Comics Corner: Web Of Spider-Man 20

    

Title: Web Of Spider-Man
Issue Number: 20
Release Date: November 1986

Highlights

• First appearance of Annie Simms, Mary Simms, Scotland Yard member, John Bartlett, and IRA members, Sean Dunne, Paddy, and Patrick
• First appearance of the Dorchester Hotel, and Tante Clare restaurant
• Classic Marvel 25th Anniversary cover
• The story picks up from the last, with Joy Mercado, and Peter Parker arriving in Europe, there on assignment for Now Magazine
• Terrorists bomb the airport, killing several people, but missing their target, leading them to open fire with automatic weapons
• To get them through security, Peter has dismantled his web shooters, and secured them in his camera case
• As he frantically reassembles them during the attack, he thinks about redesigning them to be passable through metal detectors
• After dinner, Joy heads out on a secret mission to purchase information on Roxxon Corporation, a story thread continuing from Web Of Spider-Man 17
• Spider-Man, on the other hand, heads to the prison to get information from one of the shooters at the airport
• Spider-Man follows the leads of the prisoner to IRA's headquarters, but as he prepares to attack the police show up gunshots ring out
• While most are captured, Scotland yard notes that some got away through an underground passage
• The next day at the event he and Joy are there to report on, Peter puts two and two together, and heads to the sewers outside of parliament
• Inside the sewers, the remaining IRA members are setting up explosives
• Spider-Man stops them, but in the process, Dunne blows himself up on a grenade
• Joy and Peter want to follow the mystery to Ireland, but know Jonah wouldn't be happy
• After hearing that a six-year old girl, who was shot at the airport during the opening events, has died, the two surmise that Dublin is nice this time of year

Low Points

• It's a bit too political for my liking
• I like my super heroes fighting super villains, not terrorists
• Real life relatable subject matters suck the escapism purpose out of comics for me
• A real shame because I really needed that aspect at present

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: Kix - Kix

What the heck is Kix? I've never heard of them. I came across three of their four 80's albums while perusing my local used CD shop, and decided I'd not only pick them up, but eventually grab their fourth off ebay...or was it Discogs? Point being, I picked up all four, knowing nothing about the band, or any of their songs.

The lineup that would become Kix's first iteration came together in Hagerstown, Maryland by Donnie Purnell, Tee, Tunes, and Donnie Spence. While they started with the name, Kix, this was soon changed to Tee and Tunes. Ronnie "10/10" Younkins joined in December of 1976, but immediately thereafter, Tee and Tunes would depart.

In 1978, while known as The Shooze, Steve Whiteman joined, alternating drums and vocals with Spence. However, Spence would relent singing duties to Whiteman, stating he had a higher range.

A chance encounter with Brian "Damage" Forsythe, led to him joining the band. This was followed by Jimmy "Chocolate" Chalfant, and the departure of Spence, completing the classic lineup of Purnell, Whiteman, Younkins, Forsythe, and Chalfant.

Securing a recording deal with Atlantic Records, the quintet recorded and released their self-titled debut in 1981. Though it featured fan favorites from their live shows, the album failed to chart, nor make much of an impact at all.

It's a fairly generic hard rock / early metal album but not necessarily polished like your massive successors of that same year; AC/DC (For Those About to Rock We Salute You), Def Leppard (High 'n' Dry), Motley Crue (Too Fast For Love), Ozzy Osbourne (Diary of a Madman), Van Halen (Fair Warning), or Black Sabbath (Mob Rules). It's by no means bad, but it's also not the type of debut that necessarily excited me for the things to come.

Of the nine tracks, Heartache was really the only one that stood out to me. Still, it wasn't enough to excite me for future albums, and I started to wonder if I'd gotten myself into another one of those situations where I bought something because it was from the 80's, but not necessarily something worth having.

I suppose only time will tell in that aspect, and I'll only find out by continuing my Kix journey. Tomorrow I'll head into 1983's Cool Kids and see where that one takes me.

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: Web Of Spider-Man 19

   

Title: Web Of Spider-Man
Issue Number: 19
Release Date: October 1986

Highlights

• First appearance of Humbug, AKA Buchanan Mitty, and Now Magazine staff member, Richie
• First appearance of Solo, AKA James Bourne, but only seen from the shadows
• Spider-Man frantically searches for a fight to see if his spidey sense still works after the previous issue (see low points below)
• Humbug waits in the shadows on the docks for some thugs to finish loading a van, and makes his own plans to steal it when they're done as his first crime
• Spider-Mans sees the thugs, and gives them a chance to hit him while his back is turned, they never get the chance as his spidey sense kicks into high gear, relieving him of his fears that it was gone
• Seeing the fight, Humbug decides to head home, and runs off
• Spider-Man is content that his spider sense not warning him on the train tracks was just a one-time fluke - oh how much he will come to find out
• Reference is made to Web Of Spider-Man 17, Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man 113, and "recent issues" of The Amazing Spider-Man, and Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man
• Across the world, a hostage situation goes down in West Berlin, but Solo appears on the scene, killing all the criminals, and leaving a note

• J. Jonah Jameson informs Joy Mercado and Peter Parker he's sending them to Europe, first class with spending money
• Peter spends his money on roses for Aunt May
• As Peter arrives at her house to give her the flowers, he sees Martha and Sophie moving out, shaken up by the recent events where thugs broke into the home, and took them all hostage
• Aunt May tells Peter she's asked Nathan Lubensky to leave, saying that after he helped the police kill one of the thugs, that she just doesn't feel the same about him
• Humbug tries to steal an armored car, but is stopped pretty quickly by Spider-Man

Low Points

• Spider-Man makes reference to the events of being pushed on the train tracks in Web Of Spider-Man 18, as happening "a few minutes ago"
• Well that throws off the timeline of Spider-Man's supposed chronological reading order - Oh well
• We get Humbug's origin, and it's pretty lame
• A college professor who was using his research money to prove insects were friends to humans, until his funding was pulled for such nonsense
• Now he needs cash by any means to continue his research, but doesn't like that it means he has to be a villain
• I think Marvel is literally going for gags with Humbug

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.