Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Sept 7, 2024 23:43:32 GMT -5
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 37 It seems like the last few issues of Steve Ditko’s Spider-man run are usually thought of as just stuff that happened between the Master Planner trilogy and John Romita’s first issue, but I think this one is pretty important. I agree with this. While they're not up to the high standards of the Master Planner arc or some of the earlier Lee/Ditko masterpieces, issues like #36 and #37 are pretty good comics and kind of underrated at this point. This issue features some more of the usual scenes with Peter and his classmates. Gwen Stacy is still Steve Ditko's Gwen, and hasn't yet been replaced by John Romita's Gwen.  Something that is becoming apparent is the markedly different characterisations of Gwen Stacy present in Steve Ditko's art and Stan Lee's dialogue. In the panels you posted above – especially the second page – you can see that Gwen's facial expressions to not match the nicer, more generously-minded thoughts she is thinking in Lee's thought balloons. I suspect that Ditko intended Gwen to be nastier than Stan was comfortable with…possibly he even intended her to become a sort of female Flash Thompson! Whereas Stan is clearly trying to set Gwen up as Peter's next love interest. Usually, these differences between the two differing characterisations of Gwen aren't so noticeable, but in this issue they're quite glaring, I think. On a related matter, I noticed that there's a panel in which the spider-tracer is shown falling off the second robot, but it's never mentioned in the dialogue at all. This was clearly supposed to be some kind of plot point, but either Lee misunderstood Ditko's intentions or he just chose to ignore it. Here's the panel in question…  Stromm's robots have some interesting designs. There's a weird looking one that's mostly tentacles, and another with a kind of humanoid look and a destruction beam that blasts out from its face. The first, alien-esque robot in particular features a very imaginative Ditko design. It's not like your usual comic book robot of the period at all. It's much more like an organic creature than your staple 1960s robot. I also find it fascinating that the two designs for Stromm's robots are so distinctively different from one another. In this issue we are formally introduced to Norman Osborn. Norman has been seen several times before as an unnamed character, and of course his son Harry joined the cast a few issues back, but this is the first time we’ve gotten any sort of insight to what he’s about. I wonder if readers at the time were paying attention to this guy’s previous unnamed appearances and scratching their heads trying to figure out why he was being given more attention than any other background character. This is probably the most character development Harry has gotten too since he was introduced a few issues back. He's not just that guy in Peter's class who likes to play pranks, and taunt him at every opportunity, but the son who seems to annoy his father with pretty much anything he says.  Straight away we see that Norman is not a very good father and clearly seems to resent his son Harry. We also get a classic, fevered depiction of Norman dripping in sweat, as we will a number of times in the future when the "Goblin persona" is rising to the surface. There are a lot of clues about Norman's secret identity as the Green Goblin being sprinkled throughout this issue. For one thing, we see Norman – supposedly just an ordinary guy – knock Spider-Man out with one punch (hinting at him have super-powered strength, of course), and then there's all Norman's evil thoughts about eliminating Spider-Man and his own dastardly plans that we, the readers, are privy to. Best of all though, I love that scene where a gun appears from a high up window to silence Mendel Stromm and even though Spidey leaps up to the window in no time at all, the gunman is gone. The art clearly shows us that the window is much too high for anyone to reach, unless they happened to have…ooh, I don't know, maybe a goblin glider?  Overall, this is another really good issue of Amazing Spider-Man. There's plenty of action, lots of intrigue, some dramatic soap opera moments between Peter and Gwen, and the first full, named appearance of Norman Osborn. Something that really struck me re-reading this comic was that, even though we know this is Ditko's penultimate issue, there doesn't seem to be any sign of that in the story itself. Indeed, Ditko is setting up a lot of stuff here for future issues, as if he fully intends to be on the book for quite some time to come. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Sept 7, 2024 21:44:58 GMT -5
I went for the Star Trek: The Motion Picture era. I love that film and agree with supercat's comment about it being by far the closest to "pure sci-fi" of all the ST films.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Sept 7, 2024 5:39:41 GMT -5
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 36 (reprinted in Marvel Tales 175) This issue introduces us to Norton G. Fester who gains super-strength after being exposed to gas from a meteor. He uses his new found abilities to become the super-villain called the Looter. Norton G. Fester is a great name! In later appearances he will also use the name Meteor Man. Not sure which name is necessarily better. Meteor Man references the source of his powers, but doesn’t really describe anything about what he can do. Looter describes what he does, so I guess it’s as good a name as any. As jester mentions above, the name "the Looter" is taken from Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged. To quote: " When a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law, men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims, then money becomes its creators' avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they've passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality." I think it's a pretty safe bet that Stan wanted to name this villain the Meteor or Meteor Man, while Ditko wanted him known as the Looter. I think that's why the advertisement for this comic at the end of last issue said that Stan and Steve couldn't even tell you the new villain's name yet! Then, in the "Next Ish" box on the letter's page of last issue, Stan says of next month's villain, "At first we were gonna call him The Meteor Man", but then says that they are still undecided. A caption on the second page of this issue points out that he’s a “part-time nut”… It is a silly issue, but in a fun way, and I think that's okay once in a while. Spider-man is the type of character who lends himself to all sorts of stories. I agree. I think the Looter absolutely fits in with the vibe of Spider-Man. I kind of wonder if Stan maybe didn't like this character of Ditko's at all, as he seems to go out of his way to tell the reader that we're not supposed to take Norton G. Fester seriously. For one thing, Stan straight up tells us that this guy is a nutjob. I mean, sure he is...but so is the Green Goblin or Doctor Octopus, yet Stan didn't feel the need to inform us of that like he does here. Stan also comments on how long Ditko spends introducing the character, by dropping in a joke about perhaps renaming the comic the Amazing Fester-Man.  I bet all this really annoyed Steve Ditko! Peter's look has changed a little bit in the past few months. It looks to me that in this issue, Ditko seems to be drawing Peter with a more classically handsome face, something that’s usually attributed to Romita, even though we’re still a few months away from John Romita coming on board. A female classmate seems to be attracted to Pete and comments to herself about his "dreamy smile". Yeah, I noted in an earlier response to one of your reviews that Peter's transition into a more fashionable and handsome young man was well underway before Ditko left the comic, even though we tend to associate that shift with the John Romita era. I mean, obviously Romita completed the transition, but it had definitely begun while Ditko was still on the book. Even Gwen Stacy refers to Peter as “manly-looking”, though she’s bothered by his apparent cowardice when he has to unexpectedly run off to change to Spidey. Gwen’s feelings about Peter acting like a coward is something that will pop-up more later as their relationship develops. Despite all this, Gwen can't stop thinking about Peter. Yeah, Gwen being shocked and appalled by Peter's apparent cowardice in this issue nicely foreshadows similar concerns she has later on when they are dating. The sound his web-shooters make is "Thwip" of course. I wasn't paying attention to this before? Were there any earlier examples? Yes, it has been used once before…I almost mentioned the first appearance of "Thwip!" in a reply to one of your reviews a while back, but I decided it was probably too nerdy. Ha! Like I needed to worry in this forum! Anyway, the first use of the "Thwip!" sound effect was in Amazing Spider-Man #28…  This was a fun story, but probably gets a bad reputation since it falls at the tail end of a great run, amidst a stretch of issues which are comparatively weak against many of the ones that came before. I think this issue was a definite improvement over the last one. There's plenty of action, some enjoyable soap opera moments, and the Looter's costume looks great: I love his "dazzle gun" and the getaway helium balloon in his backpack. So yeah, all in all it's a pretty enjoyable issue, I think, and one that is kind of underrated. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Sept 7, 2024 3:04:51 GMT -5
This was another Saturday morning fave. I wish, and this isn’t a criticism of just that show, that we could have had some resolutions to the series. Would have been nice to see them get back to their dimension? (Didn’t they return at least once, but were forced back?) And did anyone in the U.S. government actually bother to check on that ride? Missing rollercoaster riders should have drawn some attention! Loved it, though, and I like that a certain piece of incidental music was shared between this series and The Incredible Hulk. I'm a big fan of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon and have all three series on DVD. There actually was a final episode written by the series' frequent screenwriter Michael Reaves, but it was never made, due to he show getting cancelled. It was meant to be a proper conclusion to the story and a re-imagining of the series in case it had continued into a fourth season. This unmade final episode was titled "Requiem" and the full script was leaked on the internet in the early 2000s. Later, some enterprising person actually animated the script in the style of the old 80s cartoon and posted it on YouTube. So, if want to see how the series was meant to end, do a search for the "Requiem" episode of Dungeons & Dragons. I bet the fanmade animated version is still around. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Sept 7, 2024 2:49:29 GMT -5
I was almost 13 by the time the 1980 Saturday cartoon season started, so I had pretty much stopped watching cartoons. I think the only 80s children’s cartoon I watched even semi-regularly was Ducktales. It came out when I was an undergrad and we would sometimes have it on in the house. Other than that, all I have is The Simpsons shorts on Tracy Ullman abs the first couple of episodes of the series that aired in December of ‘89. If you ever had an inclination to check out anything else from this time, I might suggest Danger Mouse which ran from 1981 through a good part of the 80's (and a couple of additional seasons in the early 90's). It's a British comedic cartoon that spoofs the spy agent trope (ala Danger Man and James Bond). While it was made for kids, it was super witty and could get rather surreal as well. I had planned to talk about this one shortly in fact. The spin-off Count Duckula that launched in 1988 is highly recommended as well. I consider both series miles above the Simpsons (and I loved the first decade or so of the Simpsons). Danger Mouse was brilliant! |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Sept 7, 2024 2:39:18 GMT -5
The Sanctum Sanctorum -- home of Doctor Strange at 177A Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City... People here probably already know this, but as a native New Yorker I can't resist adding that 177A Bleecker Street was the address of the apartment building Roy Thomas and then-roomie Bill Everett lived at for a short time in the mid-'60s...and Roy then used it a few years later when he was scripting the Dr. Strange series. Now the building's address is just 177 Bleecker Street--there's no "A". I've walked past that building many times over the years; I love the older buildings that are still around in the Village (even though IRL 177 doesn't look like the Sanctum as shown in comics or movies), Like Dizzy D above, I just had to visit Bleecker Street when I was in New York, both for the Doctor Strange connection and the folk music/beatnik association. As you say, there is no 177A on Bleecker -- it's an imaginary address like 221B Baker Street. The real 177 is in the middle of a block, whereas Strange's house is on the corner of Bleecker and the imaginary Fenno Place. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Sept 6, 2024 17:30:26 GMT -5
Interesting video, Shax. I have never seen the film, as I'm not a big fan of early films like that as a general rule of thumb. But there are clearly some pretty striking visuals in the movie and I really liked the sound of that alternate Phillip Glass score. Kinda makes me want to watch it now.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Sept 6, 2024 16:57:19 GMT -5
The Sanctum Sanctorum -- home of Doctor Strange at 177A Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City.  |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Sept 6, 2024 9:44:04 GMT -5
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 35 The published cover has the Spider-man figure redrawn by Jack Kirby which I think is better than an earlier Spider-man drawing he did for the cover of Amazing Spider-man 10. Marvel Tales would usually print unpublished covers as backup features when they were available, but this one wasn't included. Fortunately plenty of other reprint collections do include it. I do like the way the original Ditko version of this cover has Spidey hanging from his webs, but still, I think it's one of his weakest compositions.  .  I'm not sure I've ever seen that original Ditko cover before, so thank you for posting that. I have to say, I think Stan Lee was right to get Jack Kirby to redraw the Spider-Man figure – the whole cover looks much more dynamic and aesthetically pleasing in the finished version. The GCD says that the Spider-Man figure was "probably inked by Sol Brodsky". “The Molten Man Regrets…!” The title is surely a play on the old Cole Porter song, "Miss Otis Regrets", I would think. The Molten Man’s scheme this issue is interesting and not really what you’d expect from him based on his first and most of his later appearances. Nice that his plan doesn’t immediately involve going after Spider-man for revenge too. I strongly suspect that Raxton being released on remand for good behaviour and more or less straight away returning to a life of crime was Ditko injecting some full-on, right-wing Randian objectivism into this story – only to have Stan Lee sensibly water it down with his scripting. I can't prove that, obviously, but if you look at the story the artwork in this issue is telling, without paying attention to Stan's dialogue, this reads much more like a Randian morality tale than what we usually get in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man. Knowing how Ditko would later write and draw similar cautionary tales about the "dangers" of being soft on criminals in his Mr. A and Killjoy strips, I strongly suspect this is the case. I think this story was meant to carry a sub-text about never trusting the criminal mind and never treating criminals with compassion or leniency. This issue uses a lot of big panels, and the action takes up more space than usual. None of the usual supporting cast make an appearance. There’s even a whole two page sequence where the sound effects take the place of the usual dialogue. The caption states that this was intended to give Artie Simek a chance to go wild with the sound effects, and he does a darn good job. It’s a fight sequence too, so it is appropriate, but still way different than what we’re used to. I agree that this issue is unusually light on plot and totally bereft of Peter's usual high school drama. There's really not very much to this story at all, other than Raxton being released from jail by a lenient judge, only to commit more crimes, and then Spidey beats the hell out of him. The fact that the battle between Molten Man and Spider-Man goes on for as long as it does, speaks of Ditko having to fill out the page count, when there really wasn't quite enough story here. Stan even alludes to this paucity of story on the splash page, writing " This is one for the real old-fashioned, dyed-in-the-wool Spidey fanatics who like to see ol' web-head fighting as only he can!" The art seems a bit rushed in most places, with less detail on the backgrounds. It reminds me a lot of Steve Ditko's art from the 80s and 90s, which wasn't nearly as good as what one expects from his Spider-man work. Hmmm...I can't say that I noticed a deterioration in the artwork in this issue. The Molten Man is visually a fantastic looking villain and I think Ditko does a great job of depicting his metallic gold skin (and his tiny speedo shorts, natch! ). Also, Ditko's fight sequence between Raxton and Spidey is brilliantly drawn, with plenty of bone-crunching punches and some exciting acrobatics (though it does go on too long, in my opinion). So yeah, I can't say I see any deterioration in the artwork myself. All in all, this is kind of an average issue of ASM. Story-wise, it's way below the high standards we're used to. This is definite evidence of Ditko going off the boil at this point, I think. However, something that I feel should be mentioned for its immense historical significance is that Amazing Spider-Man #35 features the first mention in a Spider-Man comic of Irving Forbush!  |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Sept 6, 2024 5:29:39 GMT -5
I think Ditko modelled Gwen after Veronica Lake. Fascinating info there, kirby101. Looking at images of Lake online, I can definitely see a strong resemblance...   |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Sept 5, 2024 21:37:28 GMT -5
With regard to the guy on his own on the underground station late at night, it's worth noting that the population of London was around 6.5 million when this film was made and now it's around 10 million. So, there were noticeably far fewer people about anyway, but in addition, less stuff was open late at night in London back then. All pubs kicked out at 11pm and restaurants usually earlier than that. So, although finding yourself alone on an underground platform late at night in the early 80s might've been unusual, it was a lot more common than it is now.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Sept 5, 2024 20:53:50 GMT -5
When you watch American shows and movies, do you repeat lines with an American accent? Yes, definitely. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Sept 5, 2024 20:33:13 GMT -5
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 34 (reprinted in Marvel Tales 173)  That's a nice, dynamic cover. We last saw Kraven, apparently out of prison, in a cameo appearance way back in issue 18, but he’s just getting around to his revenge scheme now. Kraven has travelled back to Africa from the U.S. between now and his last appearance though. So, I guess that's why he's only getting around to planning his revenge on Spider-Man now. I think this is the last appearance of Betty Brant during Ditko’s run. Her nightmare at the beginning of this issue where Peter reveals his secret is as close to the truth as you can get. Yeah, Betty's dream is unknowingly spot on…or maybe sub-consciously she does know about Peter's secret identity? Too bad they haven't really gotten to know the real Peter Parker yet, but Gwen is almost starting to come around. Gwen felt attracted towards Peter right from her first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #31. She also felt intense annoyance at the fact that he wasn't paying her any attention and that bitterness towards him continues into this issue. So, I don't think it's really a case of Gwen "starting to come around" where Peter is concerned. She's actually kinda low-key obsessed with him! Notice how in this panel on page 9 she's looking over towards Peter – she just can't help herself!  She might be mad at him for not falling head over heels in love with her at first sight, but she's definitely very interested in him. The fight scenes between Kraven and Spidey are as good as any Ditko has drawn. A few extra goons try to get in on the action too, but in the end it's Spidey who wins the fight. I noticed while re-reading this issue that the encounter between Spider-Man and Kraven in the derelict apartment block is the inspiration for the 1966 Aurora model kit of Spidey and Kraven. The kit shows Spider-Man perched on a broken stairway banister, while Kraven lies webbed on the floor. Not that a scene exactly like that ever happens in the comic, but panels like the ones below are clearly where the model kit designers took their inspiration from…   Ever the honourable villain, once he's defeated, Kraven even admits to the police that it was he who impersonated Spider-man, keeping our hero's reputation as close to clean as it ever was. Yeah, that's a nice touch with Kraven and it serves to mark him out as something a little different, as far as Spidey's villains are concerned. This is clearly a man of honour. Overall, this is a good, solid issue of Amazing Spider-Man. It's nice to see Kraven back again, though I had to laugh at him spraying Spidey with "Jungle Scent" to dull Peter's spider-senses (it sounds like a cheap aftershave). There are some fun scenes with the supporting cast in this issue. Nicely drawn fight sequence by Ditko too! Plus, it's nice to hear Spidey cracking-wise while he's fighting the bad guy again. I can't say that this is a particularly noteworthy issue or anything, but there's nothing really wrong with it either. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Sept 5, 2024 18:23:14 GMT -5
Two-Face.  |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Sept 5, 2024 17:52:49 GMT -5
^^Yeah, you're quite possibly right jtrw2024. I was only guessing that it was Andy Yanchus because he was doing the interiors. But I take your point about the different colour choices on the covers when compared to Yanchus's work inside. |
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I bet all this really annoyed Steve Ditko!
