Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1982-02-01 00:04:40 |
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Amazing Spider-Man #228
Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #228
Cover Date: May 82
Title: "Murder by spider"
Credits:
Jan Strnad - Writer
Rick Leonardi - Penciler
Dave Simons - Inker
Mark Gruenwald - Assistant Editor
Tom DeFalco - Editor
Review/plot:
This is a fill-in during Roger Stern's run. It's actually a nice little story, about an inventor who develops a way to attract and aggravate spiders, which he makes available as a way to assassinate people.
The device also attracts Spider-Man...
...and while it also causes him to get a little out of control as well, he does manage to stop the guy and turn him over to the police (without Spidey, or us, ever learning his name).
When JJ hears about the spider killings, he assumes Spider-Man's involved, reasoning that if Ant-Man can control ants, Spider-Man can control spiders.
Part of Spider-Man's investigation involves going to an estate sale, and even though Peter goes there knowing he's investigating a murder and will probably have to run off if he finds anything, he brings Debra Whitman along, and does inevitably have to ditch her.
Rick Leonardi has drawn a few things at Marvel already (including a Spectacular Spider-Man) and i'm actually surprised we haven't seen more of him after a nice Hulk annual that he drew, and especially since Ed Hannigan's art on Spectacular at this time was hurting the book. You start to see some of his characteristic style in this issue, moreso than his previous work...
...including the extra dark shadow around Spider-Man's eyes, which i'm not sure i love.
Some nice use of shading and color wash, too.
Quality Rating: C+
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
According to Jan Strnad in a Comics Journal article, Tom DeFalco interfered heavily in this story and added expository dialogue that Strnad felt was unnecessary(I think about half the dialogue in the book--maybe DeFalco should get a credit?). This made him so angry he refused to work for Marvel again after 1982.
Its a decent little story. I was interested to see a comic written by a Czech writer (Jan Strnad is ridiculously common Czech name). Of course I then read an interview with him and his parents were Czech, he was born in the US and resents his parents for giving him a "girl's" name.
