Saturday, December 29, 2012

An Amazing Run!

Gil Kane 1971

John Romita 1980

Todd McFarlane 1988

Mark Bagley 1995

Scott Campbell 2003

Alex Ross 2009

Pretty Much Everyone 2013

Centennial issues used to be a big deal for me. When I was young and time passed much more slowly the milestones established for some series projected a venerable nature to some comics as opposed to many which never established themselves. It's remarkable which series never achieved one hundred issues. To see some which did check out this post from some time ago. The Amazing Spider-Man is one of those venerable series, now it's at an end. Or at least that's what you might believe if you just knew what the popular press is reporting.

The series does close with the current seven hundredth issue and it seems the status quo of the character is in some jeopardy, at least for the next several months as the iconic hero returns in a whole new comic with a whole new personality...literally. I don't follow the new Marvel much if at all (left pretty much around the time of the four hundredth issue though for some reason I did buy the five hundredth), but I have read around enough to discover what the big deal is with this one and it's not all that compelling I have to say. Intriguing in a nice vintage two-parter sort of way, but I cannot see how this concept can support the series for the next few years which I assume it must. But then that's why I left these books behind, so I'm not really a proper judge.

I will say the cover is intriguing, the collage of vintage Spidey artwork is a real feast.

Death to Spider-Man then; long may he spin.

Rip Off

7 comments:

  1. Rip --

    1961-c. 1990, or 1990-the present? No question in my book. The comics publishers left me behind a long time ago.

    I'll just keep spinning those Bronze Age webs!

    Happy New Year --

    Doug

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I alas lingered well past my expiration date on "new" comics. The wealth of great reprints has sure made that decision to leave behind the new stuff much easier to maintain.

      Rip Off

      Delete
    2. I'm like you Rip. I left somewhere close to issue 400 and still read 500. Now that they want about $8 for those special issues I can't justify even buying those landmark issues for that price. I don't even know what the change is in issue 700 that everyone is talking about. Of course know one will say because they really want to make you curious enough to buy the issue. If I find it for free to download I may read it that way but I won't pay $8 for a comic book.

      Delete
    3. I wouldn't pay that either. Sheesh.

      The big change is that Doc Ock has somehow taken over Peter Parker's body and is acting currently as Spider-Man. Somehow his basically evil personality is being moderated by Peter's innate goodness and that mix is what they are exploring.

      Like I said, a good two-parter back in the day.

      Rip Off

      Delete
  2. After 1980 Wha?
    There Is No Spider-Man
    You Lost Me There
    Showing My Age And I'M PROUD
    ROMITA Is SPIDER-MAN
    Just My 2centz
    -Sam

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I get what you mean. Romita's Spidey is totally the hero who pops into my head, but still I personally prefer Ditko's original take when I analyze things.

      Rip Off

      Delete
  3. Any "change" will last about five minutes in comic book time. People still read comics?

    ReplyDelete