Marvel Masterworks: Spider-Woman Volume 1

Reprints Marvel Spotlight #32, Marvel Two-In-One #29-33 and Spider-Woman #1-8
Written by Marv Wolfman and Archie Goodwin.
Penciled by Sal Buscema, Ron Wilson, Carmine Infantino and John Buscema.
Inked by Jim Mooney, Pablo Marcos, Tony De Zuniga, Steve Leialoha, Sam Grainger, Rick Bryant and Al Gordon.

Variant cover.

The criminal organization known as Hydra has a new powerful agent. Her name is Arachne and she possesses spider-powers, such as the ability to climb walls, glide through the air and the power to shoot venom blasts from her fingertips.

Arachne invades a SHIELD base with two objectives: to free her boyfriend Jared (who is also an agent of Hydra) and to eliminate SHIELD's director Nick Fury.

When she attacks Fury, Jared gets in the way and is fatally wounded. Arachne tries to comfort him, but with his final breaths, Jared tells her not to touch him. Jared only professed love for Arachne because Hydra leader Otto Vermis ordered Jared to pretend he cared for her. She confronts Vermis and learns that she was once a spider and was evolved into a human by the High Evolutionary! Arachne is shocked and distraught to learn this and turns on her Hydra bosses.

Vermis is killed during the ensuing battle and Arachne wanders off alone to find answers about her past.

Some months later, Ben Grimm, better known as the Thing of the Fantastic Four, and his girlfriend Alicia Masters are in London seeking to meet Dr. Louis Kort, an expert in cybernetics and bio-genetics. When they arrive at Kort's home, it's been ransacked and Kort is nowhere to be found.

When Shang-Chi, Master Of Kung Fu, hears Alicia's screams emanating from Kort's residence, he mistakenly thinks Ben is responsible for Kort's disappearance. Shang-Chi doesn't recognize the Thing and attacks him.

After a brief battle, Ben and Alicia explain who they are. The two crimefighters agree to collaborate and search for Kort.

They discover Hydra has captured Kort. Hydra forces Kort to use his scientific expertise to revive Arachne, who is now called Spider-Woman, from a state of suspended animation. Through a flashback, we learn that Hydra captured her after she turned on them.

When Spider-Woman is awakened, she is hypnotized by Hydra and ordered to attack Ben Grimm.  During their fight, Spider-Woman captures Alicia and turns her over to Hydra.

Hydra has a formula that will create an army of spider-women that will do their bidding and they want to test it on Alicia. It does not work and Alicia is turned into a strange spider-monster.

Spider-Woman's hypnosis wears off and she joins forces with the Thing. They need to find a way to stop Alicia without hurting her. Thankfully, Sue Storm, the Invisible Girl arrives to lend a hand. Can the three heroes defeat Alicia and restore her humanity?

Later, the Thing visits Stonehenge where he and Spider-Woman are attacked by a quartet of demons. In order to defeat theses monsters, they'll need the assistance of Modred the Mystic, who possesses magical powers taught to him by Merlin himself!

After the battle, Modred informs Spider-Woman that in spite of what Hydra told her, she was born a human being. Modred reaches into her mind and reveals her origins. Her real name is Jessica Drew, her parents were named Meriem and Jonathan.  Her father was an experimental geneticist. Jonathan moved his family to Mount Wundagore where he built a laboratory. He was assisted by Herbert Wyndham, another expert in genetics.

One day, Jessica contracted radiation poisoning and was placed in a cryogenic chamber to save her life. Jonathan injected her with spider extract, hoping it would cure her. But Jessica remained comatose. Jonathan disappeared shortly after his wife Meriem died, but his assistant Herbert stayed in Wundagore and tried to save Jessica. Herbert eventually became the High Evolutionary and succeeded in saving Jessica. After years of incubation, Jessica was saved and was now half-human, half spider.  

Modred reveals Spider-Woman's true origin.

The knowledge of her past does not immediately improve Jessica's life. At times, Spider-Woman is forced to steal food in order to survive. She is pursued by the police and encounters a SHIELD agent named Jerry Hunt. He tries to apprehend Spider-Woman, but accidentally unmasks her. Hunt thinks her face looks familiar.

Jessica meets Jerry Hunt.

With her identity compromised, Jessica dyes her hair black and redesigns her mask. This will hopefully prevent Jerry or anyone else from guessing her identity. Shortly after this change, Jerry Hunt is shot and Spider-Woman provides the blood transfusion that saves his life. Though he barely knows Spider-Woman, Jerry tells a colleague that he's falling in love with her.

Later, a criminal named "Slappy" Struthers tries to steal the sword Excalibur from a London museum. When he touches the sword, he hears the voice of Morgan Le Fay, King Arthur's half-sister. Morgan commands Struthers to pick up the sword and act as her servant on Earth. Struthers is given a steed and a suit of armor and calls himself Excaliber.

Simultaneously, Spider-Woman meets an old man named Magnus. He works as a fortune teller, but it's a cover for his true identity. Magnus is an ancient wizard who battled Morgan Le Fay centuries earlier. Magnus will serve as a friend and mentor to Jessica.

Spider-Woman later decides to depart London for the United States and Magnus accompanies her. She leaves a note, hoping Jerry will search for her in the states. Jessica and Magnus rent an apartment in Los Angeles.

Subsequently, Spider-Woman battles a criminal known as Brother Grimm. At the moment of her victory over Grimm, she is taken captive by a crazed vigilante who calls himself Hangman. He takes Spider-Woman to a mysterious old house and locks her in a basement dungeon.

The basement seems to come to life, with ghostly versions of people she knows flying at her.  It turns out to be the work of Morgan Le Fay, who has followed Spider-Woman to Los Angeles.  Can Spider-Woman defeat Morgan and escape the dungeon?

She will get some assistance in the battle when Magnus summons Werewolf By Night to the dungeon!

Plus, Spider-Woman investigates the death of her father.

Review:
Spider-Woman was originally created by Marvel to prevent another company from owning the name. But she's still around nearly four decades later. Not bad for a character which such a dubious origin.

Story:
I'll admit that most of the stories reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Spider-Woman Volume 1 were new to me.

Archie Goodwin wrote the first story in this book, reprinted from Marvel Spotlight #32, which contains Spider-Woman's first appearance and origin. I've always found the bit about Spider-Woman being a spider evolved into a woman to be a bit silly, even for a comic book. It's not a great origin story, but it's a decent introduction for the character. Marvel supposedly had no intention of producing any more Spider-Woman tales.

Marv Wolfman wrote the rest of the stories reprinted here, starting with a four-parter from Marvel Two-In-One. I always enjoyed this series and Ben Grimm was one of my favorite characters during the Bronze Age. A fight between the Thing and Shang-Chi could've been silly, but Wolfman makes it work. He does a nice job of bringing Spider-Woman into the story. She's a reluctant villain who ends up teaming with the Thing to stop Hydra.

After that, Wolfman writes a good retelling of Spider-Woman's origin story, getting rid of the "evolved from a spider" business. I found myself caring about Jessica Drew from the beginning and that's a credit to Wolfman's skills. He also wastes no time trying to build a supporting cast for Spider-Woman's solo tales. Jerry Hunt is a good romantic interest for Jessica. I was happy that Jessica had Magnus to serve as her mentor and confidant.

I'm guessing Wolfman moved Jessica to Los Angeles to keep her as far as possible from Spider-Man. The presence of characters like Modred, Morgan Le Fay (who would become Spider-Woman's arch enemy) and Excaliber also helps make her stories much more magical and mystical than the average Bronze Age Spider-Man adventure. Spider-Woman would not meet Spidey until Spider-Woman #20, published a year after Wolfman's departure from the series.

The weakest portion of the book is the story that features the Hangman. He's introduced with fanfare in the beginning of the tale, seeking Brother Grimm. Hangman kills one of Grimm's accomplices.

Then he shows up during the story's climactic battle, captures Spider-Woman and imprisons her in a dungeon. And then...Hangman disappears while Morgan Le Fay shows up in the dungeon and attacks Spider-Woman. In other words, Hangman has no reason to be in the story. Plus, his capture of Spider-Woman seems a bit too easy.

The book ends with two offbeat short stories that feel a bit like episodes of The Twilight Zone. The first features a man who is over 200 years old who is cursed with immortality. He asks Spider-Woman to help him die. It's followed by "The Suit," which is built around a suit worn by a fallen gangster that may have supernatural powers. Spider-Woman serves as more of a supporting character in both shorts, but they end the book on a high note.

Art:
While the stories are a mixed bag, the art is excellent throughout the book. Sal Buscema, embellished by Jim Mooney, provided the art in Spider-Woman's first appearance and their art looks great. The Marvel Two-In-One portion features pencils by Ron Wilson and John Buscema, both inked by Pablo Marcos.

The story that features Alicia transformed into a spider-monster could have been silly. But Wilson and Marcos make Alicia's metamorphosis look legitimately scary. The London location also gives Wilson and John Buscema a chance to draw Ben Grimm in a different locale. Wilson does some interesting things with panels and layouts, like this two-page spread:

Spider-Woman's solo tales feature pencils by Carmine Infantino embellished by multiple inkers.   Infantino's art here is very similar to his pencils on the Nova and Star Wars series published around the same time.  ony De Zuniga's inks give Infantino's art an almost Ditko-esque look.

Steve Leialoha also provided inks for several issues. His contributions give the Infantino pencils a nice slick, cartoony appearance.

Jerry, Jessica and Magnus during a rare moment of relaxation.

The art is pleasant to look at from beginning to end.

How Does It Look:
Here's a scan from my old copy of Marvel Two-In-One #32:

This is how the same pages look in Marvel Masterworks: Spider-Woman Volume 1:

Extras:
Marv Wolfman wrote a nice new introduction for the book. I get the impression the character means a lot to Wolfman, and he mentions that he named Jessica Drew after his daughter. We also get an editorial from Wolfman that originally appeared in Spider-Woman #1, a 1978 Marvel house ad, and two pages of original art.

Marvel Masterworks: Spider-Woman Volume 1 features mostly good stories, even if none represent the best of the Bronze Age. The art, Wolfman's scripts, and the Marvel-Two-In-One stories make this a book an enjoyable reading experience.

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sals.

Wolverine: First Cuts

Reprints X-Men Origins: Wolverine #1, Uncanny X-Men #118-119, Wolverine (1982) #1-2, Marvel Team-Up #83-85 and material from the Best Of Marvel Comics hc.
Written by Chris Yost, Chris Claremont and John Byrne.
Penciled by Mark Texeira, John Byrne, Marshall Rogers Frank Miller and Sal Buscema.
Inked by Terry Austin, Steve Leialoha, Mark Texeira, Josef Rubenstein, Ricardo Villamonte and Randy Emberlin.

Three Bronze Age tales that introduce people who would be important in the life of Wolverine!

The X-Men sail into the Japanese port city Agarashima. The city is on fire and an earthquake has recently occured. Team leader Cyclops says they must visit Sunfire, a former X-Man so that they can remain in Japan legally.

Wolverine meets Mariko for the first time.

When they arrive at Sunfire's compound, Wolverine meets Sunfire's cousin Mariko Yashida. They are instantly attracted to one another. Wolverine and Mariko are having a pleasant conversation, when suddenly another earthquake hits. Wolverine saves Mariko while the house around them is reduced to rubble. Storm says the quake was likely man-made. 

The X-Men battle the Mandroids.

In the midst of this, the X-Men are attacked by Mandroids. They're easily defeated, but the real brains behind the threat has arrived: Moses Magnum, a criminal arms dealer who previously battled Spider-Man and Luke Cage. Magnum demands that he be appointed ruler of Japan. If his request is denied, he will sink the island nation. Can the X-Men stop Magnum before he destroys Japan?   

Next, Wolverine takes a leave of absence from the X-Men to visit Mariko in Tokyo. He has not heard from Mariko in months.  All his letters to her have been returned unopened and she will not take his phone calls.

Wolverine learns that Mariko is married and that her husband is abusive.

Upon arrival in Japan, Logan learns that Mariko has been forced to marry a man she does not love. Her father, Lord Shingen Harada has returned and arranged this marriage to a man named Noboru-Hideki, to settle a family debt.

Wolverine visits Mariko and finds that Noboru is abusing her. He's determined to exact revenge, but is attacked by ninjas who drug him with poisoned shurikens. 

When he wakes up, Wolverine is brought before Shingen. He says Wolverine is unworthy of his daughter's love and challenges him to a duel, with wooden bokan swords. Wolverine is still suffering from the effects of the poison, and Shingen is a master swordsman. The battle is brief and Shingen wins easily. He has succeeded in humiliating Wolverine in front of Mariko, who turns her back on Logan.

The Hand attacks Wolverine & Yukio.

Wolverine is dumped in an alley. A street gang finds the drugged, beaten-down Logan and attacks him.  But he's saved by a woman named Yukio, who takes down the gang with knives and martial arts. She claims to be a ronin, a samurai who serves no master. Wolverine is grateful to Yukio for saving his life and he feels they are very similar. Yukio is falling in love with Logan, but his heart is set on Mariko.  He will need Yukio's help if he wants to take down Shingen and win back Mariko's love. But can Yukio be trusted?

Viper's recent history is recounted.

Lastly,we get the first ever team-up of Viper and Silver Samurai! Viper has hypnotized SHIELD agents and has taken over their Helicarrier base. She plans to crash it into the United States Capitol while Pres. Carter is giving a speech. Viper believes it will encourage the smaller nations of the world to rise up and destroy the U.S..

Silver Samurai & Boomerang battle the heroes and teleport away.

But all hope is not lost. Spider-Man, Black Widow, Shang Chi (Master Of Kung Fu) and SHIELD chief Nick Fury have teamed up to thwart Viper's scheme. If they want to stop her, they'll have to get through Silver Samurai and Boomerang first!

Shang Chi takes on Boomerang on the Hellicarrier.

Review:
As the cover image would indicate, Wolverine: First Cuts features stories that introduce characters featured in the 2013 movie The Wolverine. It's an odd hodgepodge of stories (see the "Extras" section below for specifics) from all over Wolverine's history. As per usual, this review focuses on the Bronze Age stories contained in this tpb.

Story:
The two-part X-men story is pretty good. It's from a long-ish arc from X-men that ran from 114 through 125. The X-men are presumed dead and go on a "World Tour" that will eventually take them home.  Mariko's introduction is a small part of this story. But it's an important step in Wolverine's growth from animalistic killing machine to complicated hero. Chris Claremont and John Byrne give us a solid story here that features plenty of action.

The X-men attack Moses Magnum, Wolverine gets slapped around.

Moses Magnum is hardly an A-list villain, but he works okay here. These stories have been reprinted several times in Masterworks and Omnibuses, but the non-completists will appreciate their inclusion. I hadn't read it in 20+ years and it holds up pretty well. It's not exactly essential, but it's a good "battle" issue, and it includes Banshee's finest moment as a superhero.  

I've always been a sucker for stories that take place at Christmas time, so that was a nice touch.

Banshee is released from the hospital, just in time to celebrate Christmas.

The second portion comes from the 1982 Wolverine miniseries, but we only get reprints of the first two issues. I recently reviewed the book that reprints the whole series here, so I won't go into detail about the content. At the end of the reprint from #2, we get an ad that directs the reader to buy the book that reprints the whole series. You'd think Marvel could have reprinted the whole miniseries here (and included the follow-up story) and just raised the price by a buck or two, but no. Feels sort of like making readers buy the same material twice.

The highlight of the book is a story that does not feature Wolverine at all. The reprints from Marvel Team-Up #83-85 are here because they feature the first time Viper worked with Silver Samurai. It's a three-part epic, with heroes taking on three villains. Claremont writes this as well, though we get a much different dynamic between the Viper & the Samurai than we're used to. She treats him like a hired thug, whereas they treat each other more less equally when they later battle the X-Men and the New Mutants.

Another nice part of this is story is that it mentions John Belushi...twice! In the Silver Samurai's previous appearance (Marvel Team-Up #74), he attacked Belushi on the set of Saturday Night Live.  This is discussed in two separate flashbacks. As a big fan of the original SNL cast, I think Belushi would get a kick out of being referenced twice in a reprint book published 30+ years after his passing.   

Art:
The X-Men story features pencils by John Byrne inked by Terry Austin. They're one of the all-time great art teams and they were hitting their stride here.  Simply gorgeous.

The Wolverine portion contains art by Frank Miller and Josef Rubenstein that I gushed over in my earlier review.

Lastly, the Marvel Team-Up story simply credits Sal Buscema and Steve Leialoha as "artists". I don't see a lot of Buscema here. Perhaps Sal drew some rough breakdowns, because all the faces certainly look like they're drawn by Leialoha. I'm geneally not a big fan of his penciling, but Leiloha does a nice job here. They make a good art team.

How does it look?:

Looks fine to me, and here's another scan:

Extras:

We get stories published after the Bronze Age, plus entries from The Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe for several characters. 

Wolverine:First Cuts would be a better book if it included the whole miniseries. The X-Men story can be found elsewhere. The inclusion of the Marvel Team-Up story makes it worth reading, but it shouldn't be at the top of your Bronze Age Reprint reading list. 

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5


2 and a half Sals.