Classic Review: Amazing Spiderman #32 (1966)

Amazing Spider-man #32 by Stan lee and Steve Ditko

Originally Reviewed: 7/6/12

Cover: So the cover features spider-man ripping apart the city [literally] while they show a snippet of the sickly aunt may in the corner. This cover makes me think that this issue is going to be interesting, did spidy go nuts?! Overall, I like this cover...but not that much. I give it a 3.5/5 since it's pretty cool looking, but not that impressive.

Page 1-2: The first page shows the base of the “master planner” once again. He continues to complain about spider-man like a standard super villain. It feels like a wasted page. On page 2 we get to see the inside of the base, and now see that Doc Ock is the mysterious man. I actually already read this spoiler an issue early. He is trying to study the radiation that effected both him and spider-man. He wants to use the radiation to become more powerful. I'm not surprised since, in this universe, radioactive spider/snake bites [see “King Cobra”] can give you crazy powers.

Page 3-4: Meanwhile at the daily bugle, Peter and Betty continue their drama. As a reminder, he loves Betty, Betty loves Ned, and she hates spider-man. Peter wants to break away from Betty so that there is no more trouble. J.J. comments that Peter's new photos are worthless, and peter remembers that he has been having trouble because of worrying about aunt may. Speaking of Aunt May, the doctor actually tells peter that she is suffering because of radioactive particles in her blood. I'm surprised she's not turning into superwoman at this point. Peter realizes that this occurred because of the blood transfusion in issue 10.

Page 5: After filling the page with his extreme guilt, peter decides to call Dr. Connors [AKA the Lizard]. He says that Connors is an expert in this field. After some digging, I found that he studied Biology and Biochemistry. Strangely the marvel site only says that he studied reptiles. Since I just saw a movie with the lizard, it seems really weird that he shows up here. I feel like I should revisit issue #6 sometime. He finds out that Curt has moved to New York and rushes off to find him.

Page 6: After Spider-man STEALS a blood sample from the doctors office, he swings along to doctor coiners office. I honestly forgot that he only had one arm until I saw the movie, and even then I thought it was something made just for the film. Anyway, peter says “hey, remember that time you used radioactive whatever to turn yourself into the lizard, could you use that somehow to help my sick friend?” The logic of this makes even less sense when you realize that according to most sources [including the new film] that the lizard formula is based on DNA/biology and not radiation. On the other hand, Connors is not directly creating the antidote...he just heard about it and decided to order a batch to help spider-man.

Page 7: Later, peter sells off all his household lab equipment in order to pay for the antidote, he even takes money from his bank account. You'll probably regret that the next time you need to invent some new webs or spider-gadgets! Spidy then swings into the lab and starts mixing chemicals like a mad scientist. I've taken high school Chemistry, and I dunno if I could have ever done any of this junk!

Page 8-10: Meanwhile Doc “Master Planner” Ock has decided to steal the anti-radiation antidote before it gets shipped in. How exactly it could contribute to his research, I don't know...but whatever. The purple minions, as seen in previous issues, steal the serum and run off. Spider-man hears about the news and frantically speeds off! Spidy asks Foswell for help in finding the master planner and he agrees. Spider-man then continues by smashing into gang hideouts demanding information.

Page 11-14: Meanwhile, at the hospital, aunt may is growing weaker and is slipping into a coma. The next few panels show spider-man ripping apart a hideout, mimicking the cover. Using his spider sense, he finds an entrance to a hidden room where the planner's gang is hiding. Spidy's super strength and agility make quick work of them. Reminds me of the awesome way they portrayed his “spider-like” combat style in the new film. After Doc Ock realizes that spidy is after the serum, he decides to use it as bait.

Page 15-16: Spider-man finds a vial that even HE thinks is a trap. When he moves for it, he gets shocked by electrodes. By the way, his spider-sense didn't bother warning him about that. As spider man falls, Doc ock catches him with his arms. Spidy figures out that he is the master planner, what a shock! This arc just started in issue 30 and we already know who the bad guy is! Anyway, spidey flips backwards and Ock just flays around. He then starts bending the tentacles as doc ock punches at him. I'm surprised he's that strong!

Page 17-19: Spider-man starts madly throwing stuff at his foe, and doc ock points out that he's “fighting like a tiger”. The doctor tries to retreat while the ceiling starts to collapse. The next few shots are very well done and well shot, leading up to spiderman being crushed under the rubble as water starts to fill the underwater base. This sets up for the next issue, a milestone in spider-man history.

This issue was pretty good, I thought that spider-man gathering information about the planner was totally unnecessary and doc Connors comes out of nowhere! Overall it gets a 8.5/10, great, but not perfect. The drama is being kicked up to 11!

Uncanny Avengers #1

Uncanny Avengers #1 by Rick Remender and John Cassaday

I found the team from the All New X-men review yesterday pretty interesting, and before I pick up the trade I figured I would read the first issue. The point of the team is to show unity between the X-men and the Avengers after AvX. It contains a mix of mutants and Avengers in one team, and while this isn’t the only time mutants have been Avengers (Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver particularly) mixing in others like Rouge and Havok makes for an interesting new book.

The first thing I notice about this book is that the art is very rich with crisp details. Wolverine reflects on how he joined the X-men and walks out to speak at Xavier’s funeral. Again, I find another scene that reminds me of X-3...I wish that would stop happening…

One thing I noticed was that Logan admits that he doesn't want to kill Scott, and it was neat to see that come up again in All New X-men (even when it’s not the same writer).

Also something that came in ANX (abbreviations for the win) was Alex and Scott Summers. We see Alex visit his brother in prison and sees how much he has changed, then he is recruited into the Avengers. They fight some rogue mutant (Avalanche), and Cap pulls off a really weird fastball special by having Havok blast him higher up by pushing his shield.

Meanwhile, at Xavier’s grave, Rouge complains to Scarlet Witch that [Insert same rant from ANX here]. The whole comic switches around between locations a few times, but it’s handled seamlessly unlike the sort of thing I disliked about Avengers World where there were three disjointed stories going on at once. Wanda thinks that the whole notion of the X-men, who are basically self-righteous soldiers to her. She gets punched by Rogue for this. I almost feel bad that everyone wants to harp on Wanda’s actions...almost. They are ambushed by a group of strange beings and are badly beaten by their various powers.

By the end of the issue, we get an interesting twist: The red skull is back!

This issue is a 7/10 for me, it’s pretty good. I like the cast of this book, but the side- villains literally keep coming out of nowhere (almost like a marvel movie), but the characterization and art is great so the book manages to shine.

All New X-men #12: Crazy Ladies

I was taken back by some serious sickness, but now I’m feeling better enough to make another post. I’m really surprised I don’t have an All New X-men paperback yet, but either way I’m still going through the single issues. This post is also supposed to be dual posted to facebook and google+. I’m also debating if I should start using tumblr or reddit at the moment.

All New X-Men #12

Normally this is an issue I would skip, considering it seems like a super-pointless forced crossover. I also don’t follow the Uncanny Avengers (yet), so I care even less. The cover features Past Scott blasting his present brother, it looks pretty standard/bland to me. The Wolverine variant is pretty cool, showing him in the Phoenix's embrace.

I find a few things interesting about the introduction from Scott. It says that his location is unknown, like they can’t track him for some reason. You’d think at least the X-men could make some kind of mutant tracking device like Xavier had, and in fact they do have that technology.

Wouldn’t it be suspicious if they saw a handful of mutants hanging out in the “abandoned” weapon X facility? I know picking apart the plot is pointless, but I just don’t understand why it would be so hard to find this guy, especially when he makes appearances in rallies and is wanted by a security agency! I can understand not wanting to just kill him, but not being able to find him seems dumb.

We move back to the AN X-men, who are confused by the fact that Scarlet Witch is on the Avengers (since she was on the brotherhood in their time). If it wasn’t clear before, these throwaway lines are one of my favorite aspects of this series.

Alex starts by talking to his brother, not taking the situation too seriously. He catches Scott up and notes that he must leave right away. I should note that personally I know nothing about Havok unless you count watching the First Class movie.

Soon after, Jean remembers who the Scarlet Witch is based on her new memories, reliving the House of M suddenly. It’s a bit funny since Bendis also wrote that arc. She freaks out and warns the others that the witch is a psycho-murderer. She then shoots a massive blast at the avengers, blowing some of them back. Seriously? I know she got stronger after the time travel (for like, no fully explained reason by the way) but now she’s shooting out massive energy blasts. Though, it is one of those uncontrolled anger type of things. All I’m saying is that she’s been training for at most a few weeks and she has this kind of power? I’m just saying because in the past she spent much longer training with Xavier and she still struggled to lift a person’s weight.I feel like an MMO player complaining about buffs and whatnot, but it just seems unfair for all this power to come out of nowhere...at least for me. The two girls continue launching spells at each other as everyone watches in surprise. Wanda tries to defend her actions, but honestly, I agree with Jean here. Scarlet Witch has, since then, been a highly dangerous unpredictable element that could endanger all of reality. I would have at least put her on medication or disable her powers before I let her anywhere near me!

Something else I realized, why the hell does Jean think she doesn't have the same problem? She mind-controlled and mind-reading people without asking them and is blasting people with blind rage.

Meanwhile, the brotherhood of evil burglars blows apart the England Bank. Since they are all villains, they start to distrust each other and Lady wonders what all this money is even for?

Also, why isn’t Tony investigating the fact that his money was stolen? Is he too busy being in space or doing whatever he does in his own books (not reading them)? Anyway, they escape with the money and Lady sends another marvel reference illusion (Fin Fang Foom) towards the police. Cap questions the x-men on the robberies and wolverine points out the obvious right away, Raven (Mystique) is clearly involved. Then the x-men fly off to go after her.

I was right about skipping this issue. It really doesn't affect much besides the relationship between Scott and his brother plus Wanda and Jean. There are also some dialogue flubs that I didn't point out, basically just some minor lines that read a bit weird. I would give this a 6.5 out of 10. These last few issues are less stellar than the others, but I am somewhat interested in seeing the new brotherhood.

Avengers Arena #2

I picked up the trade recently, so I thought I'd post my thoughts on the whole series since I started with the first.

The first issue focused on Hazmat, and this one is focused on Deathlocket (Rebecca Ryker) who is a teenage cyborg who was created for this series. The issue opens with Red Raven (the second one, apparently there are three in marvel comics.) flying upwards into an invisible force field that cracks her neck. I love how beautiful, detailed, colorful, and expressive this art is.The art really sells this book, and without it the plot would be pretty shallow and forgettable.I love the detail put into the character’s designs, like in one panel you can see the cybernetics fused into Rebecca’s skin. The whole book, even without the deaths, has such a gruesome feel.   

Becca gets her nickname from Cammi (who is noted specifically as an average human who just happens to fight in space). Rebecca’s family is shown to have been murdered in a Terminator-esque plot to kill the Deathlok’s inventor before he can create them. He saved her life, but she was taken in by the government. The others don’t exactly trust her since she is half-murder robot, but her brain/personality was actually preserved. I think it’s sort of interesting that Deathloks are becoming more popular again, I even heard there is one on the Shield TV show that’s coming into the comics!

We’re also introduced, at a campfire, to Kid Briton (a teenage version of the british superhero from another reality. I bet it’s the ultimate universe, everyone’s a teenager there! Kidding, of course…it’s actually on a known other reality) and Nara (a teenage atlantean). It’s interesting that this series both killed off teenage heroes as well as introduced new ones in a strange sort of yin-yang thing. Next we have Cullen (from a family of monster hunters), and Anachronism (who, for some reason has taken the form of a Celtic warlord. I’d like to learn more about him, seems like a cool concept...like Highlander or something.). Last is Katy, an indian girl who admits she has the lame power of floating. The issue closes out on a low note, but on the bright side we did get to see more of the original characters as well as focus on one. This issue is a 7.5/10 for me, it does a good job setting up these characters for future issues (plus killing another hero rather quickly), and I have no complaints about the art or pacing. It’s neat to see Becca be so joyful by the end, even in such a deadly situation.

Classic Review: Amazing Spiderman #31 (1965)

Cover: I really like the cover here. It's segmented by a spider symbol and has a cool phrase, “If this be my destiny”. By itself it earns a 4/5.

Page 1-2: This is an even better inner cover than before. Spider-man is being attacked by those weird purple gangsters from last issue. They're using some kind of gas weapon. We then flash back to the purple dudes repealing down into a “radioactive atomic” facility. I'm not surprised, since they already stole some uranium last issue. They steal some stuff and get out of there, using sleep gas to knock out a guard. These guys are pretty high-tech...they've got sleep gas, a helicopter, and magnetic shoes!

Spiderman, who is nearby, jumps at the helicopter and busts his way in.

Page 3:

Spider-man holds his breath (due to his spider strength he can hold his breath for a long time). Meanwhile the gang gets a call from their boss, the “master planner”. They coat the stolen stuff in a waterproof bag and throw it overboard with an electronic tracking device. Turns out these guys don't work for the Cat. There is then a shot of an underwater base, where another squad of purple dudes picks up the abandoned cargo. So it seems that there are multiple groups of these guys.

Page 4-5:

Spider-man is swarmed with gas, but before he gets knocked out he manages to crash the helicopter into the water. Don't worry, the helicopter crew is saved by those underwater diver guys. Spider-man tries to find those same guys, but he just leaves confused. The page ends with another shot of the underwater building and the boss rambling about his plan. It seriously looks like the speech bubbles are just coming from the building though.

Page 6-9:

Peter goes off to register at Empire State university, while aunt may continues to feel sick. The rest of the page is a montage of peter filling out forms and getting books. Flash is even there to push peter around some more! Once he gets home, aunt may faints into his arms. She is rushed to the hospital where she recovers slightly. The next day as peter worries, Flash meets up with two of his new classmates Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy. Do those names sound familiar? They should!

Page 10-12:

Harry seems to act like a bit of a jerk, while Gwen already seems to like peter. Right after class, peter tries to call the hospital but has no change. Also on this page peter's hair becomes totally black and his thought bubbles cover his face, dang art flubs! Peter is so distracted by his aunt that he doesn't notice Gwen trying to talk to him. After she runs off, Harry pulls a prank on peter by igniting some of his chemicals. I'm pretty sure if his face burned off that it wouldn't be funny. Fun fact, Peters chemistry professor becomes the Jackel! At the moment he just tries to stop peter from doing any more dangerous experiments, but soon he's going to clone him! According to the wiki, he was even around at peter's high school...creepy.

Page 13-15:

Peter visits the hospital as soon as he can. After talking to his aunt, the doctor says she's not doing very well. At home, after looking at some bills, peter realizes he needs money to pay for college and the medical bills. So he goes out as spider-man to get some pictures. Peter can't find anything and fails to accomplish anything. His 'sleepless night' counter also goes up to 2. Meanwhile, at the daily bugle, Jonah orders foswell to investigate the stolen uranium. Also in the office, Ned talks to Betty about getting married. She still wants to talk it out with peter, since they are technically dating.

Page 16-17:

At the pier, Foswell (undercover as his alter-ego “patch”) learns of another shipment of chemicals.

Then at the school, peter rushes past Gwen again on his way to the hospital and she's pretty angry about it. After another hospital visit, Spider-man goes swinging around. Patch manages to signal spider-man and tells him the information.

Page 18-21:

The diver guys surface again! They use suction cups to climb unto the chemical ship, Spider-man swings into action and shrugs off the stupid gas guns. Spidy dodges the ships crane that is swung at him and webs down the boxes so that the gang can't escape with them. Eventually he gets caught in a fishing net, but spidy has spider-strength so it's easy to break out. The bad guys dive into the water and quickly escape, peter doesn't even have time to take a photo. After the police arrive, spider-man takes off a small gas mask that he put together to stop from being gassed.

Inside the “master planner's” base we figure out that he is doing research on radiation effects.

Speaking of research, the doctors looking over aunt may report that she don't have long to live!

This issue was alright, and it clears up some stuff from last issue. Peter worrying about his aunt is also interesting. I give it a 8/10.

All New X-Men #10-11: Cyclops is a desperate freak.

Cyclops was already seen on the cover of Rolling Stone in one issue, I wonder how long it will be before he's on the cover of one of those "Where are they now?" magazines.

The issue starts with the x-men robbing an armored car! Oh, that doesn't make sense, really? Well, Don’t worry, it’s just an illusion that Lady (from the last issue) uses to frame the young x-men, as well as make out with a  few million bucks.

Meanwhile, also continuing from last issue, older Cyclops’s team comes in to negotiate with the Jean Grey school. He restates that he would never have killed Xavier on his own free will. Then...Krakoa (the mutant who is part of the earth) swallows them whole. Once it spits them out, Cyclops makes the announcement that they are recruiting mutants for their New Xavier School.

I’d like to remind people that in Schism (one of the first comic series I read next to Curse of the Mutants and Batman Reborn), Scott split away from Wolverine because he didn't want to use mutants as weapons.

By the time that dust settled (before/during AvX) Cyclops only had about 18-22 mutants following him (depending on who you count, since not every character was involved and some switched sides). That list has been shortened to about 8 now (though technically he could still recruit more from this point on).

Still, Scott has lost a lot of actual students for his school by starting this Revolution. I should note that he actually only had 5-6 people behind him at this point. If you compare this to the huge clumps of people Wolverine has got, Cyclops really has just proven how much of a fool he is.

Older Scott is pretty desperate here...basically going to wolverine’s door and begging for more people to join his mutant-revolution club. It honestly makes me laugh.

“New mutants are popping up all over the world and with that will come confusion that will lead to fear that will lead to hatred.”- Magneto, ripping off one of the worst lines in Star Wars. “We can train you to fight back and fight for each other.”

I need to remind Scott AGAIN that the whole point he went away from Wolverine (again, Schism) was that he did not want to use mutants as weapons. Now’s he’s just saying “oh, we need to fight the humans or even other mutants, so we need to gather mutants to use as (in his words here) warriors.”

Forgive me if I’m missing something here, but I’m starting to see why people really hate Cyclops. At least he’s being written as a pseudo-anti-villain or whatever. As far as I remember, Cyke wanted to take a defensive approach and protect mutants whereas Wolverine wanted to continue training mutants. Now they apparently just want to do the same thing by training mutants? If Cyclops wasn't such a “wearing an X on his head” freaky revolutionary...maybe they could work together...

I think it’s clear why I’m on Wolverine’s “team”. I don’t even think Cyclops has ever been consistent. It’s probably just because I haven’t read X-men for a bit, but it’s still kinda strange. I mean, I didn't read all of AvX (or even Uncanny X-men), and if I did I might have more context for Scott's position...either way though it doesn't add up for me. It does start to bring back that whole Xavier vs Magneto vibe, but now it's literally Scott verses himself.

Anyway, Young Scott is so conflicted by all the ideals of his future self is throwing out so he storms off again.

We also get a scene of Maria Hill heading back to The Raft and being informed of the breakout. She even points out they only took one person for like no reason besides that she was in the X-men. She then reports this to the x-men who are already busy trying to figure out who will join Scott’s team.

The Triplets leave to join Cyclops's team, since they are pretty much bound to Emma, that was expected. Suddenly, another voice speaks up...leading to a cliffhanger.

I don’t think I really liked this issue, not because of the underlying issues, but just that even less happened this time than before and the cliffhanger feels really cheap. I think the dialogue and art (I have a hard time criticizing art, personally...and most of the books with art I don’t like, I just don’t read) are still good, so I’ll be nice and hand this a 6.5/10.

Issue 11

The cover asks, in another 60’s style homage, Which all-new x-man will join Cyclops. I remember getting this spoiled for me already (according to what I've read, it was also already spoiled by the earlier issue of Uncanny), and it probably won’t be hard to guess if you follow the hints. Warren moves over to Scott’s side! At least they resolved that pretty quickly.

Just to clarify another background gag, one of Jean’s thought bubbles says that there was a Golden Age angel, seen here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_(Thomas_Halloway)].

I like how Warren prefers being an active superhero (basically what cyclops is doing) versus being a student. I got some clarification on Scott’s position: The divide is closer to that Scott wants to train people to be active/act like superheroes or positive role-models while wolverine focuses more on education and training before action. It really does seem like something Warren would want to do.

I also wanted to point out that I think the extinction costumes are pretty cool (besides cyclops’s), without getting into too much detail.

Anyway, Jean tries to pull her mind-hold on Warren, but the triplets knock her down. Wolverine starts to get mad, but Magneto throws him into the air. Jean gets brought inside after the scuffle ends, and the we cut to...Stark Industries?

Well, it seems like Mystique has used her skills (turning into Pepper Potts) to steal Stark’s personal funds. This whole heist scheme is working out pretty well, honestly. I mean, she better be careful because the fantastic four have scanners for shapeshifters in their building! Where’s she going to go next?!

Kitty gives another stern lecture to Jean, even giving her spidey's quote (that she heard from him) that with great power comes great responsibility. Jean brings up that she doesn't want the team to break up, because even when they did before...they later formed X-factor (I’m still reading that original run). She needs to learn not to go to extreme lengths to get what she wants, or she’ll turn into the Scarlet Witch when she lost her marbles!  

Now the X-men focus on dealing with mystique, but the shape-shifter has already framed them for different attacks and called in the avengers. Thor crashes their jet (I figured storm could have done something about that, but then saw she wasn't on the plane). Now the Uncanny Avengers arrive. Time for the standard superhero “we have a misunderstanding, so we will fight” cliche. It’s also cool that wolverine point’s out that Havoc, Cyke’s brother, is on the team.

This issue is a bit better as we see Jean continue to develop due to all these shocking events as well as Warren moving into a different team (as well as different book). The next issue looks to be interesting as the original x-men take on some modern mutants. Overall, I think the issue has still earned a 6.8/10 for the funny references and good art, but it’s still not enough to make it really good. It’s still not a bad series by any means. I find it annoying that the new x-men are becoming less self contained. It’s pretty much the same thing Avengers and New Avengers are doing where the two books are heavily connected, but in this case it’s all new and uncanny.

I feel cheated by only following one series, and that does bring the score down. Also, to make a correction, I just double checked wikipedia (who has scott's full team) and he currently has 11 mutants with him for now.

And yes, I’m planning on seeing GotG tomorrow :)