The timing for this entry couldn't be any better, because it feels like I'm having more of a sour than sweet pre Fourth of July in my life. Not to dwell on too many details, but there are literally days where it feels like the steps I take towards improvement aren't even steps forward: just a constant reverse gear. Still, remain calm, and try and find my happy spot...
And part of my happy spot is this blog. Remember how I said, yesterday, that I might be returning to the slightly critical edge towards Marvel for today's entry? I'm still holding true to that planned entry. (Believe it or not, I put a LOT more thought into topics for this blog than I seemed to EVER do for Action Attraction!) So, Doc Brown, please warm up that Delorean so we can take a trip back in time to the summer of 1990. You see, at the House of Ideas, one artist had aspirations to be a writer... and probably to earn a larger paycheck, and stroke his ego..., but the title he was currently on did not allow that. Still he had some attachment to the main character... or realized his name attached to the already red-hot popularity of said main character could earn him further buttloads of money. So Marvel decided to give this "little known" artist/soon-to-be writer his own book featuring a character that wasn't going to be called "Amazing", "Spectacular", or even "Web Of" for this solo book. The artist/writer was Todd McFarlane, and the title was "Spider-Man".
I could almost say this first issue was the main catalyst of the 90's speculator "boom" for comics. Take a hot brand-name artist, attach him to a character that has already grown massively popular due to said artist, and ALSO release various versions of the first issue with special edition covers, and you have various avenues towards people believing this issue will put their children through college! Now... I'm sure Todd McFarlane is a wonderful family man, and that he's very awesome to his fans, and hell... when this book came out, I bought it right off the stands. (I basically wasn't even in the collecting radar when McFarlane was working on "Amazing Spider-Man", and I only ever picked up a few issues when Erik Larsen was the successor artist.) But in recent years, I've soured some on Todd's creative output, and after having watched a documentary on the man, I also really notice he could teach J. Jonah Jameson some lessons in being a professional-level jerk. BUT that all being said, this first issue to a new Spidey book, and the opening to the "Torment" storyline, was a record-setter for Marvel for that 1990 Summer season, and I bought into it hook-line-and sinker. And I'll be fair: for all the issues I have about McFarlane's "Spider-Man" run, this is probably the best storyline he created for that phase in his career. ... But as we'll soon find out, that's not exactly a stellar claim.
The story, in a nutshell, goes fairly simply. Peter Parker notices some newspaper headlines about the Lizard coming back, and slaughtering people in the streets. Spider-Man takes the fight to the Lizard, who is tied into service via mystic means by Callista, former wife of Kraven the Hunter. Once the Lizard hauls Spidey's maimed self to Callista, she intends on taking mystical revenge on Spider-Man for causing her husband's suicide. (I'm trying to remember if she inflicted a physical illness on Spider-Man, or if it was all just mental anguish.) But regardless, once Spider-Man makes his escape, he's in for a looney trip of hallucinations, physical torment, and brawls with the Lizard. If this sounds like a fairly muddled summary, it's because it's a fairly muddled storyline. Oh! And I nearly forgot one other key player in this story: Peter's then-wife Mary Jane Watson-Parker! Yeah... she's P.O'ED that Peter had the "AUDACITY" to hit the streets to stop the Lizard's rampage. Yes... Saving other people's lives is pretty darned selfish. So what does she decide to do? Why... go out DANCING!
I do remember the conclusion of the story offers Peter and Mary Jane reconciling with each other about their individual stubbornness. And since the Lizard still was a repeat offender in the Spider-Man universe, and I KNOW Callista appeared in some issues of Daredevil around 1993, she didn't remain inactive after "Torment" finished. But she should take some satisfaction that Peter was haunted by the brain-blasted hallucination of Sergei Kravinoff during the story's progress. Even she strikes a dance pose in joy over that!
I'll give Todd McFarlane his due credit for this mini-series before I start hacking at it like the Lizard. With Todd handling most of the art chores for this book, and the coloring scheme of the artwork, his Spider-Man work NEVER looked so interesting until that point. I'd say this was the beginning of Todd starting to experience with a more "moody" art atmosphere that he would later perfect with "Spawn", and it was a truly distinctive art study. And as I mentioned in a previous paragraph, the story probably does have the best momentum out of all of McFarlane's "Spider-Man" issues. Since I can't remember much about the conclusive half of the tale, it may not be PERFECT, but I know for a fact that "Torment" is a story out of that writer/artist run I'd read again in a heartbeat. It may spin its wheels for stretches, but the progression is there. (I'll give you a comparison: the following storyline, which featured Wolverine and the Wendigo, went for 6 issues... but the story was sluggish and uninteresting to my eyes, making it feel like Todd was trying his best to make what SHOULD have been a two-parter that much more lengthy.) And he did have a knack for the flow of action for this introductory storyline. Those showdowns with the Lizard did pack some tension into their page spans!
BUT... as I mentioned, with the good must also come the bad. Okay... Spider-Man, to my perceptions, is a character about guilt and internalizing his worries, BUT he still projects a fun and wise-cracking exterior to keep himself grounded while battling various menaces. (And I do believe Peter takes a small amount of joy in making a difference as Spider-Man.) When this book launched, Todd McFarlane took that light-hearted concept of our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man... and flushed that right down the toilet. This is far from a cheerful story, regardless of the couples' bonding ending. People are killed in horrendous ways, the story atmosphere is DRENCHED in "grim and grit" that was so popular around that time span, and Spidey hardly ever quips in the tale. So this is essentially a "Spawn" dry-run for all the WRONG reasons. And the main weakness of McFarlane's "Spider-Man" run is none of his stories really feel like they mattered. I'm not one that is insistent on tight continuities, but his writing was trying oh-so-hard to say this book was IMPORTANT, but most of his writing is just dark cliche-ridden claptrap. It also felt like, aside from Spidey, Todd just didn't care to even keep his characterizations consistent with the rest of the universe. I have to be blunt: Mary Jane is wholly unlikable in this introductory arc. I REALLY dislike it when writers try to shoehorn established characters into their own storytelling agendas. So having Mary Jane go back to her pre-marital days of just wanting to have fun, just to spite her husband going off to help the GENERAL CITIZENRY... Yeah, that peeved me off, somewhat. And lest I forget... the cliche that EVERYONE remembers about this storyline. The one that, unless you're talking about a grand Latverian monarch, you tie into this series...
Doo-doo-doo-doo-DOOM! Yes, Todd... We get it... Spidey's undergoing mystical issues, and this story is "dark and serious", but did that sound effect have to be used ad nauseum CONSTANTLY in the story? You're eventually left feeling like Spidey in the above panel. Just stop it, Todd. Just. Stop. It.
But that was hardly the end for Todd's run on the adjectiveless series! As I mentioned before, there was a 6-part storyline set up in Canada with Logan. That was also a bundle of cheer, dealing with child death and hunters being murdered. Then we had a 2-part storyline with Hobgoblin and Ghost Rider, with a bunch of gibberish about innocent and guilty souls, and them fighting at a church. Following that, another 2-part storyline with homeless people congregating around Morbius the Living Vampire... and for some weird reason, the return of the black Spider-Man costume. This all came to a head over Todd wanting more creative control... and money, because sports collectibles don't just fall into your lap..., and because of controversy over a panel in a "Spider-Man" crossover with "X-Force", and McFarlane rode off into the self-publishing horizon to form Image Comics, and to create the "Spawn" franchise. ... Which will receive its day in court on blog another time.
All in all, while I did buy into "Torment" as a storyline, that was quite enough for me of what Todd had in mind for our favorite "wall-crawler". His run may have been stylistic and atmospheric, but it was drained of all traditional Spidey "good will", and that is a deal-killer for me.
As for tomorrow's entry, let's just say I have not one... but TWO surprises to discuss... and neither of which will involve pinning a rose on DC's nose. Yes, even THEY get the Friday "Funnies" Foolishness bonk on the head, for a change!
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