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.

RECOMMENDED

A SHOT OF FAITH TO THE HEAD by Mitch Stokes

A Shot of Faith to the Head: Be a Confident Believer in an Age of Cranky Atheists is a 2012 philosophy-based Christian apologetic by Mitch Stokes, a philosophy professor with an engineering background. It is largely based on the philosophy of Alvin Plantinga, and is intended to help Christians hold their own in discussions with atheists.

The book is divided into three sections, each one addressing a different argument for atheism: that belief in God is irrational, that science has shown that God doesn’t exist, and that the existence of evil in the world shows that God doesn’t exist.

One of Stokes’s central tasks here is deconstructing evidentialism – the argument that any belief must be supported by sufficient evidence to be rational, and which is used to criticize belief in God. This is probably the highlight of the book. In fact, Stokes generally does an excellent job of picking apart atheistic arguments. He doesn’t do near as good a job, however, on his pro-Christian arguments, which are often too cursory. That this book was put together solely with Christians in mind makes this understandable (Stokes explicitly assumes a Christian worldview on the part of the reader), but it also means that this isn’t really a book you can hand to your atheist friend to read.

While he covers a wide range of atheist scientists and philosophers in his discussions, Stokes leans too heavily on Plantinga for his pro-Christian arguments. A Shot of Faith to the Head thusly serves well enough as an introduction to Plantinga, but it would have been nice to get some other perspectives. However, Plantinga is always Stokes’s go-to guy.

A Shot of Faith to the Head will be accessible to any reasonably educated person without a philosophy degree, but it may prove a great deal of work for the reader, as the philosophical and logical concepts here tend to be complex. The summaries at the end of each chapter are helpful in this regard, but the reader will still have a great deal of cognitive processing to do.

On the whole, Stokes’s refutation of various atheistic arguments and defense of a rational belief are solid, and A Shot of Faith to the Head is a challenging but worthwhile book.

RECOMMENDED

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

THE UNTOLD LEGEND OF THE BATMAN by Wein, Aparo, and Byrne

The Untold Legend of the Batman (1982) collects the eponymous three-issue 1980 mini-series from DC Comics. It was written by Len Wein and illustrated by Jim Aparo and John Byrne. Here, someone is threatening Batman in the Batcave, and in trying to identify the culprit, Batman and other characters reminisce about their origins.

This is, first and foremost, a detailed retelling of Batman’s Gold and Silver Age, Pre-Crisis origins, based in large part on stories from the 1940s and 1950s. Not everything that’s here is canon anymore (Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One has supplanted it in matters contradictory; Bruce, for example, no longer was the original Robin), and not everything is consistent even with Batman’s several other Gold and Silver Age origin stories (Joe Chill, for example, is a hired hitman here rather than a random mugger).

Wein’s writing is adequate. The series is little more than an excuse for various characters to recollect their own and others’ origin stories. These include the origins of Bruce, Dick Grayson, Alfred, Commissioner Gordon, Barbara Gordon, the Joker, Two-Face, and Lucius Fox (and Batman isn’t the only one to have his origin retconned). Beyond this contrived framework, these origin stories are, on the whole, very interesting, even if the resolution to the “who’s trying to kill Bruce” plot is kind of weak and the dialogue is the typical melodramatic exposition comics are notorious for. The pacing throughout is pretty good, though, which covers some of these flaws.

The art is quite a bit better. Jim Aparo was the definitive Batman artist of the 1980s, and his work, both as a penciller and an inker, is excellent here (the latter is particularly noteworthy because this version is in black and white). John Byrne always did quality work in the 1980s, too, and with Aparo illustrating his work, there’s a good transition between pencillers.

The Untold Legend of the Batman, like a number of Tor’s comic collections, is about four inches by seven – standard paperback novel size. By necessity, the panels have been rearranged – the material from one page of the original comic is spread over several pages here. This obviously disrupts the flow somewhat, but not to a damaging degree. As this story isn’t particularly relevant to the current incarnation of Batman, DC has never released a better version.

It’s hard to recommend The Untold Legend of the Batman to new Batman readers because of its canonical irrelevancy, but it’s a pretty good, pretty quick read, and those who are at least somewhat familiar with Pre-Crisis Batman stories should enjoy it.

RECOMMENDED

STAR TREK: LOG ONE by Alan Dean Foster

Star Trek: Log One (1974), by Alan Dean Foster, contains three novellas adapted from the first three episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series: “Beyond the Farthest Star,” “Yesteryear,” and “One of Our Planets is Missing.” Here, the crew investigates an ancient derelict ship, Spock travels back in time to save his child self, and the Enterprise is swallowed by a planet-eating cloud.

Each novella is about sixty pages, and generally, this is a good length for this material, although there’s quite a bit more setup, especially for “Beyond,” and the pacing tends to be on the leisurely side. Foster has a narrative flair for the dramatic, and his characters often ponder grand cosmic thoughts. The overall effect is a different tone and feel from either The Original Series or TAS. The stories themselves are solid if not spectacular; “Yesteryear” was easily the best TAS episode, and, with the most character focus of the three, it’s the best story here, too.

Foster’s characterization is adequate at best, and the dialogue doesn’t always ring true. The Kirk-Spock-McCoy interplay isn’t on the level that Trek fans will likely expect, and tends to lack both charm and humor. Kirk himself is uncharacteristically awkward at times, while the Spock-McCoy exchanges are more immature and less good-spirited than what we saw on either TOS or TAS.

The only scientific nitpick here is in “Beyond,” where the characters regularly experience sound on a ship with no atmosphere (although in fairness, every iteration of Star Trek going back to TOS has abused this).

On the whole, Star Trek fans should find Star Trek: Log One reasonably readable and enjoyable, whether they’ve seen TAS or not.

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