Review- SPIDER-MAN BY TODD McFARLANE OMNIBUS

SPIDER-MAN BY TODD McFARLANE OMNIBUS (Marvel, First Printing, 2016; Hardcover)

Collects Spider-Man #1-14, 16 and X-Force #4 (cover dates August, 1990- November, 1991)

Writer and Artist: Todd McFarlane with Writing by Fabien Nicieza and Rob Liefeld (X-Force #4), artwork by Rob Liefeld (X-Force #4) and additional Inking by Rick Maygar, Scott Williams, and Jim Lee

Todd McFarlane's adjective-less Spider-Man series, released during the summer of 1990, was, for all intents and purposes, the opening bell for the speculator bubble of the 1990s. We all know what happened, we all know why it happened, and we all see aspects of it being repeated by the industry today.

McFarlane was a breath of fresh air when he exploded on the scene in Amazing Spider-Man back in November of 1987*. I was a first day buyer back then and was immediately taken aback by this bold new take on the character. His version was like a creepier version of Steve Ditko's Spider-Man. He had been in the business for a few years already but he was new to me .

*Comic cover dates were four months ahead when purchased in Direct Market, or comic specialty shops as we called them back then. Cover dates were three months ahead on newsstands like 7-11. By the time that this adjective-less series hit the stands cover dates had been adjusted to being two months ahead for the DM, three for newsstands.

This was among the first Marvel series to be structured in arcs, with each issue being Part _ of _ of said story title. This was done so that it could be repackaged into books for the emerging trade paperback market for mainstream bookstores. As strange as it may sound here in 2017, there was a time when Marvel did not think of the collected edition when making their comic books. The full bleed artwork was also a new thing at the time.

This dark take on the character was fascinating because it simply hadn't been done before. The Horror elements are brought to the fore in this series. While McFarlane would like to make this out to be a more adult take on the character, his sexual double entendres are adolescent and embarrassing to read as an adult. This being the dawn of the '90s, !!!totally extreme!!! thinking was the order of the day. To be fair, the action sequences are a blast. McFarlane's exaggerated anatomy and almost cartoony depictions of people give his art a unique look which would be aped by numerous artists and become a cliché. Credit where credit is due, he did this stuff first and he did it the best. Motion lines, excessive detail, and unrealistic anatomy would dominate most of the 1990s because of him.

The first arc of five issues has been repackaged numerous times as Torment. This is the Lizard as his most brutal. The endless DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM sound effect jungle drum beats got old fast, especially since this wasn't the first time that I've read this material. My son wanted to read this book with me but bailed after five issues. He seemed bored with this, which kind of surprised me. I figured that the fast pace of McFarlane's stories would be right up his alley but I was wrong.

The second arc, Masques, has also been repackaged multiple times. I had the old original UK trade years ago but dumped it because I predicted this book once Marvel rereleased these arcs in Premiere Classic hardcovers. It may have taken several years for this to become reality but I have nothing but time and no shortage of stuff to read. McFarlane's take on the Hobgoblin and Ghost Rider both leave me cold.

The cover to the first issue of the third arc (Perceptions, also repackaged like Masques) is one of those boring, 'iconic' type of covers that have little to do with the interior and would plague comics in the early 2000s. Awful and lazy. The arc itself is very good, with Spider-Man teaming up with Wolverine to take on the Wendigo. Subtlety is something completely lost on McFarlane, and he drills his opinion of the then-emerging 24/7 news cycle into you. I'm old enough to remember when news was about reporting a story instead of creating one. The sensationalism spotlighted here seems downright tame when compared to clickbait garbage reporting that passes as news today.

My beloved Morbius The Living Vampire was the surprise villain in the fourth arc of the series, Sub-City. The writing in this one is pretty weak but there's plenty of action and Morbius so who cares. The book closes out with the godawful sideways X-Force crossover, Sabotage. X-Force sucks and Rob Liefeld sucks. Both are the epitome of everything wrong with mainstream 1990s comics, and I cannot spit enough venom at either one.

This being Marvel, there is an exhaustively researched section of DVD-style extras in the back. All variants and industry magazine covers, as well introductions and covers from previous editions of the various collections are included. This run means a lot to fans 10 or more years younger than I am. It's not the best era as far as I'm concerned but it's a fun enough read and serves as an object lesson why dark and gritty Spider-Man doesn't really work. For the younger set this is one of the defining runs for the character.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- This is pretty “thin” for an Omnibus, clocking in at 16 issues and a another two issue's worth of extras. It's heft is little more than an oversized hardcover from a decade ago.

Linework and Color restoration: The restoration in this book is decent.

Paper stock: Fair weight semi-glossy coated stock.

Binding: Sewn Binding.

Dustjacket and Hardback cover notes: Dustjacket has the same lamination found on all Marvel Omnibus dustjackets. The hardback has paper casewrap with the image printed on it.

Review- THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN BY DAVID MICHELINIE & TODD McFARLANE OMNIBUS

I owned a T-shirt with this artwork in 1988 or 1989. Back then wearing a t-shirt with a comic book character made you a nerd, and I was viciously taunted for wearing it to school. I only wore it to school once.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN BY DAVID MICHELINIE & TODD McFARLANE OMNIBUS (Marvel, 2011; Hardcover)

Collects Amazing Spider-Man #296-329 and stories from The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #10 and What The? #3 (cover dates January, 1988- February, 1990)

Writers: David Michelinie and Glenn Herdling (Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #10)

Artists: Todd McFarlane; Additional artists: Pencilers- Alex Saviuk (#296, 297), Erik Larsen (#324, 327, 329), and Colleen Duran (#326) and various additional Inkers

I was there. I bought all but one or two of the later issues in this book day of release from a comics specialty shop (Direct Market retailer for you kids out there), from when #296 hit the stands in September of 1987 to when I ditched the title around November of 1989, probably with issue 328. Cover dates were knocked down from five months ahead to two during this time with Early and Late month cover dates following the bi-weekly publication schedule during the summer; if you purchase these from a newsstand, #296 would have been out in October of 1987. I had two paper routes and new comics came out on Thursday night. Journey with me into this bizarre world of the past...a world where computers were for nerds, telephones were connected to wires in your house, the future was bright, and nuclear war seemed imminent.

Spider-Man was and remains my all-time favorite superhero. He was poor, and so was I. He had bad luck, which was the story of my life. He always had a hard time with the ladies, just like me...except that he had recently married Mary Jane Watson and we were dealing with a recently domesticated Spider-Man. Oh. All of a sudden Spider-Man wasn't very relatable to 14 year old me. Enter Todd McFarlane. His artwork was a breath of fresh air. No one had ever seen anything quite like it, and all of a sudden everyone jumped on the bandwagon.

McFarlane was the first artist to draw the webs that way, and everyone since has drawn them that way. His style is cartoony and I dislike the way that he draws faces, but at the time I really dug his stuff. Little did I know that this was the beginning of the end for me. He helped usher in a new breed of artist, the “Image” guys. Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld...these were the guys who got me to quit comics. Much like you had a Nirvana and a Soundgarden and a million weaker bands, McFarlane paved the way for style over substance and became the symbol of everything wrong with comics, nearly destroying the entire industry in the 1990s.

Don't think that I didn't enjoy rereading these comics. Quite the opposite. David Michelinie is a solid writer who knew how to build on plotlines without being long-winded. He knew the beauty of the set-up while taking care of the business at hand. He would lay down the foundation of the next storyline in the middle of the current one without missing a beat. I especially enjoyed #311 (Mysterio), #312 (Green Goblin vs. the Hobgoblin), and #313 (the Lizard).

While I enjoyed Venom's first appearance (#299-300), his return (#316-317) left me cold at the time and soured me on the character. I was out of comics altogether when he rose to fame a few years later. I enjoyed those issues as an adult, however.

Comics became progressively darker in the aftermath of Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns. I disliked it at the time, and I honestly still do. The tone is fine for those titles, but I despised the impact that they had on every title under the sun. Even my light-hearted Spider-Man became darker as this run wore on. That, combined with endless crossovers (such as Acts Of Vengeance, the final issues that I bought before quitting comics) and lackluster artwork drove me away from comics. Music, cars, and girls seemed way more interesting to my then-now-16 year old self. I would be in my 30s before I returned to this hobby, but that is a story for another time...

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4 out of 5.

The 1989 Batman movie captured the hearts and minds of the world.

The OCD zone- How much do I hate my money? Let us count the ways. I bought the original issues when they were released, only to dump them along with my most of my collection in 1995 when my Mom died and I needed money fast, receiving pennies on the dollar for them from comic dealers. I wish that there was an eBay back then. Then when I returned to the hobby in the Aughts I bought all three Spider-Man Visionaries: Todd McFarlane trades, only to discover that those skipped #324 because Erik Larsen did the artwork, and right in the middle of an arc no less. That led me to the out of print but relatively inexpensive Spider-Man: The Assassin Nation Plot trade. Some of these issues have been collected in various other books (Spider-Man: The Birth Of Venom (which I dumped for this book), Acts Of Vengeance Omnibus, Spider-Man: The Cosmic Adventures (which I dumped for the AoV Omni), and in the as-yet-unread Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection Vol. 20: Cosmic Adventures.

Linework and Color restoration: These issues have been reprinted multiple times, so the film has been handled quite a bit. A few issues look downright beat. The colors are mostly faithful to the original publications but there are a few liberties taken. Needless to say, I will rebuy this material when the Marvel Masterworks get here.

Paper stock: Beautiful thick coated stock with a slight sheen. I loved the paper that Marvel used in their Omniboo during this era.

Binding: Smyth sewn binding, double fan adhesive bound, which allows this massive 800+ page book to lay completely flat from the first page to the last.

Dustjacket and Hardback cover notes: Thick lamination on the dustjacket, faux leather grain casewrap with dye foil stamping. 

Review- HAUNT VOL. 2

HAUNT VOL. 2 (Image, First Printing, 2011; Softcover)

Collects Haunt Nos. 6-12 (cover dates March- December, 2010)

Writer: Robert Kirkman

Artists: Gene Capullo (penciler), Jonathon Glapion, and Todd McFarlane (inkers)

I really enjoyed the first trade paperback of this series, but the tone and flavor of it have changed for the second arc. It is now less macabre and more espionage/action/adventure, which is fine but is less to my liking. This has to be a record for the amount of story that Kirkman crams into each issue. It took me a fair amount of time to get through the seven issue collected in this book. 

Daniel Kilgore and his dead brother, Kurt, merge to become Haunt. This is basically the Brother Voodoo premise on steroids. While I enjoy this dark, gritty, and ultra-violent world of Haunt, I am not sure if I will be on board for volume 3.

The OCD zone- This book has a nice, wax coated cardstock cover and nice coated paper. This is a top notch book.

Follow my blog on Facebook.

DC has made strides in fixing the problem of their books not laying flat. Join the cause page if you want make sure that DC keeps up the recent good work on their hardcovers. Don't do it for me, do it for the children. Won't somebody please think of the children??