Comics Corner: The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual 9

   

Title: The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual
Issue Number: 9
Release Date: September 1989

Highlights

• Story I: The Serpent In The Shadow
• First appearance of Brother Elton
• Many folks are flocking to the West Side Armory to get Dr. Tyrone's miracle cure for drugs and alcohol addiction, which Spider-Man is taking photos of in hopes of selling to the Bugle
• Dr. Tyrone administers the injection to a man on the stage, and he professes that his shakes and chills have gone away instantly
• Spidey spots Cloak, and when he attempts to get answers as to why he's there, Cloak vanishes
• Dagger intervenes, but it's only a distraction for Cloak to fold Spider-Man inside of him, and both of them vanish
• From a monitor, Ghaur watches Dagger, and proclaims she'll make a good bride for Set, and to mark her
• In a conversation between Cloak and Dagger, we learn that Cloak was there to seek out the cure from Dr. Tyrone for himself
• Dr. Tyrone turns out to be Tyrannus, and he takes Dagger captive
• Reference is made to The Amazing Spider-Man Annual 23, Captain America 344, and Marvel Team-Up 111
• As Peter develops his film, he notices a serpent tattoo on Brother Elton's wrist, and heads to the Armory for answers
• Spider-Man intercepts Cloak on the way, and learns of Dagger being taken
• Spider-Man sneaks inside the Armory, and unknown to him, Cloak phases through the walls and floors, following Dagger's light directly to her
• Dr. Tyrone tells Cloak to get him a certain book in a museum, or else he won't release Dagger from her comatose state
• Meanwhile, Spider-Man comes across junkies strapped to gurneys, and wonders why they are being restrained
• Within mere moments, Cloak returns with the book, and Tyrone orders him to be killed
• Lizard creatures attack, and we learn that these are the junkies, who have been transformed with a lizard serum created by Viper
• An explosion knocks Dagger out of her trance, and gives Cloak the needed opportunity to engulf her, and vanish to safety
• Back at the ambulances, Spider-Man witnesses a man transform into a lizard
• In a cliffhanger ending, Spider-Man is captured by Dr. Tryone
• Story II: Free Fall
• First appearance of Charles Weiser, and Nattie
• First appearance and death of Neal Mulligan
• This story evolves around Hobie Brown and his persona, the Prowler
• Working at a construction site, Hobie sees Neal Mulligan falling from the rafters, and though he attempts to save him, he fails
• Hobie returns home for a night out with his wife, but instead finds a note on the fridge stating that class is running late
• Hobie heads to his drawing table, and continues work on the safety devices he was designing, but just as he gets started, he falls asleep
• When Mindy returns home, she wakes him, and he shows her the designs for the compact glider
• Mindy tells Hobie he needs to sell the design to someone who can execute them
• He tells her they aren't ready due to some design flaws
• Thinking she's helping, Mindy takes the plans when Hobie falls back asleep, and the next morning delivers them to Hammer Industries
• Hobie freaks out when he finds out
• Reference is made to The Amazing Spider-Man 305
• That night, Hobie suits up as the Prowler, but as he heads to Hammer Industries to steal his designs back, he sees someone stealing classified microfilms from one of Hammer's competitors
• The thief is using the glider design he created
• Prowler easily defeats him, and after unmasking him, learns he's an employee of Hammer named Charles Weiser, and the only reason he committed the crime was because Hammer promised him a promotion
• Story III: The 25 Most Important Women In My Life
• The fun art of Fred Hembeck returns for another gallery, this time on the women Peter and Spider-Man are fond of in their lives
• Story IV: Sweet Revenge
• Mary Jane's first solo story
• Mary Jane sneaks out at night, and makes her way to the state prison
• She subdues a guard, and steals his keys, making her way to Jonathan Caesar's cell
• After a cheeky encounter with him, she tell him she wants her life back
• Mary Jane pulls out a revolver and shoots him dead
• She awakens at a modeling interview to her name being called
• Inside the office, she's once again turned down for the job
• As she leaves, the man makes a call, and informs the individual on the other line that Caesar owes him one
• Mary Jane returns to Aunt May's home to a surprise birthday party
• Two days later, Jonathan Caesar receives a photograph from Mary Jane of her and Peter embraced in a kiss
• Story V: Saga Of The Serpent Crown Part VI
• First appearance of Regina

Low Points

• These Atlantis Attacks annuals are too long, and extremely difficult to get through
• Story I: The Serpent In The Shadow
• Having not read all the various annuals across Marvel Comics, I've no clue what happened to She-Hulk from The Amazing Spider-Man Annual 23
• This story is continued in Daredevil Annual 9
• This in and of itself is a problem, see oddities
• Story V: Saga Of The Serpent Crown Part VI
• It has nothing to do with Spider-Man, and since I'm not reading the other chapters, I skipped this one

Oddities

• Story I: The Serpent In The Shadow
• Editor's Day Off: After meeting a group of homeless people, Spider-Man thinks about his living situation with Aunt May, and concludes, "At least we have place a live."
• Editor's Continued Day Off: In the same panel of a typo, Spider-Man's eye lenses are colored red

• Is The Editor Coming Back: As Spider-Man spies on some ambulances, he thinks, "I have a read bad feeling about this."

• Editor Is Fired! The end of the story references that it continues in Daredevil Annual 9
• The problem is that Daredevil was only up to Annual 4 at this point
• Further the cliffhanger ending of Story VI references Daredevil Annual 4 as the continuation point
• Story II: Free Fall
• Odd cliffhanger ending where Hobie learns that Mulligan was dead before hitting the ground, having gotten his skull bashed in while walking the rafters

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

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Comics Corner: Web Of Spider-Man 9

   

Title: Web Of Spider-Man
Issue Number: 9
Release Date: December 1985

Highlights

• Death of Smithville Thunderbolt, AKA Fred Hopkins
• Last appearance of Roxanne DeWinter, and Ludlow Grimes
• First appearance of Amy Grimes, Willy Grimes, and Jeff Grimes
• There are two prologues, the first takes place thirty years ago, the second, one year ago
• The first prologue retells the origin of Fred Hopkin's Thunderbolt, and the second of Ludlow Grimes'
• Ludlow finds the meteor piece while tilling a field, and picking it up, draws strength from it
• Ludlow returns home from his day of work, and as his wife serves dinner with him and the children, Ludlow swings a hand at a fly, hitting the house, and destroying the wall
• In a panic, his wife grabs the kids, calls him a monster, and screams at him to leave
• As the fight between Ludlow and Spider-Man takes place, Roxanne stands back taking photos, and dreaming of her future journalist jobs in New York
• During the battle, Fred runs away
• Spider-Man tells Roxanne to get help, which she says she will, right after she finishes her roll of film, and gets it to a lab for development
• We learn of Ludlow's troubles after getting his powers; being branded a demon, hunted by his neighbors, and determined to become the next Thunderbolt to gain admiration as opposed to fear
• Fred sets up another scheme to stop Roxanne from publishing her story, but as she finds out that she's being tricked, Ludlow attacks, knocking her van, with her inside, over the edge of a cliff
• As Spider-Man and Ludlow fight, Fred climbs down the cliff to help Roxanne
• Ludlow realizes that Fred is a hero, and that he did it without powers, and stops his rampage
• S.H.I.E.L.D. recruits Ludlow, and promises to not only help him, but reunite him with his family
• Despite everything, Roxanne still publishes her story on Fred, exposing his secret identity
• Fred commits suicide, and Roxanne, being the ***** she is, pulls out her camera, and starts snapping photos of his body

Low Points

• None

Oddities

• None

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

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Comics Corner: Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars 9

    

Title: Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars
Issue Number: 9
Release Date: January 1985

Highlights

• Colossus goes to fight Galactus, who has begun to devour the planet
• The remaining X-Men also attack Galactus
• As the remaining heroes race towards the battle aboard a ship, the Hulk sits in depression, concerned that he's losing his grip on both the brains of Bruce Banner, and the brute strength of the Hulk
• As Ben Grim slams his fists down on a console, angered that he isn't the Thing, he suddenly transforms back into the orange rock hero
• Spider-Man realizes that he has his webbing back, coming directly from his costume with a mere thought
• He lost his web shooters when Reed Richards cannibalized them to repair Iron Man's suit
• Reference is made to Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars 4
• Reed Richards tells Spider-Man he'd like to examine his suit if / when he gets back to his lab
• Reed Richards is convinced there is something more to the Beyonder's and his Battleworld than a cosmic being simply wanting to give the victor all they desire, and he thinks it all has something to do with Galactus
• During the fight, Reed finally figures it out, and tells everyone to stop attacking Galactus
• If Galactus wins, the Beyonder will grant him his greatest desire - to never have his eternal hunger again, thus ending his need to devour planets
• If the Beyonder renigs on the offer, Reed is sure Galactus would then destroy him
• Both scenarios are a win for the heroes, even though they all sacrifice their lives when Galactus devours the planet
• Galactus beams himself, his home, and Reed Richards millions of miles way from Battleworld
• Galactus shows Reed a vision of his pregnant wife and child on Earth
• Doctor Doom realizes the secret to everything is Galactus's home, and escapes from the prison the heroes put him in
• As he leaves, the other villains beg him to free them, but he tells them, save for one, he doesn't need any of them anymore
• Doctor Doom frees Klaw, and tells him to follow him to the lab where he'll be dissected - Klaw simply responds, "Oh, good!" and follows
• Reed Richards returns to the heroes and admits he doesn't know if they should fight Galactus, or simply let him devour the plant
• The Thing and Human Torch say they'll follow his lead
• Captain America, on the other hand, says he's going to fight, and anyone who wants to join him should come along
• The battle against Galactus begins again, this time with the giant fighting the heroes directly, versus sending drones
• Doom does indeed dissect Kang, who enjoys every minute of it
• The members of the Fantastic Four join the fight
• The heroes don't listen to Reed Richards, and deviate from their direct attack of Galactus to destroy his world eating machine
• Without his machine, Galactus returns to his home, and begins reducing it to raw energy, with the intensions of devouring it
• Reed informs the heroes that Galactus doesn't need his world devourer to eat planets, it just makes it easier
• Once he eats his home, he'll turn his attention to the planet, and then the sun, being unstoppable
• Reed deduces he'll need all of this energy to fight the Beyonder, if it comes down to it
• Either way, the heroes won't be able to stop him, and they're as good as dead now
• On the planet, Doom has created lenses with Klaw's body parts that will draw all the raw energy of Galactus to him

Low Points

• None

Oddities

• None

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

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Comics Corner: Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man 9

   

Title: Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man
Issue Number: 9
Release Date: August 1977

Highlights

• First appearance of Professor Vasquez
• ESU President Dwyer shuts down the night school program at the college, sending those students into literal protests
• Reference is made to Dr. Erskine, the man who's super serum turned Steve Rogers into Captain America
• The Erskine Manuscripts are stolen from ESU by White Tiger - But was it really him? No
• Reference is made to Deadly Hands Of Kung Fu 1, 19, 20 through 32, The Incredible Hulk 214, and Marvel Team-Up 40

Low Points

• Not much really happens

Oddities

• Editor's day off: Professor Vasquez refers to Dwyer as "Dywer"
  

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

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Comics Corner: Marvel Team-Up 9

      

Title: Marvel Team-Up
Issue Number: 9
Release Date: May 1973

Highlights

• The Tomorrow Wars story arc begins
  
• Issue actually tells you it takes place before The Amazing Spider-Man 119 and 120 - I wish others noted their timeline
• Iron Man gets punched so hard it breaks the power source controlling his heart
• Exciting cliff hanger ending
  

Low Points

• Harry Osborne yells at Peter Parker for having the television up - What's with the attitude?
  

Oddities

• A street cop pulls out his gun in response to an earthquake?
  

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

 

 

 

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Comics Corner: The Amazing Spider-Man 9

Title: The Amazing Spider-Man

Issue Number: 9

Release Date: February 1964

Highlights

• First appearance of Electro
• Origin of Electro
• We learn more about Betty Brant, most importantly that she dropped out of high school and is actually a teenager (see prior Reading Spider-Man posts for my problem with that missing bit of information from past issues featuring her)
• Betty Brant has a mysterious secret, and it makes her intriguing as a character

Low Points

• Overall,  not a very strong story
• Electro is just another villain who wants to use his powers to rob people
• Electro is beaten with water from a hose - Cliche

Oddities

• Spider-Man fights Electro wearing rubber shoes and gloves to negate his electricity

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

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