DRAWN & QUARTERED
OK, it's time we turn to superhero comic books, and we start with a momentous line in its hallowed history. As the web spins
Will Spider-Man help
save Marvel's day?
Gary C.W. Chun
Star-Bulletin"With great power, there must also come -- great responsibility!"
A young Peter Parker comes to this realization after he captures a thief who robbed and killed his beloved adopted uncle. Parker had an opportunity to capture this criminal before the murder had he chosen to be a hero instead of a clownish wrestler in a spider outfit.
In the decades that have followed Spider-Man's debut in August of 1962 in a soon-to-be-canceled comic book titled "Amazing Fantasy," the quintessential lead character of the Marvel Comics line has survived the creative and financial peaks and valleys of the corporation that is part and parcel of the mainstream superhero genre.
The genre is enjoying a creative burst of talent and ideas not seen since the silver age of comics, heralded by the creation of Marvel Comics in 1963 and the fertile imagination of its colorful head honcho, Stan Lee. Under the current, aggressive editorship of Joe Quesada, the corporation looks to reclaim the glory of its halcyon years, starting with two of its prime creations, the X-Men and Spider-Man.
We'll look into the revamping of the titles that feature those misunderstood mutants in a later column. But the boffo box office of the X-Men movie has fueled the overall changes not only in those titles, but in Spider-Man's as well. With the impending release of the Spider-Man movie in the summer of 2002, Marvel wants America to get reacquainted with the character's comic books before the movie hits the screens, and not the other way around.
Where the superhero archetype has always been defined by action and not reflection, Spider-Man was the industry's first self-absorbed superhero. Editor in Chief/writer Stan Lee wanted to challenge the concept of the superhero by making Spidey a bit neurotic and profoundly skeptical, always in constant struggle with himself.
His alter ego Peter Parker, as conceived by Lee and original artist Steve Ditko, started off as a bookish, bespectacled high school student, isolated and unpopular, an orphan who lives with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. At a school science exhibit, he's bitten by a spider accidentally dosed with radiation, giving him the powers of an arachnid.
Thinking he can make some money off of these newly acquired powers, he becomes a professional wrestler in pre-WWF days, but his indifferent shirking of his heroic responsibilities is later manifested in his uncle's tragic death. Thus is born "The Amazing Spider-Man."
That would be the title of Lee's comic book, started back in March 1963 (the Marvel Comics Group would be created in May). Since then it's been a memorable and successful run, for the most part.
When Spidey was good, when the stories and art surrounding his battles with supervillains and the problems with friends, family, sweethearts and employers were of equal caliber, the comic books made for an entertaining, and at times moving, read. Here was a regular guy you could relate to, whose superpowers only complicated his life, causing him to be viewed with suspicion. Driven by the guilt of the untimely deaths of loved ones (yes, even a college sweetheart, Gwen Stacy, would die at the hands of Spidey's arch-nemesis, the Green Goblin, back in '73), Spider-Man was still one to crack a joke or two in the heat of battle.
Highlights of the comic book's run include the years Stan Lee worked with Steve Ditko and then John Romita Sr. in the '60s; the 1971 story arc that took on the then-controversial topic of drug addiction; Gwen Stacy's death; the wedding of Peter Parker and longtime sweetheart Mary Jane Watson in 1987; and, after an ill-informed change in costume, the reintroduction of Spidey's standard red-and-blue suit in '88, combined with the inventive panel artwork of Todd McFarlane.
Afterward, a definite valley. Parker/Spider-Man gets cloned in the mid-'90s, and the Ben Reilly/Scarlet Spider clone is poorly received during a time when attempts to rewrite the character's history fail miserably.
Even the "death" of Parker's beloved actress/model wife by a stalker just got turned on its ear recently in Spider-Man's last major story arc before the overhaul, where -- gasp! -- she's found alive, her stalker's longtime prisoner. The couple is tearfully reunited, only for her to depart, this time to try to find out what she wants to do with her newfound freedom. But, boo-hoo, you know she still loves him. The stories were ably told and drawn, but enough already!
Now, with the reinvigorating leadership of Quesada as Marvel's new editor in chief, and the appointment of a strong supervising editor in Axel Alonso, "Spider-Man" looks to be fun to read again. The creative teams of Paul Jenkins and Mark Buckingham (on the offshoot "Peter Parker: Spider-Man" title) and the hiring of J. Michael Straczynski ("Babylon 5" and "Rising Stars"), one of the best TV/comic book writers around, to delve deeper into the character's origins with artist John Romita Jr. on "The Amazing ..." title, promise to pump some desperately needed new blood into Spidey.
But that's not all. In order to introduce the character to a younger, hipper readership, Quesada has gotten the best and the brightest. Brian Michael Bendis' sharp and astute writing on the reconceived history that makes up "Ultimate Spider-Man" doesn't take too many liberties with his origin while keeping things lively. Bendis also does the writing duties on "Ultimate Team-Up," which features Spidey paired with other Marvel superheroes.
And a limited series has just started, "Tangled Web," a more adult, action-oriented title debuting with the formidable writer/artist team of Garth Ennis and John McCrea.
The trick is that Marvel, in general, is keeping close tabs on its comics' print runs and is committed to avoiding overprinting any of its titles. Subsequently, if you don't get down to your friendly neighborhood comic book store soon enough or reserve them ahead of time, these titles may sell out.
Click for online
calendars and events.
