Second installment of Peter Parker, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spiderman, the third series that the character had at that time along with Amazing and Marvel Team-Up. Panini Comics collects the fundamental Carrion saga and many more surprises.
Vitality is not at odds with tenacity
Everyone knows that Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, is a series that describes Aunt May’s favorite nephew a little better. It is something that we can appreciate throughout these pages as we watch Peter walk the halls of Empire State University. But the main writer of these episodes, and a good part of those we found in the previous volume, Bill Mantlo, did not have it easy.
It was imposed on him that he could not use the most significant villains of the character, which did not manage to intimidate him, on the contrary, he knew how to create some new ones with sufficient charisma and reuse others of lesser importance. Among the new ones we have Carrion, whose seven-issue saga (The Spectacular Spider-Man #25 to #31) marks the incredible beginning of this chronicle.
Encountering an unpleasant face from his past does not make Parker break down, he will have to overcome a tough test against an unscrupulous rival, a revenge that hangs over his being due to one of the most traumatic events that he has experienced, the death of Gwen Stacy, without going any further. Mantlo carries out a long story where the collaborations of other heroes become vital.
We already carried the presence of White Tiger from the pages of the previous volume and he will be joined by Daredevil, drawn by Frank Miller for the first time over two episodes, although the creative weight of the drawing of these chapters is mainly carried by a more than compliant Jim Mooney.
Collaborations everywhere we look in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spiderman
Although the presence of Héctor Ayala, the White Tiger, is a reference at this time in the series, he is practically a recurring secondary character with an important role; he will not be the only one to appear as a guest, in addition to the aforementioned Daredevil. Doctor Curt Connors, Parker’s professor in Biochemistry doctoral studies, and his alter ego The Lizard, will intervene on behalf of Spiderman in his confrontation with Iguana. And to top it off we will have Bill Foster, Giant Man, while they fight Meteor Man.
Yes, there was a collection dedicated exclusively to those collaborations, Marvel Team-Up, but there were also some more extensive crossovers here without the need to add more characters to the title.
If the secondary ones run wild, it is no less true that the authors also shared some sweet spots. In addition to Mantlo, Mooney and Miller, we can appreciate the scripts of Tony Isabella and Tom DeFalco in small appearances.
For illustration we have some numbers of Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, drawn by names as relevant as Sal Buscema, Rich Buckler or Mike Zeck, with the debut of John Romita Jr. in #39, an unforgettable nod to his father’s beginnings in the pencils of Spiderman, back in The Amazing Spider-Man #39. A cast that, far from breaking the rhythm, enriches the entire ensemble.
From here to there
To finish the review we have to mention the two crossovers that are included. The first of them is practically the exception to the rule of not using main Spiderman villains, a cross between Annual #13 of Amazing with the first of Spectacular. There Doctor Octopus roams freely. For the first we have Marv Wolfman on the script and none other than John Byrne on the drawing, who will repeat in the other event when he takes charge of illustrating Fantastic Four #218, with a script by Mantlo and some high-profile rivals, a group that has brought headlong into both the First Family and the wall-crawler, the Terrible Four.
This team of villains has the classic lineup made up of the Wizard, the Sandman, the Trapper (the peerless Pasta Pot Pete) and with Electro replacing Medusa, the queen of the Inhumans, who had already passed away. occupy the side of the heroes and had no place among them.
There is no doubt that on a good day Peter Parker can get rid of these four, but if he has the collaboration of friends, like the Fantastic Four, things get better. And this concludes the second volume dedicated to compiling the Spectacular Spiderman collection, a golden era of the character, with its ups and downs, which served the series to strengthen its sales and occupy an important place in the Marvel Universe.
Jesus Salvador Gomez
Weaned in some arcades playing Ghost N’ Goblins and raised under the prism of the national comics of Ibañez, Escobar, Vazquez… and the classics Don Miki from Disney, his life changed the day that number 45 of Spider-Man fell into his hands. from Comics Forum. Since then Marvel entered his life never to abandon it, just like video games have done. A lover of the mythical stages of Claremont, Byrne, Miller, Stern or Simonson, he shamelessly confesses that his wife is partly responsible for the fact that after his quarantine he continues to be absorbed by hobbies that will never abandon him.
