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.

  

The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man

 Reprints Spectacular Spider-Man #27-28, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14-15, Marvel Team-Up #100, Marvel Team-Up Annual #4.
Written by Frank Miller, Bill Mantlo, Chris Claremont, Denny O'Neil, Mark Gruenwald, Roger Stern.
Penciled by Frank Miller and Herb Trimpe.
Inked by Frank Springer, Tom Palmer, Bob Wiacek, Klaus Janson and Mike Esposito.

Spider-Man has been blinded by the Masked Marauder's opti-blast! His fellow superhero Daredevil tries to help him cope with this condition. But the wallcrawler is (understandably) distraught.  Unbeknownst to Spider-Man, Daredevil is also blind and uniquely qualified to help him. The heroes team up to stop the Marauder and his Tri-man droid from blowing up New York City.

Sometime later, Lucius Dilby, a servant of Doctor Doom, has created a device that will allow him to visit the Dark Dimension. Upon arrival, Dilby is given mystical powers by its ruler, Dormammu.  Doom wants Dilby to bring about the Bend Sinister with his new abilities.

Doom sends Dilby to the Dark Dimension.

Dilby arrives in New York and hits the city with a variety of mystical attacks. He creates a super-strong robot and sends it to battle Doctor Strange, the master of mystic arts. Dilby believes Strange is the only one who can stop the Bend Sinister from occurring. During a brief battle, Strange is beaten by the robot. Dilby needs a human sacrifice to bring on the Bend Sinister and decides to kill Doctor Strange.

Strange mystically contacts Spider-Man and asks for help. It's up to the webhead to stop Dilby and prevent the Bend Sinister. 

Shortly after that adventure,Spider-Man is swinging through New York when he's mentally possessed by someone. We observe a teenage girl on a rooftop, she is amazed how it feels to climb walls. The possessed Spidey is forced to attack a charity party held in a luxury apartment, where he tries to take two young children away from their uncle. The Fantastic Four are attending the party and try to stop Spider-Man.

After Spider-Man is subdued, the FF learn that he was possessed and not responsible for his actions. In short time, they learn he was controlled by a teenager named Xi'an Coy Manh. She was using Spider-Man to rescue her younger siblings from her gangster uncle. The heroes discover that Xi'an has a brother named Tran who is also able to possess people. But Tran uses his powers for evil. Will the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man be able to stop Tran before he can possess all of them?


Some months after that, Zebediah Killgrave, the Purple Man, arrives in New York. He's involved in a car accident with two drug dealers who work for the Kingpin of crime. Killgrave has the power to bend the  wills of other people, so he forces the Kingpin's men to fight each other. Spider-Man notices this and tries to intervene. But Purple Man forces him to hang from a lamppost and sing a song! Killgrave escapes from the scene.

Purple Man forces Spidey to sing an Elvis Costello song!

The Kingpin learns that Killgrave interfered with one of his drug deals and decides to take him out. But the Purple Man has other ideas. Killgrave visits Kingpin and tries to command him to do his bidding.  But it has no effect. Purple Man becomes a pawn of Kingpin. We learn that the Kingpin used earplugs to resist Killgrave's control.

A major charity fundraiser is coming up. All of the New York's "street level" heroes hear rumors of a major crime happening at the event. Daredevil, Moon Knight, Power Man and Iron Fist all show up to investigate the matter.

When Killgrave is introduced, Daredevil (still dressed as Matt Murdock) gets nervous. Purple Man knows that Murdock and Daredevil are one and the same. DD creates a diversion by starting a fire. The other heroes jump into action to help the people escape the theater. But Killgrave has other ideas and orders all the people in sight to kill the superheroes.

A mob of hundreds chases the heroes around New York, threatening to kill them. 

Finally, Doctor Octopus calls New York's Mayor Ed Koch and tells him he will kill five million New Yorkers. Doc Ock wants $5 million worth of gems or he will carry out his plans for mass murder. The villain is very cryptic about how he will commit this crime, but Spider-Man has a theory that may save the city.  

 At the same time, the Punisher is back in town and goes gunning for Doc Ock and Spidey gets caught in the middle.

Can Spider-Man defeat Doctor Octopus and save New York?

Review:
The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man contains some very enjoyable stories from the late-70s and early 80s. These are a step below the quality of his stories and art that appeared in Daredevil, but they're lots of fun.

Story:
The first story, a two-parter from Spectacular Spider-Man starts in the middle of a story. This is because Miller didn't start penciling until that point in the saga. Miller didn't work on the next issue, so it ends in the middle of another story. I'm not a fan of reprint books that do this. I understand Miller didn't draw the rest of the story, I still think it's a weakness (the full story is available in another tpb). Having said that, Bill Mantlo writes a good story featuring Masked Marauder and Tri-Man. The Marauder was certainly a B-list villain, but Mantlo presents him as a serious threat here. He blinds Spider-Man and threatens to blow up New York with a nuclear bomb.

Denny O'Neil wrote the Bend Sinister/Dilby story. It's a good story, with one problem. We never learn what the Bend Sinister is. But it's still a fun ride. O'Neil sends Peter Parker to see a punk band called Shrapnel at CBGB, which is a nice nod to the New York music scene of the early 80s.

Peter Parker checks out a punk band at CBGB.

O'Neil also scripted the Doc Ock/Punisher story and it's been one of my favorite Spider-Man stories since I first read it in 1981. Doctor Octopus is portrayed perfectly here, willing to kill millions of people just to demonstrate that he is capable of doing so. And I love the interaction between Spidey and the Punisher in this tale. O'Neil gives us a nice sub-plot that shows the reader how the Daily Bugle selects its front page story. 

The Marvel Team-Up story featuring the Fantastic Four was written by Chris Claremont and it's pretty good too. It's also available in another reprint book I recently reviewed, here.

Miller wrote the Purple Man/King and it's a fairly lightweight story, but it's still a fun read. It was a nice way to have Daredevil's former "greatest foe" meet up with Kingpin, who became DD's arch villain under Miller's pen. Miller does a good job writing all the other guest heroes, none of them act out of character.

Luke Cage punches through the walls of the theater.  Nice art from Herb Trimpe!

Art:
Some folks who purchase this book may be surprised that some of the art doesn't look at all like classic Frank Miller art. The first two stories feature the first time Miller penciled Daredevil, the character that would make Miller famous. But Miller is heavily inked by Frank Springer and Miller's art only shows through in occasional panels.

The next story, from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14 is an improvement. Miller is inked by Tom Palmer and the art looks great. Lots of Ditko-esque mystical images on display here. Miller and Palmer give us several pages from the fictional Book Of The Vishanti sort of serve as "chapter headings" within the tale.

Splash page from ASM Annual #14 features The Book Of Vishanti

The artistic high point for me is the Doc Ock/Punisher story from ASM Annual #15. Miller is inked by Klaus Janson, who served as Miller's inker on Daredevil. Many of the pages feature front pages of The Daily Bugle in progress and the fight scenes are gorgeously rendered. Miller and Janson are one of the best penciler/inker teams of all time and this story is further proof.

The Kingpin/Purple Man tale, from Marvel Team-Up Annual #4 features pencils by Herb Trimpe and is inked by Mike Esposito. It's a bit of a step down from Miller's work in the book, but it's still pretty good.  I always enjoyed Trimpe's work, and he and Esposito make a good art team in this story.

Extras:
The back of this book features a nice gallery of covers penciled by Miller that feature Spider-Man. We get 22 covers from various Spidey series.

The stories from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14-15 make this book worth purchasing. The other stories are fun as well. But I can't look past the fact that the first story is joined in progress, so The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man falls just short of my highest rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

 .5

3 and a half Sals.

Classic Punisher

Reprints Marvel Preview #2 and Marvel Super Action #1
Written by Gerry Conway and Archie Goodwin.
Penciled by Tony De Zuniga.
Inked by Tony De Zuniga and Rico Rival.

The Punisher is patrolling the rooftops of New York in the Financial District. A political candidate is speaking, when Punisher notices a man with a rifle.

The Punisher looks for an assassin on the rooftops of Wall Street.

He shoots the man and, when he approaches him, the Punisher recognizes him as Mike Hauley, an old acquaintance from their time in Vietnam. Mike says his wartime experiences made him unhireable, so he was forced to work for a paramilitary organization. Before he can tell Punisher any more information, a helicopter drops a bomb in their direction, killing Mike.
 

The Hauleys' home is firebombed.

After researching Mike's history, Punisher tracks down his family in the Chicago area. He learns that Mike was one of many Vietnam Veterans recruited by a billionaire extremist named Mark Christianson.  He's recruiting the vets to form an army that will be strong enough to overthrow the United States Government. The Punisher locates Christianson's base of operations and prepares to attack.

Punisher survives an attack from 

Can the Punisher stop Christianson and deafeat his team of assassins?

Sometime later, Punisher tracks down some of the mobsters responsible for killing his family.  He learns they are part of the Costa crime family, led by Bruno Costa. 

Punisher takes out some thugs working for the Costa family, then steals their money to fund his "war."

After killing some of their hitmen in New York and New Jersey, he heads to Florida's Gulf Coast for a final showdown with the Costas.    

Review:
Classic Punisher is the oldest reprint book I've reviewed here. It was published in 1989. And it's also one of the thinnest, containing only 64 pages. But I figured it's worth reviewing because of its historical importance for the Punisher, since it contains his first solo stories. It's still easy to find a copy online or at comic shops. I'm hoping Marvel will eventually publish a collection that includes all of the Punisher's Bronze Age adventures. 

I should mention that these stories were originally published in Marvel's black and white magazines that were aimed at an older audience. So there are some mild curse words and adult situations here. Call it a "PG rated" comic.


Story:
Gerry Conway co-created the Punisher so it's appropriate that he got to write his first solo adventures. These stories are the fifth and sixth appearances of the Punisher. Conway creates the template here for future Punisher tales, as Punisher narrates through entries in his War Journal. This was the first time readers got to see his origin depicted. Conway does a good job showing what could make someone run around killing criminals with a skull emblazoned on his chest.

I'm not a big fan of the Punisher, but he can be interesting in small doses and works best as a guest star.  Classic Punisher contains some good, down to earth, entertaining "shoot 'em up" stories. Conway is careful not to make Punisher a "misunderstood good guy", portraying him as the dangerous vigilante that he is.

The first story, from Marvel Preview #2 is very good. The Punisher becomes a detective of sorts in order to discover who hired Mike Hauley and the other veterans.

The portion from Marvel Super Action #1 (a one-shot magazine) isn't as as strong, but it's okay. It's just a typical revenge story. The mobster's hideout feels more like the headquarters of a James Bond villain, but the finale in the private aquarium makes for a great ending. 

Art:
Tony DeZuniga handled the pencils here and did a great job. The first part is absolutely gorgeous, some of his work reminds me of Gene Colan and Neal Adams. The image below is a great example of DeZuniga's fine work in this book.

Punisher saves the Hauleys from a fire.

For the second story, DeZuniga is inked by Rico Rival. It's okay, but not as exciting as DeZuniga inking himself.

How does it look?:
It looks fine.  The stories were originally printed on newsprint, so even if Classic Punisher is old, it looks better than the original magazines. Here's another page that shows how good this reprint looks:

Extras:
The book ends with an exclusive 8-page story that was new when Classic Punisher was published.

Classic Punisher contains two solid stories that are very important in the development of the Punisher.  Hardcore Punisher fans will enjoy it and all Bronze Age fans should check it out for DeZuniga's art.

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sals.