World Famous Comics: Essential Spider-Man, Vol. 4 (Marvel Essentials)
Essential Spider-Man, Vol. 4 (Marvel Essentials)
By: Stan Lee Publisher: Marvel Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Marvel Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 552 Publication Date: August 24, 2005
Product Description: In this volume, Peter faces some of his greatest challenges and his most harrowing foes such as Doc Ock and the Kingpin. Featuring a guest appearance by the Fantastic Four. Collects Amazing Spider-Man #69-89 and Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4-5.
Poor Quality Binding I purchased a new copy for my son, who is a ravenous Spider-Man fan. The cover separated from the binding after brief/light use. Although the content is still great, it has certainly lost its shelf-appeal. Thus my low rating...
Classic Lee/Romita issues in black and white This volume collects Amazing Spider-Man issues #69-89 and Annuals #4-5, originally published between February 1969 and October 1970. Stan Lee is the credited writer for all issues and 'Jazzy Johnny' Romita (Sr.) the penciler for most. John Buscema is listed as penciler for #76-81 while Romita got a 'co-writer/art' credit. Many of these issues were also reprinted in issues #52-70 of the mid 1970s Marvel Tales series. The long first story arc features Kingpin and 'The Secret of the Petrified Tablet'. Next is a pair of two-issue plots with The Lizard and The Prowler, respectively, followed by one-shots with the Chameleon and the forgettable Kangaroo. With issue #82, Marvel promised that 'Stan and Johnny have decided to go back to the Web-Swinger's original style of story picturization, and also to put more emphasis on Peter Parker's private life'. #83-85 is another three-part Kingpin series, #86 shows the revamped post-Avengers Black Widow and Spidey is 'unmasked' in #87. The last two issues in this collection feature Doctor Octopus and prelude the momentous death of Captain Stacy. Stan Lee and his artist brother Larry Lieber produced the mediocre annuals, the second of which provides backstory for Peter's deceased parents. Subsequent ASM annuals contained reprints with no new material until 1976. I prefer the Amazing Spider-Man DVD-ROM for its complete collection of the entire ASM run in full color PDFs. However, the Marvel Essentials series offers convenient, inexpensive access to these 40-year old Spider-Man comics without needing a computer. The flow of these issues encourages sequential reading.
Spider-Man begins the Seventies in less than stellar form "The Essential Spider-Man, Volume 4" presents black & white reprints of "The Amazing Spider-Man" #69-89 and Annuals #4-5, which covers the web-head from 1969-71. I was sort of surprised as I read through these issues again that really nothing significant happens. I mean, we have return visits from the Kingpin, the Lizard, the Chameleon, Mysterio and Doctor Octopus, but the new villains are pretty week: Man-Mountain Marko, the Prowler, the Kangaroo, and the Schemer. Make that incredibly weak villains, except for the Prowler, who is just a kid making stupid mistakes.
At this point Stan Lee has his formula for Spider-Man, which is probably encapsulated best by what our hero says at the conclusion of issue #72: "So, I finally nailed the Shocker...Big deal! I'm in the doghouse with Gwen...the tablet is gone again...I just remembered something else...I forgot to take a single picture of the entire battle! So all I get out of it is some skinned knuckles! In other words, the wonderful Parker luck is still running true to form! Nuts!" The best story in this collection is probably "The Parents of Peter Parker!" from Annual #5, although the most memorable moment is when the Black Widow comes up with her sexy new threads of the Seventies.
John Buscema takes over the penciling chores from John Romita (Sr.) at one point before Gil Kane makes his first appearance right at the end. Buscema did some nice work on "Conan," but Spider-Man does not play to his strengths; Kane, however, does manage to adapt his distinctive style to the comic. Fortunately, things improve considerably for Spider-Man as Stan Lee gets a feel for the Seventies. So you can just write off this collection as the quiet before the storm of Harry's drug addiction, the deaths of Captain and Gwen Stacy, and Spider-Man really becoming Spider-Man.
Great 30+ Year-Old Stories That Seem So Relevant Today The Essential Spider-Man Volume 4 is a very good collection of stories that place our super hero and his alter-ego into situations that, in a day and age over thirty years after their publication, seem so relevant to modern-day Americans.
Though Peter Parker was always busy being both an underappreciated crime fighter and a student trying to maintain an active social life, his attempts to keep his super hero identity a secret have taken their toll. Before, Peter's main secret identity challenge was to never let poor Aunt May know that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. In these stories, he is now faced with an added unsurmountable task of keeping this secret away from a much younger, less gullible individual in Harry Osborn, his college roommate.
Throughout the stories, Peter, because of trying to pull double duty as a full-time college student with a girlfriend (who constantly questions his motives and who does not and must not know his secret) and as the ever-loving Spider-Man is bombarded by working 'round-the-clock hours and facing lack of time necessary to keep his grades up. In the earlier issues, he could manage to fight crime and still be the top student in his high school classes; however, this time, he is sleeping less, and after he fights up yet another victory, he returns to a home that is a much smaller setting than Aunt May's place at much later hours and cannot change out of his costume until he has climbed in through the apartment window while Harry is either away or asleep. And in some of the episodes, Peter is so tired that he crashes and ends up falling asleep while lying across the bed as opposed to having properly tucked himself in.
In a day and age of holding down two or more jobs and multitasking each one, we cannot help but sympathize and empathize with Peter Parker's dilemmas. Not only do we feel Peter's exhaustion, but we, in our own way, are like Peter in the sense that it is sometimes impossible to reveal to others who question or criticize us the challenges we put up with, because our situations are either unique or beyond their comprehension.
Pivotal points and issues also make these past stories so relevant. We have the inclusion of minority characters who are trying to improve their living standards through education, and even when they are in college or have just graduated, it seems that opportunities are few, since someone else higher up has already rung up the ladder of success.
Attempts to handle these circumstances, through student protests to improve living conditions and educational opportunities at Empire State University and through one's desperate attempt to take on a masked villain alter-ego to create fear, thus respect, from the big wheels of society, seem no less primitive in this day and age. And we still often wonder if there is any way that a pacifist can truly create change in a society where change is truly needed.
Essential Spider-Man#4, Good Not Great In these issues of Spider-Man, Spidey is a modern day (or at least late 60s)comic book version of Sisyphus - endlessly pushing a boulder uphill that threatens to crush him. While out battling some of his greatest villians, Kingpin, Doc Ock, the Lizard and Electro, he tries (usually unsuccessfully) to juggle a career, a girlfriend and friendships. His undeserved bad rep usually puts a negative spin on even his most spectacular triumphs - with his g/f, his boss and his Aunt May all decrying his "web-slinging weasal" of an alter ego. Even the superheroes who guest star (Quicksilver, Human Torch and Black Widow) take Spidey for a chump - at least intially.
John Romita's art is constitantly good throughout the book (and is, to me, the definitive artist of the web-slinger), while Stan Lee's scripts only occasionally blow up into inflated, awkward rhetoric or 'wannabee hip' 60's cliches. The stories themselves are good, not great. The standouts being his epic battles with Kingpin (issues #69,70, 83-85), Doc Ock (who hijacks a plane in issue #88 - probably more eerie and plausible today than 30 years ago), the story of Peter Parker's parents (in annual #5), and the cool bonus features (such as 'Spidey's Greatest Talent' or Spidey drawn in the style of other comics such as superman, Little Abner and Mickey Mouse - pure fluff but lots of fun!).
On the donwside, there are a few villains who are duds - the Schemer, the Kangaroo, Man Mountain Marko - which really suck the life out of these stories. Spidey is essentially villain-driven. His character, like the Batman, is driven to fight crime because of the murder of a loved one. When the villain is on the money, it works that he nearly loses his girlfriend, job and/or friends every issue. When the villain is weak, the gimmick gets old.
Another complaint is the lack of development of the minor characters. Other than his girlfriend (Gwen Stacey) and her father, there's very little involvement from Harry Osbourne, Flash Thompson or even Aunt May. Spidey needs a strong supporting cast and he doesn't get it in these issues.
In all, classic art, some compelling stories and a few clunkers. Not a bad value for a true Spidey fan.
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