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, where Pete is disturbed at home by a group of well-meaning friends, and has to take steps to ensure that they don't see he is still wearing his costume. With the anniversary issue ahead, this is a great moment, as we see the genuine growth of Peter's social circle. His old adversary Flash Thompson is, by now, one of Peter's best friends. The ongoing situation with Betty Brant and Ned Leeds develops. This feels like a kind of "housekeeping" - allowing the plot to move on without directly influencing the immediate situation. It's a nice scene, giving our hero a sense of being grounded, and a reminder what he is ultimately fighting for, even though he believes Aunt May to be dead at this point. In one, short scene, old plot threads are tied off and new ones left to run. It is very neat to be able to pull this off so smoothly in a title as long-running as this.
That moment does not last, of course, and we get back to the action as Spidey suits up and tracks down Mysterio, only to be assailed by further hallucinations. This time, our hero tries to see through the tricks, deducting that the cloud of smoke Mysterio floats on must really be masking "a mini helicopter of some sort", and even managing to snag the blades of the thing.
The issue ends with Spider-Man seemingly dying, which would make the 200th issue a real downer, as Mysterio tags him with a tranquiliser dart.
And so to the art. Sal Buscema is the guest penciller here, taking over presumably so that regular series artist Jim Pollard had time to draw the double length #200. While I always felt that Sal's faces could be a little scratchy, he captures mood and facial expression brilliantly, and I love how he positions Spidey in different ways in the frame, whether its walking on the ceiling or the walls, or web-spinning around the place.
His take on the weirdness of Mysterio's illusions is fun, too. As Spider-Man becomes immersed in the "dark" illusion, his costume is rendered in a kind of negative.
I'm not sure if this is the first time this kind of look was used for Spidey, but it has definitely been used more recently.
Anyway, that tantalising glimpse into the future seems an appropriate place to sign off here as we head towards the landmark Amazing Spider-Man #200.
See ya in the funny books!
Text copyright Andrew Ness 2019
All art, characters etc copyright Marvel Comics Ltd
"Marvel's Spider-Man" PS4 game image copyright Sony Corporation.
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, where Pete is disturbed at home by a group of well-meaning friends, and has to take steps to ensure that they don't see he is still wearing his costume. With the anniversary issue ahead, this is a great moment, as we see the genuine growth of Peter's social circle. His old adversary Flash Thompson is, by now, one of Peter's best friends. The ongoing situation with Betty Brant and Ned Leeds develops. This feels like a kind of "housekeeping" - allowing the plot to move on without directly influencing the immediate situation. It's a nice scene, giving our hero a sense of being grounded, and a reminder what he is ultimately fighting for, even though he believes Aunt May to be dead at this point. In one, short scene, old plot threads are tied off and new ones left to run. It is very neat to be able to pull this off so smoothly in a title as long-running as this.
The issue ends with Spider-Man seemingly dying, which would make the 200th issue a real downer, as Mysterio tags him with a tranquiliser dart.
Will Spider-Man actually die? Is Aunt May actually dead?
I think it's fair to say we know the answer to both questions by now.
His visual storytelling is, as you would expect from someone with the experience he had already gathered by this point, excellent. Just look at the two pages from the start of the comic, where Spider-Man is trapped underwater. The way he builds the tension, showing all of the elements we need to see. Wolfman's captions and thought bubbles are great, but you can easily ignore all of the text and still follow exactly what is happening here.
His take on the weirdness of Mysterio's illusions is fun, too. As Spider-Man becomes immersed in the "dark" illusion, his costume is rendered in a kind of negative.
Co-incidence? Who knows? (Someone at Sony, presumably.)
Anyway, that tantalising glimpse into the future seems an appropriate place to sign off here as we head towards the landmark Amazing Spider-Man #200.
See ya in the funny books!
Text copyright Andrew Ness 2019
All art, characters etc copyright Marvel Comics Ltd
"Marvel's Spider-Man" PS4 game image copyright Sony Corporation.
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