I remember being pleasantly surprised by this issue. The end reveal about Maxie's wife was genuinely touching, and the story makes some good points about living in a fantasy world rather than reality.

My last comic book.

I'm afraid I won't read entries beyond this point:-(

Kvetch, nooooo! I know the 90s onwards are when comic books go downhill - and I must admit I'm find it hard to read these entries - but its quite interesting seeing how bad things get.

Kveto :(

Yeah, keep reading and commenting! I was only buying PAD's Hulk and X-Factor at this point, and some of DeMatteis' Spectacular (and I think had started buying some Vertigo stuff)... But other than that, I was getting less and less impressed by all the other comics and the direction they were going in. Sometimes I might buy one other Marvel comic if it looked good, sometimes none. Reading through Fnord's reviews of 1992 comics I only barely remember, it's nice to see this was not a youthful error that I could now be embarrassed by. Instead, it was an absolutely correct response to the bad stories, bad art and bad editorial decisions flooding the line. So keep reading, Kveto! I'm kind of looking forward to Fnord tearing apart some of the 90s stuff we have coming. :)

I remember picking this issue up in the shop, flicking through and deciding not to buy it. (I'm not really a big fan of "Mysterio tries to drive Spidey mad" stories apart from the original Stan stuff, but I'll take TCP's comment as a recommendation.)

Also, I thought the foil covers thing was an annoying fad, so it's good to see Lou Bank's quote above suggests I was not alone.

Quitting in '92 was probably a wise choice. I'm of the opinion that 90s comics started skyrocketing toward the bottom in 1993.

If nothing else I recommend coming back for 2000-2004. Marvel got good again for a few years while Jemas was there.

Kveto, sorry to see you go and hope you'll still drop by. At this point, the only Marvel Comic I was getting was Hulk. I was buying some Vertigo, DC, and Dark Horse comics though. Eventually I would come back with Heroes Return for some additional years before giving up the ghost with Disassembled.

I am still posting some comments on series I never picked up, explaining why I didn't buy them, but that doesn't sound proper. So I'll try restricting my comments only to Hulk. Still, I'm visiting this site a lot less.

We're still a few years away from my drop off point (The one-two punch of Clone Saga and Heroes Reborn), but I think I'll stick around past that. I like the history and commentary even if I don't like the comics being covered. Kveto, it'll be a shame to see you go. Your comments are always appreciated and I would be interested in getting your perspective on some of the stuff this generally terrible decade has to offer. At least stick around for Nightwatch, Force Works, and Marvel Edge.

For this entry alone, I notice two comments already about doing what I did in real time: cutting back to PAD/Hulk comics at Marvel. (I did give The Flash a shot when I got into the workforce between my freshman and sophomore years.) Vertigo's comics were much more interesting overall, during my college years. My wife would curl up and read them with me, so what closet comics nerd says no to that?
Kveto from Prague, I don't think I've ever seen a commentary outcry for a fellow reader not to go! You must've done something right. :-D I had wondered the same thing for myself, but this has become my choice for Procrastination (or something to do when I'm too sleepy for anything else). I have noticed this site accrued many more commentators by the time it'd been running a while; I enjoy the write-ups, for good or ill, but I idly wonder, Fnord12, if you've noticed less traffic as the 90's content has worn on, or if the sheer volume of reviews has kept a steady (and growing?) number of viewers- for people like me, who enjoy finding comics s/he's never read?
I am not a fan of "battling illusions" issues overall; they tend not to move any subplots, and would prefer anniversary issues to be engaging conclusions to ongoing main plots.

Guys, he's saying he won't read entries beyond this point. You probably know him better than I do, but that doesn't necessarily mean he won't be reading older entries.

It's entirely possible that Mysterio isn't being entirely honest, he is a bit of a showman after all.

Kveto, I'm going to miss you. We were both posting back in 2011 when this site had far fewer commenters. Sorry to see you go.

@Cecil, i don't pay super-close attention to traffic. Looking at my stats page, traffic has basically held steady since last year, which is as far back as it goes. There are spikes in traffic that probably correlate to Marvel movies coming out, but a lot of that is people trying to hotlink directly to images from message boards, so we never actually see those people. Over the years, traffic and the number of commenters have gone up but i am sure that is due to search engines indexing the site better as opposed to content.

@Kveto, i interpreted your comment the way ChrisW did. But if you really are leaving, thanks for sticking around for so long. As Michael says, you were one of the first and i've enjoyed your comments. At least stop by every so often to leave us a new top ten list in the forum.

Not even to read comments on the amazing Maximum Carnage story?

Not even to read comments on the amazing Maximum Carnage story?

"Listen all you fools - don't you know that Carnage rules?" I personally cannot wait for the fun to begin. It's '93, right? Hopefully fnord will get to it before the end of the year. A lot of comics during this period, though. So much quantity and so little quality.

kveto: I hope I didn't offend you with our minor sparring in the Deadly Foes of Spider-Man comments. I know how one of the fun parts of the Marvel Universe is trying to connect seemingly separate events into a cohesive whole.

If you really are leaving, I wish you well in all your future endeavors.

Maximum Carnage is actually not that bad. At it's heart it's a massive super-brawl between Spider-man bad guys and a team of cool random Marvel heroes including Iron Fist and Cap.

Cecil, you were married in college? And you call yourself a comics nerd? :)

Hi guys, thanks for the support. Sorry to have been so unclear. I was just trying to make the point that I'd delve into the older issues because the ones after this have no meaning to me. As much as I love fnord's reviews on all comics, I find my eyes scrolling past these 90s comics. As good as our host is he can't polish these turds (nor would he want to).

I'd originally written a much longer post on the issue itself but my computer kept freezing and losing the post so i just put in a curt remark. (And even more embarrassingly, I realise that I must have miscalculated as I must have still been buying Cap America as I'm familiar with storylines which fnord hasn't covered yet.)

I really didnt intend to turn this thread into something about me. I appreciate that you guys appreciate my comments. Its really sweet. But save your praise for the guy who makes this website a great thing. I find it a perfect resource, so fnord can't get rid of me so easily:-)

LOL @Eric I'll get there, one day!
Nerd Origin Story: I was into Beat writers and song writing when Anj & I met; we got married in six weeks! Angela Dawn's first comic book was "Terror in a Tiny Town," from FF Megazine, picked up at a convenience store on our cross-country honeymoon-then she got a $3 stack of ROM a dime, almost 21 years ago today. The entire affair was adapted in my novel Anywhere With You.
Short answer, she said: "You turned me INTO a comics nerd!"
Time-honored strategy, my friend.
@Kveto I figured as much. Spot on; Fnord's got a killer site, and you never, ever know what you'll find in comments!
Kudos, Fnord; thanks for the reply. Make Mine Super Mega Monkey!

The story in this issue is pure filler.

But can't that be described of the entire series as a whole?

kveto: OK. Thanks, fnord12 for making this such a great site!

I liked this issue, but I'm a fan of Mysterio, and I like Alex Saviuk's art; I think he's fairly underrated as a Spider-Man artist. Those things being kept in mind, I'm pretty OK with 40 pages of Mysterio illusions.

But I also liked bringing back Maxie; it was interesting to see a character we never really thought about and probably never expected to see again.

Not saying the issue is a masterpiece, but I enjoyed it due to my personal opinions.