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.

  

Nova Classic Vol. 1

 

Reprints Nova #1-12, Amazing Spider-Man #171

Written by Marv Wolfman and Len Wein.

Penciled by John Buscema, Sal Buscema and Ross Andru.

Inked by Joe Sinnott, Tom Palmer, Frank Giacoia and Mike Esposito.

Richard Rider is your typical suburban teenager living in Hempstead, Long Island. He attends Harry S. Truman High, where he's not very popular. Richard struggles academically and isn't good at sports. He's often picked on by bullies, especially star athlete Mike Burley. At home, Richard is overshadowed by his younger brother Robbie, who is an honor student. All this gives Richard, in his words, "a class-one inferiority complex."

Richard Rider gets smacked by Mike Burley, then he's smacked by a bolt from outer space!

But that changes in a hurry! Richard is randomly chosen by a dying alien from the planet Xandar to inherit super powers. He's knocked unconscious and hospitalized. The next day, Richard is walking down the street, when suddenly, he turns into a new person. He has super-strength, a helmet that acts as a police scanner and can fly at the speed of a rocket. The awkward teenager has transformed into the man called Nova! A new superhero is born!

Richard becomes Nova for the first time!

Richard is flying around, trying to get used to his newfound abilities when New York is attacked by Zorr, who is responsible for the death of the alien who passed his powers to Richard. He is still learning how to use all of his Nova powers, but he manages to distract Zorr from destroying the city. With a little help from outer space, Zorr is defeated.

Zorr attacks New York & only Nova can stop him.

In the days and weeks that follow, Nova encounters many different super-powered opponents:

The duo of Condor and Powerhouse! Condor possesses the wings, strength and talons of his namesake.  Powerhouse absorbs power to increase his strength. He was found by Condor, who brainwashed Powerhouse into committing crimes.

Nova is double-teamed by Condor & Powerhouse.

Diamondhead, strong as a diamond and nearly invulnerable!

Corruptor, who hypnotizes the mighty Thor into attacking Nova!

Thor takes a serious punch from Nova.

Tyrannus, immortal would-be conqueror of Subterranea. He attacks New York with a giant Earth-Shaker robot!

The faceless, superstrong Megaman, who has the power to create earthquakes and fires!

But Nova's deadliest foe is the Sphinx. He possesses the Ka stone, which gives him super-strength, telepathic abilities, the power to turn people into dust. He wields almost god-like powers. Sphinx served as a wizard to the Pharaoh Ramses of Ancient Egypt and has been alive for centuries.

The Sphinx plots his takeover of Earth.

Sphinx arrives on Earth seeking world domination and plans to start with becoming crimelord of New York. This brings him into conflict with Condor, who also wants that role. Condor teams with Powerhouse and Diamondhead to battle Sphinx. But their chances of victory are enhanced when Condor reprograms Nova's mind, convincing him he's on the same side as the villains!

Plus, Nova teams up with the amazing Spider-Man to find out who killed Richard Rider's uncle. Their investigation brings them into conflict with the villain known as Photon!

Photon chains Nova & Spider-Man to an anchor!

 
Review:

Prior to picking up this Nova Classic Vol. 1, I'd only read a handful of these stories. I was never a huge Nova fan, so I had low expectations. But I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this tpb.

Mike bullies Richard, while the Nova Centurion looks to transfer his powers to someone on Earth.

Story:
Marv Wolfman wrote all but one of the issues reprinted in this tpb. The content reprinted here could be described as "Silver Age tales seen through a Bronze Age lens". Richard Rider's high school experience (not to mention his alliterative name) is very similar to Peter Parker's early years. However, unlike Parker, Richard is not a great student and his grades suffer partially due to his moonlighting as a superhero. High school bully Mike Burley is not only a star athlete, but also (unlike Flash Thompson) a better student than Richard. Nova acquires powers from an alien, similar to the origin of the Silver Age Green Lantern.

But this is more than just a pastiche. These are solid Bronze Age action stories.Nova may not have become as huge as Spider-Man or Wolverine, but he's had staying power, in comics and other media. Nova was recently featured in the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series and the Nova Corps appears in the upcoming Guardians Of The Galaxy movie.

If I had to pick a favorite part, it's the fight/team-up with Thor. It's a classic Marvel scenario: villain takes control of hero, two heroes fight. But it's a great fight and Corruptor is a good villain. Wolfman wrote Thor very well here, especially when the thunder god praises Nova as "brave beyond thy years."

Corruptor takes control of Thor's mind.

The Sphinx first appeared here too. He's had a nice run as a major villain in the Marvel Universe in the nearly four decades since his creation, battling the Fantastic Four several times.

Nova battles Sphinx in a tv studio.

The other villains featured in this book are a mixed bag, but generally good. Condor and Powerhouse are sort of generic "guy who can fly" and "superstrong guy" villains. But I enjoyed the dynamic between the two, with Condor forcing Powerhouse to do his bidding. Diamondhead is another brawler, but he's visually very appealing.

Corruptor is great in his appearance here, turning Thor against Nova, and Corruptor would menace Nova in the future as well. Megaman is a very tragic figure. I felt sorry for Megaman, since he was turned insane by the loss of his humanity.

Nova goes toe-to-toe with Megaman.

Wolfman does a nice job showing Richard learning how to use his new powers, and dealing with his high school struggles. I liked Nova's exclamation of "Blue Blazes!" whenever he was surprised.    Wolfman writes some humorous scenes that feature Richard's friend Bernie Dillon. Speaking of humor, we also get a "behind the scenes at Marvel" story. The comic's creative team, Wolfman and Sal Buscema, wants to make a comic based on Nova's heroics. This is the sort of thing we'd call "meta" today, but Marvel has done stories like this throughout their history. I always enjoyed it when Marvel poked fun at themselves.

Marv Wolman & Sal Buscema run away in fear while Nova battles the Earth-Shaker robot.

The book ends with a two-part crossover team-up featuring Spider-Man. It's common to pair up a new hero with a company's flagship character, to draw attention to the new guy. But it's a good story, it was nice to see Spidey give Nova some pointers and tell the younger hero that he was still making mistakes after years as a crime fighter.

Nova & Spider-Man briefly fight, partly due to the Daily Bugle's attacks on Spidey.

If there's anything wrong with the stories, it's that some of the villains' motivations are vague. For example, we never really learn why Condor must defeat Sphinx to become lord of crime. Sphinx wants the world, why wouldn't he just let Condor have New York? But all in all, we get some fun stories in Nova Classic Vol. 1.

Art:
The stories are good, but the art is where the book truly shines. John Buscema's pencils inked by Joe Sinnott looked great throughout the Bronze Age and their work here is no exception. After the 3rd issue, John was replaced by his brother Sal, who is inked by Tom Palmer and Frank Giacoia. One issue of Amazing Spider-Man is reprinted here, featuring legendary penciler Ross Andru inked by longtime Spidey inker Mike Esposito. In other words, several of the best Bronze Age artists work on this book and their pencils and inks are excellent.

How does it look?:
Very good. I haven't read all these stories in their original comic book format, but here's a scanned page from Nova #6:

This scan is borrowed from Lady,That's My Skull.

And here's the same image as reprinted in Nova Classic Vol. 1:

Extras:
In addition to the complete stories, we get an editorial from Wolfman that details the creation of Nova  (published in Nova #1). The last page of the tpb shows the process of the creation the cover for Nova #12, drawn by John Buscema.

The heroes battle Photon & agents of AIM.

Nova Classic Vol. 1 is a great introduction to the character for those who never read these stories.  Diehard fans of Nova who read these tales back in the 70s should still pick this up, since Nova's early adventures have looked this good. The stories are generally fun and the art here is excellent throughout the book.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5


3 and a half Sals.