Tuesday, November 25, 2008

You've Been Warned: Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4

There were so many great Spider-Man comic books produced during the 60s. This was not one of them. This is a rushed, nonsensical and lame excuse for a story. For one reason or another - the Wizard and Mysterio decide to lure Spidey and the Human Torch to Hollywood to kill them. While it's not a logical move - at least we could have some Hollywood fun, but they best thing they came up with was a cowboy on a movie lot dressed just like Kid Colt. Kid Colt? If you're going to do a cowboy cameo in a Larry Lieber drawn book, at least make it the Rawhide Kid. Speaking of Larry - I'm as big a Lieber apologist as you're likely to find, but the artwork here is beyond flat. And to think, the artists ID was held off as a big surprise until the very end. Maybe he should have remained anonymous. The story is really just one overly long fight sequence between and among all 4 main characters. For filler, we get a really lame two-page spread of Peter and the gang at the malt shop. Seriously? Even if you're trying to complete a full run of Amazing - you're excused if you want to skip this one.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks. This is a great feature. This is one of those comics that's not on my want list but that I'd be likely to pick up if I happened to come across it at a good price. Now I know to pass it by.

Anonymous said...

Well....I was a young kid when this issue came out so I have a bit of sentimentality for it, but having read it a few years back I agree it is standard far, especially for an Annual, which was a special event in those days.

You have a great site her. Fun and interesting.

Nick Caputo

Booksteve said...

To me this one is all about the nostalgia. I plunked down my quarter one Thursday night at Woolworths and sat in my parents car for an hour in a grocery store parking lot while they shopped reading it with the car light on.