Remember The Time Daredevil Dressed Up As The Kingpin In Order To Fool Spider-Man?

This WTF?! moment appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #287 by Jim Owsley, Erik Larsen and Art Nichols. It was the penultimate issue of the 5-issue 'Gang War' storyline in which the NY-based mobs rushed to stake a claim in Manhattan with the absence of Wilson Fisk a.k.a The Kingpin. DD in a fat suit is the most memorable part of that story.

Friday Night Fights: KA-POW!! round 8

Aaannnd DGR's back at the ring after missing the last few weeks worth of fights. Everyone else at Spacebooger.com stand aside because our contender is no pretender. He's the one and only Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-man!...and he's beating up a shark tonight! (again with the sharks!)

It's ASM #313, written by David Michelinie with art by Todd "I'm better than all of youse punks" McFarlane and it's an INFERNO tie-in. Pete and Mary Jane find themselves attacked by a damn big shark while riding a cab on their way to Queens. No big deal for ol' Pete. He's gone up against The Spot, a shark should be child's play for him.

And indeed it is:

But it wasn't over yet for Spidey. Next, he had to bring down a possessed giant balloon of himself...
Well, that must have been embarrassing.

But you can't keep a good Spider-man down for long...

All this and he had to fight the Lizard as well. ASM #313 was one crazy awesome of a comic and David Michelinie wrote it all with a married Peter Parker as well.

The Amazing Spider-Man: Brand New Day vol. 2 HC (Marvel, 2008)

First of all, it was a little bit confusing to have the second volume collection of retconned Spider-Man also titled "Brand New Day" with a similar looking cover as the first volume. Hey, what can I say? I'm easily confused and when you want to attract my attention when I'm browsing the 'New Arrivals' shelf at the bookshop, you better make a bit of an effort. I'm just saying.

Volume 2 of Spider-Man: Brand New Day has a nice trilogy of issues where Spidey goes up against a trio of Mayan ninjas with Wolverine and then tries to web up a Mayan god with the help of a homeless man (who believes SHIELD is after him). During a blizzard. Unfortunately, it is sandwiched between two mediocre stories by Bob Gale featuring new villain, the drug addicted Freak. I thought it was so mediocre that I dropped it and actually went and did something else in my life. Shocking but true. How difficult is it to finish a 100+ page book, really? The problem is that Freak is not much of a threat. He's a drug addict who stumbled upon Dr. Curt "The Lizard" Connors laboratory while on the run from Spider-Man. Mistaking it for his friend's meth lab, he injected himself with the drugs he found in there and is transformed into, well, a freak. Phil Jimenez nice pencils is not helped here by Gale's ho-hum dialogue. Even Spidey's snappy patter during his fights with Freak seemed a bit off.

Zeb Wells' part of the book however perked me right up. It's old school Spidey here. Humour, snappy talk, mysterious villain and Mayan ninjas. You can never go wrong with ninjas of whatever nationality in a comic book. Ninjas are a guaranteed comic book gold! Pencils by Chris Bachalo is superb as well.

But Bob Gale came back to close the book with one more issue of (yawn!) Freak that ends with a cliffhanger so not unexpected that I didn't care what happened to Freak. Hope he doesn't come back for a long time.

Overall, Brand New Day vol. 2 is a slight disappointment from the first one, saved only by Zeb Wells' Mayan ninjas-fight-Spidey-in-a-blizzard-story.

The Amazing Spider-Man: Brand New Day HC (Marvel, 2008)

I went into serious comic collecting because of Spider-Man when I was reading his reprinted stories in Marvel Tales back in 1984 and I dropped out of the hobby also because of Spider-Man when Marvel introduced the Spider-Clone storyline. I knew then how my mother felt when they brought Bobby Ewing back into Dallas. It was that "WTF?!" feeling that just turned me off from the whole comic collecting hobby. And it was Spidey what did it! Man, did that fact hurt. It was like catching your best friend sleeping with your girlfriend or worse, seeing him treating her with respect. It was a sin most unforgivable. When I started reading collected editions of comics in 2005, I picked up a lot of titles but no Spider-Man. He was still untouchable. Oh, I picked up an Essential or two and I also bought that Red Sonja team-up book but trades of his monthly titles were passed by on the bookshop shelves with nary a glance. I'm a sad individual, I admit. Love me, don't judge me, okay?

So why did I check out Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Spider-Man's latest hardcover collection of his now three times a month comic book? Well, mainly because of curiosity, boredom and some good word of mouth from the cybernets regarding the new direction Marvel's taking Spidey to. I know all about the hoopla that went on with One More Day. There were fanboys who were burning their copies of Amazing Spider-Man, guys tearing off the pages and wiping their butts with it and I could see why they were upset. So was I. It was not the fact that Marvel's Joe Quesada thought that Peter Parker was stuck in a rut and some major overhauling had to be done to make him interesting again. It was the manner that Marvel took. Break off Peter's marriage with Mary Jane in order to save Aunt May's life, how? With the help of Mephisto, Demon Divorce Lawyer, of course! Gee, what a neat message to send to the kids. Got a problem? No sweat, just make a deal with the devil. That's what Spider-Man did! Frederick Wertham was right!!

Anyway, all that was so they could start fresh with Spider-Man: no wife, no girlfriend, no money, terrible luck, living with Aunt May and best friend is still a very much alive Harry Osborn. That would suck hard if not for one new rule: all new villains. I'm not sure how long the "no-old-rogues" ban is imposed on the book but I hope it stays there for a while. There are just two major villains in this hardcover edition which collects Amazing Spider-Man #546-#551: Mr. Negative and a menace called Menace who looks to be the new Goblin. Mr. Negative is exactly what his name describes. He is a monochromatic mob boss wannabe intent on taking over the entire city's criminal operations. He is also later revealed to be Aunt May's co-worker (supervisor? boss?) at the homeless shelter she volunteers at. I actually prefer him over the new "Goblin" or Menace (not really his name but since he's a menace that's what they call him). I prefer Mr. Negative because Spider-Man's famous villains aren't so much the mad scientist bent on world domination but rather the street gangsters and the hoodlums who want to take over New York, one borough at the time. Plus, enough with the Goblins already! In this book, Mr. Negative's attempt at eliminating the entire Maggia family is foiled by Spider-Man but the hero has to give a sample of his blood in return for a gangster's kid's life. How this ransom will be used by Mr. Negative in the future will be a most interesting development to read.

Menace on the other hand just wants to kill the candidates running for mayor. See? Boring, though it's unfair to say so at this juncture since practically nothing is yet revealed about Menace's plans.

There's also a new mysterious heroine, Jackpot, who is used by Marvel to jerk around the fans on whether she is or not (Mary Jane, that is). On the job front, Peter is still freelancing for the Daily Bugle but it's no longer called that. Now it's the DB! after Mrs. Jameson sold the company to Dexter Bennett when J. Jonah Jameson ended up in hospital due to a Peter Parker-induced heart attack (he had it coming, in my opinion).

Do I like it? Yes, I do. I didn't want to but I do and lying about it would just be petty. I stayed off reading Spider-Man for more than ten years so I don't know whether this new direction is any different in tone from say, the JMS-penned stories. Was Spider-Man still the wise cracking hero under him or did JMS make him more brooding and introspective? I enjoyed Dan Slott's run on She-Hulk so seeing his name in this book made me go all gooey. Slott can do no wrong...so far. He shares writing credits with Marc Guggenheim who takes over the second half of the book and Marc's stories are ever so slightly darker than Slott's but in a good way.

I like the introduction of all new villains for Spidey and I sincerely hope that some if not all of them are well written enough to stay on in his rogues' gallery for years to come. I loves me some Venom and Electro but these guys are so overused it's not even funny anymore. Besides, isn't Venom in Thunderbolts now? Yeah, keep him there.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a great jumping on point for new readers and for old fans like me who stopped reading the Spider books years ago. Fans who never left the book may grumble and gripe about the deal with the devil and the consequences to twenty years of continuity but really, at the end of the day, it's just a comic book about a mid-twenties man with the proportionate strength of a spider swinging all over New York City punching costumed villains. And that's what we all want from our superhero comics: unadulterated fun.

That's not to say I think the marriage break up was necessary though. In fact, I don't see the point of the retcon other than to gain publicity and boost sales because none of the Brand New Day stories could not have been written if Peter was still married to MJ. They're works of fiction. Just work around the marriage, writers.

Oh, well. I'm not Editor In Chief of Marvel Comics so what do I know? Joe Quesada wanted a single Peter Parker so now we have a single Peter Parker. For what it's worth, Marvel has regained one long lost Spidey-fan who left in the mid-'90s. Let's see how long I'll stay this time.

Damn you, Joey Q!

Spider-Man/Red Sonja HC (Marvel, 2008)

Spider-Man/Red Sonja managed to make my wife roll her eyes so far back up her head, I thought she was possessed by the Dark Lord Beelzebub. It's not the story, it's the redhead. My wife wanted to know why Red Sonja goes around killing bad people in a chain mail bikini while Spider-Man is covered from head to toe in skintight spandex. To which I replied, "Phhfftt! Women." Master of the witty comeback, me.

Too bad the story isn't much fun. It's basically a remake of their first encounter in Marvel Team-Up #79 (which is also included in this collection). It's just five issues of Red Sonja and Spider-Man swinging, slashing and punching in a magically transformed New York after Kulan Gath is once again released to terrorise the modern world.

So why did I even bother buying this book?







For the opportunity to irritate my wife. What else?

Friday Night Fights: Classic Edition Round 2

You know the rest...

Lots more old and new school punches at Bahlactus' crib.

Classic Spider-Man story retold by Stern, LaRoque and Wiacek from Essential Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man

Marvel Tales featuring SPIDER-MAN #170-#172 (Marvel, 1984)

Remember when Spider-Man comics had good stories to tell? Yeah, it's been a while. I haven't picked up any of the core Spider-Man titles for more than ten years now and what with the hoopla of 'One More Day', I doubt I'll be returning anytime soon to the one character that made me decide to seriously collect comics way back in 1984. Did I say, "I doubt"? Well, anything can happen in the future but it is telling that since I returned to reading superhero comics in 2005, albeit in trade collection format, none of the books I bought have been Spider-Man titles other than the Marvel Adventures hardcover, that Mary Jane Loves Spider-Man hardcover and some collections of the good ol' times when he was fun to read (i.e. anything before the Spider-Clone saga). A bitter former Spidey fan, am I? You think?

Which brings me, in a rather roundabout way, to today's blog entry. Marvel Tales Starring Spider-Man #170 was the first comic in 11-year old Khairul H.'s comic collection. It wasn't my first superhero comic. I don't remember what my first superhero comic was but Marvel Tales #170 was the one that, after reading it, made me decide to visit the neighbourhood grocery shop to wait for this title every month and thus became the first comic in my humble comic collection.

I remember picking this comic up and thinking that it featured a brand new story. Hey, I was 11! Cut me some slack here! The cover had the blurb, "Dedicated to YOU, the great new Marvel breed of reader!" That's me, I thought at the time. I'm a new great new Marvel breed of reader. It spoke to ME. It took a second reading to make me realise I was actually reading a reprint of a Spider-Man story first published in 1965 and that Marvel Tales is a title used to showcase classic Marvel comics for a new generation of comic readers. No wonder the characters wore somewhat out of date clothes, I remember thinking. Hey, I may be 11 but I was already quite a hip fashionista, baby. Anyway, the fact I was reading a reprint didn't bother me. I was already hooked.

Issue #170 turned out to be the first part of a three part story (A serendipity. I probably would not have been a loyal reader if I started reading with #171, for example. The back issue boxes? What back issue boxes? I bought the comic from a grocery, for Heaven's sakes!) It opens with Spider-Man attempting to stop a gang of masked crooks from escaping with radioactive materials. How exciting was that? First time reading a comic book and I was already treated to some superhero action on page two. Spidey fails to stop them however and leaves the scene wondering together with the reader what the heck was that all about. In the meantime, Peter Parker gets himself enrolled into college and finds out his Aunt May is dying (gee, nothing new there). Issue #170 ends with Round 2 of Spidey versus masked henchmen of mysterious evildoer. Bad guys escape again and I couldn't wait for issue #171 arrive.

One thing that I noticed while re-reading this issue is the compressed style of writing. Check out this page for example:

In just nine panels on one page, a new reader unfamiliar with the book can do some catch up, at least with the supporting characters. One, the grouchy guy is J. Jonah Jameson. Two, he's the big boss. Three, he's also quite impatient. Four, Foswell is his top reporter. Five, his secretary is called Betty Brant and Peter is her boyfriend. She also doesn't think too much of Jameson. Six, she's torn between two men in her life, Peter and this guy Ned and seven, she suspects that Peter is hiding something from her.

All that on just one page. Back then, Stan Lee and co. wrote comics like their lives depended on it. If this scene was written in today's comics by certain writers, all that information would have been spread across pages.

Issue #171 and Spider-Man is a pissed off superhero. It is revealed that Aunt May who fell ill and was dying in the last issue became that way due to radiation in her bloodstream and it's all Peter's fault. A much needed blood transfusion from nephew to auntie in an earlier issue is now threatening her life. I would have thought that the irradiated blood would give May Parker the proportionate strength of a spider as well but no, Stan Lee chose the 'knocking on Heaven's door' route. Besides, Aunt May in superhero tights? Yikes!

With the help of Doctor Connors (a.k.a The Lizard on his off days), Spider-Man discovers that there's only one kind of serum that has any hope of helping his aunt and wouldn't you know it, it has just been stolen from the hands of the courier who was supposed to deliver it to Doctor Connors. And it was stolen by the same hoods from the previous issue. Damn, if it isn't one thing, it's another. It turns out that they are working for a mysterious bad guy who calls himself the MASTER PLANNER. He's been ordering his men to go and steal radioactive materials and new fangled chemicals which are all part of his dastardly plan to rule the world. And who is this MASTER PLANNER?

Oh, it's him.

Cue fight scene between Spidey and Doctor Octopus that ends with Spidey trapped under what looks like a very heavy piece of machinery and Octopus' secret hideout has a leak in the roof. Oh, didn't I mention his hideout was under the sea? Well, it was. And it had a leaky roof.


And finally, this is it. Spider-Man is trapped under tons of steel, the serum that could cure his aunt just inches away from his grasp and seawater is leaking through the roof. Issue 172 of Marvel Tales was and still is ten kinds of awesome. Just look at that cover. It had no word ballons and just one blurb, "The Final Chapter", to entice the potential buyer. In fact, the cover would have been better without that blurb. Just the image of Spider-Man trapped under all that steel, trapped in that claustrophobic environment with water pouring in, pouring onto his head. To an 11 year old who has been following this story for the past two issues, I couldn't wait to see how he escapes from this trap. And boy, did it deliver. Check out these panels:

Yeah, you can do it, Spidey. You can do it.

That's it! Work those biceps!

Screw the strain! You got a sick aunt who's counting on you!

Yes! Yes! You're almost there! C'mon, Spider-Man!

HELL, YEAH! YOU THE MAN, SPIDEY! YOU THE SPIDER-MAN!

Hot damn! I was never a big fan of Steve Ditko's style (and I'm still not a fan today) but those panels were breathtaking. Twenty three years later today and they can still generate excitement in me. I want Spider-Man to get out and escape so he can help his aunt. I am there rooting for him on every panel and wishing he doesn't slip on the pool of water or lose his grip or anything. Now this was what I used to read comics for. Pure unadulterated suspense, action and good ol' super heroics.

The wall-crawler escapes just in time before the roof collapses and after punching his way through the remaining few of Doctor Octopus' hired help, he hands in the serum to the doctors at the hospital. Aunt May recovers, Peter is happy and I became a new loyal reader of Marvel's in general and Spider-Man in particular that lasted for about ten years before that dang Spider-Clone storyline ended it all.

Good times, gooood times.

These issues, along with the entire Stan Lee/Steve Ditko run on Spider-Man, have been collected in the The Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus volume 1. I highly recommend this huge volume if you're even slightly interested in Spider-Man. As I write this, the Omnibus will be going through a second printing as the first edition sold out mighty quick (well, the third Spider-Man movie was doing its run so that must have helped sales of the book). As mentioned above, I'm not so hot on Steve Ditko's pencils but he was the first Spidey-artist and he did design the look so from the historical perspective, his contribution cannot be denied. And Stan Lee's writing? Well, it's Stan Lee. Verbose where it needed to be and full of action where action was required.

Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four: Silver Rage

I have mentioned before my platonic man-love for Jeff Parker and everything that he writes. Just click on his name in the 'Labels' below to see me gush like a scary stalker fanboy on two previous reviews (I can link them in this here post but I'm lazy tonight). Anyway, Jeff Parker is known as the guy who writes those fun, not in continuity stories for Marvel and probably the only writer in comics right now whose stuff I have no problems giving to my kids to read without censoring them first. He does it again here with Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four: Silver Rage which collects the four issue limited series of the same name.

The plot: an alien race, the H'moj, has chosen Earth as their new home and the human population as their new host bodies. That is how these alien creatures survive and evolve -- by searching for an inhabited planet and grafting themselves onto the planet's population until they decide the planet is no longer suitable and they move on. The H'moj see their actions as a favour to the local inhabitants of each planet they colonise since they're oh, so advance and just need bodies, that's all.

So naturally the heroes beat the crap out of them. Or at least try to.

Silver Rage is a lighter version of a typical Galactus vs. FF story. The H'moj even have an alien who volunteered to be the H'moj's advance scout in return for sparing his planet but this guy doesn't soliloquise like the Silver Surfer. YAY! There's nothing like a self pitying alien on a surfboard to bore the kids to sleep.

Jeff Parker gives us what we expect from a good Spidey-Fantastic Four team up. Ben Grimm clobberin'? Check. Spider-Man and Johnny Storm interacting with each other? Check. Reed Richards trying to figure things out? Of course. Sue putting up force fields? Yup, it's all there.

And the Impossible Man pops up (heh) early on in the story but gets killed fighting the aliens. To say anything more would be spoilerish....oh, all right...it's the Impossible Man, he can't die. He doesn't turn up again until the last page but his DNA help resolve the crisis.

This is a straightforward action adventure story with aliens and guys in spandex hitting each other. It's fun and a quick read and you don't need to know anything about the characters to enjoy it. Perfect for the kids. Pencils by the late Mike Weiringo is perfect for this book. I was never a big fan of 'Ringo but that's only because I think his style is more suited to fun, breezy stories such as Silver Rage. The first time I saw his stuff was when he debuted in DC's Flash and they were putting Wally West through the meat grinder at the time. Dark, brooding stories and Weiringo's drawing style do not mix. My opinion.

Also, Doom has a cameo and the best two lines in the entire comic:

"The Four! Wretched Curs!"

He doesn't care what century he's in. Doom will always speak like he's in a Renaissance Faire.

Friday Night Fights: Sucka Punch Round 7

You'd expect someone quite threatening, right? The Lizard, maybe. Doc Ock, perhaps. Or even the Rhino. He's big and scary.

But not the KANGAROO!! What's he gonna do? Hop on your face?

Bahlactus dances on your face every Friday Night.

Scans from The Spectacular Spider-Man #242

Amazing Spider-Man #87

One of the problems of having a superhero secret identity is that you need to keep it a secret even from your close friends and sometimes even your family. You need to do your own laundry, you must know how to sew (not many haberdasheries catering to the super folks out there) and you always need to come up with a good excuse why you come home every night covered in bruises ("It's nothing, mom. I'm okay. I just popped in at the S&M club and some of the girls got too frisky. Couple of the guys too, come to think of it.")

Well, in this issue ol' Peter Parker went and told his friends about his secret alter ego. But let's back up a little bit...

Peter suspects that his Spider mojo is finally running out. He's getting dizzy spells, he can't focus, he's weak all around. This is bad news. No proportionate strength of a spider, no Spider-Man. Just to be sure, he decides to consult Dr. Curt Connors who also happens to be the Lizard on his bad days.

Unfortunately...

Typical. A specialist is never around when you need one. Wait. Florida? Dr. Connors isn't going on one of his "research expeditions" to the Everglades again is he? On second thoughts, Petey my boy, you're probably better off without the Doctor. Took his family with him, huh? Yeah, Florida's a long trip south. He might need a snack.

Meanwhile, all the gang's at Gwen Stacy's place having a groovy party, daddy-o!

What Mary Jane really meant was, "That blonde bitch's hogging all the attention. I wish someone would break something of hers. Her neck would be nice."

But then, a woozy-headed Peter Parker walks in holding the Spider-Man face mask in his hands:

Naturally, no one can accept this. Gwen is understandably upset. Your boyfriend tells you he swings around the city covered head to toe in brightly coloured spandex, you'd be upset too. Peter, his headache getting worse, runs out and in desperation heads to the nearest hospital dressed as Spider-Man. Curt Connors not there to help him, he'll just go to any doctor who can.

And the diagnosis?

WTF? Y'know, I was expecting something more...oh, I don't know...serious. Maybe a mutation, or a life threatening disease that only Galactus has the cure for. I never expected the frickin' flu virus. Still, those nasty buggers once brought down a Martian invasion fleet so I wouldn't put it past them to mess up with Spidey's juju. But there's one small problem....


Yup.

But fret not, True Believers. Stan the Man has a deus ex machina waiting in the wings. Hobie Brown a.k.a The Prowler agrees to dress up as Spider-Man while Peter goes back to Gwen and explain that it was all a misunderstanding, honest. With Peter standing there and Spider-Man peering throuh the window, everyone believes Peter's story and all wells that ends well.

This issue appears in the Stan Lee Meets... hardcover collection which was where I first came across it. Stan Lee Meets... collects original stories written by several comic book talents honouring Stan Lee. It also features classic stuff written by Stan like this Amazing Spider-Man issue. The new stuff are mostly quite good. Lots of chuckles here and there. The classic Stan Lee stuff aren't bad but a couple of them, like this Spidey story, made me think that they could have included a better story. What were they thinking?

"Hey, we need an old Stan Lee issue in this 'Stan Lee Meets...' hardcover collection."

"Uhm, how about Amazing Spider-Man #87?"

"The one where Spidey catches the flu? Perfect!"

Ending A Marriage Marvel Style

So it looks like the marriage is getting retconned out with a memory wipe. Oh sure, there're some fans out there hoping for the impossible, i.e. let the old coot die*, but the smart money has always been on the end of Peter's marriage to Mary Jane. Especially with Marvel's Joe Quesada going on record saying he thought the marriage was a mistake where telling good Spider-Man stories was concerned.

Eh. If this thing doesn't sell, Marvel will probably bring her back.

Spoiler from Rich Johnston over at Lying In The Gutters.

*Yes, I called Aunt May an old coot.

Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man #4

The Marvel Adventures line of comics are targeted specially towards the kids and I think it's one of the few excellent ideas to come out from the House of Ideas in recent years. If you have a small child who's interested in reading, I suggest you hand him or her something from the Marvel Adventures catalog. The core Marvel titles (or Marvel 616 in geek-speak) are so heavy with continuity and dark gritty stories that they are practically unwelcoming to the new reader regardless of age.

Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man features single issue stories that ignores whatever kind of mess that is going on in the core titles right now. It's all pure, stupid fun. The best kind of fun. In this book, Peter Parker's still a high school going teen who works as a freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle. And the best issue so far is issue #4, "GOOM GOT GAME". Best because it's all sorts of funny written by Jeff Parker.

Jeff Parker is quickly becoming my favourite comics writer. He wrote the excellent Agents of Atlas mini series, among other things. He belongs to the school of thought that believes comics should be fun and silly. Sure, he can write hardcore but he prefers the stupid fun route. I Heart Jeff Parker.

In "Goom Got Game", Johnny Storm a.k.a Human Torch of the Fantastic Four finds that a message from an alien called Goom is picked up by the FF's super computer thingamajig in their Baxter Building HQ. Johnny flies off to find Spider-Man after he thinks he accidentally cut off Goom in mid-message. Spidey, Johnny figures, is smart enough to retrieve the message and probably can be trusted not to squeal to the rest of the FF about Johnny's mistake.

It turns out that it was not a message from Goom that Johnny intercepted. It was Goom himself and he's coming to Earth.


Yup, that's right. The big guy speaks Gangsta'. So naturally, Spidey asks Goom where he learned to speak it. I mean, wouldn't you?



Turns out, dawg got his mad props from watching broadcast signals of MTV, NFL and Jerry Springer, yo! And he's hungry. He wants to eat gold. Lots of gold. When Goom can't get dem gold, Goom loses it. Big time. The heroes lead him to the ocean:




"Ahoy! Mind if I blast a monster from the side of your boat?", Spidey asks the Captain. "Knock yourself out...", he answers. Now that's a BWA-HA-HA-HA moment right there. Spidey uses the remote unit he found at the FF's headquarters and zaps Goom back to the Negative Zone from whence he came.

Parker's humourous dialogue coupled with Patrick Scherberger's and Norman Lee's pencils and inks make this my favourite issue of all the Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man issues so far. It's a cute story where everything is just right. This is a comic that can be read by a parent to a child and might just hook the kid to the innovative idea of reading a book. Besides, this is a much better read than the current Spidey adventures in Amazing Spider-Man: "See, son, Aunt May is in a coma because she was shot by a bad guy...Hmm? Oh, that half naked lady is Spidey's wife. No, she's a super-model. Anyway, that's Eddie Brock who used to be Venom. Venom's a bad version of Spider-Man. He has a twelve foot tongue and he wants to eat Spider-Man's brain..." Yeah, that's not gonna happen in the Khairul household.

This issue is included in a hardcover collection of Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man Volume One. Get it from Amazon. Thanks to Jeff Parker et al for giving kids something they can read on a lazy afternoon without all that continuity crap to worry about. Recommended.