The Day She Died: Marvels 4

Marvels #4 (April 1994)
"The Day She Died"
Kurt Busiek-Alex Ross

Karen: This final issue of Marvels deals with what many see as the transition point from the Silver Age of Marvel to the Bronze Age -the death of Spider-Man's girlfriend, Gwen Stacy. With it, we also have the death of innocence in comics and the death of Phil Sheldon's faith in the heroes, or perhaps his faith in the world in general. I found this last issue in many ways a difficult read, as I sort of internalized Phil's struggle, having now pretty well disconnected from new comics, yet still yearning for the comics of my youth. I'm positive I was over-thinking things!

Doug: Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross certainly chose several incidents and developments, in addition to the featured tale, to demarcate the Silver Age from the Bronze Age. Seeing it all in one place really does show the reader (and long-time fan, as so many of us are) how time had led to an expansive new Marvel Universe. I don't recall having the same feelings toward Phil Sheldon the first several times I read this mini-series that I've had this time. I don't know that I'd say I bear the guy (character...) any animosity, but he's certainly way more flawed to me now than I've ever perceived him in the past. I think we've both questioned his reliability as a husband and parent, although there's no doubt about his financial provision. But here, he walks a creepy obsessive line in a few regards that's a bit uncomfortable to me.

 

Karen: This story opens with Phil achieving his long-sought after success with the publication of his book, Marvels, but he still seems to have an emptiness to him. He's bitter over the way the rest of the world treats the heroes, ungrateful for their sacrifices, and he grows fixated on trying to do something about it. When Spider-Man is implicated in the death of police Captain George Stacy, he decides to work to clear the web-slinger's name. Phil takes this up as a personal crusade of sorts, partly in counter-point to J. Jonah Jameson's senseless vendetta. He speaks to various people who were at the crime scene, including Dr. Octopus, but what really pulls him in deeply is getting to know Capt. Stacy's daughter, Gwen. He sees in her a beautiful, innocent young woman, full of life, and has an epiphany of sorts: it didn't matter if people believed in the Marvels or not -- they weren't here for that. They were here to save people like Gwen. As a reader, you can see where this is going.

Doug: I loved some of the visuals in this book. Even though there was no action, the scene where Sheldon and his new assistant visit Luke Cage is well done. The scene you mention with Phil visiting Octavius in prison is great -- what a smirk the good doctor wears! And late in the book the way Ross portrays Phil's in-home darkroom is excellent. If you've ever been in one (and I come from a family of printers), it's spot-on.

Karen: After all these years, the book is still brilliant to look at. I did enjoy that scene with Dr. Octopus a great deal - it was just chilling. Shortly after this, we are taken back to that fateful battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin from Amazing Spider-Man #121, and that horrible fall. Phil sees it from a vantage point almost level with the pillars supporting the bridge. He knows, instantly, that Gwen is dead. He can't comprehend it -- how could the hero not save her? Of course, that's likely how most of us reading that  issue felt as well. Again, Phil stands in for the longtime comic fan. Things had changed. Things were changing. The earlier encounter with Luke Cage, Hero For Hire, was another indicator - the world we knew was becoming different, more complicated.

Doug: And that's where I was going with my initial comments at the top. From the Kree-Skrull War to Daredevil shacking up with Natasha in San Francisco, there were so many specific vignettes that when taken together showed how the comfort of the Silver Age had given way to new, different, and sometimes uncomfortable circumstances in the Bronze Age.

Doug: So Richard Starkings and the boys at Comicraft lettered in the fateful "snap" when Spider-Man's webline reached Gwen's legs, the recoil breaking her neck. I had forgotten that a few pages later Sheldon remarks that he can still hear the "flat snap" across the water. He contrasts what he knows to be true with accounts that it had been the fall that killed Gwen Stacy. Just as Gwen had symbolized innocence in that Spider-Man tale from over 40 years ago, she stands in that role here in Marvels.
 
Karen: Yes, I noticed that too, that damn snap has always made me feel queasy. It's been said by many that Gwen's been far more important in her death than she ever was in her comics life, and certainly the implications of her death informed the decade that came after.

Doug: But what did you make of Phil's visit to see Gwen? I guess if Ross hadn't drawn her to look just as beautiful as Jazzy Johnny Romita ever had, maybe I wouldn't make anything of it. But Sheldon kept going back to see her. Yeah, he was wanting to get her to exonerate Spider-Man in the death of her father. But the scene when they walk through the Atlantean vessels was just a little odd to me. And in the days after Gwen's death, I couldn't decide if Phil was obsessed with Spider-Man's failure -- did that burst his personal Marvels balloon? -- or if he was overly distraught with her death. 

Karen: A middle-aged man, obsessing on a beautiful young woman...well, it happens all the time. A little disturbing but I do think there was that layer to it. Loss of innocence, loss of youth, longing for the past, his own personal success -there was a lot tied up with Gwen in Phil's mind. Phil tries to continue work on his next book with his assistant, Marcia, but his heart isn't in it. As he's going over photos with her, he sees Hawkeye and the Hulk fighting Zzzax on TV (from Incredible Hulk #166), and he snaps. He's done. He can't do it any more; he's 'too close' to it all. But he tells Marcia to carry on -- she can use everything to make the documentary she discussed. He's ready to retire. Phil steps outside and beckons the young paperboy over and tells Marcia to get a picture of him and his wife with a nice, normal kid. Little Danny Ketch.

Doug: Danny Ketch. The 1990s Ghost Rider. Yes, a nod to bring this historical love letter to the then-present, but to me now, it just leaves me flat. Is Danny Ketch even still in the MU?

Karen: Certainly in 2015 Danny Ketch doesn't seem all that relevant, does he? Taken as one long piece, I enjoyed Marvels a great deal, although it did make me feel that living in that universe would probably not be such a wonderful experience! Phil's questioning -- why are the Marvels here? -- his quasi-religious take on them, would surely be one shared by many people. It's interesting that this is not addressed in comics. Of course, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby went the other route, with people giving the heroes a hard time right from the beginning. People were motivated by fear rather than love or awe. So Phil is an oddball. But I feel he also fills in for us readers who came in either in the Silver or early Bronze ages and have a longing for those days. He has developed an obsession with the heroes and misses the days, during the WWII, years, when they seemed perfect and were idolized. I can understand this, to some degree. I suppose I don't want cartoon cutouts but I also don't enjoy the extreme moral ambiguity I've found in a lot of recent books I've happened to pick up. But in any case, Alex Ross' art is phenomenal throughout the series. It never wavers and brings not only realism but the right amount of fantasy -sequences in this issue with Namor's Atlantean army is pure Ray Harryhausen Saturday-matinee stuff -the art just transports you. 

Doug: If super-heroes were real in today's reality-TV, tabloids-dishing-constantly-on-celebrities sort of culture in which we here in America find ourselves mired, they would be at the top of the food chain in terms of public notice. I don't know if the media would brand any of them as bad guys... shoot, not even the bad guys themselves! Who today doesn't love a good villain? And yes -- Alex Ross's art sucks the reader right into the story. He was the perfect choice to tell this story, and Kurt Busiek for the most part transferred the four-color stories of his (and our's) youth to this wonderful reimagining. In reflection, maybe Phil Sheldon was the perfect protagonist. As he'd felt as a younger man that he couldn't measure up to the Marvels, could never be the perfect man, in the end that's how he truly was. So what Busiek and Ross crafted was a main character with those wonderful feet of clay, manufactured by the one and only House of Ideas.

Guest Review - "My Funny Valentine" - Spider-Man: Blue, a love letter to the Silver Age"

Today the BAB is proud to welcome one of our long-time and faithful readers/commenters to the writer's chair. You know him as Dr. Oyola; he regularly writes about comics and music on his own blog, The Middle Spaces (www.themiddlespaces.com).

Dr. Oyola: Sometimes in taking a close look at something we like, we come to learn that maybe we don’t like it as much as we thought we did. Or perhaps, more accurately, we are able to better see the complexity and nuance of our relationship to it. Take for instance Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Spider-Man: Blue from 2002-03, which is the focus of this review/overview. I first picked it up because it seemed right up my alley—a re-telling/re-imagining of the beginning of the John Romita, Sr. era of Amazing Spider-Man. I love adaptations and re-tellings and I love Silver Age Spider-Man, so it seemed like a no-brainer to get it. Plus, the art looked pretty amazing. However, after the first two issues or so I decided it wasn’t so good after all. I can’t recall exactly what it was that led me to that opinion, but I think I got the rest of the series without even bothering to read it all. Instead, not too soon after I put the whole series up on eBay. No one wanted to buy it!  Stuck with it, I stored them with the rest of my comics and on a whim reread the whole thing in one sitting a few years later and decided my original estimation was wrong. I was glad I had failed to sell them. I recently returned to them while doing research on a post on my own blog on romance comics (and to some degree their influence on superhero comics) and decided that they’d be a good subject of a Bronze Age Babies guest post—taking a look at a relatively recent re-framing of a Silver Age romance whose dissolution through death marks the beginning of the Bronze Age for many. The thing is, as I said above, now having spent a lot more time examining the series, I find myself returning to ambivalence. I am split. I love the art and the visual storytelling, but when it comes to the writing, while I appreciate the updated dialog and how some of the elements of the plot are handled, overall its failures are less acceptable than in the original material seeing as Loeb had 30+ intervening years to get it right.

Spider-Man: Blue is a six-issue mini-series that came out as part of the Marvel Knights imprint in 2002-03. Each issue is referred to as “Book One,” “Book Two,” and so on, and each one uses the name of a classic popular love song for a title: “My Funny Valentine,” “Let’s Fall in Love,” “Anything Goes,” “Autumn in New York,” “If I Had You” and “All of Me.” It was the second in a series of re-telling/re-imaginings of early days of Marvel heroes, which started with Daredevil: Yellow, and included Hulk: Grey and Captain America: White. I haven’t read the others, but the Daredevil one looks interesting. All of the series were written by Jeph Loeb (who has done a lot of uneven, and even highly criticized work for both Marvel and DC) and Tim Sale who does a great job emulating John Romita, Sr, with an occasional flourish that reminds me of Steve Ditko.

While Spider-Man: Blue is ostensibly a re-imagining/re-telling of Amazing Spider-Man #40 to #48 and #63 with a focus on the love triangle between Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson which haunts Peter and MJ way past Gwen’s death and into the days of their marriage, the series is really a love letter to those early Lee/Romita, Sr. days, as there is plenty of superhero action and focus on interaction of some of the supporting cast. Each issue features a small scroll/banner that reads, “Dedicated to Stan Lee & Steve Ditko & John Romita, Sr. Web-heads all!”  As such, I went back and read the original issues this series is based on, however, and just like every time I read Silver and Bronze Age comics I was amazed at how much they used to squeeze into a single issue back then (I miss those days), so there is a lot left out as well, including references to the main plot of some of those intervening issues from which some of the relationship stuff emerges, leading to Loeb and Sale compressing the stories and having to find new ways for events from disparate issues in their original telling to flow together.

The series is framed through the conceit of modern day more adult Peter, now married to MJ, recording audio tapes every Valentine’s Day as if he were talking to Gwen, re-telling her the story of their meeting and early relationship now that he can admit his alter ego. Throughout the six issues, Peter Parker narrates his own story through the blue text boxes that float in the panels. The first issue opens with Spider-Man swinging his way to the top of one of the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge to lay a flower from where Gwen Stacy fell to her death—but wait, didn’t she fall of off the George Washington Bridge? This is one of those things that continuity has gone back and forth about since in Amazing Spider-Man #122, the text calls it the GWB, but Gil Kane drew it as the Brooklyn Bridge. I go back and forth on which I prefer. Regardless, the narration and story then jumps to the events of ASM #40, unlike the obsession with her death that has become common—from the confrontation with the Jackal in the original clone saga to the attempt by the Green Goblin much later after his return to throw Mary Jane off the Brooklyn Bridge (Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #12)—Spider-Man: Blue is about the beginning of their relationship not the end. So while, “My Funny Valentine” may start with an infamous confrontation with the Green Goblin, this is meant to set up and contextualize the relationship with Harry Osborn, through which Peter meets Gwen.

The re-telling of the warehouse scene with the Green Goblin from ASM #40 sets the tone for the liberties Loeb and Sale take with the source material. For example, the Goblin himself never takes off his mask (or else has already put it back on), and the way Peter frees himself and attacks the Goblin is totally different, though the results are the same, including the arrival of the firemen and the passing off of a now amnesiac Norman Osborn. There are other less apparent changes in how the story unfolds in Book One, like Peter pays for his motorcycle in cash from a biker looking dude in Spider-Man: Blue, while in ASM #41 he has to call J. Jonah Jameson to vouch for his bank loan. In addition, Loeb and Sale take further liberty in making it seem like Peter and Gwen don’t have their moment of romantic chemistry until both happen to be in the hospital visiting Norman Osborn, and having Peter give her a ride on his new motorcycle, when in ASM, they already know each other, there is no hospital scene. They talk when he runs into her with Harry and Flash, but then he goes home to show the bike off to Aunt May and Anna Watson instead.

There are tons of other changes ranging in importance in the details and order of events throughout Spider-Man: Blue but I am not bothered by most of them, in fact I quite like it, as I imagine it being the result of faulty memory many years after the fact in Peter’s re-telling. One of the things I like most about the changes is in the dialog—whether you think of them as corrections on the part of Loeb or self-corrections on the part of Parker’s memory— is that Peter does not come as much a sexist creep when talking to Mary Jane and Gwen. Seriously, re-reading the issue the series is based on, I cringed every time he called one or the other “doll” or did the 1960s equivalent of what pick-up artists call “negging,” talking down to them and getting all defensive when asked a question.

In scenes involving these young women, since the story as a whole is meant to focus more on their relationships than on Spidey action (though there is plenty of that, too), they are given a little more intelligence and agency. For example, unlike in ASM #43, where Peter just makes an excuse about taking pictures of the Rhino and leaves Mary Jane in the crowd, in Spider-Man: Blue Book Three—“Anything Goes”—she is the one who comes up with a plan, flirting with a cop, to allow Peter to get past the barricades in order to ostensibly take pictures (but really to tackle the Lizard, not the Rhino—another of those changes). The great thing about this version is that it works both if you are an old schooler who prefers a version where Mary Jane did not know his identity, or someone like me who loves that it was eventually revealed that she knew he was Spider-Man all along. In my mind, I like that she is really helping him to do his Spider-Man thing, but not letting on. Another example—this one from Book Two—which retroactively echoes the Gwen Stacy of the recent Spider-Man films, she is seen working in the lab at Empire University (and where Miles Warren, later to become the Jackal, makes a cameo). Or did she always major in biochemistry? I just don’t recall any scenes of her working in a lab in the original Amazing Spider-Man run, save for her first appearance where Harry and Flash use her as a distraction in chem lab to play a trick on Peter—but that can hardly be considered her “working” in the lab. When Spider-Man seeks out Curt Connors’ help in making special webbing to melt the Rhino’s suit, it is based on an idea he originally gotten from something Peter and Gwen were developing together in class. I like that Loeb and Sale make an effort to give the love interests some depth and character, rather than just existing as eye candy and props in Peter’s story.

Book Three focuses on the return of the Lizard (one of my all-time favorite Spider-Man villains), by combining the events of ASM #43 and #44, but more directly linking the transformation to the special webbing Dr. Connors helps develop, which in part has its basis in the same self-replicating materials that re-grows his arm—there is a foreshadow to his return stuck into his scene in Book Two. More importantly to the theme of the series, a good fourth of the issue depicts Peter bringing Mary Jane to the Silver Spoon to meet the rest of “the gang:” Flash, Harry and Gwen, and how that interferes with his burgeoning romance with Gwen. Events outside of the supporting cast scenes are a lot more compressed. Loeb and Sale do a great job staging superhero/supervillain throwdowns, but the situations are re-imagined to make time for how things develop in Peter’s social life. So, gone is everything with Aunt May’s ill health and her taking a trip to the seaside, the extended nature of Spider-Man’s hunt for the Lizard, and the injury to Spider-Man’s arm (a trope that is one of my favorites—how often has he hurt his arm and fashioned a makeshift sling?) in favor of a more direct and immediate approach.

Again, I am not arguing that his is better than what are to me some classic issues of Amazing Spider-Man. Instead, I see this series as supplemental. In fact, I’d say that the original issues are better, but it is nice to see a relatively contemporary comic paying respectful homage to the Silver Age. Furthermore, despite there being places where the re-arranging of the plot reveals weakness in the writing, Tim Sale’s art seems to get stronger as the series develops. His art is especially showcased by two-page splashes on the second and third page of each issue, but there are others scattered throughout that are beautiful, full of movement and/or depth of emotion. The first one is not so great, though the blue tone of the coloring (by Steve Buccellato) is apt to the melancholy theme of the series’ framing, but they get better and better. My favorite is the kitchen scene at Aunt May’s house in Book Four, but Spidey taking on both Vultures (Adrian Toomes and Blackie Drago) in Book Five is pretty friggin’ awesome, too. In addition, the art in the series evokes the 1960s story beats, and those origins remain to me the quintessential Spider-Man era.

 

Book Five—“If I Had You”—is essentially ASM  #63, put before the events of ASM #47. In it Adrian Toomes escapes the prison hospital with the help of Kraven the Hunter, who it turns out has been stalking Spider-Man in order to complete the hit on our hero taken out by the (now thought dead) Green Goblin (Kraven, drawn in shadow, also freed the Rhino back in Book Two). When Kraven the Hunter explains that Toomes is not dying and that Blackie poisoned him, he gives the old man the antidote and sends him after Blackie as revenge for failing to kill Spider-Man in the previous issue (the events of ASM #48). It is during Spidey’s fight with both Vultures that Flash Thompson is depicted walking around wondering why Peter Parker’s star seems on the rise while his is fading is put into danger and Spider-Man has to save him. It is a great scene, and it leads to Flash reconsidering what he is doing with his life when he realizes that Spider-Man is probably no older than he is and is doing so much with his life. He breaks the news to his friends afterwards: he is joining the army.

This is the change in the re-telling that I have mixed feelings about. I really don’t like it, but at the same time, the scenes depicting it are well-staged. What bugs me is making Flash Thompson volunteer for the U.S. Army rather than be drafted, as happened in the original run. While I can understand wanting to update the timeline in such a way that his enlistment is not tied to conscription, and thus the Vietnam War, there is nothing else in Spider-Man: Blue that changes the feel of the time period. Even Peter’s casual sexism isn’t necessarily connected to the Sixties, since I am sure there were plenty of young men who didn’t talk to women that way, just as there are plenty who still do (with whatever update to that language). Loeb does a great job developing the sense of Peter and Flash’s crossing social and economic trajectories, but I think Flash being drafted really captures the change of fortune due to forces way beyond our control (kind of like being bitten by a radioactive spider, but worse). Suddenly, part of what makes Peter Parker an outsider is saving him from a fate that many young men faced in the mid-to-late 60s. As Gwen says in ASM #43, “I don’t think they’d take Peter! He’s a scholarship student -- at the very top of his class!” By making Flash being saved by Spider-Man the impetus for enlistment it removes the parallel imposed responsibility between the characters. Plus, in the context of the controversy of the Vietnam Era (or really any war…uh, I mean “police action” since) the idea of Flash “helping people” by joining the army is cast into doubt. Better he should be something more arguably selfless, like a firefighter—but of course that would have been too much a change and not line up with continuity (still, if it led to him not ending up as “Agent Venom” wearing the black suit symbiote for the government, as he is these days, it’d be worth it).

The final issue of Spider-Man: Blue takes the greatest liberties, because it not only changes the order of events from the original, but changes the very reason that Kraven crashes Flash’s going away party at Harry and Peter’s. Originally, Kraven kidnaps Harry to get at Norman Osborn who Kraven thinks works for the Green Goblin. In Spider-Man: Blue, Kraven confuses Spider-Man’s scent with Harry’s (something about him borrowing Peter’s cologne) and thinks Harry is Spider-Man. He tries to kill the young Osborn in order to finally fulfill the contract put out on Spider-Man by the Green Goblin.
 

I have to say that even as the art and visual storytelling in this series gets better and better the story work in terms of the writing seems to lose steam as the threads start to fray. The weakness of the whole cologne thing, for example, is highlighted by Peter’s narration explaining that Kraven must have been so embarrassed by his mistake that he “never tried that stunt again.” You’d think as sharp a hunter as Kraven would be able to figure out that it must have been someone else at Flash’s party, especially since Spider-Man showed up to save Harry and beat his butt so quickly. Furthermore, if Kraven knows there is a connection between Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin, what sense would it make that Spider-Man would be his son?

The series seems to have two distinct endings. First there is Peter finally getting back home after fighting Kraven the Hunter and Gwen Stacy finds him there. She is in a slinky black dress and what looks like a white fur coat and kind of presents herself to him in a very sexy way. The suggestion is that they consummate their relationship that night and then start to date. This feels kind of abrupt and a little too contemporary a notion of the development of a romantic relationship, which is weird since the whole premise of the series is supposed to be an examination of the romance in that era of Amazing Spider-Man, but despite Peter calling this a “love story” in his narration and a couple of scenes involving the love triangle of Peter/Gwen/MJ, this element feels lost in the events of the battling Vultures and Kraven’s attack. The actual ending of Spider-Man: Blue is back in the “present” of Peter Parker telling this story into the recorder as a way of talking to the now dead Gwen, closing the frame that opens the series. It turns out Mary Jane (still Peter’s wife at this time) was listening in, but rather than express jealousy at Peter’s continuing obsession with his dead former girlfriend, she tells him “To tell Gwen hello” for her—demonstrating her deep understanding of his feelings and her own feelings for her dead friend and one time competitor for Peter’s affections. There is a definite sense that Peter is finally moving on, but that this final reflection on his love of Gwen was a necessary step to do that.

In the end I have to rate Tim Sale’s art (complemented by Steve Buccellato’s coloring) as the selling point for this series. There are elements of the re-telling that are very strong, but overall I’d say it is uneven—perhaps others would come to different conclusions. I am particularly impressed by the composition of some singular panels that have a certain quietude to them that evoke the depth of tension in Peter’s life. The splash page kitchen scene is a great example, but so is a panel simply showing Aunt May’s hand going into “the kitty” (literally a cat-shaped cookie jar) for the money for Peter’s motorcycle.

One last note about Spider-Man: Blue: I know there is a trade that collects all six issues, but I have the original issues with high-quality heavy bond covers and interior pages. For some reason Marvel chose to include ads in those original issues (which for a high concept higher price point limited series seems weird) and in two cases included back-up stories that are essentially BS. One of them features Jay Leno (!) as a guest-star helping Spider-Man fight ninjas, but is part two of a two-part story whose first part appears in some other title at some other time. It makes no sense. It really takes away from the special feel of the issues.

And there you have it. I hope you’ve enjoyed this review/overview. I know Spider-Man: Blue itself is not a Bronze Age Comic, nor is it even based on a Bronze Age comic, but most folks around here seem to have a lot of respect for the comics of the Silver Age, and anyway, without the Silver Age to inform our precious Bronze Age stories, we wouldn’t be here.

 

Amazing Spider-Man 2 -SPOILED EDITION!

Karen: OK, the Amazing Spider-Man 2 has been out in the States for over a week now. It's time for a wide-open discussion of the movie -anything you want to talk about! We'll get things rolling with some of our thoughts on the latest Spidey flick:

Overall, I was disappointed. The film felt like it was trying to pack too much into one movie. The Electro character was a one-note, stereotypical dork turned villain that had the most idiotic of origins (electric eels? really?). Jamie Foxx seemed to be channeling Jerry Lewis for some reason, and it was awful. I'm still not sold on the mysterious back story with Peter's parents -and that subway car headquarters of his dad -oh please! The heavy-handed foreshadowing of Gwen's death by having Capt. Stacy show up every five minutes made me feel like attention spans must really be short nowadays. Gwen's demise itself felt like it was tacked onto the end and didn't get the attention it truly deserved. To be honest, I hate to see Emma Stone go, because her chemistry with Andrew Garfield is one of the things I have actually really liked about the new Spider-Man films. I have little to say about Harry/the Goblin -he was pretty wretched all the way around.

Now there were some things I liked. I still enjoy Andrew Garfield as both Peter and Spidey. He's a great wise-cracking Spidey, which I missed in the Raimi films. As I mentioned above, Gwen and Pete have a wonderful chemistry together. The action sequences in the film were pretty good -except I can't stand the weird, random freeze-frame. Why is this necessary? The web-slinging looks fantastic though, and much of Electro's effects were great.

I have to say the soundtrack really took me out of the movie at times though. It seemed oddly generic at points and at other times just oddly dissonant and annoying (especially when Electro was on screen). It's rare that a soundtrack bothers me, but this one did.

I liked this less than the Amazing Spider-Man, and I'd have to say neither of this films comes close to any of the Marvel Studios films (well, I might watch either of them over Iron Man 3, but I really dislike Iron Man 3....)

So have at it!

An Obscure Gwen Stacy Story - Amazing Spider-Man 365

Amazing Spider-Man #365 (August 1992)

"I Remember Gwen"

Stan Lee/Tom DeFalco-John Romita, Sr.

Doug: As I write this, it's a little less than two weeks until the American premier of Amazing Spider-Man 2. As it's been hinted in the weeks leading up to release that Gwen Stacy will not make it through the film alive, I thought it might be appropriate to run this review today. Of course, those of you who have seen the film can attest to the truth of those rumors -- later. Let's keep all of our comments today to the story at hand; tomorrow Karen has set up a "first impressions" post for our readers to voice non-spoiled opinions of the movie. As is our practice, we'll give everyone a chance to speak openly on the film after it's been out in the States for around 10 days. As you can tell above, I'll be reading from my copy of the hardcover, Marvel Visionaries: John Romita, Sr.  I also have the comic, but it's just easier to get to the book.

Doug: You'll notice from the creator credits that our major players are Stan Lee and John Romita. Tom DeFalco is credited with the plot, but it was a nice touch to hand this back-up story to the main chroniclers of the love affair of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. Of course, by the time this saw print, Gwen had been dead for many years (both in real time and in Marvel time). Peter had moved on, and was by "now" married to Mary Jane Watson. So what's the premise of this story? At first blush I'm sure many of you thought it would be Peter who would narrate the tale. No. It's MJ. She's home alone at night -- again. And as she tries to busy herself her mind keeps wandering to the past, worrying that Peter won't come home one night. And that takes her further back, to Gwen. MJ reflects on their relationship as friends and as romantic rivals for Peter's affections. We learn how much MJ envied Gwen -- of her looks, her brains, her father, and of course her relationship with Peter. MJ spent her teen years trying not to show her envy; instead she played a persona of a party girl, playing the field, trying to make everyone happy. She flirted with Flash Thompson, and went steady with Harry Osborn. But it was always a facade to hide her longing for what Gwen Stacy had.

Doug: Mary Jane then detailed the day their lives changed -- for Gwen, for Peter, for everyone. Peter sat alone when a bulletin came over the radio that Dr. Octopus was on the loose downtown. Fearlessly swinging toward the threat, Peter soon engaged his foe. But as they battled wildly on the rooftops, one of Ock's tentacles smashed a short chimney and sent it plummeting over the building's edge and toward the street. Captain Stacy was on that very street, and saw the tableau unfold. A small boy, mesmerized at what was taking place in the sky above him, froze as the rubble tumbled his way. Selflessly, George Stacy dove toward the lad and shoved him to safety -- as the entire load fell on and crushed him. Spider-Man swung immediately to the street, gathered Stacy's broken body and spirited him away, only to hear the Captain's final words -- he called him "Peter". At the funeral, Gwen remarked at how she hated Spider-Man and blamed him for her father's death. Peter tried to defend the Wall-Crawler, but Gwen interpreted that hostilely. It was Mary Jane, later that same day, that smoothed things over for Gwen and Peter -- Mary Jane, who saw her opening to take Peter for herself. Instead, she pushed her rival back toward the man she secretly loved.

Doug: And then MJ's mind went to that night. Which night? That night. The night Gwen Stacy died. MJ honestly felt good about herself, that she'd pushed Gwen and Peter back together -- but only for a short time. And as she reflected on that night, her own vulnerability came to the fore. As she worried about Peter's safety each night, she knew that her own safety was always in question. But she thought to herself that she wouldn't trade their marriage for anything. Suddenly Peter came home, and asked what was for dinner! But MJ said dinner could wait -- the night was young, and she wanted to cuddle. Peter said he wouldn't complain, but asked what brought on all the affection? MJ just shrugged it off, and said she just felt like they needed to make every moment count.

Doug: What a neat little story! I have to toss a big kudo to Stan Lee. Looking at the publication date, Stan would have been around 70 years old. And despite still writing the newspaper strip at that time, he hadn't written a full Spider-Man story in some years. But he was so reserved, and so dedicated to the spirit of this plot. There's no hyperbole here, none of Stan's bluster. This is a tender story, and Stan really honors that. And doesn't Johnny Romita honor the two beautiful women in Peter Parker's life? Again, as you might notice from the credits, the Jazzy One inked himself on this one, and the results are near-perfect. It's really a great looking book -- and while he shows that he still had it in regard to "his" Mary Jane, we also see that he could do the MJ popularized during the Todd McFarlane run on Amazing Spider-Man. This was just a nice homage to the Silver and Bronze Age stories that made Spider-Man Marvel's flagship character.

Tongue-in-Cheek #inviteGerryConway Campaign

Doug: Hey, kids -- there's a funny series of tweets taking place today that actually got the attention of the Huffington Post. You can read all about it here. In a nutshell, as rumors continue to circulate that Gwen Stacy will be killed in Amazing Spider-Man 2, Gerry Conway has playfully asked for an invitation to the premiere of the flick. This has in turn raised (again) the issue of creator rights, corporate ownership, etc. to storylines and/or story details. This is all in good nature according to Conway, but intriguing nonetheless. Check it out if you have a couple of minutes!

UPDATE:

Doug: Gerry Conway tweeted the following just moments ago (around 11:00 am CT) --

Who's the Best... Significant Other?

Doug:  Of all of the superhero romances and/or marriages you can think of, who is the partner to whom you'd give a gold medal or blue ribbon -- that is, who is that significant other who has been the most supportive and soldiered through the most adversity to stand by his/her man/woman?  By the way, this can be considered as an extension of a post Karen and I ran back on Valentine's Day.  Check it out, as it was one of your high-comment days!

Love -Who Needs It?

Karen: This being Valentine's Day, it seems appropriate to discuss super-heroes and their romantic lives -or lack thereof. With some characters, it seems that their love lives are integral to who they are; for example, I can't imagine any version of Superman, pre-, post- or mid-life Crisis that wouldn't have Lois Lane as a love interest! On the other hand, I've never thought Batman needed a steady love interest, nor have I ever felt convinced that any woman was 'the great love of his life.' He's too devoted to his crusade.

Karen: But what about other characters? There are some that seem to be more interesting when they are actively in a relationship, but you could argue about who their greatest love was. For Peter Parker, was it Gwen Stacy or Mary Jane Watson? Some might argue that Peter's marriage to Mary Jane sucked a lot of the excitement out of the Spider-Man titles, but was it really the marriage itself, or how it was handled?

Doug:  Which begs the question -- were you (read: any of us) more exciting as a single than as a spouse?  Does marriage not offer tribulations, or in this specific case plot points?  The answer should be that marriage just brings a different set of dynamics.  To me, the fault in the Parker situation was making MJ a supermodel.  Money had always been one of Pete's hang-ups -- it wasn't anymore and that took away a huge antagonistic force working against his personality.  Additionally, he'd always been monogamous anyway (from Betty Brant to Gwen to MJ), so I'm not sure what "making it official" really did that put such a creative wall up against the story makers.

Karen: Comic book marriages seem a lot like real-life ones: some work fine, while others...well, don't. Reed and Sue Richards have had rough patches but generally seem solid (why she puts up with him I have no idea). The Pyms started well, but didn't last. Once the Vision and the Scarlet Witch got married, the Vision in particular seemed to become a lot less interesting.

Doug:  I think in the Vision's case his latent humanistic qualities, struggling to free themselves from the inorganic aspects of his persona, must have evolutionally come to the fore... lest why would Wanda continue to be interested in him if she would no longer feel that his "humanity" could be redeemed?  I've always felt the Reed and Sue relationship was the most "real", and as was commented by a few of our readers last month was really tried during the Gerry Conway era.  While most of us would agree that we didn't care for the way the Pyms' marriage ended, creators along the way certainly could have played up the inter-generational aspect of their union -- but did not.  Recall that when Hank first set eyes on Janet, he remarked that she was just a child, yet looked so much like his lost Maria.  That could have been a great source for love triangle stories:  Hank-Janet-the age gap, Hank-Janet-a woman Hank's age or a man Janet's age as antagonist, etc.

Karen: I have to admit, I have only read a handful of the Pym stories in Tales to Astonish; most of my exposure to their relationship came through The Avengers.  I was aware though of the resemblance to his former wife, and the age difference. But you're right, it never seemed like anything was done with it. If anything, Stan Lee played up the Wasp's flirty side and had Hank get jealous a lot, but he usually kept it to a slow boil. When Roy Thomas took over, he seemed to de-emphasize that.

Karen: There are also those confirmed bachelors out there, guys like Tony Stark who I can't see ever really settling down. It's just not in their personalities.

Doug:  Thor by necessity must fall into this category, at least Earth-wise.  However, I'm not sure why he's been dragging his feet with fair Sif!  Johnny Storm on the other hand, should stay single because he's a doofus.  Although he can hook a Skrull...

Karen: The less said about that the better. The Ben Grimm -Alicia Masters relationship was one of the best, at least prior to all the unnecessary shenanigans with Skrulls. 

Doug:  I'm going to rely on our DC-loving friends to help us out with the machinations of the marriages of the Flash, the Atom, and the Elongated Man (and we can leave out the events of Identity Crisis and it will be OK by me).  In the case of the former two, I think they had pretty long courtships.  Why was it OK for Supergirl to fall for Brainiac-5, but Superboy never had a love interest among the Legion ladies?  Yeah, yeah -- I know Lana Lang was awaiting his return to Smallville, but were they ever serious?

Karen: I would presume they couldn't be, because it was preordained that he hook up with Lois! Just like the Adult Legion stories forced writers to pair up certain Legionnaires. Speaking of the younger set, there was Colossus and Kitty in the X-Men and their sort of on/off relationship. Although it seemed kind of dicey to me, as I was never sure exactly of the age difference. 

Karen: Let's hear it folks -there's a lot of ground to cover!