Spideys

It's hot , I'm blocked, I'm restless and fitful and the cabin fever's easing dangerously past toxic.

LMF at SM North was my ticket to forgetting all this- - - and it turns out to be a fucking love story. Escapist fare, my ass.

Still.

This Spiderman has set pieces that make the set pieces from the last two blush with embarassment - - - Sandman's birth , for one, Gwen Stacy for another. But it is also the worst of the lot . . . no, strike that, the first was the worst, this just feels sloppy and hurried. Review forthcoming.

At any rate, Spidey month.

Spiderman was my first superhero. Those Stan Lee/Steve Ditko issues were massive classic. Before Hawkman, before Iron Fist,there was Spiderman. . .and Peter Parker. I was buying into the melodrama of his alter ego as much as all the POW! BAM! THWOK! More than all the POW!BAM! THWOK! in fact. Amazing Spiderman was my O.C. - - -I actually cared more about him marrying Gwen than him cleaning the Scorpion's clock. What a dork thing to confess . . .but there.

A handful of highlights.

Favorite Arc: Amazing Spiderman#108-109: Flash Thompson gets kidnapped by Vietnamese gangsters. Sounds drab and probably is now,but as a kid, I read this over and over again and the thrill of the climactic rescue sequence - - -with Dr.Strange - - - is still thick and palpable in my head. Romita Sr. art, if memory serves. Kickass as always.

Weirdest/Silliest Spiderman Artifact: Spiderman: Rock Reflections of A Superhero: I'd kill to own this . . .on vinyl. The first - - -and only - - -Spiderman "rock" record by a 70s FM rock studio band called Hero ,heh. Stan Lee supplies between-track banter, apparently. Song titles include No One's Got A Crush On Peter,Peter Stays and Spider-Man Goes, Gwendolyn and Dr.Octopus. Cheese, without a doubt. Silly,too. But silly's a tonic of the times.

Favorite Issue: Marvel Team Up #31 and Amazing Spiderman #50/491: Spiderman and Iron Fist. . . never mind what it was about,eh? The #50 here's from the underrated Straczynski era. Cap makes a cameo. Dr. Doom, too. But mostly this is the issue where Peter and Mary Jane decide to stay together despite all their troubles. . . the kind of thing that only happens in comicbooks, kids, but J. Michael writes it so well that I buy it. Sucker.

Parkerlike Girl Problems : Um . . . later. Masyadong mainit.