Spider-Man: The Anniversary Syndrome

Next week, Spider-Man celebrates his 50th anniversary, and Marvel's commemorating it with the giant-sized Amazing Spider-Man #692, by Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos, and a bevy of other creators.  Obviously, Spider-Man's celebrated a few anniversaries before.  For his 25th, he met Venom for the first time; for his 40th, Amazing Spider-Man returned to its original numbering just in time for #500.  But the biggest deal Marvel's ever made over a Spider-Anniversary was back in 1992, for his 30th.  Of course, in 1992, Marvel would take any possible excuse to add on a shiny cover and some extra features, so it's perhaps no surprise that this was such an event.  There were four-count-'em'-four ongoing Spider-Man books at the time, so each one got a super-sized anniversary issue, complete with backup stories, a pull-out poster, and a holographic cover.  Holograms get a bad rap, but these are actually very nicely done, although as can be seen below, they don't actually scan very well.

All of the covers look like this, with varying background colours, so I'm just gonna scan this one.

The Metamorphosis of Dr. Kafka

With issue 185, J.M. DeMatteis took the reins of Spectacular Spider-Man, kicking his run off with the dark, creepy The Child Within, a story that focused on Harry Osborn becoming the Green Goblin again, and on the escape of the cannibalistic rat-man, Vermin.  In the first few pages, we're introduced to Vermin's therapist, Dr. Ashley Kafka.  As seen here, Dr. Kafka is pretty clearly middle-aged.

" - get six figures worth of plastic surgery before my next appearance!"
(Spectacular Spider-Man #184, written by J.M. DeMatteis, art by Sal Buscema)

She kept turning up beyond that story, and became a full-blown Spider-Man supporting character.  And it is not a good thing to be a Spider-Man supporting character.  All sorts of things can happen to you; you could become a supervillain, or you could marry a supervillain, or your son might become a werewolf, or maybe you'll just get chucked off a bridge and die.  But something even stranger happened to Dr. Kafka.

Amazing Spider-Man #407 is always gonna be with you.

Well, better than the one-stroke penalty you get when you hit your ball into Hydro-Man.

I was reading The Complete Ben Reilly Epic, volume 2 (available at all finer booksellers now, from the good people at Marvel's Trades Department), and the lead issue, 1996's Amazing Spider-Man #407, really grabbed me.  The issue centres around the people of New York City (and specifically, the Human Torch, Silver Sable, and the Sandman) getting used to new Spider-Man Ben Reilly, and around Ben Reilly getting used to his new job in a coffeehouse (because 1996).  It's not the best thing DeFalco's ever written or the best thing Bagley's ever drawn, but it made me smile in that goofy "oh, comics" way that Tom DeFalco does so well.  Specifically, it made me smile three times.

Who Watches the Nightwatch Part 3: Crossoverkill

Hey, remember those new-character 1993 annuals I was talking about in our last installment?  Well, Web of Spider-Man had one, too, introducing not one, not two, but three new characters!  Vortex, Dementia, and Shard are...the Cadre!  Who?  Yeah, pretty much.  Forget about them, they suck.  Marvel annuals of the late '80s and early '90s were jam-packed with backup stories, and this one is no different.  One of those just happens to be another Nightwatch story, written by Terry Kavanagh with art by Mark Powers and Hector Collazo.

And then...OBSCURITY!

Sal's Sunday Punch #11

It's a special pugilistic Sal's Sunday Punch!  It's 1995, and Peter Parker is accused of murder most foul!  (Unsurprisingly, the murder was committed by one of Peter's clones.)  And even though he's Peter's friend, Bugle reporter Ben Urich has to look into Parker's past.  As written by Titanic Tom DeFalco, penciled by Our Pal Sal Buscema, and inked by...uh, Ginormous Jimmy Palmiotti in Spectacular Spider-Man #225, Ben interviews Peter's high school principal about a little boxing match between Parker and his nemesis Flash Thompson...

It's the eye of the spider, it's the thrill of the fight, rising up to the challenge of our rival...

What a jab!  Now, this is a flashback to Amazing Spider-Man #8, written by Stan "The Man" Lee and drawn by Sturdy Steve Ditko.  Let's see how the original stacks up...

Prediction: pain.

Well, Sal's rendition was more dynamic, but on the other hand, I love that goofy Ditko expression on Flash's face.  Let's call this one a draw.

SLAM EVIL!

So hey, remember how I was talking about Swarm, and how he successfully tapped into the '70s pop-culture zeitgeist?  Well, today I'm gonna talk about a character who tried to tap into the '90s pop-culture zeitgeist, and...wasn't quite as successful.

From the pages of 1996's Green Goblin #7, Tom DeFalco, Scott McDaniel, and Derek Fisher give you...the Steel Slammer!

Come on and slam, and welcome to the jam.

Sal's Sunday Punch #3

It's a very special Incredibly '90s Sal Buscema Punch!

"It's okay, I guess.  I've been punched harder."
(Spectacular Spider-Man #219, written by Tom DeFalco and Todd DeZago, art by Sal Buscema and Scott Hanna) 

In today's installment, from 1994's Spectacular Spider-Man #219, Spider-Man's been poisoned by the evil avian duo of the Vulture and the Owl (in an amusingly Silver-Agey touch, he was scratched by an actual vulture with poison-soaked talons), and he's teamed with Daredevil to find the cure!  Too bad for him that there is no cure.  And, you know, because it's 1994, Daredevil is wearing an armored costume and keeps insisting that he isn't Matt Murdock because he faked his own death with his Infinity War doppelganger, and the Vulture is wearing an armored costume and is also young, having drained the life energy of Peter Parker's robot spy mom.  Comics, man.

Ben Grimm: Jerk

Hey, Ben Grimm - what do you say to your friend when you find out that his wife's been replaced by a Skrull?

(Fantastic Four #357, written by Tom DeFalco, art by Paul Ryan and Danny Bulanadi)

Yeah, uh...not that.

Given that the guy standing next to Ben there is noted evil mind-controller the Puppet Master, Johnny takes this about as well as you'd expect.  They spend the next five pages beating the crap out of each other; at no point does Ben dispel the notion that he's being mind-controlled, nor does he tell Johnny what the hell is going on.  Honestly, I think he just wanted an excuse to smack the Torch around for stealing his woman.