80s Marvel

The Incredible Hulk #242 December 1979 Sic Semper Tyrannus! Writer: Roger Stern Art: Sal Buscema Letters: Jim Novak Colours: Glynis Wein Ah, the old Hulk, as he was meant to be. Big, green, angry and a little slow on the uptake. Much as we all enjoyed Peter David's seminal run on the character, diving deep into his psychology, refining the persona and radically changing the essential nature of the character in a way that has impacted the Hulk ever since, I feel that the Hulk himself has lost some of his basic nature in the process. I believe that many comics characters have, or revolve around, a sort of Platonic ideal version of themselves. And whatever superficial changes might be made to costumes, or temporary rotations of the supporting cast, the core of the character is always waiting to be revisisted. So Spider-Man is always, at heart, a teenager gifted with great power, and burdened with great responsibility, trying to balance the needs of his two identities, an...

Amazing Spider-Man #199 Writer: Marv Wolfman Pencils: Sal Buscema Inks: Jim Mooney Letters: Joe Rosen Colours: G. Roussos Spidey's final appearance of the decade in Marvel Comics sees the wall-crawler facing off against the devious Mysterio in a complex story that leads into the anniversary issue #200 with a rare appearance from the burglar who shot Uncle Ben. As our story opens, Pete believes that his beloved Aunt May is dead, and he is chained to the bottom of a swimming pool full of water. All is not what it seems, of course. And where Mysterio is involved, it never is. I suspect that this storyline was a major inspiration for the recent Spider-Man: Far From Home movie. We see Mysterio at his best. His illusions part stagecraft, part hypnosis. Spidey has to battle through a hallucinatory sequence, unable to trust even his Peter-Tingle (or Spider-Sense, as it was properly called here.) There is a rather charming sequence in the middle of the book, whe...