business partner, Jessica Drew, to worry about her. Jessica calls someone in L.A. to shadow Tigra.

Hawkeye tells the heroes they've been invited to join a new team of Avengers. In the middle of their meeting, they realize someone has broken into the compound. It's the Shroud! After a brief battle, Tigra explains that he's a friend of hers and stops the battle. It turns out to be just a big misunderstanding.

Iron Man catches the Shroud snooping around the  compound.

The team has barely had a chance to settle into the compound when an old villain shows up in the City of Angels.

Erik Josten, formerly the Avengers foe known as Power Man, has been called into town by the mad scientist Dr. Karl Malus. In addition to restoring Josten's super strength, Malus injects him with growth serum. With only one dose, Josten becomes a giant and takes the name Goliath. 

Goliath is born!

Goliath wreacks havoc in downtown Los Angeles. Police try to shoot him but their bullets are ineffective. Iron Man arrives, but Goliath is furious to see him and the Golden Avenger is easily defeated. Goliath says he "deserves" a victory over an Avenger, after years of frustration. 

Goliath throws Iron Man out of L.A.

Iron Man's new teammates Hawkeye and Wonder Man are around to help against Goliath, but they're defeated just as easily. The three heroes regroup and realize that they can't match Goliath in power, but that their combined skills could be enough to defeat him.  

Following that battle, Wonder Man stumbles onto a bank robbery in progress. The thief has a "blank" appearance. It turns out that he's wearing a belt that generates a force field and obscures all of his recognizable features. Wonder Man calls the robber "The Blank", and the name sticks. The force field allows the Blank to escape with stolen money. 

Shortly after the robbery, the Blank sees a man made of energy and helps him. It turns out to be the Avengers' old adversary Graviton, who joins forces with the Blank and attacks the Avengers. Hawkeye and Wonder Man remind their teammates that Graviton almost beat the East Coast Team a few years earlier. The West Coast Avengers come up with a plan to stop Graviton that utilizes Tigra's private investigator skills plus Iron Man's technological genius.  

A tense moment between former Iron Man Tony Stark & new Iron Man James Rhodes.

Last but not least, the East Coast and West Coast Avengers team up to fight the Deviant-Inhuman madman known as Maelstrom, who has gained the ability to siphon off kinetic energy from the Earth itself. This alters the planet's rotation and could have catastrophic consequences if the combined Avengers from both coasts can't defeat Maelstrom. And if that's not enough trouble, Maelstrom's Minnions are also on hand to battle the good guys!  

Review:
Not a classic, but certainly a lot of fun. I always liked the West Coast Avengers and I bought these issues off the racks when they were brand new. Arriving late in the Bronze Age (1984), the main story (from West Coast Avengers 1-4) today almost feels like the last gasp of an era. It's a just a fun story with little of the grim, angst-ridden stuff that came along in the mid-80s. Plus, I've always gravitated towards "B-Grade" super- teams. I was an avid fan of the Champions and Defenders, so the West Coast Avengers were right up my alley.  

Story:
Roger Stern does a great job here transforming Hawkeye. Throughout his career as an Avenger, he was always cast as something of a malcontent, clashing with his teammates and Avengers chairpersons. To make him a leader of a superhero team overnight probably seemed like a stretch when it was pitched, but it's nice to see Hawkeye mature as a character.

There's a great scene where Hawkeye calls Iron Man an "amateur" when he learns it's Rhodey and not Tony Stark in the armor. When Rhodey reminds him of all he's done since taking over the title of Iron Man, Hawkeye flashes back to his early days as an Avenger, when Captain America called him an amateur. Hawkeye apologizes and fully accepts the new Iron Man as a teammate.       

Tigra and Wonder Man are also well-written by Stern. Tigra felt like a weak link in her earlier stint as an Avenger, and she deals with that here as well. Wonder Man is believable as a reluctant superhero who would rather be a movie actor. Stern really gets these characters.

Bob Harras also does a nice job scripting the portion of the book taken from Iron Man Annual #7. The new Iron Man wrestles with self-doubt while trying to establish an identity beyond Tony Stark.

The high point of the story is the battle with Goliath. It's an epic battle that has an almost cinematic quality. Despite his villainy, Erik Josten has always been a sympathetic character to me. Sure, he's a villain, but I think he was also victimized by people like Zemo and the Enchantress early in his career,  and even Iron Man has sympathy for him at the end of their battle. This story is Josten's first appearance as Goliath and he would go on to be a major foe of the Avengers throughout the 1980s (and beyond).

Erik Josten recalls his origins as a supervillain.

The bulk of the book comes from the West Coast Avengers mini-series. It's a simple story, featuring the formation of a new team, a bank robber (the Blank) and an old foe seeking revenge (Graviton). It's an exciting saga, but you never get the feeling that Graviton has plans to destroy the world. And that's a good thing.

The story that features Maelstrom (from Avengers #250) is more of your standard "uber-villain threatens life as we know it!" tale. It's included because it features the first-ever team-up of the East and West Coast Avengers. It doesn't detract from the "lighter" fare.

Art:
We get good-but-not-great art here from various art teams.

Bob Hall was never very flashy, but his pencils are very good here. Brett Breeding's inks are a nice compliment to Hall's work. The portion from Iron Man Annual #7 features nice art by Luke McDonnell, inked by Ian Akin and Brian Garvey.

The weakest art is found in the story reprinted from Avengers #250. Al Milgrom handles penciling duties, inked by Joe Sinnott, plus the aforementioned Akin and Garvey. Three different inkers in one issue is distracting and it gives me the impression that this art job was a bit rushed.  

How Does It Look?:
This two-page spread shows how great it looks:

Extras:
We get a post-Bronze Age story that flashes back to the day Hawkeye and Mockingbird bought the compound. It's okay, but hardly essential.

There are also entries from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe for Hawkeye and Mockingbird. These are fine, but they've already been reprinted in the Avengers: Hawkeye tpb, reviewed here last year.

Avengers: West Coast Avengers Assemble is a highly recommended tpb. It contains stories originally published in the Summer of 1984 and it will provide nice Summer reading today in 2013.

.5


3 and a half Sals.

Avengers: Bride Of Ultron

Reprints Avengers #157-166
Written by Gerry Conway, Jim Shooter.
Penciled by George Perez, John Byrne, Sal Buscema, Don Heck, George Tuska.
Inked by Pablo Marcos.

The Avengers are home at their mansion on Christmas Eve. Suddenly the mansion is attacked by their ex-teammate, the Black Knight! Or, to be more accurate, by a statue of the knight claiming to be the real deal. He takes out all of the Avengers except the Vision. Can the synthezoid defeat the Black Knight statue?  

Later, tensions are rising between the Vision and his "brother", Wonder Man, AKA Simon Williams.  The android Vision had Simon's brainwaves transferred into him when he was created. Now Wonder Man seems to be interested in Vision's wife, the Scarlet Witch. The two heroes slug it out until Iron Man breaks it up.

Vision tangles with his "brother" Wonder Man.

In the middle of this, the Avengers are called to the Rocky Mountains to halt the attack of Graviton! He controls gravity and easily defeats the team. Graviton then pulls an entire town into the sky and takes it to New York City. The villain threatens to drop the town on New York, which would kill thousands of people.

Graviton takes down the Avengers.

The only remaining Avengers are Thor and Black Panther. It's up to them to stop Gravition and free their teammates.

Graviton pulls a town out of the ground.

Following that battle, Wonder Man's brother Eric Williams, AKA Grim Reaper attacks the Avengers mansion. He defeats and imprisons the team and decides to place Wonder Man and Vision on trial. The Reaper says only one man can truly be his brother Simon and if he rules against either one of them, the verdict will carry a sentence of death!

Wonder Man decks Grim Reaper (note the error in the top right panel: Reaper's scythe disappears!)

Next up, the Avengers are attacked by Ant-Man! Henry Pym has lost his memory and thinks it's the early days of the Avengers. He wonders who these Avengers are and presumes they're enemies. As Ant-Man, he sends hordes of ants to attack the Avengers. Thankfully, the Wasp is able to defeat him.

Ant-Man attacks the Avengers!

We eventually learn that Pym is being manipulated by his own creation, Ultron! The mechanical madman needs Pym's technical expertise to construct a bride for him. Ultron attacks the Avengers in their mansion headquarters and captures Wasp. He plans to transplant Wasp's life-force into a robot body. It looks like Ultron will finally defeat the Avengers...but Iron Man has an ace up his sleeve that could save the team. 

Ultron returns.

Subsequently, Iron Man summons Hercules to New York. Herc brings along his teammates from the Champions, Black Widow and Iceman. When they arrive, Iron Man attacks them. We learn that Iron Man is being forced to do this by the giant Greek god Typhon, who is holding Beast hostage.  Eventually, the heroes figure out what's going on and team up against Typhon.   

Scarlet Witch uses her Hex power against Ultron.

Finally, the Avengers' old enemy Count Nefaria shows up in New York. He seeks out Power Man, Living Laser and Whirlwind and offers to boost their superpowers. The villains call themselves the "new" Lethal Legion, they rob a bank and encounter Captain America, Wasp and Yellowjacket.  At the same time, Nefaria is meeting with former Nazi scientists in an attempt to gain super powers for himself.

Cap & Yellowjacket battle the Lethal Legion.

The Legion is giving the Avengers all they can handle. But all of a sudden, their powers disappear and they're easily dispatched by the heroes. Nefaria shows up and reveals that he has siphoned off the Legion's power and given it to himself. His scientists have helped him become one of the most powerful beings on Earth. Nefaria picks up an entire 40-story building on drops it on the Avengers. The battle appears lost, but Thor shows up and gives the Avengers hope.

Thor takes on the super-powered Count Nefaria.

Review:

A mostly great collection, with some exceptions (see story & art below). It's interesting that this hardcover mentions Ultron in its title, but the longest (and best) storyarc is the three-part Nefaria story.  I guess Ultron has more drawing power than Nefaria. 

The Whizzer tries to stop Count Nefaria.

Story:
This collection starts out with a weak entry. The story that centers on the Black Knight statue isn't very good. We never learn why the statue attacks the Avengers or who is behind said attack. Many years later it was retconned that (SPOILER ALERT) Ultron was controlling the statue, so I guess it makes sense in that context to include it here.
 
But most of the book contains excellent examples of Bronze Age stories. These are some of Jim Shooter's best Avengers stories. We get two-parters that feature battles with Graviton, Grim Reaper and Ultron. I've always seen Graviton as a poor man's Magneto, but he's portrayed as an A-list villain here (his first appearance).    

The Ultron portion of the book is great, too. I truly felt sorry for Hank Pym, ranting maniacally at the Avengers due to Ultron's brainwashing. Not to mention the Wasp, who has some of her life-force stolen while (seemingly) losing her husband to madness.

After Ultron is defeated, we get another fill-in story featuring Typhon. This is a difficult story, because there's an attempt to shoe-horn it into continuity. The previous story ends with Pym's aforementioned rant, the Typhon story gives us a one-panel explanation of the treatment Pym is receiving, and the next thing we know, he's back to normal. Weird.

Lastly, the Count Nefaria three-parter is the highlight of the book. It features one of the greatest battles of the Bronze Age, as the newly super-powered Nefaria gives the Avengers one of their toughest fights.  I also liked the way Power Man is initially reluctant to join Nefaria.

Art:
Two issues reprinted here contain less-than-stellar artwork. The first story is penciled by Don Heck. He did some great work in the Silver Age, but Heck's art in the 1970s wasn't so great. Same goes for the Typhon story drawn by George Tuska, another great artist who'd seen better days by the Bronze Age.  Tuska's portion comes right after George Perez', and the change is quite jarring.  

But the pencils by Sal Buscema, Perez, and John Byrne are all excellent. Take a look at this page here from Perez:

While I'm not crazy about the helpless depiction of the Wasp here, I love the way Perez uses halves of her and Jocasta to frame the action. Byrne and Buscema deliver some of their best Avengers work here as well, and Pablo Marcos (who inks everything in this book) does a good job as inker, embellishing the pencils without ever detracting from their power.

How does it look?:

The pages here look great, as you can see by looking at the scans in this review, including this great splash page:

The Avengers: Bride Of Ultron is a great book, featuring some of my favorite Avengers stories. It's great to have them in glossy reprints after all these years. It's definitely worth picking up, but the "fill-in" stories prevent me from giving it my highest rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5


3 and a half Sals.