It's July of 1984, and I can't remember if I read Amazing Spider-Man #257. I had to have read a Puma story at some point, because when he appeared in an annual during Peter and Mary Jane's honeymoon, I was all "Hey, the Puma!" Then I didn't buy the annual, possibly because this issue was so memorable.
I did buy Micronauts:The New Voyages #1. It had a spiffy Michael Golden cover, and interiors by Kelley Jones from back when he had a Golden influence, plus Bruce Patterson inking. It was a sci-fi series spun off from a toy tie-in, yet writer Peter B. Gillis took it seriously. There was some leftover continuity I could have done without as a new reader, and I was freaked out by Jones' graphic rendering of a team member losing a body part in a totally random accident (not at all what one expected from a mainstream comic in 1984.) The book was more mature than I was, but it was interesting, and I would sample it from time to time. Still, it was largely Star Wars married to a pastiche of every other space flick shown over the previous decade.
I didn't buy a single issue of ManTech Robot Warriors, but I think I had a figure and saw an ad in that issue of Mighty Crusaders I don't recall reading anymore. Boy, Archie Adventure Series were full of lose.
After skipping a team-up with Iron Man because a) a friend already bought it and b) Iron Man, I bought Marvel Team-Up #146. It was by the same creative team as the Moon Knight issue, and I have the same vague feeling of finding it pleasantly acceptable at the time without committing much to memory. It paired Spider-Man with Nomad, who I sorta kinda liked from Captain America, and pitted them against a villain who could disintegrate with a touch. He had issues connecting, of course, and I think he ended up turning himself to dust or something. Speaking of which, I had a knack for reading team-up books right before their cancellation, and didn't buy another one of these through to its final 150th issue.
All right, Blue Devil #5 featured Zatanna and a rematch with the demon Nebiros! Great art, fun story, and holds up to this day. ¡Viva Nebiros!
Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #7 had a fake-out Wasp death that I thought mattered in some way at the time. Honestly though, this was the first series I collected new on a monthly basis, but I only read any given issue once or twice and it's all a jumble in my mind.
Jarvis the Wizard made an offer on a box of Cookie Crisp cereal to send me a free Marvel comic with proof of purchase. I didn't understand how that worked, so when I saw a bunch of books pictured on the box, I thought those were the issues I had to choose from. I wished I'd order X-Men, but I went for the debut of the black Spider-Man costume, and got Amazing Spider-Man #258 instead. "The Sinister Secret of Spider-Man's New Costume" wasn't too far removed from what I wanted, but it ended with a barefoot Peter Parker wearing an old Fantastic Four costume and a paper bag over his head. I didn't really see it as humorous so much as embarrassing, even after that jerk Johnny Storm taped a "Kick Me" sign to Parker's back. "Spidey-Sense... gots nothin'." The creative team of Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz never wowed me, either.
The Fly #9 means another wretched, forgettable Archie Adventure Series. I probably did receive this until 1986 or so. If I recall correctly, this was given to me by my stepsister as a Christmas gift, along with a Matt Wagner Demon issue and a bunch of regular Archie comics clearly not bought with me in mind. Nothing undersells affection quite like latter-day Dick Ayers.
6 comments:
As usual, our collecting history is frighteningly parallel. Your first monthly book collected was Secret Wars, same as me. You bought Micronauts New Voyages #1 on a whim, same as me. You bought Marvel Team-up, same as me. In fact Marvel Team-up was my Spider-man book of choice growing up. And Blue Devil... is there really enough words to describe AWESOME! By the way, they just announced Blue Devil for the New 52. Black & Blue sounds like it has promise.
Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man was my most consistent Web-Head fix, partly because I love unwieldy titles, and partly for creators. First it was Al Milgrom, then Peter David, then the team of Gerry Conway and Sal Buscema, plus I think Jim Owsley did some work on the book. For some reason, I never seemed to like whoever worked on Amazing. I missed out on Team-Up in first run, but I bought some reprints when Marvel Tales started doing "best ofs."
P.S., I just googled "Black & Blue." I quite honestly could have waited the days/hours/minutes until unfortunately stumbling upon it on my own. Championship missing the point (figuratively, not literally, as that Booth design has more points than a graphing quiz.)
Booth's design aside, I'm interested in this teaming. Manhunter was a solid book so this has potential. Also I think an Odd Couple buddy book is ripe for Danny's humor.
I enjoyed McFarlane's run on Amazing (not Adjectiveless Spider-man). Good writing and the art hadn't gone off the rails.
Shag
I never much cared for McFarlane. He was busy at a time when I was impressed by an abundance of lines, but everyone looked like a weathered & soiled Inflate-A-Date. Even on Infinity, Inc. I preferred the journeymen inked by Michael Bair over Todd*. I was more into Portacio, Liefeld and Lee. Also, by that point I was out of Spider-Man, aside from reading my brother's copies of the adjectiveless series.
I haven't ever read a fun/funny Marc Andreyko story, but maybe he'll pull it off. I never much cared for Jefferson Pierce though, and I can't decide whether the BD redesign is more or less horrible than the Underworld Unleashed one. Let me look again... More. Definitely more horrible.
*I own an unpublished Michael Bair Martian Manhunter cover/pin-up. I couldn't resist sharing.
Bair was a god! Love his work on the JSA related characters.
I'm hopeful Booth isn't the artist on Black & Blue, just the costume designer. And nothing is worse than the Underworld Unleashed Blue Devil costume. Nothing.
Shag
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