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This is only the second series to get to Volume 10, with Fantastic Four being the only other one to do it. It makes sense, this is definitely one of the flagships of the Marvel Universe. Although it’s the tenth volume, it’s only the first one I am reviewing. I do have all of the volumes save 2 (vols 5 & 6), and read the first four, but that was years ago. I am actually surprised Stan wrote it this late into the series, though 100 was the last issue of his run, though he would write a few more after that. Art is handled by John Romita (Nos. 88 & 93-95) and Gil Kane (Nos. 89-92, 96-99). Speaking of Stan writing, he does the introduction here, but doesn’t really go into #’s 96-98 which I will get to later.
Spoilers Ahead
-Amazing Spider-Man #88- Doctor Octopus escapes from jail and hijacks a plane with a prominent Chinese general. Spider-Man shows up and saves the day, with the plane exploding at the end, and Ock with it. This really just introduced Doc back into the comic for the sole purpose of the events we’ll see in a few issues.
-Amazing Spider-Man #89- Of course, Doc isn’t dead. He draws out Spidey, they fight, and Doc drops Spidey (out of web fluid) of a building. We get our first social commentary mention in this collection, this time its about a protest against pollution in the city. It’s a great Spidey/Ock fight.
-Amazing Spider-Man #90- Parker escapes from Ock, but feels the affects and faints in front of Capt. Stacy (Gwen’s father). Peter reawakens and creates a special web serum for Ock. So Spidey finds Ock with the Spider-Tracer he put on him earlier, and sprays him with the new serum. The serum causes Ock’s arms to go out of control, and in their flailing they knock down a brick chimney. It falls onto the street and Capt. Stacy dives in front of it to save a kid, killing himself in the process. Stacy does reveal to Peter before he dies that he knows his identity and to keep Gwen safe. This was a very powerful issue, with actions of Parker invariably leading to the death of another one of his father figures. Spider-Man truly is a tragic character, with death and disaster following him and his friends wherever he goes.
-Amazing Spider-Man #91- Spider-Man is blamed for the death of Stacy and Gwen is torn up about it, so broken up she joins noted politician Sam Bullit who wants to take Spidey down. Bullit makes these promises, roughs up Peter (who plays along to trail his thugs) and Peter knows this guy isn’t on the level. He goes home to warn Gwen, as she walks into his apartment with Bullit while he’s still in his spider suit. Oops. Another solid issue, and I wonder if the law and order thing was influenced by how NYC was at the time?
-Amazing Spider-Man #92- So Spider-Man “kidnaps” Gwen to sway any suspicion as to why he is there. Of course, he just wants to drop her and get away, but its Spider-Man, when does anything go right for him? Iceman shows up, having not been seen since his title was cancelled a year before, and fights Spidey. They have a good hero on hero battle, until Spider-Man escapes, learns Robbie Robertson was kidnapped by Bullit since Robbie was going to expose him, and Iceman learns Spider-Man was on the level. They both save Robbie and Bullit is arrested and never heard from again. I wonder if Iceman and Spider-Man, and their witty dialogue between the two inspired the TV series? It would come 10 years later but this was the first time I think they appeared together, and I don’t know how many times they teamed up before the show. Human Torch probably should’ve been added but they needed a female, and they didn’t want people setting themselves on fire, so we got Firestar. Tangent over.
-Amazing Spider-Man #93- Gwen’s still shaken up over her father’s death and decides to go to London to be with her aunt and uncle. Peter leaves, is attacked by Prowler (who still thinks Spider-Man killed Stacy), defeats him, then gets to the airport too late and Gwen is gone. This wasn’t anything special, probably just an excuse to get Prowler in there. Though a heartbroken Peter at the end gives an emotional punch.
-Amazing Spider-Man #94- Peter is still bummed about Gwen, we get a recount of his origin, Beetle shows up in Forest Hills and kidnaps May, and Spider-Man saves the day and takes his frustration out on Beetle. Nice Romita art, but the issue was a standard Spidey fights villain.
-Amazing Spider-Man #95- Peter gets sent to London by Robbie to meet Gwen (and take pics, of course), when he’s caught up in a plot by terrorists to kidnap a delegate. Spidey saves them, takes some pictures, but can’t see Gwen since she would be smart enough to put two and two together (Peter and Spider-Man are here, hmmm).
-Amazing Spider-Man #’s 96-98- Remember the last line of what I wrote above? Well, Peter gives Robbie the pictures of Spider-Man in London and then thinks about Robbie possibly putting two and two together. Anyway, this is an important run of three issues. None of the next three comics had the Comics Code Authority stamp on it, because they were all rejected due to the drug references. Now, this was a big deal at the time, since the CCA was the standard for comics and being allowable for people to read. It all started with the Wertham’s book, Seduction of the Innocent, and condemning horror and sci-fi comics in the early 50’s. The CCA was made to appease fears of parents, and here we are, 20 years later, and for the first time Marvel published a comic without the CCA. The CCA I always thought was pointless as it got well into the 90’s and Marvel eventually got rid of it, but for the time, this was huge that it didn’t have the CCA.
Anyway, I am combining the three issues due to the great story involved and not wanting to break it up. Peter gets a job with Norman Osborne (who is still amnesiac about his whole Green Goblin past), then on his way to see Mary-Jane’s new play (Hair) he saves a kid tripping on drugs. That’s what got this banned by CCA, the drugs. So Peter shows up at the play, where Randy Robertson gets in the face of Norman about not helping the plight of black man and drugs. Eventually, Norman at the play starts acting oddly. He was hosting the play at an old place of his and when he goes back that night, he finds his old Goblin costume. His memory is restored and Spider-Man, who had trailed him, is in trouble. What follows is two issues of Spider-Man battling Norman, while Harry is getting worse. He jealous of Mary-Jane’s actions towards Peter and starts taking drugs to cope. He soon suffers a terrible trip and Peter has to take him to the hospital. Peter finally deals with Norman by bringing him to Harry’s bedside. Norman is basically shocked backed to his senses and the Goblin is gone, for now. Sometimes social commentary can get to be too much, but this showed the troubles of drugs, and told an amazing story of Spider-Man battling his most feared foe. It has everything, the father-son relationship, the return of Gwen Stacy (though I can’t get the damn Sins of the Father story out of my head when reading this) and was just a marvelous three-parter.
-Amazing Spider-Man #99- Our final issue is a social commentary issue (the fifth one of the 12 issue span), this time when Spider-Man stops a prison riot and brings awareness to the plight of prisoners and how they are being treated poorly. I wasn’t especially crazy about it, but it was a message from a period in time that hopefully has passed us by.
-The Bottom Line- As I mentioned earlier, Stan wrote the intro, basically praising the art of Kane and Romita, and talking about the inkers as well. It was good, but I wished he went more into the Comics Code Authority controversy, and how the CCA was absent on 96-98 due to them being drug related. It was a very big deal at the time and I thought it would be mentioned here. Other than that, this was an awesome collection. It starts with the death of Capt. Stacy storyline, and if you can forgive the fact that Ock isn’t mentioned again (was he captured, got away, we don’t know) after #90 can be forgiven for the sheer emotion written into the story. This collection is really about two story-arcs, the Capt. Stacy death and the Drug Saga. The other issues were okay, but nothing I would consider absolute classics. I think they are about the same enjoyment level as the stuff out now, which isn’t a bad thing. But still, the Stacy Saga and the Drug issues were just incredible bits of storytelling, especially the Drug issues, not because they were controversial but because it was so well done. It was everything in Peter’s life coming to a head, all these forces combining to wreak havoc on the life of Peter Parker and that’s when the character is at his best, when he’s suffering. Here he suffers because he inadvertently killed the father of his girlfriend, his best friend overdoses because of Mary-Jane coming onto him, he can’t fight Green Goblin because he’s his best friend’s father. It was like a big soap opera with these great interlocking themes running through them. This is a highly recommended collection to see how to bring awareness to social issues in a way that doesn’t detract from the story or from sounding too preachy and forced.
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