READING THE CLASSICS: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #250

 

Published on March 1st, 1984

    The big #250 issue wasn't even double or triple size or anything. And nothing really "big" happened in it. Were anniversary issues not a big deal back then? They do mention the reason in the letters page. They said it was because this Hobgoblin story was big enough for 3 issues and thus wouldn't fit in a double size issue, anyway. Hmmm. I think this is the only #250 of The Amazing Spider-Man, isn't it? I don't even think they ever get near #75 or #100 again before they re-booted it. Currently they're on volume 6. That means they re-booted it five times. It looks like they originally went to #441 in 1998. So they've had five #1's since 1998...that's five new starts in 24 years. I wonder if they're going to keep doing that forever, because lately they go back to #1 every time a new writer comes aboard, which is getting ridiculous. Either way, #250 definitely feels like a golden era of the book, with writer Roger Stern and artist John Romita, Jr. on board. This issue picks up from #249 where The Hobgoblin was blackmailing some people like J. Jonah Jameson and Harry Osbourne. Spider-Man visits each person being blackmailed to try to find out more info on The Hobgoblin. Eventually he just uses the spider tracker that The Kingpin put on The Hobgoblin to track him down. There's a big brawl at The Hobgoblin's base of operations, which ends up catching on fire. Also, J. Jonah Jameson writes an article about how he funded The Scorpion and he gives it to the printer to publish. That's how the issue ends, with pretty much everything up in the air. I'm not entirely sure why they didn't just wrap this story up in this issue, considering it's the big anniversary issue. Great art and cover by JR JR and the writing is top notch. The great thing about this book is that it's a classic serial...meaning you really can't wait for the next issue since all of the storylines have been slowly built up so great. I really should just go and read the whole original run of this book. ***

READING THE CLASSICS: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #249

 

Published on February 1st, 1984

    This was a fantastic issue. The book was so engrossing back then, it's kind of hard to even fathom how awful it is these days. Back then, the book seemed to be more coherent. Now it seems like it constantly changes and thus there's no long term build and very few side characters of note that don't disappear for long stretches. John Romita, Jr. did the "breakdowns" in this issue and Dan Green did the "finishes." I don't know if that means Green just inked it or he basically drew it. It is crazy that John Romita, Jr. is currently drawing The Amazing Spider-Man. This book came out almost 40 years ago. And The Hobgoblin is still around these days...so they've pretty much run out of ideas. In this issue, we find out that Harry Osbourne and J. Jonah Jameson are being blackmailed by someone. It turns out to be The Hobgoblin, who invites everyone at a rich, members only club to a private meeting. The Hobgoblin wants their money to keep their secrets. Harry's being blackmailed because The Hobgoblin knew his dad was The Green Goblin, and if that got out I guess the Oscorp stock would fall apart. J. Jonah Jameson is being blackmailed because he helped create The Scorpion and nobody knows that. There's a brief fight between The Hobgoblin and Spider-Man and Spider-Man gets a tracker on The Hobgoblin thanks to The Kingpin's help. The Kingpin is still a bad guy, but doesn't want The Hobgoblin to meddle in his crime business. We also get a meeting between Mary Jane and Parker at Harry and his wife's bbq. Mary Jane turned down Parker's wedding proposal in #183 but she's still around. Shockingly, Mary Jane is still hovering around Parker's love life in 2020. It's almost as if Marvel can't make a decision about those two. Considering this will-they-or-won't-they end up together storyline has been going on for like 50 years, it's past the point of ludicrousness. That's probably one of the many reasons The Amazing Spider-Man hasn't been a great book in years. The book worked back in the day by being a continuous soap opera but now it's just been glazed and locked down in amber with no hope of growth. It's a shame, because back in '83/'84 the book was glorious. ***1/2

READING THE CLASSICS: PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #85

 

Published on December 1st, 1983

    This was the B Spider-Man book at the time. Surprisingly enough, they really worked hard at making both books pretty much run concurrently. When The Black Cat was injured in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Spider-Man visited her in the hospital in Spider-Man. And this issue picks up The Hobgoblin storyline from Spider-Man. You can tell this is the B book, though, because the writing and art aren't as good. Bill Mantlo wrote the issue with a plot assist by Roger Stern. Al Milgrom penciled it. We get a scene where Harry Osbourne and his wife announce that she's pregnant. We also get a dinner date with The Black Cat and Spider-Man which is hilarious because Parker sits down and eats without taking his costume and mask off. Then we get a battle on a rooftop between The Black Cat, Spider-Man, and The Hobgoblin. Before the big fight, The Hobgoblin jumps into a tank of chemicals to transform himself into a powerful, new version of The Green Goblin. The Hobgoblin loses and flies away after the battle. Parker would've captured him but The Black Cat got in the way. The one good thing about this issue is that there's a lot of meat to it. I've said this before, but it takes awhile to read these old issues because of all the words in them. These days, most books are pretty brief and can be read in a few minutes. At $3.99, most comics now feel like a rip off. Other than that, this isn't a great issue or anything, but definitely has that old school, classic, comic book feel. **1/2

READING THE CLASSICS: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #245

 Published on October 1st, 1983

    All of these issues of 1983's The Amazing Spider-Man have been published on the 1st of the month. Was there not a new comic book day in 1983? That's kind of weird that books would just randomly be published on different days of the week, right? I do remember new comic book day used to be on Friday back in the early 90's when I started buying comics. I'm not sure when they changed it to Wednesdays. Now DC books come out on Tuesday. Anyway, the cover to the issue has Spider-Man unmasking The Hobgoblin. He does...but it's kind of a trick. Lefty Donovan, a local criminal working for The Hobgoblin, is hypnotized by The Hobgoblin and dresses up as him and goes to Times Square to cause havoc. Spider-Man saves the day and unmasks The Hobgoblin but realizes that Lefty isn't the real one. Then The Hobgoblin, working from a remote lab, drives The Hobgoblin's glider into a building, killing Lefty Donovan. This was a great issue. I wonder if Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movie took their Green Goblin Times Square battle from this issue. Although I'm sure there's been plenty of Times Square battles in this book before and after this. Before the big battle, Peter gets set up at a dinner with Mary Jane. Peter, in a thought balloon, mentions Mary Jane had previously turned his marriage proposal down. Really? When did that happen? Sadly, the saga of will Peter and Mary Jane get together is still up in the air these days. They've been together and been apart countless times, so much that's it gotten extremely ridiculous. If Marvel had any balls, they would've been married with kids by now. That would have given the book a ton of potential storylines...but Marvel just wants to keep Peter in the ageless, gray zone of life. One reason this book used to be stellar was that it seemed to actually be a real life, real time soap opera chronicle but now it just seems frozen in time. But alas, we can always go back and revel in the glory days by reading issues like this. ***1/2

READING THE CLASSICS: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #244

 

Published on September 1st, 1983

    I'm not sure if every comic book back in the good old days felt like a soap opera...but this book certainly does. When I say "soap opera" I don't mean love and romance...I mean a slow drip storyline that takes time to develop while introducing a plethora of characters each with their own storyline. These days it seems that the big superhero comics are all fast paced and they never take the time to develop anything long term. That's just evolution, sadly. Everything these days, thanks to the internet and everyone being instantly connected, is short and fast. Kids would rather watch a short Youtube video then sit down and watch a 2 hour movie. Short attention span is the norm, and thus a great book like 1983's The Amazing Spider-Man probably wouldn't fly these days. I'm not saying it wouldn't be as great, I'm just saying that it might not be as popular. Who knows, though? Great comic books are usually great whenever you end up reading them. And while this issue isn't fantastic or anything, it's totally engrossing. You really get wrapped up in the story. Since comic book writers don't last long writing the same book these days, this old-school, world-building, long-form storytelling is pretty rare. Saga from Image is one of the few, current comic books that still subscribes to this. That's one of the most popular and talked about books out there. In this issue, Peter Parker quits grad school. Mary Jane goes on a date with some guy. Spider-Man kisses the Black Cat in the hospital. Hobgoblin hires a criminal to steal Osbourne chemicals for him. And there's a fight at a warehouse between Spider-Man and the criminals trying to steal the chemicals. The art by John Romita, Jr. is great. Roger Stern's writing is pedestrian but it works. Just reading these old books keeps making me realize how fucking God-awful Spider-Man books have been lately. I wonder if that'll ever change. **1/2

READING THE CLASSICS: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #239

 

Published on April 1st, 1983

    This is the second part of the original Hobgoblin story. I'm not sure how many Hobgoblins there have been over the years, but in the current run there are two Hobgoblins. Writer Roger Stern does an incredible job setting up the mystery of who the Hobgoblin is in #238 and #239. I guess we'll see if the big reveal is a disappointment eventually, although since I didn't read the book back in the early 80's, it could be some character I don't even know. The only suspicious character so far is another photographer for The Daily Bugle. His name is Lance Bannon and he's kind of a jerk. There's also a bunch of other stuff going on in this issue besides the Hobgoblin stuff. While the current run of TAS does have some side characters that seem to be setting up future storylines, current comic books don't seem to really do the long-term, world building storytelling you need to do to produce great comic books. The one reason is probably that writers don't stay on the same comic book for very long anymore. Jason Aaron has been writing The Avengers since #1 and they're at #61 now...but that's almost an anomaly. And Aaron isn't exactly a "world builder." But The Amazing Spider-Man #239 is a perfect encapsulation of the world-building strategy. Introducing various characters, various plot points, and using those to anchor the book for future payoffs that reward the reader and mean something. Spider-Man visits the Black Cat in the hospital after she was shot in The Spectacular Spider-Man #76 (which, surprisingly, hasn't been digitalized by Marvel yet...meaning you can't buy that issue online unless you somehow track down a rare hard copy). He also visits Madame Webb who's in the hospital from a Juggernaut battle in a previous issue. Then there's Lance Bannon's female friend that calls Parker for a dinner date. He rejects her ass! Parker then goes to visits two of The Green Goblin's secret hideouts that are, shockingly, still around ten years later (granted, Parker doesn't exactly age much in the book...he's supposedly in grad school in #239...and he's out of school currently but not exactly old). The Hobgoblin just happens to be at the second of The Green Goblin's secret lairs, trying to pilfer some old tech secrets or something. And then we get the first big battle between Spider-Man and The Hobgoblin. What's unique is that The Hobgoblin admits in thought bubbles that he's not up to the task of defeating Spider-Man just yet. He actually is...gasp...a real person with...flaws! I loved this issue. The artwork by John Romita, Sr. is pure, classic, old-school Marvel style. And the way the book is laid out it feels like a great, long-form serial that you get immersed in and by the end you're dying to read the next issue. The next issue has The Vulture...which I actually really want to read even though I kind of started this just to review The Hobgoblin issues. I probably should just give up reading the current issues of The Amazing Spider-Man. It pales in comparison in pretty much every conceivable way. ***