Continuing the review of Marvel’s self-title Greatest 25 (based on a readership poll). (Lucky for you, this week they skipped. I assume the finale will be out next week.)<\/p>\n
In 1999-2000, John Byrne wrote and drew a year-long series retelling\/updating the origins of Spider-Man. He was roundly booed by the comic book community for tinkering with a legend. Remarkably enough, Brian Bendis did a much more thorough gutting and rebuilding of the Spidey legend in Ultimate Spider-Man, and everyone cheered. Go figger. Bendis’ story is decent enough, but rather than a bunch of 60s cliches about what life would be like for Peter Parker, social outcast, we get a bunch of 90s cliches about the same thing. Ho-hum. I like Bendis, and I like Byrne. I can’t recommend either of their series. And, for reasons noted previously, I’m loathe to say that anything this recent will stand the test of time.<\/p>\n
Lee and Kirby (the latter inked clumsily by Paul Reinman) set the groundwork for Marvel’s most successful series. The characters — a bit rough around the edges — are all there. And if the trope of mutants-as-persecuted-minority was not yet established, we got to meet in the very first issue Magneto — one of the only cases from these early years I can think of where heroes’ signature villain showed up in the very first issue. It’s not the best work for either of the creators, and the book wouldn’t really take off until it had been cancelled and then resurrected in the 1970s, but all these characters are still around, and still going strong.<\/p>\n
More Lee and Kirby excellence, Cap was the first “golden age” hero to reappear in Marvel comics. Though there are some oddities — Cap seems to know that he’s been trapped for decades in an ice flow, and neither he nor Submariner seem to recognize each other (though they fought alongside each other in WWII) — this is a strong story, allowing each of the characters a moment in the sun. Does it qualify for the Top Ten? Maybe not, but it’s another classic, so I’ll forgive them.<\/p>\n
The sequel scored at 19th place, but this story rightly blows it out of the water. A high point in the Spidey saga, the death of Gwen Stacy at the hands of the Green Goblin (or was it at Spidey’s own hands — er, web?) was Marvel pathos at its most tear-jerking. A powerful tale that deserves Top Ten status.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Continuing the review of Marvel’s self-title Greatest 25 (based on a readership poll). (Lucky for you, this week they skipped. 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