The Technodrome Forums - View Single Post - Amazing Spider-Man, The Defalco Run

*MikeandRaph87* · 04-02-2018, 09:48 PM

I have a set of Essential Spider-Man which collects all of the first 248 issues and the annuals up to that point. I picked up where it left off with #249 and read through #290 as well as Spectacular#105 tie-in, Spider-Man vs Wolverine and Hobgoblin Lives 3 part mini. I also threw in Secret War (1984) for wider context. The run started off really good. A lot was going on, a little too much really. There was the ongoing "who is the Hobgoblin?" plot as well as Mary Jane returning after a four year absence and he retconned into knowing Peter is Spider-Man. A new neutral character Puma is introduced during all of the alien costume and ties into everything including the odd follow up in Secret War II. Harry and Liz have their son during the Hobgoblin craziness too. However, around #263 thing start to fall off. Its a string of one-offs not really connected to anything. X-Men villain Toad decides to reform after Spider-Man talks him down from suicide and forms a group of losers that never appeared again. Then we have Spider-Man chase a commuter in the suburbs. That should have been all of five pages in a backup! Kingpin foiled at hoarding gold and the Red Ghost makes an elderly burglar, The Black Fox his foil while a high school football player wants to make a name for himself challenging Spider-Man! Really? He gets a better challenge right after with Galactus's number two, Firelord! That was good as well as the Sinister Syndicate vs Spider-Man/Silver Sable/Sandman. The Rose element was okay, but just got resolved too easily in Gang War that everything wrapped up in. Jack O' Lantern wants Hobgoblin? It is not really clear why he goes form being hired by Hobgoblin to salvage the the battle van to wanting to kill Hobgoblin and he as an assassin hires another assassin to do it! Also, Betty Brant and Flash Thompson I never thought about being in the same social circle and having an emotional affair at that. It was nice to see Hammerhead in Gang War,but he was used as fodder, a way to strengthen Kingpin in the story and gave up too easily!

If I understand correctly, the heavily plotted story devolving into a string of sub-par one-shots was when there was an editor change, DeFalco was the Spider-Man editor, but he was writing and Jim Owlsey takes Amazing for himself early in the Gang War story-line that was wrapping up the Hobgoblin plot among others. Among other things I wonder if the alien costume was supposed to be left as a dangling plot as it was trying to get out of the container in FF headquarters as foreshadowed by a panel. Spider-Man kept chang back and forth from his traditional costume to black in every other story before settling on the black costume. I wonder if these had anything to do with editorial or writer?

Peter just got out of the romance with Black Cat and even though they had broken up she was given a roof while she was looking for another apartment after her's war firebombed. It was weird seeing Felicia jumping into Peter's arms at the end of #289 with the very next story, Peter trying to figure out if MJ and him are friends or are they dating (Spider-Man vs Wolverine). Then just the second story removed he proposed to her. Granted he had before, it just comes out of nowhere and it seemed like it was not a natural progression. He goes from kissing her when emotional not even romantically and feeling guilty to thinking she does not want to see him again to proposing. I love the Peter/Mary Jane dynamic, it just needed more time to ease into it. Is it another side effect of Jim Owsley meddling?

http://www.comicscube.com/2015/07/th...falco-and.html

So, thoughts?

04-02-2018, 09:48 PM	#1
MikeandRaph87 Jedi Master Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: JLA Satellite Headquarters Posts: 11,130	Amazing Spider-Man, The Defalco Run I have a set of Essential Spider-Man which collects all of the first 248 issues and the annuals up to that point. I picked up where it left off with #249 and read through #290 as well as Spectacular#105 tie-in, Spider-Man vs Wolverine and Hobgoblin Lives 3 part mini. I also threw in Secret War (1984) for wider context. The run started off really good. A lot was going on, a little too much really. There was the ongoing "who is the Hobgoblin?" plot as well as Mary Jane returning after a four year absence and he retconned into knowing Peter is Spider-Man. A new neutral character Puma is introduced during all of the alien costume and ties into everything including the odd follow up in Secret War II. Harry and Liz have their son during the Hobgoblin craziness too. However, around #263 thing start to fall off. Its a string of one-offs not really connected to anything. X-Men villain Toad decides to reform after Spider-Man talks him down from suicide and forms a group of losers that never appeared again. Then we have Spider-Man chase a commuter in the suburbs. That should have been all of five pages in a backup! Kingpin foiled at hoarding gold and the Red Ghost makes an elderly burglar, The Black Fox his foil while a high school football player wants to make a name for himself challenging Spider-Man! Really? He gets a better challenge right after with Galactus's number two, Firelord! That was good as well as the Sinister Syndicate vs Spider-Man/Silver Sable/Sandman. The Rose element was okay, but just got resolved too easily in Gang War that everything wrapped up in. Jack O' Lantern wants Hobgoblin? It is not really clear why he goes form being hired by Hobgoblin to salvage the the battle van to wanting to kill Hobgoblin and he as an assassin hires another assassin to do it! Also, Betty Brant and Flash Thompson I never thought about being in the same social circle and having an emotional affair at that. It was nice to see Hammerhead in Gang War,but he was used as fodder, a way to strengthen Kingpin in the story and gave up too easily! If I understand correctly, the heavily plotted story devolving into a string of sub-par one-shots was when there was an editor change, DeFalco was the Spider-Man editor, but he was writing and Jim Owlsey takes Amazing for himself early in the Gang War story-line that was wrapping up the Hobgoblin plot among others. Among other things I wonder if the alien costume was supposed to be left as a dangling plot as it was trying to get out of the container in FF headquarters as foreshadowed by a panel. Spider-Man kept chang back and forth from his traditional costume to black in every other story before settling on the black costume. I wonder if these had anything to do with editorial or writer? Peter just got out of the romance with Black Cat and even though they had broken up she was given a roof while she was looking for another apartment after her's war firebombed. It was weird seeing Felicia jumping into Peter's arms at the end of #289 with the very next story, Peter trying to figure out if MJ and him are friends or are they dating (Spider-Man vs Wolverine). Then just the second story removed he proposed to her. Granted he had before, it just comes out of nowhere and it seemed like it was not a natural progression. He goes from kissing her when emotional not even romantically and feeling guilty to thinking she does not want to see him again to proposing. I love the Peter/Mary Jane dynamic, it just needed more time to ease into it. Is it another side effect of Jim Owsley meddling? http://www.comicscube.com/2015/07/th...falco-and.html So, thoughts? __________________ Michelangelo: This looks like a job for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Raphael: Sheesh, Mikey this ain't a cartoon!