Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "1970s"

Essential Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 7 by Gerry Conway

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book collects Amazing Spider-man Issues 138-160, Giant Size Spider-man #4 and #5 and the Amazing Spider-man Annual #10. The first more than half of the book is the end of the Gerry Conway era as represented in Issues 138-149 and the two Giant Sized issues, Archie Goodwin wrote Amazing Spider-man #150 and then handed off the book to Len Wein who wrote Issues 151-160 and Amazing Spider-man Annual #10. The art chores are handled mostly by Ross Andru with assists from Gil Kane (Spiderman #150 and AS Annual #10) and Sal Buscema (AS #154 and #155)

The Conway era was great for Spider-man. Taking over for Stan Lee in Amazing Spider-man #111, his run took the character in the new directions with the death of Gwen Stacy (in the previous volume.) In this book, we get the start of the clone saga which has gotten a bad name, but that's due to the botched 1990s attempt to bring back the saga. Conway's final 12 issues work through the mystery of who the Jackal is as a question that's occasionally in the foreground but is always working through the background. During Conway's run we saw the return of Mysterio and the Scorpion plus Spider-man taking on some unique 1970s villains like the Grizzly and the Cyclone.

In Giant Sized Spider-man #4, we have a team up between Spidey and the Punisher which is notable for the lack of rancor that typically accompanies the team-ups these days. Giant-sized Spider-man #5 has a team up with Man-thing (because every Marvel hero in the 70s had to team up with Man-thing.)

Conway told great tale and built a very good arc. Whatever, the problems with the follow up, the original was a nice piece of 1970s storytelling. While I think one reason he killed off Gwen Stacy, he didn't know what to do with her, he did manage to really solidly establish the relationship between Peter and Mary Jane that would be so important for decades.

Archie Goodwin's Issue #150 is an enjoyable issue that manages to put a period on the end of the Clone saga.

Wein's writing is far more varied. We saw the return of some old villains, but also a few intriguing issues without premier Supervillains. Issues 153 and 155 are the type of things you'd see in a Batman comic of the era. Issue 153 has a scientist being blackmailed by men who kidnapped his daughter and the story is somewhat with a great tearjerker ending. Issue #155 is a full fledged Spider-man whodunit that fixes a hanging thread from a Daredevil story. Issue #156 has Spidey having to thwart robbers at Ned Leads and Betty Brant wedding. I enjoyed all these issues, though #156 was probably the weakest.

Returning supervillains was a big focus of this one as this era saw the return of Shocker (#151 and #152), Sandman (#154). Doctor Octopus and Hammerhead . (#157-#159.) The final issue of that arc has a team up between Spider-man and Doctor Octopus which is surreal. Wein brings back these villains without them feeling old or cliched.

He introduces a villain of his own in Amazing Spider-man Annual #10 where we meet the Human Fly, another villain created courtesy of J. Jonah Jameson and a mad scientist (ala the Scorpion.) However, this felt more than a retread, partially because it had a fascinating first part where Spider-man foiled the future Human Fly's attempt at kidnapping.

Finally, we have Amazing Spider-man #160 where Len Wein ties up the biggest loose end from the Conway era-the Spider-mobile. Spider-man had left the car in the river and in the book's finale, it's out for revenge. It's a great final chapter to that silly saga.

Overall, this was a great era for Spider-man and a great collection full of wonderful action, some good character moments, solid art, and great writing.



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Tales of the Batman: Len Wein by Len Wein

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Len Wein's Batman work is collected in this book. Included the book are a variety of stories written for Detective Comics during the 1970s and 1980s, an Issue of World's Finest, Wein's nearly two-year run writing Batman, the Legends of the Dark Knight Mini-series, a DC lost story publication from the 1970s era that was released in 2011 and a story from Batman: Black and White:

Detective Comics: Wein's first Batman story was Detective Comics #408, drawn by Neal Adams. it's atmospheric piece with Batman wandering around a mystery house. Many more Detective Comics stories are featured. Highlight include the Bat-Murderer saga where Batman is framed for the murder of Talia Al-Ghul and the police believe he did it, and he ends up on the wrong side of the law for a multiple issues and meets up with the Creeper. There's a great Signalman story that was surprising how good it was because it's Signalman. Last issue had Batman meeting a knock off Grizzly Adams.


World's Finest #207: Clark Kent is hiring thugs to kill Superman. Why? A good issue with a nice fight between Batman, Superman, and Doctor Light, but a somewhat disappointing solution to the mystery.

Wein's Batman run: A very serviceable run. The big highlight is the introduction of Lucius Fox. Also during this time, Selina Kyle had reformed and has a relationship with Bruce Wayne. Among the villains Batman battled were Two-Face, Mister Freeze, and Calander Man. The stories were mostly good (save for the Joker's 40th Anniversary Issue which didn't really rise to the occasion.) The book's biggest fault is that the comics seemed to be trying to imitate Marvel too hard such as when Batman has a relationship failure and responds to moaning from a rooftop. Bat-Spider-man!

Untold Legends of the Batman: DC's Second limited series took all the information about Batman's origin from comics over the decade and collected them in a single volume while Wein fleshed out Batman's origins in his own way. It's a really solid Batman story, easily overlooked because Crisis on Infinite Earth wiped out. The plot finds someone messing with Batman, destroying his dad's Batman suit, and even trying to blow up the Batmobile. The events require Batman to retrace his life story. The writing is really good and the art by John Byrne (issue 1) and Jim Aparo is superb.

DC Retrospective: Batman: The 1970s #1: An untold tale from Aparo's time on Batman. He gets to pick up some threats that were never fully explored during his original run. The writing is as good as it was back when he wrote the original series, which is pretty good, and features a new version of the Terrible Trio.

Batman: Black and White #5: A Two-face story that's short but has a really good twist. My one complaint? Didn't care much for how the artist drew Batman (insanely bulkly.) Still Wein's last Batman tale is a quick enjoyable short story.

Overall, a good mix of stories. Most are quite solid and there are some really gems here that make this a worthwhile read for Batman fans.



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The Eternals, Vol. 1 by Jack Kirby

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The first volume of Jack Kirby's run on the Eternals collects issues 1-11.

This book thrives on a couple of things. First, is its big concepts. It introduces big cosmological ideas to the Marvel Universe about three species of man: the Humans, the Eternals, and the Deviants, as well as space gods who tampered with men and were responsible for this and have returned.

The other strength is the art. While this isn't Kirby of the Silver Age. Kirby in the Bronze Age was still a very good artist and this gave him opportunities to draw monsters, big cosmic beings, giant spaceships, and they're just glorious to look at.

The weakness are the characters. Most of them were one to two dimensional and really not that interesting. The most interesting character in the book is Sersi, who gets minimal time. The plot also does drag on a bit. In many ways, it seems to be a throwback to the old Sci Fi comics that Kirby used to write/draw in the late 1950s, only expanded with a much bigger story.

Still,, I think it's a solid read on the strength of the art and it's overall influence on the Marvel Universe.





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