DEADLY FOES OF SPIDER-MAN by Danny Fingeroth et al.

Deadly Foes of Spider-Man (1993) collects the eponymous four-issue 1991 Marvel miniseries. It was written by Danny Fingeroth and penciled by Al Milgrom and Kerry Gammill. Here, the Beetle re-forms the Sinister Syndicate, which includes Hydro-Man, the Rhino, Speed Demon, Boomerang, and Boomerang’s ambitious girlfriend, to pull off a series of robberies (the Shocker pops up, too). They run into trouble with Spider-Man, the Kingpin, and each other.

What sets this volume apart from pretty much every other Spider-Man comic is that it’s written almost entirely from the villains’ perspectives, and it includes some very good character development. It’s a refreshing change of pace, and it goes a long way toward this comic’s readability.

The story itself, alas, isn’t so hot. The plot, which would otherwise be okay, turns on an inexcusably staggering number of blatant contrivances and convenient coincidences (yes, even for a comic book), and this includes most of Spider-Man’s appearances. Their frequency is damaging to the story, as are a couple of particularly egregious and unforgivable ones. It just isn’t good writing.

The art here is not impressive. The diverse and distinguishable faces are a highlight, but the figures are stiff and attempts to show depth on people are often poor. I’m at a loss to explain it – both Milgrom and Gammill have done much better work than this on their own. The inks definitely don’t help, though. There are also quite a few cases of miscoloring.

There are a couple of other little problems here that aren’t Fingeroth’s fault, as they’re endemic to the Spider-verse at large. It’s hard to believe that many of these villains aren’t more competent – especially Speed Demon, who’s practically the Flash. One expects better from the Beetle, too. And the Rhino’s been trapped in his suit for “all these years” in the same pair of boxers (still white) and, apparently, no way to use the restroom? Okay then. Bringing this to the reader’s awareness is the violation of a cardinal comic book “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Deadly Foes of Spider-Man is a neat idea (and one that would later be revisited to better effect in the short-lived Spider-Man’s Tangled Web series), but it just doesn’t have enough going for it to recommend it.

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THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN by Stan Lee

The Amazing Spider-Man (1990) collects issues 88, 89, and 90 of the eponymous comic book; these issues, which were written by Stan Lee and illustrated by John Romita, Gil Kane, and Jim Mooney, were originally published in 1970.

This is a straightforward Spider-Man-versus-Doctor-Octopus story, and it’s important to the Spider-Man canon because it includes the death of Captain Stacy, a formative moment in Spider-Man’s early career. The story itself is decent, but not great. There’s plenty of fighting (fights with Doc Ock haven’t changed much in 40 years), as well as plenty of expository thought bubbles, stilted dialogue, and 70s’ “hipness.” Honestly, it hasn’t aged all that well.

Kane and Romita  are two of the classic Spider-Man illustrators, and their work here is excellent, as always: realistic and dynamic. The comics themselves are presented in black and white. Like a number of Tor’s comic collections, this book is about four inches by seven – standard paperback novel size. The panels have been rearranged to fit the small pages – the material from one page of the original comic is spread over several pages here. This disrupts the flow somewhat, as you might imagine, but not to a damaging degree.

On the whole, these issues are worthwhile, but you can certainly find a better version than this. Try Essential Amazing Spider-Man 4 and 5 or Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Volume 10 instead.

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SPIRITS OF VENOM by Howard Mackie, Alex Saviuk, and Adam Kubert

 Spirits of Venom (1993), written by Howard Mackie and penciled by Alex Saviuk and Adam Kubert, collects Marvel Comics’ Web of Spider-Man #95 and #96 and Spirits of Vengeance #5 and #6. Here, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, and John Blaze battle Demogoblin, the Spider-Doppelganger, Hag, Troll, and a bunch of Deathspawn, plus Venom, in the high-ceilinged, labyrinthine sewers (standard comic book issue, of course) beneath New York.

There’s quite a bit going on here, most of it fighting – these four issues are little more than one massive action scene. The villains are all B-list and C-list (Ghost Rider’s rogues’ gallery tends to pretty obscure, even for serious comic fans), and the story never manages to feel significant. What little plotting there is is totally contrived: whoever needs to show up for the story to progress at a given point just drops in.

The dialogue is pretty rough, even by comic standards. Venom and Demogoblin are on one-note rants through the entire story (Venom’s like a wise-cracking zombie and Demogoblin’s a religious nut-job). Much of the rest is stiff and formulaic.

The art here is generally good, and, given the story, a definite plus. Saviuk’s long run on Web of Spider-Man was always solid, if never spectacular. Kubert’s art is more stylized, more detailed, more cinematic, and, overall, superior.

On the whole, Spirit of Venom is a passably entertaining mess, a model of quantity over quality. Unless you’re a huge fan of both Spider-Man and Ghost Rider, you won’t be missing much if you pass on this one.

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GREEN GOBLIN: A LIGHTER SHADE OF GREEN

Green Goblin: A Lighter Shade of Green (2011) collects Marvel Comics’ Green Goblin #1-13 as well as Amazing Scarlet Spider #2 and large portions of Web of Spider-Man #125 and Spectacular Spider-Man #225, all of which were published in 1995 and 1996. The majority of this material was written by Tom DeFalco and penciled by Scott McDaniel. Taking place in the midst of Spider-Man’s notorious Clone Saga, this collection contains all Phil Urich’s appearances as the Green Goblin.

Here, Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich’s teenage nephew Phil stumbles upon a cache of Harry Osborn’s old Green Goblin equipment, accidentally gets covered in Goblin Serum, and decides to take the gear and become a superhero (sort of). He runs into some standard Marvel villains, including the Rhino, the Hobgoblin, and a Sentinel, as well as some original villains who aren’t particularly memorable; he also has encounters with the Scarlet Spider, the Thing, Daredevil, and Spider-Man.

DeFalco’s writing here is good, if unspectacular. Phil is something of a slacker, and the prominent theme running through the work is personal responsibility. It’s kind of an interesting counterpoint to Spider-Man’s massive guilt-driven responsibility, although Phil is prone to vacillation, which leads a little more farting around than benefits the story, since slackers, by nature, don’t tend to do a whole lot, and Phil may be slower to come around than some readers will like.

Green Goblin bears something of a debt to The Mask, which DeFalco readily acknowledges. There’s plenty of dated dialogue here, written by a middle-aged person clearly only guessing at what was hip and edgy (or maybe basing it on what he’d seen on TV), as well as a load of even more dated pop culture references. This is jarring in part because of the writing, but also because of how far technology has come in fifteen years. In any case, DeFalco would go on to far greater teen-centered superhero works with Spider-Girl.

The Spider-Man comics included here don’t really relate to the rest of the work – the Green Goblin doesn’t do a whole lot in them – and they don’t add much to Phil’s story. But for the completionists, this volume contains every appearance of Phil as the Green Goblin.

Scott McDaniel draws most of the issues, and his art is good, although there’s a general lack of detail. The muddy colors don’t help matters either. But McDaniel’s style fits the Green Goblin perfectly.

This is a self-contained story arc, and it ends at a good place to leave Phil before, under the direction of other writers, he goes on to crazier, more villainous things (this collection was put together in 2011 after Phil became a new evil Hobgoblin – nothing in this volume even hints at that).

On the whole, Green Goblin: A Lighter Shade of Green is a solid read, and will be accessible to those with a basic familiarity with 1990s Spider-Man.

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