Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1984-05-01 00:02:10 |
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Amazing Spider-Man #252
Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #252
Cover Date: May 84
Title: "Homecoming!"
Credits:
Roger Stern - Plot
Tom DeFalco - Script
Ron Frenz - Penciler
Brett Breeding - Inker
Review/plot:
Roger Stern still has plot credits in this series. Beginning next issue, the writing is all Defalco.
Spider-Man returns from Secret Wars. After dropping off Doc Connors, he heads back to his apartment, where he's been away for about a week.
The big news, of course, is his new costume.
He received it in Secret Wars, and we've already read that, but in terms of publication order, this issue came out first. So this was the first time readers were seeing the new suit. We also see that it has the ability to transform into ordinary clothing, something we didn't see in Secret Wars.
Also, it responds to his mental commands even when he isn't wearing it.
That excitement aside, this is basically a downtime issue. Peter checks in with Aunt May, and the Black Cat tries to find Spidey but he's out getting a pizza at the time. Later, Spidey encounters two kids fighting, and he takes them on a web-swinging tour, hoping that the beauty of New York City will help them put their own problems in perspective.
The new suit offers the opportunity to make Spider-Man anonymous again, like he was in the earliest issues. It's also a bit creepier.
Fun issue. The kids dress a little funny, but that was the 80s at Marvel for you.
Quality Rating: B-
Historical Significance Rating: 6 - Spider-Man's new Venom Symbiote costume
Chronological Placement Considerations: Spider-Man returns from Secret Wars this issue, but he's also shown returning in Marvel Team-Up #141, so the events of these books are interwined.
References:
- Spider-Man heard from Captain America and the Human Torch (presumably during Secret Wars) that the Black Cat was looking for super powers, as we saw in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #89.
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: Marvel Tales #266
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Comments
I like how you've got the panel here where he remembers Galactus almost stepping on him after showing that happening in a panel in your report on Secret Wars. Nice continuity!
According to Amazing Heroes #39, there was a previous rumor of a costume change for Spider-Man a few years before this; specifically changing the blue in his costume to black(as in his Amazing Fantasy debut).
"The kids dress a little funny, but that was the 80s at Marvel for you."
That's nothing compared to what Romita has Peter wearing around this time - that horrible shirt exposing his mid-riff combined with the cut-off shorts.
"The kids dress a little funny, but that was the 80s at Marvel for you."
I've seen worse. I've seen kids, in Marvel, wear clothes worse than in the film 'Breakin'
The Early 80's Peter would have killed it in some Vintage pleated trousers, Converse and Fitted short sleeve button ups and occasional Punk rock T-shirts. Let's give the Symbiote Black costume persona a monumental Historical ovasion! Only a creative stroke of Genius could have made Spidey this relevant in a New decade!
Excellent sense of setting with this one. As a kid in Iowa, this is what NYC was to me at the time.
According to Byrne, it was Stern's idea to make the black costume a symbiote: "Todd McFarlane likes to say he "created" Venom -- usually forgetting David Michelinie. When I hear this, I usually respond by saying "No! I created Venom!" And it goes like this: Iron Fist used to be getting his costume torn up all the time. By the next issue, it was usually repaired again. I didn't much like the notion of Danny Rand sitting in a corner with a needle and thread, so, extrapolating from Chris's (then) idea that K'Un L'Un was actually a crashed spaceship that used its warp drive to phase between dimensions (Chris being in a sci-fi mode that week), I suggested that the outfit was made of some kind of biological material that "healed" instead of having to be patched. We never got around to using that in IRON FIST, and years later, after Spider-Man got his alien costume in SECRET WARS, Roger Stern asked if he could use the notion, and added the idea that the suit was some kind of symbiote. Tom DeFalco (if memory serves) took this a few steps further, until David and the Toddler added a big, ugly mouth and gave it a name, Venom. So, who "created" Venom?"
