Comics Corner: The Amazing Spider-Man 292

    

Title: The Amazing Spider-Man
Issue Number: 292
Release Date: September 1987

Highlights

• First appearance of Lieutenant Eden
• Spider-Man swings across Pittsburg, having just arrived at the request of Mary Jane
• As Peter sits in his hotel room looking for Mary Jane's sister, Gayles's number in the phonebook, the news reports that the spider-slayer ceased its rampage, and disappeared, relieving Peter that his departure from New York didn't result in someone being hurt
• Back in New York, Smythe is overseeing his crated spider-slayer being loaded onto a 747, which will soon take him to Pittsburg
• Upon arriving at Gayle's home, we final find out who surprised Mary Jane in the last issue, it was her father
• The two begin arguing, and Mary Jane storms out
• As Peter and Mary take a drive, and then a walk, she opens up to Peter, telling him that her sister is in jail for stealing a manuscript written by Benjamin Franklin from her work to give to her dad
• He was going to sell it, but cameras caught her with it, and she was arrested
• Mary Jane says her dad "Phillip" wants her to find out where the manuscript is, and bring it to him, and once she does, he'll leave them both alone forever
• Mary Jane tells Peter she loves him, and they kiss
• Mary Jane tells her dad she will help him
• Mary Jane and Peter go to see Gayle, but once again it's met with hostility
• As Mary Jane storms off, Peter gets some sense into Gayle's head by telling her that her kids need her
• After arriving in Pittsburg, renting a warehouse, and building his spider-slayer, Smythe tracks Spider-Man, and heads out into the city to kill him
• Meanwhile, Peter and Mary Jane head to the location that Gayle said she hid the manuscript
• Their find is cut short by the spider-slayer crashing through the wall of the university
• Reference is made to The Amazing Spider-Man Annual 19
• Spider-Man attempts to lead the slayer to an open area in the suburbs, but is grabbed and dunked under water in a firm grasp
• Mary Jane rams it with her car, allowing him to get free
• As Smythe once again gets the upper hand, Mary Jane once again intervenes, this time hitting it with a bat
• As the spider-slayer turns its attention to her, Spider-Man unleashes all his strength
• Peter and Mary Jane return to Gayle's home with the manuscript, but Peter has a secret plan to hit Phillip with a spider tracer, and go after him later
• He doesn't get a chance, as Mary Jane is working with the police, who hear Phillips confess that Gayle was just a pawn in his plan
• They arrest him
• Though still part of the crime, and expecting a trial, Gayle is let out on bail
• As Mary Jane and Peter Parker sit at the airport waiting for their flight, Mary Jane accepts his marriage proposal

Low Points

• The whole idea of Peter getting married came from a fan at a convention who asked Jim Shooter and Stan Lee during a panel if they would ever allow the character to do so
• From there, the concept was fast tracked into implementation, resulting in a rushed story, and ultimately a relationship transition that doesn't feel natural
• Story elements are disjointed in the cluster of it all to get from point A to point B across three issues

Oddities

• None

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

Click "HERE" to go back to the home page. For more posts related to this one, please click the labels below.

Retro Spins: The Flirts - Questions Of The Heart

 

Today's the day. I'm on my final 80's album from The Flirts. It was a journey that initially started out great, but by album three (of five) started to wear a bit thin. The "newness" wore off, and the overall lack of hits was definitely becoming a problem for me. It will be interesting to see if the girls close out the decade with something solid.

It's interesting to note that Miss You would peak in 1986 at number fifteen on the Billboard Dance Charts. However, the song doesn't appear to have been released on any studio album. Instead, it seems it was only released as a single in two different formats. The first is the twelve inch single, which features three different mixes, and the second, a seven-inch single which includes Voulez Vous from 1985's Blondes Brunettes & Redheads as the B-side.

Well, this one took a unique turn. The opening track, All You Ever Think About Is (Sex)! brings with it a very mature theme. Additionally, the once new wave sound is overtaken with a more R&B, somewhat rap style. It's different. I don't know if it's in a good way, but different, nonetheless.

Another thing I noticed was the overall lack of singing. Several tracks were filled with standard line reading. That's a unique style in moderation but doesn't work when it's the whole schtick.

Everything became a giant joke with track three, Boys On The Beach. Here, let me give you a taste:

Save the dolphins
Down with people who wear dead animal furs
Free lunch, free dinner, free rent for everyone
Save the whales
Equal pay for equal (something incoherent)
Feed the starving muskrats of Beverly Hills
People unite against nuclear conflict
Outlaw dogcatchers

It then does a complete 180, with the girls singing about radios blasting, the sun shining, and boys on the beach. Further mind-numbing lyrics include the opening to Special Angel:

Is there really life on other planets?
No!

I'm just going to say what keeps crossing my mind. Questions Of The Heart is a really dumb album, and a real lame way to close out the decade, studio album wise.

While The Flirts wouldn't release another studio album until 1992's Take A Chance On Me, they did produce two additional twelve-inch singles. The first was 1988's A Thing Called Love, and the second, 1989's After School. Both would feature multiple mixes of their respective track, but both would also not find any chart success.

About the only noteworthy aspect I found was for After School, which featured Full Force. Though I've never heard any of their studio albums, I am familiar with them for working with Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam on their 1985 debut album.

As for The Flirts, Questions Of The Heart wraps up my trip through their 80's discography. Like I mentioned many times throughout the multiple albums, while there's nothing Earth shattering to be found here, it was still a fun time listening to all of that new wave goodness. I'd definitely like to find more albums like this. Not necessarily new wave, but 80's oriented, new to me, but also fun at the same time. That's good stuff.

Click "HERE" to go back to the home page. For more posts related to this one, please click the labels below.

Disclaimer: They Toy Box does not endorse or contribute to piracy. Retro Spins posts are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. None of the music discussed here is available for sale, downloading or distribution.

Comics Corner: The Amazing Spider-Man 291

    

Title: The Amazing Spider-Man
Issue Number: 291
Release Date: August 1987

Highlights

• First appearance of Kevin Byrnes, and Alice Larkin
• Much like the first time he proposed to her, Mary Jane Watson tells Peter no
• Peter first proposed way back in The Amazing Spider-Man 183
• She tells Peter it's too sudden, and that she thought they were just friends
• She then tells Peter that she needs to head to Pittsburg to see her sister Gayle
• Reference is made to Web Of Spider-Man 18, and 24, specifically how Spider-Man's spidey sense didn't trigger a warning during two dangerous events
• Reference is later made to The Amazing Spider-Man 106, 259, and The Amazing Spider-Man Annual 19
• A self driven delivery truck drives behind Mary Jane's apartment building, and parks in the ally, and from it emerges an all new spider-slayer
• The mechanical beast climbs the building, and bursts through the wall into her apartment, but finds she isn't there
• It simply returns to the truck, and the vehicle drives away
• Peter mopes as he walks down the street alone, saddened that Mary Jane wouldn't even let him go to the airport with her
• The robot returns to its lair, and from inside of it emerges its wheelchair bound master, Alistair Alphonso Smythe, the son of spider-slayer creator, Spencer Smythe
• As her plane soars across the sky, Mary Jane ponders to herself why she wouldn't confide in Peter what her problems were that were taking her out of town to her sister
• Smythe sends a series of electronic eyes out across the sky to search for Spider-Man
• Mary Jane meets her sisters two sons, but learns that her sister isn't there from Alice Larkin, who is watching the kids
• One of Smythe's cameras spots Spider-Man, and the man returns to his spider-slayer to see about the hero's demise
• Mary Jane learns her sister is in jail, and goes to see her
• It is not a warm reunion, and Gayle tells her sister to go home
• Enclosed in his spider-slayer, Smythe attacks
• We also learn that the electrical shock his last slayer, which he was also inside of, is what left him wheelchair bound, and reliant upon intravenous meals
• A construction worker sees the fight, and uses his bulldozer to drive over the spider-slayer's arm, giving Spider-Man an opening to indefinitely disable the limb
• Smythe retreats, and we learn that the gas he sprayed Spider-Man with was laced with a special trace chemical, allowing the web spinner to be tracked
• Mary Jane returns to her sister's home, and as she fumbles for a light switch is surprised by the voice of someone, and while she recognizes the person, we don't get to see who it is
• Smythe regroups, and beings a rampage of the city, but as Peter suits up and gets ready to head out, Mary Jane calls
• She says she needs him, and to please come to Pittsburg, and says she loves him
• Peter wrestles with his duel identities, he knows Spider-Man is needed to stop the spider-slayer, but Mary Jane needs Peter Parker
• He needs to make a tough decision - With great power comes great responsibility, or Mary Jane Watson

• Smythe tracks Spider-Man to the airport, and learns that the plane he's chasing after has just taken off for Pittsburg
• Smythe purchases a first class ticket for the next available flight

Low Points

• None

Oddities

• For someone who's always broke, Peter sure scrounged up money fast for a last minute flight to Pittsburg

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

Click "HERE" to go back to the home page. For more posts related to this one, please click the labels below.

Christmas Catalogs - Montgomery Ward 1973

Hey! You want to spend the next two years looking at the fantastic Christmas catalogs produced by Sears, JCPenny, and Montgomery Ward? Cause I do! Yeah, I said two years, cause that's a lot of catalogs! Join me on most Monday's each month as I post up one of those fabulous books starting with 1970, and ending with 1989.

Look through every page, feeling every bit of nostalgia. Chuckle at the look and style of the wardrobes those zanny past decade people wore. Gawk at the toys you used to have, but long since parted ways with. Bring back all those memories of hours spent laying on the floor, combing every inch as your young mind pined over everything you wanted. Reminisce over the Christmas that followed as you unwrapped those lucky few that you got.

Click "HERE" to go back to the home page. For more posts related to this one, please click the labels below.