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~P

If you’ve been hanging out here on the blog or on my twitter feed, you know by now that I am a huge comic book geek.  I once had a monthly habit that was the equivalent of a car payment.  Not a nice car.  Not even a good car.  Probably more like an ‘ok’ [...]]]> Comic Books

If you’ve been hanging out here on the blog or on my twitter feed, you know by now that I am a huge comic book geek.  I once had a monthly habit that was the equivalent of a car payment.  Not a nice car.  Not even a good car.  Probably more like an ‘ok’ car, but you get the point – I put the comic book store owner’s kid through college (he actually said that. Bastard.).

Thanks to comics, I learned a great many things; spiders are not only our friends, but, when dosed with certain kinds of radiation, they can pass their powers on to us through a bite, also, if you’re rich enough and determined (or drunk) enough, you can finance your own superhero persona(s), Norse Gods are still around and they like to fight crime, blind men can kick your ass, aliens are here and they like bright, primary colors and earth chicks, when properly focused, speed equals power, being a cop is cool – being a SPACE COP IS FREAKING AWESOME…

Also, people like to build giant robot suits and then fight each other in them, genetic mutations are cool, flying aircraft carriers are also FREAKING AWESOME, you can survive being frozen in ice for decades, thaw out and still kick some butt, if you’re rich enough and insane enough, you can finance your own supervillain persona(s), the kids you pick on in your youth WILL COME BACK and try to take over the world/steal your girl/kill your girl/humiliate you / cause you pain.

When my Grams lived with us, the afternoon was filled with soaps; Guiding Light, Young and the Restless – that sort of thing.  Having had to watch some of that stuff while waiting for the blessed 3pm and with it, Scooby-Doo, I always felt that later on, when I started to read comics, that they shared a certain serial/cliffhanger quality.  Things were rarely ever ‘wrapped’ up, no matter what the hero said at the end of the issue; the bad guy or gal always came back, the drama with their personal life didn’t go away and the cliffhangers kept right on coming.

“You’re not Peter Parker – you’re his CLONE!” DUN DUN DUN! (tell me that doesn’t sound soap operaish!)

That sort of serial drama can be fun to play with in my own writing, so I guess it was a big influence on me.

Monty Python’s Flying Circus

How do I explain this?

I was a computer loving, comic book reading, Star Trek quoting, Dungeons & Dragons playing kid; all I needed was that one last bit of nerdtacular street cred to ensure no girl ever talked to me in high school again.

…and along came Python.

From the first time I saw the Ministry of Silly Walks, I was hooked.  Who the hell were these absurd guys and why were they dressed as women?  A dead parrot?  Really?  A cheese shop that had no cheese?  A man with a tape recorder up his nose?

My sense of humor owes a lot to these guys; it comes through in my twitter feed (I think), here on this blog and most definitely in my writing.

But they were really only the jumping off point.  Thanks to the Python’s, I discovered all sorts of British comedy that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise even known about.  Like the Blues, there’s just something about that type of comedy that appeals to me.  I once wrote a piece that people compared to Douglas Adams and I could not have been more flattered.

There is this kind of absurd intelligence the comes through in British humor; it’s funny, sometimes absolutely ridiculous but at the same time, you realize that a lot of thought went into it – it’s not a pie in the face, it’s a soliloquy of humor that tickles the funny bone and fires those little synapses in the brain that make you laugh and think.

I can’t imagine writing without this sense of humor coming through.

And, to try and bring this week long extravaganza of influence pieces full circle, I really can’t imagine writing without pulling from all of these different influences; the humor, the fantasy, the scifi, the drama, from my own experiences with family and friends.  We are the sum of our parts and our writing reflects that.

…which reminds me, I should probably be writing.

~P

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This was the beginning to what has become the most iconic science fiction television series of all time – and [...]]]> Space.  The Final Frontier.  These are the voyages of the starship, Enterprise.  Its mission; to explore strange, new worlds, to seek out, new life and new civilizations, to boldly go, where no man has gone, before…

This was the beginning to what has become the most iconic science fiction television series of all time – and the most hotly debated.  Some people think it is the worst thing that could have ever happened to SciFi.  Others, that it symbolizes everything that SciFi should be; part cerebral, part western expansion and all adventure.

We all know the story; Farm boy dreams of bigger and better things, joins the military, meets a southern doctor and goes off to have an adventure.  They meet an Elf who seems to know just about everything about anything and the three of them live happily, ever after… mostly.

When it was cancelled in ‘69, many thought that was the end.  Silly, silly people.  Star Trek lived on in novels and comics and, eventually, came back in the form of a series of block buster movies and then several follow-up television series set in the future of the Federation.

But today, we’re looking at comics.  First up to have the license was Gold Key.  I don’t have any of the Gold Key comics but I went out and found some cover art for you to take a gander at:

Gold Key had the license from ‘67 – ‘78.  I have no idea whatsoever if they were any good or not.  The cover art is very interesting though…  Gold Key held a lot of tv licenses though, so I wonder about quality of story and art.  If you are a fan, please let me know how these books were.

Next to have the license was Marvel.  Again, I don’t have any of these (that I recall).  BUT, I went out and found you some more cover art to check out.  Compare it to the Gold Key above – you can definitely see the ‘Marvel Style’ coming out in this cover:

My initial reaction to these very different covers are this: Gold Key obviously did not have permission to use the font/logo, which Marvel did (or maybe they did, but chose to use something different?  Who knows?!).  Gold Key’s artwork is very retro/indicative of the 60’s (to me) compared to Marvel’s artwork which looks oh so very 80’s to me and very much in the Marvel style of books printed at the time.  Gold Key had better likenesses of the characters at first glance (McCoy & Uhura? look terrible on the Marvel cover – though Spock is recognizable as Spock).  Other than that, I don’t have much to say since I started when DC took over.  Again, if you’re a fan of the Marvel run, let me know – I’d love to learn more about them.

Speaking of DC…

My very first Star Trek Comic.  As you can see, the Enterprise is heading straight for a fight with the Klingons.

DC’s run was my favorite.  I’m going to talk about the publishers who came after in another post, but the rest of this one is all DC, so buckle up.

DC’s take was decent and faithful, in my humble opinion.  They had a lot of stuff that they had to deal with – mainly, the movies (There was no ‘Next Generation’ yet).  Essentially, the movies were canon.  Novelizations – not canon.  Comics, not canon.  SO any time they had a movie, the writers of the comics had to adapt.  Most of the time they did an excellent job.

When Star Trek 3 came out and Spock died, for example, they adapted in the comics and introduced new characters, had Saavik step in – that sort of thing.  Then, when Star Trek 4 came out, which took place days (or possibly weeks) following 3, they had to adapt again.  Same for when Star Trek 5 came out – had to adapt.

Above you see two of the WORST characters ever created.  They were in Shatner’s ‘Final Frontier’, which was just horrible.

One of the things that the comics was able to deal with (somewhat), was the Trial of James T. Kirk.  Something that always bothered a cousin of mine, was the line from one of the movies (Was it 3 or 4?) wherein the Klingon Ambassador told the President of the Federation, “There will be no peace as long as Kirk lives.”.  When 6 came about, and Spock was suing for Peace with the Chancellor, that same cousin just couldn’t buy it due to that line from the movie.

In the comics, they brought this point back and actually had the Trial.

A three part story-arc, The Trial of James T. Kirk allowed the writers to bring back many characters (including: Samuel T. Cogsley) from past storylines going back to the original television series.  The prosecution was trying to prove that Kirk had interfered with dozens of cultures throughout the decades, violating the Prime Directive time and again, causing chaos and leaving each world in a state of disarray they found it difficult, if not impossible, to recover from.

The verdict came in and Kirk was cleared of all charges and the Enterprise returned to duty once it became clear that there was a plot going on to cause mischief.  We also learned that the Klingon’s had a secret spy in Starfleet – that would come back later on.

It was an interesting story and take on the trial, and gave them an excuse to trot out a lot of the characters that we really wouldn’t have otherwise seen.

One of the things that comics (and novelizations) could do that Hollywood couldn’t (until 2009, that is), was bring us back to the original 5-year mission.

So, rather than go in a straight line, so to speak – a lot of time, DC would take us back and forth – give us a few issues or a story arc in the ‘current continuity’, and sometimes go back and tell us a story from the past.  With this method, they managed to keep us entertained and engaged.  Fans of the Original Series got to see ‘Classic Trek’, or they could see something with the older crew still chugging along.

And, what Trek book (or post) would be complete if we didn’t have Enterprise shown in all her glory! Through the years, they did a lot of really fantastic covers that featured Enterprise in every way and shape possible.  Here are a couple of my favorites:

I have more to say about the DC run of Star Trek.  Stay tuned…

~P

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In honor of the DVD release of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about the Joes lives in the comics.

Specifically, I’m talking about the Marvel series that ran from the early 80’s into the mid 90’s, something like 155 issues.  It was [...]]]> G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero

In honor of the DVD release of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about the Joes lives in the comics.

Specifically, I’m talking about the Marvel series that ran from the early 80’s into the mid 90’s, something like 155 issues.  It was based on the toys and animated series, but it veered away from those properties to take on a life of its own and, really, a canon all its own.

For me, it all started when a friend of mine bought me G.I. Joe #21, Silent Interlude, as a birthday present.  I was hooked.  The issue, which has become both a sought after collector’s item and a much talked about issue, was about Snake-Eyes, Scarlett and the newly introduced Cobra Ninja called Storm Shadow.

One of those plot points that had veered from the tv show was a love between Snake-Eyes and Scarlett.  In the canon of the comic, Snake-Eyes had taken an explosion in the face (in Vietnam, I believe), ruining it beyond what plastic surgery could repair.  He wore his black mask or a skin tight/fake rubber human looking mask with dark glasses.  He never spoke.  No one was certain if it was because he couldn’t speak, or if he chose not to.  One of the few times I ever remember him speaking was when he whispered Scarlett’s name.  She was out of earshot at the time.  He also was very rarely seen without his mask on.

He loved Scarlett, and she loved him, but he kept her at arms length due to his injuries.  She, of course, said that she didn’t care.  It was a source of drama throughout the series.  Back to ‘Silent interlude’: knowing how Snake-Eyes felt about Scarlett, Storm Shadow kidnaps her and takes her to a Cobra stronghold in the mountains full of soldiers and red ninja, whom Storm Shadow has trained.

It’s a trap.  Snake-Eyes knows that it’s a trap.  He goes anyway.

(Click to enlarge-see the tattos?)

One of the coolest issues of a comic book ever, Silent Interlude has no dialogue.  No text.  Nothing.  It sets up many plot points that are examined in the future, like the fact that Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow share a tattoo on their forearms. (Later, it’s revealed that they were both trained by the same clan, living as brothers until Storm Shadow betrayed them)

G.I. Joe continued on in comics for a decade or more as a Marvel property.  There were spin-offs like ‘Special Missions’ and crossovers with probably the only other Marvel title that ‘made sense’ from a Hasbro point of view, Transformers.

The Transformers crossover was… bad.  Well, it wasn’t good.  It never affected the canon of the Joe comics that I could see – heck, they never mentioned it, though I believe it did affect the Transformers title – but that’s a story for a different day.

Special Missions was a favorite of mine.  It often dealt with characters that we didn’t see a lot of in the main title, and showed us situations and missions that weren’t always about Cobra, which was a nice change up.  For example, one of my favorite Joes, Dusty, got to shine in Special Missions.

I could almost draw a comparison between Special Missions and Avengers West Coast.  Both took the concepts of the original title but twisted them slightly and put characters who’d been relegated to the background before, right up into the spotlight.  It was also grittier and more intense, which was a major difference between both titles and the tv show.

In the show, people always escaped in the nick of time – even pilots would leap clear of a vehicle just as a missile (or laser or something) would hit it, destroying and sending it into a billion pieces, but the pilot would be seen safely floating away on a parachute, completely unharmed.  Not so in the comic.  People were shot, they were wounded, they were blown up – they died.

And Cobra wasn’t the comical, bumbling organization they were portrayed as on tv – they were much better at what they did in the comics.  They were frightening; they had plans, long, well thought out plans, for their infiltration and domination of the world.  Heck, they had an entire city, Springfield, where they trained their operatives.  Much slicker and more believable (to an extent).

In the comics we saw more, which is always the case.  There is only so much they can do, especially on an animated show, before the costs get prohibitive or the actors get tired – usual stuff with tv.  In a comic, they can take a sideline off and delve into Snake-Eyes & Scarlett’s relationship, or show us that Cobra Commander has a son (Billy), and even have Storm Shadow take him as an apprentice (which he did).

I remember people kinda giving me a look whenever they saw that I collected G.I. Joe.  Almost as if to say, “Seriously? Isn’t that a little childish?”  Sure, it probably was – I mean, it’s G.I. Joe, after all.  But I think the comics took the Joes to a new level, and that was in no small part to Larry Hama, who wrote almost the whole series.  Think Straczynski here, people.

One person essentially in control of the entire series from start to finish can have a major impact (and is almost unheard of in modern day comics).  Typically, writers come and go on comics, but Hama stayed with it throughout and the end result shows the care and attention that he poured into the series.

Since Ninja’s are cool (but so are Pirates!), they got a lot of face time in G.I. Joe. I mean, you had Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow – always good for a tale or two, and then later, you had Billy learning to be a Ninja, and then Scarlett and a slew of others became part of Snake-Eyes’ ‘Ninja Force’ (and Snakes took top billing over G.I. Joe itself):

G.I. Joe ended its run in ’94 with issue #155.  I was sad and a little shocked to see it end.

Sorry about the flash-s'what I get for not having a scanner!

When Dark Horse launched a new title soon thereafter, I was disappointed.  It looked terrible number one, and number two, it wasn’t G.I. Joe.  Larry Hama had defined what G.I. Joe was just as Frank Miller had defined what Daredevil was.

I stopped collecting G.I. Joe at that point.  But it was a huge part of my comic book collecting days and still is.

The movie is over the top, as it has to be, but it is entertaining.  You should check it out.  But if you want a little more depth, a little more detail and substance, check out your local comic book store and see if they have any of the Hama written series from Marvel.

Yo Joe.

~P

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The majority of my exposure to DD came in the form [...]]]> When it comes to Daredevil – I am not an expert by any means.  I know that most hardcore comic book fans put Daredevil on the kind of pedestal guitar fans reserve for the likes of Eric Clapton – but I never quite got it.

The majority of my exposure to DD came in the form of guest spots in Spider-Man or other books that I collected at the time.  Plus there was that horrible Incredible Hulk meets Daredevil television movie. He had a sort of dorky costume that didn’t inspire confidence at all:

He’s blind? And a Superhero? And a lawyer? I just didn’t get the appeal.

Then came Frank Miller’s The Man Without Fear.

Miller had already made his mark on Daredevil before.  And also on Batman (The Dark Knight Returns – one of the best Batman/Superman stories ever – not sure which came first though – I honestly can’t remember) – the point is, when Miller worked on something, you knew it was going to be incredible.

With this series and the retelling of the origin, I became a fan.

I hate to draw a parallel but what I like was the darkness so similar to Batman.  Here we have a child who is orphaned at a young age.  Like Batman, he is driven to find some sense of justice.  Unlike Batman, he’s not rich and he has a power – he’s blind as a bat (har har) but can also see like one – sort of a radar.

As Matt Murdock, he fights in the court room as a lawyer – always for the little guy.  As Daredevil, he fights in the back alley’s of Hells Kitchen where the law doesn’t reach.

He has a sometimes ally and lover in Elektra, as well as a Catholic conscious and sense of guilt that helps drive him and torture him all at the same time.  All of this leads to a depth of character that is very appealing.

Plus, he has a arch enemy.  The Kingpin.

With The Kingpin, the new, grittier back story and costume, Daredevil became something much cooler in my mind.  Everyone else’s too.

Ugh. Yellow costume.

Definitely one of the best from Miller, The Man Without Fear is a favorite of mine.

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Ars Technica

Ars Technica has a lot of interesting articles each week. Sometimes I link em on Twitter, sometimes I don’t.  Last week, they talked about advertising and file-hosting sites.  It [...]]]> I find these things interesting, and thought I would share em by compiling a list here today.  The names were NOT changed to protect the innocent.

Ars Technica

Ars Technica has a lot of interesting articles each week. Sometimes I link em on Twitter, sometimes I don’t.  Last week, they talked about advertising and file-hosting sites.  It piqued my interest because I mostly hate advertising on websites – this got my brain working and thinking.  Note that I haven’t done any much (I sometimes have an Amazon thingie…) advertising on this site. I especially hate the kind of ads that pop up as your mouse passes over text – those really annoy.  Anyway, FireFox has a lot of neat plug ins that interrupt the flow of advertising to the consumer – things to block flash and ads and whatnotall.  One file-host site doesn’t like a new plug in that bypasses their site altogether, allowing people to download directly from the site instead of visiting pages with endless ads on them.

I really wish we could find a happy medium. Advertisers want to blanket us with Coke and Pepsi ads (among other things) while we just want it all to go away because we’re on overload.  When a page takes four times as long to load because of all the ad crap – we have a problem.  When we can’t get to the content we want because the ads keep interupting us, that’s a problem too.  When the content GOES AWAY because the advertisers have left and the content creator can no longer afford to operate, guess what?  We have another problem.

CNET is another favorite of mine for news.

Last week they talked about a couple of things I wanted to point out.

The 5 best (and worst) game preorder trends.  I found this interesting because the only game I have ever pre-ordered has been the expansions for World of Warcraft.  Nothing else has ever interested me enough to pre-order it.  Of course, I also tend to buy my console games used once they’ve come down considerably in price (which is why I’m usually behind the trends). This article is amusing and worth a read. Talks about what gimmicks work/they like (like getting the game ahead of the actual release date) and what doesn’t work/they don’t like (getting in game special stuff or crappy trinkets). Check it out.

The other is about Adobe bringing Photoshop.com to the iPhone, which is just neat.  Apps like this, which allow you to enhance the photos taken by your camera phone, are just nifty.  And Photoshop is pretty much the leader in this field now (sadly. I prefer some competition).  Looks like a cool deal.  Need to get that on my iPhone…

Comics should be good.

I can’t say enough nice things about this blog. I love the classic stuff and the contemporary stuff they cover every day. I usually can’t keep up with their updates.  Really worth some time on your part to check em out if you’ve ever cared about comics.

Life, Doctor Who and Combom

If you are a fan of Doctor Who, present or past, you really should check out Life, Doctor Who and Combom.  This is another site where I can’t keep up with all the updates.  If it’s Doctor Who related, it’ll show up on this blog.

Some more individual items for you.

“Fiction: In Blood 2009″ from @authormancuso. Warning for graphic violence/gore.

GameLife has a story on Sega’s SG-1000 (Sega’s 1st Game System) and gets extra points for showing Golgo 13 – a game I had for the NES.  Trying to remember his name…  Duke Togo? Something like that. 007 only Japanese.

The NY Times has a puff piece, but still very nice, about a woman on A Quest to Read a Book a Day for 365 Days.

I have never particularly cared for Batgirl.  Since finding the DCU blog ‘The Source’, however, I find myself intrigued.  Almost enough to venture to a comic book store again.  Almost.

Ya know what? I don’t want to grow up to be Sam Raimi.  Not that it wouldn’t be cool to be all rich and stuff and know Bruce Campbell and Xena.  But, I don’t want to be the guy who puts Sandman above Venom because ‘in his day’, Sandman was the big bad and Venom hadn’t been invented yet.  When I think of Batgirl, I think of Barbara Gordon (who became Oracle when Joker shot her in the spine and put her in a wheelchair for the rest of her life).  So much has changed.  Need to stay up with the times.  The Source helps with that.  And I have to say, it’s much better than Marvel’s blog – which is all selly.  The Source feels more low-key, which is probably why it sticks in my brain.

HOLEY SUBLIMINAL MARKETING, BATMAN!

…I am so sorry.  I really am.

~P

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Let me backtrack for a second – All of Marvel’s heroes and villains were taken to another planet one day, where [...]]]> As if Venom weren’t bad enough a villain for Spidey, the writers at Marvel decided that there needed to be an even CRAZIER, more SPIDEY HATING VILLAIN who got their powers from an alien symbiote.

Let me backtrack for a second – All of Marvel’s heroes and villains were taken to another planet one day, where they were forced to fight a Secret War.  As the battles raged on between heroes, villains and mutants (who felt they were separate from the others), costumes started to get damaged.  Our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man was no exception.  So when he saw folks with costumes all repaired and looking as if nothing had happened to em, he wanted in.  They pointed him to a room and told him there was a machine inside that all he had to do was think about the costume being repaired and it would do the trick.  Excited, he took off down the hall.

The room was full of machines, though, and he didn’t know which one was the right one.  Giving one a shot, he ended up with a new, black costume.

Not quite what he had in mind, but he liked it. He didn’t know that it was an alien symbiote and that eventually, it would cause him more trouble, pain and heartache than any other villain that had come along when it bonded with a guy named Eddie Brock and became Venom.

Venom was born from an angry, spurned symbiote who was pissed off at Spidey for not only rejecting it, but also hurting it to get it off of him and from an angry and pissed off Eddie Brock, who hated Peter Parker, a rival at the Daily Bugle.  Put them together and you got a powerful, vengeful being who had Spider-Man’s powers, knew his secret identity and wanted nothing more than to make him suffer.

A wildly popular character, Venom wasn’t necessarily a bad guy (or so the Mighty Marvel Team would have us believe once he became so popular with the fans).  Sure, he wanted Spidey/Pete to suffer and eventually die, but other than that, he could really care less about the world at large.  He wasn’t in it for the money, wasn’t pulling robberies or doing the usual villain stuff – he simply wanted Spider/Pete to die after a long, miserable suffering and what’s wrong with that?  He’s the victim here, right? (Uh-huh…)

For real evil/supervillainy, we needed something different – something special.

Carnage.

If it could be said that Venom/Eddie Brock was crazy but honorable, Carnage was absolutely mental with a dash of homicidal serial killer.

No – seriously, Cletus Kasady really is a serial killer.  He’s totally mental.  He gets caught and tossed in jail, where he shares a cell with a symbiote-less Eddie Brock.  When the symbiote comes to break Eddie out, it drops off it’s alien spawn without Eddie knowing it and the spawn bonds with Kasady who them becomes Carnage.

Turns out that Carnage is more powerful than both Spidey and Venom, so they team up to fight him, defeat him, destroy his symbiote and toss his butt in an asylum.

Only, his symbiote is different – it got into his blood, changed it so that if you destroy what’s on the outside, what’s on the inside still survives.  Eventually he breaks out again and starts one of the massive, multi-issue crossovers that I came to despise: Maximum Carnage.

Maximum Carnage Part 2 of 14

Maximum Carnage Part 5 of 14

Of course, everyone had to get into the act.  You had Spidey and Venom fighting him, plus the Black Cat, Morbius, Captain America, Cloak and Dagger – the list goes on and on.

Maximum Carnage Part 6 of 14

Maximum Carnage Part 10 of 14

Maximum Carnage Part 11 of 14

For the mega crossover, Carnage recruited some other insane people and lead them on a rampage through New York City.  As always happens whenever supervillains team up, they deteriorated over time and the team went their separate ways.  It’s classic – happens all the time because they’re EVIL and apparently, evil people don’t play nice with others.  Probably an ego thing.

Spidey and Venom end up taking Carnage out (mostly Venom as Spidey is hurt) and the whole thing is wrapped up in a neat little, mutli-issue, annoying event.  That doesn’t stop Carnage from making more appearances though.

'Web of Carnage'

Carnage/Kasady was never a particular favorite of mine simply because he’s all about the mindless violence.  It’s like watching an action flick with the sound off because really, there’s no need to hear the dialogue.  I know he came back a lot, and eventually spawned his own offspring and they haunted both Spidey and Venom quite a lot (seeing as both were considered responsible for ‘creating’ all the spawn that came after Venom).

I’ve absolutely no idea what they’re doing with him in Marvel’s new continuity (Ultimate, I believe it’s called), but I always felt that Venom/Brock was the better character – far more developed and driven.  You could sympathize with Venom/Brock a little – rejected, dejected, down on their luck – nobody wants them/nobody loves them, plus there’s this guy that they hate who seems to ‘have it all’ and does everything just better enough to make them look bad.  The ‘grass is always greener’ sort of stuff.

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The original was, of course, Norman Osborne as The Green Goblin.  I don’t believe this is him in the costume (It’s Harry):

There were 2 covers [...]]]> Taking a look at some of my Spider-Man Comics today and it struck me that there were a lot of variations on a theme when it comes to the Goblin.

The original was, of course, Norman Osborne as The Green Goblin.  I don’t believe this is him in the costume (It’s Harry):

There were 2 covers for this issue-a foil and a 'plain'. This is the foil version.

Web of Spider-Man #67

Lot’s of people took on the Goblin glider throughout the years, but Norman Osborne was the original and probably the best of the lot.  He was smart, powerful, driven – nothing was going to stand in his way.  Not even Spider-Man.  The Green Goblin was the villain for Spidey for a long time (which is why he got top billing in the 1st movie).  Then he was killed by his own glider in a battle with Spidey (or did he?!?! DUN DUN DUN!) and this left the field open to bring in some new blood.

Several people put on the greens and called themselves ‘Goblin’ including: Norman Osborne, Harry Osborne, Nels Van Adder, Bart Hamilton & Phil Ulrich (nephew of Ben Ulrich). Then, variations on the theme began.

Like The Hobgoblin:

The Hobgoblin

Same basic premise as The Goblin; guy in a fright costume flying around on a glider tossing pumpkin bombs at Spidey or anybody else who got in his way.  It was later revealed that he (and several others) had found The Goblin’s stashes of weapons and simply modified it for his own use. Again, several people ended up wearing the Hobgoblin suit including: Roderick Kingsley, Arnold Donovan, Ned Leeds and Jason Macendale.

Jason Macendale took it to the extreme, though.  When they did this massive, crossover event where demons were attacking everything, Macendale offers up his soul in exchange for some demonic powers.  He is fused with a demon becoming more powerful then ever before.

Jason Macendale didn’t start out as the Hobgoblin, though – he stole the identity after one of the other guys (Ned Leeds, I think) got busted.  Earlier, he was known as Jack-O-Lantern (shown below):

Of course, when Macendale became Hobgoblin, someone else took over as Jack-O-Lantern.  Are you confused yet?  These people swap supervillain roles like crazy!

As time went on, the costumes changed as the the people inside them changes.  The Green Goblin got a makeover later on:

Spectacular Spider-Man #225 'The New Green Goblin!'

The point of all of this is that they were all different guys under the masks, but they were just variations on the same theme of the Green Goblin (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?).  But after you kill a guy a couple times, it becomes hard to bring him back over and over (Norman Osborne), so, they had to come up with different guys/costumes/names to fill in the gap of ‘Super Big Bad of the month’ so Spidey would have someone to fight AND they had to give them plausible reasons for doing so.

Jason Macendale was a mercenary and an opportunist.  Harry Osborne – well, his dad was mostly responsible for his putting on the Goblin ears.  Ned Leeds was so totally framed.  I think you get the idea.

As a side note (and possible foreshadowing of posts to come?!) – I love the way comic book artwork changes over time – you can track it through the years.  One guy who really made an impact in that arena, went on to be sorta famous.  Here’s one of his early covers for Spidey:

…maybe you’ve heard of him?  Guy by the name of Todd Mcfarlane?

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Once upon a time, there was a meeting of the minds at old Marvel.  “Spider-Man,” they said, “Is stale.  We’ve done it all!  Peter’s married to Mary Jane, his life is going all right for a change.  Sure, he has a Goblin trying to [...]]]> Gather ’round children, and let old Uncle Morty tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there was a meeting of the minds at old Marvel.  “Spider-Man,” they said, “Is stale.  We’ve done it all!  Peter’s married to Mary Jane, his life is going all right for a change.  Sure, he has a Goblin trying to kill him, and a Hobgoblin, and a Venom, and a Carnage – but really, how much further can we go?  Plus – those guys over at DC keep doing all these cool things like killing Superman.  We really need to compete!”

“What if we made him gay?” said one guy. He was immediately booed.

“We could say that his parents aren’t really dead?  Maybe they’re spies?”

“That’s stupid!” said someone but the boss said, “That’s not bad – let’s keep that for later.  Bring em back and then kill em again!  Yeah… but we need something bigger right now, something earth shattering.”

“What about a new uniform?  Something purple with a cape?”

After that guy was not only thrown out, but fired and escorted from the building, they took large amounts of drugs and alcohol to try and inspire themselves and in this induced haze of absolute brain dead stupidity, someone uttered the now infamous words, “Hey – what if Peter Parker is a clone?”

Thus was born what is to this day quite possibly the stupidest story arc ever to grace a comic book store shelves.  The Clone Saga.  Also known as ‘The Spider-Clone Saga” or also as “The Spider Clone Crappy Con to get you to buy more comics cuz we’re gonna drag it on as long as possible in the hopes of boosting sales which are currently flat Saga”.

Yes, someone had a dumber clone story than George Lucas.

To understand this Clone Saga, we have to first look at the original.  Let’s go back to 1975.  Watergate was in the news, Wheel of Fortune debuts on NBC, the Steelers beat the Vikings in the Superbowl – and, oh yeah, Peter’s got this gal he likes – her name is Gwen Stacey.

Peter likes her a lot, so of course, she had to die (need more drama for our hero!).  Gwen Stacy is killed off in the epic battle with the Goblin that was misused/stolen for the Spidey Movie (hey, I liked it!  I swear!) and a new villain, The Jackal, is introduced in the aftermath.  He brings Gwen back – as a clone.  He also clones Spider-Man.  We learn, later, that The Jackal is really Miles Warren, Pete’s biology professor who was secretly in love with Gwen, which is why he brought her back as a clone, because he’s a freak.  A freak with a chemistry set, but still a freak.

He blames Spidey for Gwen’s death because, ‘Goblin who?’ and wants to make him pay and figures he can do it with a clone and then clone her so he can have his clone and eat his cake or…  I don’t know – I was probably 4 at the time.  Anyway, Spidey had to fight both Jackal and the clone, both of whom he defeats. Both Spidey and Spidey believe they are the real thing but, you know, there can be only one and all that and in the end, they decide that the Peter we know and love is the real deal and the clone disappears.  The Gwen clone goes off to live her new life away from all the madness and things settle down in Spideyville. (she comes back later)

Fast forward to the 90’s.  The Spidey clone?  He was off living his life too, under the assumed identity of ‘Ben Reilly’ (named after Uncle Ben and Aunt May).  He comes back because the Jackal comes back, and another clone shows up (Kaine) and then another one (Spidercide) – it’s now Clonapalooza! (I don’t know if they had an Order 66 bred into them or not. Probably not.  Mostly.)

The Spidey Clone Ben Reilly comes back and takes up the mantle as the Scarlet Spider.  Then there’s a point where Peter retires, but then he’s running around in a costume – or they both are – it was all so confusing…:

Remember that Spidey cartoon where he had amazing friends? Well, here's Firestar!

This, of course, causes more drama because the clones start wondering which one really IS the original.  WILL THE REAL PETER PARKER PLEASE STAND UP?!

(No, that’s not Peter – that’s Ben.  Ben has the blond hair, Peter the dark hair – that way we can tell them apart.  Also, Ben never let’s Peter drive the General Lee and Mary Jane looks great in her Daisy Dukes.  Aunt May’s shine ain’t so great though… wait – I’m getting my continuities mixed up again…)

It took a while (and a lot of issues, of course) to determine that Peter and not Ben, was the real deal (again). It helped that Ben ended up dying and he did a Buffy thing where his body degenerated/evaporated thus proving that he really was a clone.

It was such a mess. Ugh. I hated it.

The whole thing really helped me to stop buying comics.

Have some more Spidey covers from this timeline:

When you flipped the cover on the above image, you saw the Spidey version of the cover

Another of the dual covers from the 'Identity Crisis' bit - The Sensational Hornet

Flip the book open and you have the 'normal' Spidey cover

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I could totally relate to Peter Parker.  He was a nerd; smart, goofy looking, awkward in social situations – what nerd isn’t?!  But he also got to have this cool side, this costume that when he put it on and no one could see his face, his [...]]]> My favorite comics were Batman and Spider-Man, hands down.

I could totally relate to Peter Parker.  He was a nerd; smart, goofy looking, awkward in social situations – what nerd isn’t?!  But he also got to have this cool side, this costume that when he put it on and no one could see his face, his personality came out.  He was a smart ass, he quipped with a razor sharp tongue and the puns!  Oh, the puns.  Plus, all that hero stuff.

Here’s one of my oldest Spidey comics:

When I really got into comics, Spidey had several titles: Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man (as shown above), The Amazing Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, Spider-Man and, I think, The Sensational Spider-Man.  Whew.  This doesn’t count all the little one shots and limited series and all of that crap.

When I got involved, Gwen Stacey was long since dead, Mary Jane was ‘just a friend’ and Pete?  Well, he had a GF called Felicia Hardy, aka, The Black Cat.

My collection of Spidey comics spans a lot of years, a lot of stories, a lot of gimmicks and a lot of massive multi-issue crossover crap.  Through it all, I kept reading.  Mostly because I felt like I was growing up with Pete.  I watched him mature even as I was maturing.  He had relationships, he screwed stuff up with Felicia and with Mary Jane, and he fixed most of it – he made bad decisions, just like we all make bad decisions.  It felt, I don’t know – real, somehow.  Relateable, and that’s the point, isn’t it?

These characters, all characters – you have to feel what they’re feeling, you have to care for them, feel sad when they feel sad, shout at the pages when you see them screwing up and you know that they’re screwing up and there’s nothing you can do about it – you have to get sucked in and EMPATHIZE.

That’s the mark of a great character, a great writer and story – you get sucked in and you can’t put the book down.  That’s what I learned from Spider-Man.

Over the years, they did a lot of gimmicky things to sell books – like hologram covers:

I know it’s difficult to see it clearly, but that’s Spidey swinging on a web in a 3d hologram cover.  They also did things like multiple covers for a single issue – put em together and get a massive image – we’ll probably see that kind of stuff when I hit the X-Men box.  Speaking of which:

Lot’s of crossover events or one shots in the Marvel universe – which is why they want the movies to have that same sort of continuity.

More on Spidey tomorrow or the next day – the good and the bad.

~P

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