Articles with the Tag John Romita

Fifty Essentials in Fifty Days 44: Essential Spider-Man Vol. 06

books and books review, Comix
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cover of Spider-Man Vol. 06


Essential Spider-Man Vol. 06
Gerry Conway, John Romita, Ross Andru, Gil Kane and friends
Reprints: Amazing Spider-Man #114-137 and more (November 1972- October 1974)
Get this for: the death of Gwen Stacy — four stars

Yes, just as happened with Essential X-Men and Essential Fantastic Four, I missed out on volume five of Essential Spider-Man. Annoying, since volume four ended on a cliffhanger as Doctor Octopus seemed to have the upper hand on Spider-Man. And how does volume six start? With a battle between Spidey, new villain Hammerhead and Doc Ock. You can see why I got a bit confused in the shop…

Anyway, this volume sees Gerry Conway firmly established as Spidey’s writer, though Stan Lee does return for a few issues halfway through. Conway used to be an incredibly prolific writer in the seventies and eighties, working for both Marvel and DC on all their headline acts, including a forty plus issue run on Amazing Spider-Man partially collected here. He may as much as anybody else be responsible for Marvel’s Bronze Age house style, that mix of superhero adventure and soap opera, with stories usually lasting one or two issues but subplots carried forward for much longer, a style he would also export to DC. Despite this he has never really been a fan favourite, has he, unlike a contemporary like Len Wein, let alone Steve Gerber. This may be because his writing was so familiar, so omnipresent that it could never surprise you like Wein or Gerber could. You won’t get anything experimental with Conway at the helmet.

For Spider-Man Conway is the ideal writer, as this volume shows. He has a good grasp of what makes Spider-Man tick, does well with the soap opera and while not as creative as his predecessors on the title, here still creates two classic Spider-Man villains: Hammerhead and Tarantula, not to mention the Punisher. But what he will be mostly remembered for is something else entirely: the Death of Gwen Stacy.

Gwen Stacy was of course Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s great love, not quite his first, but his first serious relationship. Gwen’s death was as much a turning point for him as Uncle Ben’s death was for making him Spider-Man in the first place. It cast a shadow over the rest of his life, though this is not always noticable even in this volume. Before her death, Spider-Man could always be certain that his powers could save himself and his loved ones from any danger. After it, he would always worry whether he would’ve to go through it a second time. For superhero comics as a whole Gwen Stacy’s death is a turning point as well, the first time (if I remember correctly) that such a prominent supporting cast member was killed off. As Kurt Busiek has argued, Gwen’s death could be seen as the end of the Silver Age, so great was its impact.

It’s interesting to see the differences in how Conway treats Gwen’s death with how it would be dealt with in modern comics. There is literally no lead-up. In the previous issue Spidey is still in Canada fighting the Hulk, he returns to New York, Norman Osborn remembers his past as the Green Goblin as well Spider-Man’s secret identity, kidnaps Gwen and lures Peter to the top of the George Washington bridge. They fight, the Goblin throws Gwen off the bridge, Spidey catches her with his web, but is too late: she’s already dead. It’s over and done with in one issue, while Norman Osborn himself dies in the next. Had it been written today, it would’ve needed a six issue story arc at least.

The art in this volume is by John Romita, Gil Kane and Ross Andru, in that order. These are all artists working in a roughly similar style, especially Romita and Andru, who also use many of the same inkers: Jim Mooney, Romita himself, Frank Giacoia. Of the three I prefer Kane, who has just that little bit more bite to his art. Ross Andru on the other hand I’ve always found a bit bland…

Many of the stories here I’ve read before, especially those leading up to the death of Gwen Stacy and those dealing with its aftermath, not in the least in the old Dutch Spider-Man Klassiek series, which provided a sort of “extended highlights”. To read them in context has been interesting: Gwen may death, but Spidey still has to fight a new villain month in month out. Various subplots continue to develop and come to fruition, the soap opera continues and one month doesn’t differ that much from another. There’s never been a period in Spidey’s where this relentless grind was so clearly visible..

Fifty Essentials in Fifty Days 29: Essential Spider-Man Vol. 04

books and books review, Comix
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cover of Essential Spider-Man vol 4
Essential Spider-Man Vol. 4
Stan Lee, John Romita, Jim Mooney and friends
Reprints: Amazing Spider-Man #66-89, Annual #5 (November 1968 – October 1970)
Get this for: the continuing Spider-Man soap opera — four stars

The bastards! Not only does Essential Spider-Man Vol. 04 overlap with the first printing of Essential Spider-Man Vol. 03, but they also ended the collection of a cliffhanger with issue 89! Worse, I never did find volume 5 so I don’t know how things turned out. (Actually, I’ve read that story in Dutch reprints ages ago, but it would’ve been nice to have had in Essential format as well…

To be fair, it is almost impossible to present any decent chunk of Spidey’s career from this time without ending on a cliffhanger, as by now Stan Lee and John Romita have shifted into full gear on the Marvel superhero soap opera. Any given story may end, but the various plots and subplots continue. So for example in #68 Spidey attempts to foil a plot by the Kingpin to steal an ancient tablet from E.S.U. campus at the same time as Randy Robertson, the son of Joe Robertson, Peter Parker’s editor at the Bugle is protesting in the same building: they are framed for the robbery while Spidey is blamed for the loss of the tablet. In the next issue Spidey manages to track down the Kingpin and defeat him, winning back the tablet but then the Kingpin manages to trick the police into believing Spider-Man is workin for him. So the next issues finds our webhead wanted by the cops, got to mention fighting Quicksilver and finally managing to hand over the tablet to Gwen Stacy’s father, Captain Stacy. The very next issue it is stolen again by the Shokcer and Spidey has to chase after it again. This is not the end of it, as then another bunch of gangsters are after it, who then capture Curt “the Lizard” Conners to work on a translation of the tablet. Once Spidey finally gets the gangsters sorted, he then has to chase after the Lizard again…

It’s no wonder then, that after a story that kept evolving and finally ran for almost a full year, ten issues (#68 to #77), the very next story, “The Night of the Prowler”, meant to be a threeparter was cut to two parts because Spider-fans were sick and tired of continuing stories… Lee even managed to keep his promise for another three issues each featuring a complete story, yet by #83 he was back again with a multi issue storyline: the coming of the Schemer. At the same time, one issue stories or not, all the subplots were still continuing as well, with poor old Peter alternating between worrying about money, his Aunt May’s health and his relationship with Gwen and always worrying about how his career as Spider-Man complicated things. Like it or not soap opera storytelling was here to stay in Amazing Spider-Man and you better be reading every issue if you want to know what’s going on. (Though as always, Lee makes sure you get a hefty dose of recap each issue when needed).

What Lee also delivers a hefty dose of each month is troubles for Peter. The guy can’t catch a break in this volume: about the only thing that goes well for him is defeating the villains. Thanks to J. Johan Jameson and the Daily Bugle half of New York thinks he’s a crook, while the other half doesn’t believe in him at all. Struggling with money as always, Peter barely has time to keep up with his friends, while his romance with Gwen goes through rough patches, as he’s never there for her. Every time he does go out with her something comes up that means he has to ditch her to become Spider-Man. And meanwhile both Joe Robertson and especially Captain Stacy seem to get suspicious of him and Peter is never sure how much they know about his true identity…

Artwise, John Romita, inked by Jim Mooney is a treat as always. In fact, having seen some of these stories in colour as well I’m started to believe his work looks better in black and white. It’s easier to see his line work without the distraction of colour and realise how good he is. Or they are I should say, as Mooney’s inking has to have something to do with this as well. He gives Romita’s pencils just that little bit extra. As always Romita is best with women, as shown in #86, when the Black Widow comes to visit and gets a makeover…

One last thing that needs mentioning: the dialogue, which is rather on the “hep” side. This can either annoy or charm you: I liked it. Apart from The Fantastic Four the best work Stan Lee ever did was on Amazing Spider-Man. This volume shows this once again…

Fifty Essentials in Fifty Days 12: Essential Spider-Man vol 3

books and books review, Comix
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cover of Essential Spider-Man Vol. 3


Essential Spider-Man Vol. 3
Stan Lee, John Romita and friends
Reprints: Amazing Spider-Man #44-68 (January 1967 – January 1969)
Get this for: Lee & Romita on Spider-Man– four stars

After finishing off the Lee-Ditko run on Amazing Spider-Man with Essential Spider-Man Vol 2 yesterday, I thought I’d give the Romita run a try as well with Essential Spider-Man Vol 3, containing exactly two years of continuity. This is the period in which the foundations for the Spider-Man I grew up with were laid. There’s more soap opera, it’s taken more serious and some of the humour of the Ditko issues has gone. Where earlier Spidey’s troubles rarely lasted much beyond one issue, from now on he would barely be able to keep going with all the issues and hangups put on him. You can see the first glimmers of Bronze Age Marvel here, with its emphasis on shared continuity, large supporting casts and long running subplots. It all feels familiar to me in a way the Ditko issues did not.

On the art front, while it is clear to see the Ditko influences in Romita’s work here, his work is much more conventionally pretty and as he had cut his teeth on romance comics, his women are drop dead gorgeous in a way Ditko never could match. His male characters too are much more handsome than they were before. While stylistically I prefer Ditko over Romita — his fights were never as exciting as Ditko’s — his clear, clean artwork did provide Spider-Man with his definitive look, a reference point for every artist that came after him on Spider-Man.

What struck me reading this volume was that some of the momentum was gone; things seem more static, though Petey does finally move out from Aunt May’s house into a shared apartment with Harry Osborn and moves to college. There are fewer new villains (the Shocker and Kingpin being the exception) and more old ones making re-appearances, like Doctor Octopus, Mysterio and the Vulture. The stories aren’t bad by any means, but none have the impact of e.g. the Master Planner arc from the previous volume.

Spidey gets a lot more hip and happening too as Romita comes along, getting so sixties it’s almost embarassing. Lots of fun though. One big but subtle improvement castwise is the addition of Joe and Randy Robertson to the cast, the first regular Black supporting characters in comics. Or at least the first ones not to be embarassing racial stereotypes at least. No fuzz is made about them being Black either: Joe is introduced as the Bugle‘s new city editor, Randy as a fellow student of Peter’s at E.S.U.

The Lee – Romita Spider-Man is very different from the Ditko – Lee version, but almost as good. Reading these stories is not as exciting as reading the Ditko ones, but they do feel mighty comfortable, like taking in a nice hot bath. That’s not bad either.

Fifty Essentials in Fifty Days 11: Essential Spider-Man vol 2

books and books review, Comix
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cover of Essential Spider-Man Vol. 2


Essential Spider-Man Vol. 2
Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, John Romita and friends
Reprints: Amazing Spider-Man #21-43, Annual 2-3 (Februari 1965 – December 1966)
Get this for: Lee, Ditko & Romita on Spider-Man– five stars

After finishing Essential Spider-Man Vol. 1 I needed to finish the rest of the Lee-Ditko run on Amazing Spider-Man, so onwards to Vol. 2 I went. This includes the last eighteen issues plus annual Ditko worked on the title, as well as the first few of John Romita as his replacement. The changeover from the stylistic mastery of Ditko to the much more conventional prettiness of Romita is jarring and when read straight after each other, Romita comes off looking the lesser artist, almost bland even. Not that he’s a bad artist of course, but he lacks the personal investment Ditko brought to Spider-Man.

The story of why Ditko left Amazing Spider-Man is well known of course: he objected to taking the Green Goblin and make him into somebody in Spidey’s supporting cast like Stan Lee wanted him to be as that would make for a better story, rather than having him just be a nobody as Ditko wanted as that fit his philosophy of crime (heavily influenced by Ayn Rand) better. Ditko quit with the issue in which Lee wanted the big reveal rather than compromise his principles, Romita was brought in and Spider-Man would never be the same again. So much of what would make Spider-Man Spider-Man later on was only brought in after Ditko left, the most important perhaps being a certain little gal called Mary Jane Watson! (One risk of reading these volumes back to back is having Lee’s speech patterns rub off on you. But that’s a risk I’m taking for you, the dedicated reader. (See what I mean?))

With Romita Spider-Man went even more into soap opera, lost some of the easy humour of the Ditko days as Peter Parker’s struggles were taken more seriously and the cast was expanded. For most of Ditko’s run there’s only a relatively small supporting cast: Flash Thompson and Liz Allen plus unnamed hangers on at Peter’s high school; Jolly Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant and Frederick Foswell at the Daily Bugle, plus of course Aunt May. Even Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy only come into the picture at the end of the Ditko issues. With Romita on board, the cast becomes bigger and more important. It’s quite a difference.

Moving back to why Ditko left the series, it has been interesting to see, knowing his reasons, how he had been weaving his thoughts on crime and the losers who commit in the series before. In the previous volume there was the crime boss The Big Man, who Spider-Man suspected was actually Jameson himself only for him to turn out to be Foswell, while this volume has the saga of the Crime-Master, where Spidey is again wrong in his suspicions, now thinking Foswell has gone back to his old ways when it turns out it’s somebody he actually never saw and nor did we. In both cases it turns out our ideas of who could be this big, important villain don’t matter as they turn out to be nobodies, which is what Ditko wants us to learn about crime. With the Goblin he had been careful never to show his face before and was on his way to repeat this trick, but Lee had other plans. A pity in one way, though Lee had a good case that storywise, it’s more satisfying to have the revelation of the Goblin’s identity be more meaningful. In the end, because Norman Osborn is only introduced a few issues before anyway, any shock value of his being the Green Goblin is slight.

One of the strangest stories in this volume is issue 24, where Spidey thinks he’s going mad because he keeps seeing hallucinations while some psychatrist has written an op-ed in the Bugle that he must be insane to be Spider-Man. It’s not the story itself which is strange, as the logic behind the premise. Even before Spidey sees things, the mere mention that a psychiatrist has declared him insane was enough for him to doubt his sanity. That’s the kind of childlike logic more suited to a Superboy story, where any autority is always immediately believed by the hero and his friends, no matter how ludicrous.

Ditko or Romita, Spider-Man is addictive. I have to imagine what it would’ve been like to read these issues straight from the newsstand back in ’65, having to wait a month to read the conclusion of the Master Planner story, Ditko’s zenith on the series. So good to be able to just flip the page and start reading.