Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Volume 16

Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #156-168, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #10
Written by Len Wein and Bill Mantlo.
Penciled by Ross Andru and Gil Kane.
Inked by Mike Esposito and Frank Giacoia.

Summary:
It's an exciting day for Peter Parker. His friend (and first girlfriend) Betty Brant is marrying Daily Bugle reporter Ned Leeds. Many of Peter's friends and family members are in attendance at the wedding.

 
However, the nuptials are interrupted when a gang of armed gunmen crashes the wedding with intentions of robbing the guests. They're led by a villain named Mirage who can seemingly disappear at will.

With just about all his family and friends in the room, how can Peter change into his Spider-Man suit and save the wedding party from Mirage?

Subsequently, Peter pays a visit to his Aunt May's home. He's surprised to see that she has a house guest: none other than Spidey's arch foe (and May's ex-fiance) Doctor Octopus!

The villain was presumed dead after a recent fight with the gangster Hammerhead. While Doc Ock is explaining how he survived, their conversation is interrupted by what appears to be the ghost of Hammerhead!

After changing into Spider-Man, Peter battles Hammerhead's ghost and Doc Ock. But when Ock accidentally restores Hammerhead to his corporeal form, Spidey is forced to form an alliance with Doctor Octopus. Can this unlikely duo defeat Hammerhead?

Following that battle, J. Jonah Jameson meets with a scientist named Harlan Stillwell and asks him to create a new super-powered being to fight Spider-Man. A petty thug named Rick Deacon is shot and stumbles on Stillwell's lab. Deacon asks Stillwell to save his life, the scientist does this by imprinting the genetic coding of a fly onto Deacon, turning him into a Human Fly!

When Deacon kills Stillwell and takes Jameson hostage, Spider-Man is the only hope for defeating the Fly and rescuing JJJ!

Sometime later, Spider-Man is attacked by his car, the super-powered Spidermobile. It turns out to be the work of his old villain, the Terrible Tinkerer. Can Spidey defeat a car that has powers that are similar to his own?
 

Next, the X-Man known as Nightcrawler learns that his old friend Eric Hoffman has been murdered in New York City. He visits Coney Island to investigate. Nightcrawler witnesses a shooting and winds up holding the rifle. Spider-Man finds Nightcrawler with the gun and presumes the mutant to be the shooter.

They battle until they find themselves in the crosshairs of the vigilante known as the Punisher. He believes one of the heroes killed Hoffman, but the real killer is the criminal who calls himself Jigsaw! Even though they disagree with his methods, Nightcrawler and Spider-Man are forced to team up with the Punisher to bring Jigsaw to justice.

Following that adventure, the Kingpin of crime sets his sites on capturing Spider-Man. After a brutal battle, Spider-Man is gassed into unconsciousness, so the Kingpin can transfer the webslinger's life energy into the body of his comatose son Richard. How will Spidey regain his strength and defeat Kingpin?

As Christmas approaches, Spider-Man sees someone break into a SHIELD facility. It turns out to be the work of Stegron, the dinosaur man! He visits the home of his former mentor Dr. Curt Connors. Stegron takes Connors' young son Billy as a hostage and orders Connors to help him complete his master plan.

The dinosaur man breaks into the American Museum Of Natural History. He uses his retro-generation ray (made with equipment he stole from SHIELD) to reanimate the museum's collection of dinosaur skeletons! Stegron needs Connors' help to make this reanimation permanent.

When Spider-Man goes after Stegron, their battle is joined by Connors, who has transformed into the Lizard, one of Spidey's oldest foes! Can Spider-Man stop Stegron and the Lizard while simultaneously rescuing Billy Connors?

Finally, J. Jonah Jameson has a new Spider-Slayer robot. Electro-biologist Dr. Marla Madison has created a slayer that she and Jonah believe will finally stop Spider-Man once and for all.

In the midst of dealing with the Spider-Slayer, Spidey encounters a new foe in the form of Will 'O The Wisp! He's not evil. Will O' The Wisp is being forced to commit crimes for Jonas Harrow. If the Wisp disobeys, a bomb in his head will explode and kill him.

Spider-Man and Will 'O The Wisp's fight takes them to the ice rink at Rockefeller Center, where they're joined by Jameson's Spider-Slayer! Can the webhead survive a battle with both the Slayer and the Wisp?

Review:
Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Volume 16 contains material that is consistently entertaining, even if its contents aren't exactly Bronze Age classics. While I credit the writers for bringing in several new villains, most of these antagonists aren't very interesting.


Story:
Len Wein wrote all but one story here and and most of these tales are okay. The book gets off to a weak start with the introduction of Mirage. He's a rather bland, generic villain who didn't appear again until seven years after this story (he was brought back only once after this, then was killed by Scourge).

The follow-up with Doc Ock and Hammerhead is an improvement. Turning Hammerhead into a "ghost" is an interesting change for Spider-Man villains. In fact, Wein seems fascinated by characters who can disappear or become intangible, since Hammerhead, Mirage and Will O' The Wisp all do this in these stories.

In addition to Mirage, there are other problems with these tales. For instance, during the Punisher/Nightcrawler/Jigsaw story, Spider-Man is easily knocked out and captured by two of Jigsaw's thugs, who have no superpowers. This is something that should never happen. I should mention that as far as villains go, Jigsaw, despite his memorable facial scaring, is basically just a bad guy with a gun and only a slight improvement over Mirage.

The Human Fly, introduced in a story co-written by Wein and Bill Mantlo is another new mediocre villain. He's sort of tragic since he becomes a monster in exchange for his powers, but his cold blooded murder of Stillwell makes him even less sympathetic than Scorpion, another supercriminal whose creation was funded by Jameson. I guess Marvel thought it would be "cool" to have their spider character have a "fly" to battle, but it's not a great story.

Most fans roll their eyes at the Spider-Mobile today. As a child, I thought it was cool and I'll always have a place for it in my heart.  o I enjoyed the story where the Tinkerer turns it against Spidey.

However, the book ends with three enjoyable stories. Spider-Man's battle with the Kingpin shows that the crime boss was a force to be reckoned with long before Frank Miller made him one of Daredevil's deadliest adversaries. Spider-Man is left near death after dueling with Wilson Fisk.

The Stegron story has long been a favorite of mine. As a kid I loved dinosaurs, so how could I not love a "dinosaur man?" The presence of the Lizard, one of Spidey's oldest foes, makes this tale even better. Since this story takes place at Christmas, it's one I've read many times over the years during the holiday season. So I'm happy to see it get the Masterworks treatment. This page below brings a smile to my face when I re-read it every December.

The (then) New X-Men make an early guest appearance in the Jigsaw tale. If you're keeping score, this story was on the spinner racks the same month as X-Men #101, the first appearance of Phoenix. The portrayal of Wolverine here may seem a bit out of character today. However, Wein co-created Logan, so he had every right to depict him in this manner. Plus, very little was known about Wolverine when this story was was first published, so I don't have a problem with it.

Reading Nightcrawler's guest appearance is interesting, since Wein co-created Nightcrawler and wrote the first New X-Men stories. It makes me wonder if the X-Men's series would've focused more on Kurt Wagner if Wein hadn't left the series. 

Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Volume 16 closes with the Spider-Slayer/Will O' The Wisp adventure. The Wisp is introduced with a lot of fanfare but never amounted to much. However, I've always enjoyed this story and it features a good battle with two very different adversaries.

Wein gives us plenty of scenes with Peter's friends and work colleagues, who were one of the best supporting casts in comic book history. A highlight is Glory Grant organizing Parker's friends to help furnish Peter's apartment.

Another positive in these stories is how Aunt May is written. She'd been around for about fifteen years and spent most of that time either being near death or overly protective of Peter. Wein turns May into an activist for rights of the elderly and it's a major improvement. It's nice to see May have interests of her own besides her nephew.

Wein also adds some humorous moments, such us Spider-Man's encounter with his landlord, Mrs. Muggins:

Art:
Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Volume 16 features great art by Ross Andru. As I've mentioned in earlier reviews, Andru drew Spider-Man and others in some of their coolest poses of all time. While scanning the pages of this book, I sometimes had trouble figuring out if I had the book right-side-up or not!  These pages are a good example of what I'm talking about. Wolverine and Nightcrawler almost appear to be three-dimensional!:

Here's another great example of Andru's great Spidey poses seen in this book!:

And I love this page of the Doc Ock/Hammerhead story:

While most Marvel characters are based in New York City, Spider-Man is the most NY-centric of all heroes. Andru excelled at penciling realistic depictions of the city. Look at Andru's rendition of the world famous Nathan's Hot Dog stand:

Great work by Andru. I should mention that Mike Esposito does a fine job embellishing Andru's pencils.

Stegron also looks pretty cool penciled by Andru.

The Human Fly tale is penciled by Gil Kane with Esposito providing the inks. While Kane is one of the best artists of all time, I don't think Esposito was a good match. Their work looks kind of hurried and it's the worst art in the book.

How Does It Look?:
Here's a scan from a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #164:

This is how the same pages appear in Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Volume 16:

Extras:
Veteran comic book writer J.M. DeMatteis penned a new introduction for this book and tells some very nice stories about his old friend and mentor Len Wein.  The book closes with three pages of original art. 

Rating:
Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Volume 16 features some excellent art by Ross Andru and the glossy paper makes Anru's work look better than ever. But the inconsistent stories and less-than-compelling villains makes for a book that 's not exactly essential. However, the Stegron Christmas story is great, plus the Doc Ock/Hammerhead battle are enough for me to give it a favorable review.

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sals.

  

Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 4

Reprints X-Men #122-131 and X-Men Annual #3
Written by Chris Claremont.
Penciled by John Byrne and George Perez.
Inked by Terry Austin.

Summary:
After a trip that took them around the world, the X-Men are back home at the X-Mansion. Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops is overseeing Colossus' training center in the Danger Room. Banshee and Nightcrawler are repairing the team's airplane, the Blackbird. Wolverine and Storm are planning to drive into New York City. Everyone is generally enjoying their downtime. 

Scott later heads out to run errands around Salem Center. He's accompanied by Colleen Wing, who he began dating after the presumed death of Jean Grey. They have a serious discussion about where their relationship is heading.

In Scotland, Jean is trying to get on with her life without Scott. While shopping for clothes in Stornoway, Jean (literally) bumps into a man named Jason Wyngarde. When they part, he says he hopes to see her again, Jean says that would be nice. Wyndarde watches as Jean sails back to Muir Island. He thinks to himself that she will soon fall in love with him and that Jean will belong "mind, body and soul--to the Hellfire Club."

Storm Visits her old family home in Harlem. The neighborhood has changed a lot since her childhood. Storm enters her old apartment and is shocked to find that it's filled with teenage drug addicts. When they attack her with knives, she gets help from Misty Knight and Luke Cage!

Sometime after, all of the X-Men are captured. It's the work of Arcade, one of the world's most expensive assassins. When the X-Men awake, they find themselves locked inside Murderworld, the amusement park Arcade uses to kill people. Murderworld contains a deathtrap created for every member of the X-Men.

Arcade targets Colossus in a unique and cruel manner. Peter finds himself in a dark room interrogated by a KGB agent. Knowing that Peter misses his family in the Soviet Union,  the agent asks Colossus how he could betray his Russian homeland by teaming with the X-Men in the U.S..

The X-Men are shocked when Colossus attacks them. He is wearing a different costume and tells them he is now called the Proletarian, workers' hero of the Soviet Union! Peter has been brainwashed and turned against his friends.

How can the X-Men survive the dangers that surround them in Murderworld and defeat their own teammate?

Shortly after that, Arkon the imperion, ruler of the planet Polemachus arrives on Earth seeking Thor. Arkon's home world is in a state of darkness and he believes the thunder god's lightning can restore its sunlight.

When Thor isn't available, Arkon learns of Storm's powers and invades the X-Mansion. The X-Men defend their home and battle Arkon. The imperion fights back, hurling a lightning bolt at Storm, which causes her to vanish.

Cyclops (correctly) theorizes that Storm is still alive and the X-Men travel to space with Arkon to search for Ororo.

Subsequently, Moira MacTaggert performs some tests on Phoenix at Muir Island. Jean's powers have greatly increased and this has Moira a bit worried. She thinks that Phoenix is approaching a level of power akin to a god. MacTaggert isn't sure how long Jean can keep such power under her control.

Charles Xavier is in space with Lilandra at the Shi'ar Imperial Center. Professor X studies files that the Shi'ar have compiled on Phoenix after Jean saved the universe. Xavier comes to similar conclusions as Moira and heads back to Earth.

Back in Stornoway, Jason Wyndarde has a moment of introspection. Through his thoughts, we learn that he has been using illusions to disguise himself as various people who meet Jean. He plans to use his illusions to manipulate Jean and mold her into an alliance. This will help Wyngarde take power in the Hellfire Club, a very exclusive club of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world. If Wyngarde succeeds, Phoenix' amazing powers could become a force for evil.

Jean begins to experience "time slips" where she finds herself in the 1700s, wearing clothing from that era. It's the work of Wyngarde, part of his plot to force Jean to join him and the Hellfire Club.

Subsequently, Hank McCoy, better known as the Beast, decides to check on the X-mansion, which was recently abandoned when Professor X departed for space. The X-Men think he's a villain and attack. Beast is shocked and overjoyed to learn that Cyclops and the others are not dead.

Hank informs the X-Men that Jean is also still alive, so Scott calls her in Muir Island. When Lorna Dane answers the phone, Cyclops hears a scream and learns that Jean and everyone on the island are under attack.

The X-Men quickly fly to Muir and learn that a mutant known only as Mutant X has escaped from his holding cell in Moira's lab. Mutant X is a creature of pure psionic energy. He needs to possess the body of another person to survive, a process which kills the host. He takes the name Proteus and goes on a killing spree.

The X-Men meet with Moira and discuss how they should deal with Proteus. Moira says that Mutant X has only one weakness: metal. She also shocks Cyclops when she reveals that Proteus is her son! In spite of this, Moira is willing to do anything to stop Mutant X, even if it means killing her own son.

When the X-Men track down Proteus, they learn he can manipulate reality itself. Mutant X can bend the laws of physics, turn buildings into liquid and can transform metal into bees! When he uses his reality-warping abilities on Wolverine and Nightcrawler, the heroes are traumatized and ready to give up the fight.

Can the X-Men find a way to defeat Proteus? Is it possible to stop Mutant X without killing him?

Finally, the X-Men return to the mansion in Westchester, NY where they are reunited with Prof. Xavier.  After presuming them dead for months, Charles is very happy to see them alive and well. Their Cerebro device, which detects mutants, locates two heretofore unknown mutants, one in Chicago, the other in New York.

Unbeknownst to the X-Men, the Hellfire Club has been spying on them. The club's leader, Sebastian Shaw, tells Jason Wyngarde that they have bugged the X-Mansion and are able to access Cerebro. The Hellfire Club also sends agents to locate these new mutants.

Storm, Xavier, Wolverine and Colossus head to Chicago, where they meet with the mutant, a 13-year-old girl named Kitty Pryde. Professor X meets with her parents and asks him to send her to his school for gifted youngsters.  

When Storm and her teammates take Kitty to a local soda fountain, they're attacked by men in armor. The X-Men defeat them, but then they are confronted by the villain who sent them: Emma Frost, White Queen of the Hellfire Club! She easily takes out Wolverine, Storm and Colossus with a telepathic attack. Emma later captures Charles Xavier and imprisons all of them. Meanwhile, Kitty Pryde escapes when she discovers that she has the mutant ability to pass through walls!

In New York, Cyclops, Phoenix and Nightcrawler learn that the other newly discovered mutant can be found in a disco. The mutant is a singer named Alison Blaire, who uses Dazzler as her stage name. Alison has the ability to transform sound into beams of light and lasers. The Hellfire goons attack Dazzler, but Cyclops and Phoenix are able to help her defeat them.

When the X-Men learn of their teammates' fate in Chicago, they depart for the Windy City for a showdown with the White Queen!

Review:
The X-Men's adventures keep getting better with each volume of Marvel Masterworks. The stories reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 4 were my jumping on point for these characters. These are "my" X-Men. The way they act and the way they're drawn are what I think of when I think of the X-Men.

Story:
Chris Claremont and John Byrne really put the X-Men through the ringer in these stories. The book opens with a "quiet" story where the heroes get to rest and talk a bit, reflecting on the state of the team and what they've been through. It gives the creative team another chance to develop and define the characters. Storm's history gets fleshed out a little more when she visits Harlem. Wolverine tries to visit Mariko at the Japanese consulate. To me, this shows he's gotten over his crush on Jean and that the "softening" of Logan continues.

After that, the X-Men are captured and sent to Murderworld. Arcade is certainly psychotic and evil but he's a very entertaining character. He became one of their top villains in the future. Murderworld itself presents the X-Men with lots of interesting obstacles. Since the Arcade story was one of the first I ever read, he's long been one of my favorite Marvel villains.

I mentioned in my last review that I've never cared for the "X-Men are dead" subplot. That continues until page 107 of Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 4, but thankfully Beast and Jean learn the others are alive, and vice versa. Scott and Jean have a nice reunion scene where they reaffirm their love for each other.

The Proteus tale is often overshadowed by the Dark Phoenix Saga that came a few issues later. But it's one of the best X-Men stories of all time. Cyclops at one point calls Proteus the most dangerous adversary they've ever faced, and it's an accurate statement. There are some disturbing overtones here. Proteus possesses the body of his father Joe at one point, and then attacks Moira. It's very Oedipal.

The word "rape" never appears in this book. But it's very strongly implied that Proteus was conceived as a result of rape and it's suggested that it's also the reason why Moira's son is evil. I can't agree with that, but Proteus is certainly one of the most frightening villains in Marvel's history. I don't believe Mutant X has ever been resurrected, and that's a tribute to the strength of this story.

Kitty Pryde shows up for the first time and she makes an impression right away. When X-Men are kidnapped, Kitty is forced into action and bravely frees the heroes. She would later go on to become one of the most popular X-Men of the 1980s.

 

Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 4 also introduces two other villains who will be long term foes of the X-Men in Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost of the Hellfire Club.

Byrne and Claremont show us that Cyclops' leadership skills are ever evolving.  He starts a fight with Wolverine and Nightcrawler in order to snap them out of their fear of fighting Proteus.

 

In earlier stories, Scott tried to get this group of X-Men to function as a team in the same manner as the original X-Men. In Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 4, Scott doubts that will ever happen, but also states that that goal is no longer "desirable."

We get another one of Claremont's great "travelogue" narrations. This time, Chicago gets the Claremont treatment:

The X-Men's first interaction with the Hellfire Club eventually leads to Phoenix becoming Dark Phoenix....but that's something I'll get to in my review of the next volume!

If there's anything to criticize, it's Scott's break-up with Colleen. Jean and Scott's reunion is nicely handled, but we never see any sort of "on-panel" talk between him and Colleen. When Jean telepathically picks up a "stray thought" about Colleen from Cyclops, he tells her "Colleen's a friend, nothing else." After Colleen gives Scott the key to her apartment (!), shown in the image below, she just disappears from the book after the Arcade story and is never seen again in the pages of the X-Men.

Colleen Wing is a great character. Claremont wrote some great stories that featured her in Iron Fist and Deadly Hands Of Kung Fu. I've always thought she deserved better treatment from Byrne and Claremont in re her relationship with Cyclops.

The Arkon story is bit of step down from the rest of the book. It's not bad, but it has nothing to do with the rest of the stories reprinted here. It also feels like the sort of story that would've made more sense as an Avengers or Fantastic Four adventure.

Art:
John Byrne and Terry Austin provide fantastic art in these stories. The Phoenix/White Queen duel is brilliantly depicted.

Another favorite scene is Proteus' attack on Nightcrawler and Wolverine.

Spider-Man makes an appearance in the Murderworld story, since he was the first superhero to face Arcade. He doesn't get to do much, but Spidey looks great (dare I say he looks amazing?) when drawn by Byrne and Austin.

When Jean and Scott search for a mutant in a disco, the art team even manages to sneak the Joker into the top left of the image below:

George Perez penciled the Arkon story, with inks by Austin. They do a nice job and I've always loved this image of Colossus on a flying dragon:

How Does It Look?:
The two pages below were scanned from a copy of X-Men #128:

This is how the pages appear in Marvel Masterworks:Uncanny X-Men Vol. 4:

Extras:
At the end of the book, you'll find three pages of original art, plus a character design sheet of Kitty Pryde.

Rating:
Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 4 contains some of the greatest stories and art of the Bronze Age. The Proteus saga makes it worth purchasing all by itself, and the rest of the book is great too.

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!