Marvel’s Homage to Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends Was Long Overdue

 

I'm covering a comic I didn't know existed until recently at CBR this week...the first "canonical" meeting of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends!

SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED #18 - November 1997

All My Pasts Remembered!

Credits:  Tom DeFalco (writer), Joe Bennett (penciler), Joe Pimentel (inks), John Kalisz (colors), Jack Morelli (letters)

The Plot:  In Queens, Peter and MJ discuss the past of Dr. Octopus, as do obit writer Dilbert Trilby and Ben Urich at the Daily Bugle.  Inside Dr. Octopus’ underwater headquarters, Lady Octopus also reviews the career of Dr. Octopus.  Due to the gaps in his memory, Dr. Octopus must rely on Lady Octopus’ recaps of his life, which help to fuel his hatred of Spider-Man.  

The Subplots:  None.

Web of Continuity:  

• Matt Murdock is established as Dr. Octopus’ original lawyer after his first arrest, which I believe to be new information revealed this issue.
• This is unexpected...the ultra-obscure Dilbert Trilby was used years later as a part of the viral marketing campaign for Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
• Lady Octopus reveals that Kane killed Dr. Octopus before she could update his most recent memory files, which is why Dr. Octopus doesn’t know Spider-Man’s secret identity.  Lady Octopus was keeping Ock’s memory files so that he could one day use a VR avatar like Stunner’s.

Review:  I doubt stories like this did much to discourage Unlimited’s reputation as filler, but I do have some fondness for recap comics.  Before the days of abundant reprint volumes and digital downloads, recap comics were often your best bet for finding out the details of comics published before you were born.  I can remember rereading the Jean Grey funeral issue of Classic X-Men numerous times and never growing bored as a kid.  This was the entire history of the X-Men (at that time) all summed up in one comic.  That’s a big deal to a kid.  If you’re a fan of Doc Ock but don’t know too much about his early appearances, or the retconned origin material, then everything you would want to know is here.  I also have to give Joe Bennett credit for his work during the flashback material.  His interpretations of Spider-Man are still occasionally inconsistent, but most of his pencils this issue are solid.  The splash page of a ‘90s style Spider-Man swinging past a montage of angry Dr. Octopuses looks great; I wish we could’ve seen this Bennett during those endless Amazing Spider-Man fill-ins.

The story also works in the origin of Lady Octopus, explaining in detail how her past intertwines with Ock’s, which is something I personally appreciate as someone who never read her origin story and only vaguely remembers her from the Clone Saga.  The character work isn’t as strong as DeFalco’s previous Dr. Octopus story in Unlimited #3, but Otto Octavius is still fleshed out fairly well during the issue.  He’s violently anti-social, yet has a soft spot for non-threatening females, especially ones that play to his ego.  This helps to explain the blind devotion of both Lady Octopus and Stunner, two characters Octavius seems to genuinely care for.  I’m not sure why DeFalco felt the need to revive these characters, but if they’re going to be around, it’s nice to have their motivations summarized for everyone who couldn’t keep up with the clone insanity.  

The Secrets of Dr. Octopus!

Credits:  Tom DeFalco (writer), Pat Olliffe (penciler), Al Williamson (inks), John Kalisz (colors), Jack Morelli (letters)

The Plot:  The details of Dr. Octopus’ metallic arms are revealed.  

The Subplots:  None.

Review:  I’ll defend the main story, but this really is filler.  The last thing you should follow a recap story with is one of those instructional back-ups, even if it’s done in the retro-style of Untold Tales of Spider-Man.  These primers can also be fun for new readers, but I tend to think they should only be attached as back-ups in comics with an original story.  As is, the reader is getting essentially nothing new out of this comic.

Her Name was Stunner!

Credits:  Tom DeFalco (writer), Joe Bennett (penciler), Joe Pimentel (inks), John Kalisz (colors), Jack Morelli (letters)

The Plot:  Dr. Octopus watches the comatose Stunner and reflects on her life.  He leaves her a rose.

The Subplots:  None.

Review:  More recaps!  Doc Ock stares at Stunner and reflects on how similar her past is to his.  There is something to the Ock/Stunner relationship, the idea that she’s essentially a female version of him that’s been remade as a Playmate bodybuilder with technology, that has potential.  Not that a four-page back-up is really going to explore those depths.  The extra pages this issue really should’ve been dedicated to an actual story.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #-1 - July 1997

 

Where Have All the Heroes Gone?

Credits:  Tom DeFalco (writer), Joe Bennett (penciler), Bud LaRosa (inks), Bob Sharen (colors), Comicraft (letters)

The Plot:  Peter finds a stack of Golden Age comics while cleaning out the attic with Uncle Ben and Aunt May.  He reads the comics and fantasizes about being a hero.  Later, Aunt May hurts her ankle after a bratty kid runs into her with his skateboard.  Peter dreams of a way to catch him.  Soon, he sketches designs for what will become his webshooters.

The Subplots:  Jacob Conover investigates a gang takeover.  Don Rigoletto is killed by the Kingpin, leaving Fortunato as the lone representative of “the old ways.”  Fortunato secretly meets with Conover to talk about the story, but they’re ambushed by the Kingpin’s men.  Conover saves Fortunato’s life, but is scared away from covering serious stories.

Web of Continuity:  

• Kingpin’s murder of Rigoletto is taken directly from the Daredevil: The Man Without Fear miniseries.  Whether or not this miniseries was even intended to be canon was debatable at the time (in fact, the Daredevil Flashback issue directly contradicts it and returns to the original continuity).  I suppose Kingpin’s role in the mini doesn’t create any actual continuity problems, unlike Man Without Fear’s depiction of Jack Murdock’s death.
• Namor, still in his wandering bum days, is kicked out of the diner where Jacob Conover and Phil Sheldon (from Marvels) are eating.
• Robbie Robertson appears at the Daily Bugle, asking Jonah about the gangland story.  Tom DeFalco thankfully gets the continuity straight, acknowledging that Robbie doesn’t work for the Bugle at this point, and is only visiting from Philadelphia.
• The story’s ending indicates that Fortunato owes Conover a debt that he’ll repay later.  I have no idea if this thread is ever picked up on, but the story goes out of its way to draw attention to Fortunato’s promise.

Review:  Surely someone working for Marvel could’ve looked over the plots and determined that they didn’t need two Flashback stories about Peter’s comic book fantasies?  It’s not as if DeFalco (or at least one of the editors) isn’t aware of the Sensational story, since there’s a line of dialogue used to justify Peter getting to read these comics after Aunt May banned the monster comics.  I appreciate the effort that went into such a minor continuity point, but that doesn’t exactly excuse the redundancy.  And that ending with the proto-webshooters is the kind of cutsey wink and nod that showed up in a number of the Flashback books, never ceasing to annoy me.  

The issue does have its moments, though.  Joe Bennett's art is much stronger than his typical ASM work, and I think the Flashback stunt might be responsible.  Artists during this month were supposed to evoke a Silver Age feel, and while that simply meant reverting to a six-panel grid for many artists, some of them actually tried to mimic the drawing style of the early ‘60s.  Bennett seems to have merged his exaggerated ‘90s style with something more subdued from the past, and it’s a vast improvement over his previous issues.  The human characters consistently look human now, which helps the story immeasurably.  And while the “Peter reads old Marvel Comics” angle might be dismissed as cheese, the gangland plot is pretty entertaining.  Contrasting Peter’s naïve thoughts on heroism with the horrifying situation Conover has placed himself in is a clever way to draw the plots together, and to add some depth to the issue.

The Secrets of Peter Parker!

Credits:  Tom DeFalco (writer), Pat Olliffe (penciler), Al Williamson (inks), Bob Sharen (colors), Comicraft (letters)

The Plot:  Thirteen-year-old Peter Parker’s athletic prowess and accessories (backpack, glasses, and pocket protector) are explored in this educational short.

The Subplots:  None.

Review:  This is legitimately funny, even if you’ve never read the original Amazing Spider-Man back-up it’s parodying.  The idea of applying one of those old Marvel tutorial back-ups to Peter Parker as a nerdy middle-schooler cracks me up, especially when the creators provide a diagram for how Peter’s glasses work.  Having Untold Tales of Spider-Man artist Pat Olliffe illustrate the piece makes it that much better, given the number of times Untold Tales ran its own versions of those old annual back-ups.