Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-man # 52
by Roger Stern, Rick Leonardi and Jim Mooney
I've been cracking on (relatively for me) with my Spidey back issues so I'm going to to cover a few issues of Spectacular in this post.
Issue 52, as seen above in the Frank Miller cover, features the White Tiger and concludes the story started in the back-up strip in the last few issues. It's not a great conclusion as Gideon Mace doesn't make a very convincing bad guy especially one whose aim is to murder super-heroes. He never gives the impression of being powerful enough.
He doesn't even make a good job on the Tiger who is dumped out of the back of a car at the beginning of the issue. Stern's dialogue tries hard and there's a nice scene with JJJ and his views on heroes but on the whole it's an average issue.
Rating 6/10
by Roger Stern, Rick Leonardi and Jim Mooney
I've been cracking on (relatively for me) with my Spidey back issues so I'm going to to cover a few issues of Spectacular in this post.
Issue 52, as seen above in the Frank Miller cover, features the White Tiger and concludes the story started in the back-up strip in the last few issues. It's not a great conclusion as Gideon Mace doesn't make a very convincing bad guy especially one whose aim is to murder super-heroes. He never gives the impression of being powerful enough.
He doesn't even make a good job on the Tiger who is dumped out of the back of a car at the beginning of the issue. Stern's dialogue tries hard and there's a nice scene with JJJ and his views on heroes but on the whole it's an average issue.
Rating 6/10
Issue 53 was by the "Guest" team of Bill Mantlo, Jim Mooney and Frank Springer.
It features the Terrible Tinkerer. Mantlo crams a lot into 22 pages and it was interesting to see the Tinkerer as the main villain rather than the support guy. However, he was doing a good impression of the Toyman over at DC with all the deadly toys he was using. Springer is a good inker for Mooney so the art was passable too. Even so nothing to get too excited about!
Rating 6.5/10
Marie Severin plotted and drew issue 54 and helped by Stern and Mooney produces the best issue of the three issues of Spectacular reviewed here.I was reminded of the old Stan Lee/ Steve Ditko issues with the small panels, loads of dialogue and a story which even manages to pack more plot elements into 22 pages than issue 53. I especially liked this as it showed what happened to the Smuggler (last seen in issue 50) and the impact of his arrest on his crime lord bosses proved to be an excellent plot device.
I'd not read this issue before (even though I must have owned it for around 15 years - there's patience for you) and really enjoyed it as a single issue story)
Another nice FM cover - he does like drawing those samurai!
Rating 8/10
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