This & That: Spectacular Spider-Man 77!

 Redartz:  Greetings, folks; and welcome to our first comic review of the new year! Here at BitBA, we've tried to cast some attention to some less -frequently addressed titles, such as Rom and Alpha Flight. Many have written much about Marvel's banner character Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man
 being the flagship title and Spidey's original home. But for today's discussion, we'll look at an issue of Amazing's sister publication, Spectacular Spider-Man, and a fine Bronze Age example it is.

Martinex1:  A good choice for a title to review Red.  I was indeed a Spider-Man fan, but I only owned a smattering of Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man.  I cannot really say why, I just tended to buy Amazing and Team-Up first.  So my knowledge of the stories in Spidey's second series is pretty limited.

Spectacular Spider-Man 77 (Apr. 1983) by Bill Mantlo, Al Milgrom and Jim Mooney

Redartz:  To begin with, how about that cover? It really stood out to me on the stands the first time I saw it...

Martinex1:  I've always liked when they played with the logs and masthead on comics.  I know Ed Hannigan did a number of memorable examples on Spectacular, and here Al Milgrom jumps in with a good one.  I like how the corner box is torn.  My understanding is that they did this all by hand back in the Bronze age - literally cutting and pasting.

 Redartz:  I believe you're right. They didn't have Photoshop back then, but still managed to accomplish some very cool visual effects. Incidentally, Milgrom seems to be showing a few touches of both Steve Ditko and Frank Miller here. Depicting the 'spider senses' going off was a Ditko trademark, and it's nicely done  here. 

And now, a brief summary of the story:



 

The story opens at Potter's Costume Shop (proprietor Melvin Potter, better known as Daredevil's frequent foe Gladiator). A group of thugs have pulled a job, and are trying to elude the police. They burst into Potter's shop, shooting him and threatening to incriminate him (as Potter's currently on parole and trying to go straight- as revealed in references to then-current Daredevil issues).

Meanwhile, Spider-man has just had an unpleasant encounter with Dr. Octopus, who has attacked the Black Cat (who is recuperating in the hospital). As Spidey patrols the city in preparation for a showdown with Ock, he stumbles upon the police cordon around Potter's shop.

 



The police fire tear gas, and the hoods exit the store, along with Potter: now costumed as Gladiator. Spider-man attacks, and there is a brief battle; worsened by Potter's pain-induced relapse into his delusional identity (he thinks he's an actual Roman Gladiator).












But the panicked thugs, fearful that Potter will turn on them, have revealed to the police that Potter was innocent of wrongdoing. Once Spider-man is aware of this, he appeals to Potter's better instincts, breaking through the delusion, and Potter ends his rampage. He then offers to repair Spidey's costume!


 





















 Any initial thoughts on the story, Marti?
 
Martinex1: One flaw I felt in the story is that the robbery thugs never seemed that threatening.   In some comics, these characters would be finished off in a page (or even a panel) so it was a little off having them threaten the Gladiator when that guy went up against Iron Man and Daredevil back in the Silver Age.  

Redartz:  That's a good point. I do like seeing the use of lower-level threats facing heroes like Spider-Man and Daredevil (not really likely to have much success against, say, Galactus). Spidey facing street hoods goes back to his origins, but yes, Potter could have taken them apart easily. Perhaps his mental instabilities made him extra cautious.

The middle section of the issue was devoted to the 'subplot' of Dr. Octopus' vendetta against Spider-man and the Black Cat. I always love seeing Ock, and his attack (ripping out Felicia's life support) was pretty brutal.  Not the greatest Ock/Spidey battle ever, but entertaining and suitably dramatic...
  
Martinex1:  The threats to the hospitalized Black Cat and the subsequent fight scene between Spidey and Doc Ock were nicely handled, but at the end I was left scratching my head.  The villain came to the hospital to confront Spidey and to threaten to kill him "tomorrow"?!?  Huh?  Why not today?  

I know that this story read like a stand alone issue, but the Doc Ock tale in Spectacular had been going on for a few issues and continued after that.  But this particular fight ended like something out of the Batman television show, "Bwah ha ha.  I have you on the ropes, but I'll see you tomorrow when we can really fight!"  I must be missing something, or this could have been scripted a bit better.

Redartz:  Another solid observation, partner.  Ock somewhat addressed the issue, stating he wanted his foe to "know a night of fear". Regardless, Ock caught his foe by surprise (in a rather novel way- having Spider-man's senses alarming during a dream, and thus being ineffective), and the Black Cat was absolutely helpless. Ock never had a better shot at finishing them both off.

The final third of the issue deals with the Gladiator's fate. This particular comic featured two of my favorite villains, Dr. Octopus and the Gladiator. Thus I was warm to the story from the start. I did like how they referenced Potter's background and mental problems from the Daredevil storylines,  I also thought Spider-man reaching out in potential friendship to Melvin was a nice touch; perfectly in keeping with Peter Parker's altruistic nature.


Martinex1: Although I know the Gladiator on the surface, I knew very little of his history.   I did not know that in his madness he thought he was from the Roman gladiatorial times.  I saw the Netflix Daredevil series, and it was interesting to see Melvin running a costume shop of sorts and assisting Daredevil with the costume design.  That was a nice tribute to the original source material.

 Did Spidey and Gladiator ever team up again?  It would be nice to see Melvin identified as the tailor for the Super-set.  

 Redartz: Yes, it was fun to see him appear on the Netflix show. They even had a couple of wrist blades visible, if you looked. Regarding later teamups- good question. Perhaps some of our friends out there can enlighten us. And since you mentioned the costume shop, let's talk about the art. I got a kick out of the background details in Potter's costume shop: Batman and Hawkman costumes! You can see them on the opening pages shown above.

Martinex1: I liked the side column pictures of the creative team.  I am not sure I have seen that done anywhere else, and I wondered what inspired them this time.  Funny that they depicted Jim Shooter as Dr. Doom.  I wonder how he felt about that or if it was just a shared and accepted gag.  He at least went along with the joke.

Redartz:  That credit display was amusing. To hazard a guess, I'd bet Mr. Shooter found being portrayed as Doom pretty humorous...
Overall, I found the artwork to be pretty satisfying. I've mentioned before my appreciation of the work of Milgrom on this title, especially in tandem with Ed Hannigan. Of course here he does pencils, with Jim Mooney inking.  

Martinex1:  I am not the greatest fan of Al Milgrom's art.  It is very hit and miss.  I really liked his early work on Marvel Presents with the Guardians of the Galaxy, but in all honesty his work on the Avengers turned me away.  I feel that he positions heroes in very stiff ways; they never seem comfortable in the pose.  And he also tends to widen the characters' faces; that part often reminds me of Carmine Infantino's work.
However, I do find Milgrom's work to benefit from the inker assigned.  In this case, I am curious how Jim Mooney will fare as I liked his work many years prior over at ASM.  In fact I always thought he helped keep Spidey consistent, and even here on the splash page that is a nicely formed Spider-Man.  

Redartz:  I agree, some of Milgrom's work can be...less successful. I do feel he did some of his best work on Spider-man, and on the Guardians of the Galaxy. And regarding Jim Mooney: great point about his consistency. Mooney seems to have a fairly heavy presence as an inker. Whether inking John Romita, Sal Buscema, or Milgrom, you can see that familiarity everywhere. 

Martinex1:  Mooney was in the comic industry for a long time.  He started out in "funny animal" comics back in the heyday of that genre, before getting a shot at Batman.

Redartz: Quite right; he shows up on some of those old Supergirl stories in Adventure Comics too. 
Oh, that dream sequence of Spider-man and the Octopus:  fairly well executed. That color effect seemed to show up often in comics of this time period, Keith Giffen loved using the technique. I will say that there were a few places in the book (for instance, the orange sky behind Ock during a nighttime scene; shown above) where the coloring seemed a bit odd.

Martinex1:  I too liked the dream sequence and how it was depicted.  The coloring choice for the dreams was interesting - simply leaving the inks alone but colored in magenta.  I wonder whose choice that was.  There is a language used for memories and dreams in Marvel comics that usually includes the panel corners to be rounded.  This was bit different and I liked it.  Although the actual color choice was strange; perhaps a darker green or purple would have been more off-setting, dark, and mysterious.

Redartz:  Okay, time to sum it all up. 

The Good:  A good story with some nice artistic touches; two classic villains and a great cover.
The Bad:  Nothing really bad per se, but there could have been more motivation to Potter's actions, and a few examples of clunky dialogue could be found (is a furious, fleeing hood really going to insult his accomplice using a  "PC" phrase such as "overweight idiot"? ).

 The Ugly:  Some of the pastel colors in the backgrounds. Kind of brought to mind an IZOD shirt. Ew.


Martinex1: 

The Good:  A nice single issue story with a basic if not memorable plot and some action.  It gave some insight to an older standard villain in the Gladiator.  Nice dream sequence.
The Bad: To me it came across sometimes as a Bill Mantlo filler issue. To be fair, I rank Mantlo as one of my top ten favorite writers but there are times, probably due to his prolific nature, that some stories seemed to have less characterization and motivation.  That was somewhat apparent here.
The Ugly: C'mon Doc Ock - finish off your arch nemesis and the Black Cat when you have the chance!  And Shooter as Dr. Doom (I always considered him more like Galactus)!
Rating: I give the book 3,25 Bronze Medallions.   Extra quarter point for the fantastic cover!