Episode 1255 - Spotlight on Spider-Man in the Copper Age

Pants

Our spotlight on Spider-Man for his 50th anniversary continues as we look at his 'Copper' age - the 1980's. Chris from Wild Pig Comics joins us again as we discuss the Hobgoblin, the black costume, Mary Jane and Peter's wedding, 'The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man' and more. (1:41:11)

Listen here.

Matt

Can I throw my 2 cents into this? This era is my favorite. It's when I first got into reading Spider-man, introduced my favorite villain (Hobgoblin), and was all around a great read. Plus, I thought there was a wedding in there somewhere...but I do not see anything like that in the current stuff. Wonder why my memory is fuzzy on this?!

M

poisonelf1

awesome episode.
i grew up on this era of spider-man.
i was also about the same age as you guys when reading these issues.
there are some fantastic story arcs during this era and you covered them all.
i was listening at work reliving my youth in my head it brought back some great memories and times.
thanks again for doing such a great job.

Caliban

Haven't listened to this yet but cannot wait.
Chris Eberle is delivering a Spider-Man master-class which is going to become a separate playlist of its own on my iPod.

matchkitJOHN

I had left comics in the early 80's and had been happy that I had missed the 90's but now I realized I may have missed out a lot in the 80's. Fortunately I have the Spider-man 40 years CD-ROMS. Another excellent episode.

Just curious how you guys are going to handle the last 3 years since everyone (including me) stopped reading after One More Day? I did finally get some trades last week from Fearless Readers for $5/book. I can get a taste of post-OMD.

dubbat138

This is the era of Spiderman when I started reading him. I was reading Amazing along with the reprints in Marvel Tales. Loved the Hobgoblin and really need to read that mini series that finally tells who the real Hobgoblin is.

poisonelf1

matchkitJOHN said:

I had left comics in the early 80's and had been happy that I had missed the 90's but now I realized I may have missed out a lot in the 80's. Fortunately I have the Spider-man 40 years CD-ROMS. Another excellent episode.

Just curious how you guys are going to handle the last 3 years since everyone (including me) stopped reading after One More Day? I did finally get some trades last week from Fearless Readers for $5/book. I can get a taste of post-OMD.

One more day!!!
The clone saga turned a lot of my generation off spiderman!
I'm not looking forward to them covering this era!!
Blah!!!!

Caliban

Playlist
Episodes
1215 - Silver
1235 - Bronze
1255 -Copper

alienal

Ahhh, this is the era in which I got rid of two collections of comics! So, I remember most of the 80's Spidey issues and to hear u all talk about them makes me wanna buy them again! On Defalco: well, maybe whoever his editor was is responsible for his excellence back then (as compared to now).
Richard Fisk the Rose, oh yeah, wasn't he called the Schemer at one point?
From '88 to '90 I was in grad school so I was reading comics sparingly. Like Mike, I just was never aware of Venom (except that FF issue Jamie mentioned) or Carnage that much.
I wish that they hadn't stopped Marvel Team-Up...

Mr_Cosmic

Silver Sable just played a major role in the story "Ends of the Earth."

Amazing Spider-Man #682-687
Amazing Spider-Man: Ends of the Earth #1
Avenging Spider-Man #8

matchkitJOHN

I was collecting in the 80's but would occasionally skim through at Waldenbooks or B Dalton Booksellers (just wanted to type that that kicks) and I picked the issue Vermin ate that lady and later the issue Jean DeWolfe died and that revealed pisses me off.

Greg

I can listen to these Spider-Man spotlights over and over again. Another great show guys, and I could listen to Chris talking about Spider-Man all day.

I have to give this another listen before I comment on the specifics of the show, so much Spidey goodness to discuss from this period.

nweathington

In regards to J.R.’s early work on Amazing, for most of that run, he wasn't doing full pencils, but rather something in between breakdowns and pencils. He didn't usually spot the blacks, so his inkers (Mooney, Milgrom, Wiacek, et al) made a huge difference in how the finished art looked. He didn't really start developing his style until his last year of that first run. You can see it clearly in the cover of Amazing #241, inked by Terry Austin:

LibraryBoy

This was when I started reading Spidey on at least a semi-regular basis, so I have a lot of good memories of this period. I've read a bunch of Roger Stern's work in the years since, but it was the DeFalco/Frenz run when I started picking them up off the stands, right about the time of the black costume, the introduction of the Puma, MJ revealing she knew Peter was Spider-Man, etc. As such, I think Frenz's Spider-Man is the Spider-Man I picture in my head when I think of the character, in that style that was reminiscent of Ditko but still very much his own.

I'd often bounce around to the other Spidey books at the time, too. Enjoyed the gang war stuff in Spectacular (mecha-Silvermane!), and though I dropped it pretty quickly, I was really excited by Web of Spider-Man when it kicked off because it felt like getting in on the ground floor. At least that first issue with the return and alleged death of the alien costume was pretty exciting at the time, especially since they had been teasing its escape from the Baxter Building for months. Was it ever revealed what/who it was that freed the thing in the first place?

This was a great period for Marvel Tales, too, which went back to reprinting from the beginning, and that was the first time I ever saw a lot of those stories. It was so strange to see Ditko's 60s work on the stands with all of the (then-) modern books, but that made it stand out all the more. I didn't like it as well at the time, but I also couldn't look away from it, either.

LibraryBoy

Some stand-out stories for me:

ASM 229 & 230 - Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut. Because, come on.

ASM 248 - The Kid Who Collected Spider-Man... ditto.

ASM 258 - The reveal of the black costume. Spoooooooooky. Also, the Bombastic Bag-Man debuts (one of Johnny Storm's better pranks, I thought)!

ASM 262 - A paparazzo gets a photo of Peter changing costume, and he has to track the dirtbag down to get it back. Very different than a lot of other comics I was reading at the time, and one of Marvel's better photo cover attempts.

ASM 269 & 270 - Spidey vs. Firelord. He managed to stop the Juggernaut and Mr. Hyde, but now he has to try and take down a former herald of Galactus. Love love love this story.

Spectacular 86 - Assistant Editor's Month story drawn by Fred Hembeck!

Spectacular 87 - Peter reveals his ID to Black Cat. It... doesn't go well.

Spectacular 99 & 100 - Because the Spot, that's why. I don't need to explain myself to you.

Marvel Team-Up 131 - The White Rabbit! Frog-Man! What's not to love?

MTU 137 - Aunt May and Franklin Richards take on Galactus!

Big_Daddy_Summers

Loved this era, especially all the Death of Jean DeWolff/Sin Eater stuff...

Stories like that really counted for stuff in those days.

sandman

Listening to this episode made think about the Spider-Man movies. There are so many good characters and stories to keep the movies going for along time without having to think about a reboot.

sandman

For me Spectacular Spider-Man was third place behind Amazing and Web Of. There were some good Spectacular issues, but over-all it seemed like the comics that I liked the most were Amazing and Web Of issues.

Gang War is my all-time favorite Spider-Man story. It even edges out Kraven's Last Hunt. As far as I know Gang War has never been collected, and it should be. The comics are old enough that there are plenty of readers that wouldn't have had the chance to read this story and they should. A collection of the 5 part story, along with Web of Spider-Man #30 for The Rose's origin, and maybe some other early Rose appearances, along with some of the Hobgoblin issues that lead up to Gang War, and you would have a really good collection.

BetaRayBen

My favorite era as well, as it was my introduction to superhero comics. The first comic book that I bought with my own money was Amazing Spider-Man #281, and it was an awesome time to be reading comics! Gang War, Kraven's Last Hunt, Venom, Hobgoblin, guest stars, and the whole nutty Peter Parker/Mary Jane soap opera ...

peedmyself

alienal said:

On Defalco: well, maybe whoever his editor was is responsible for his excellence back then (as compared to now).

That thought crossed my mind when I heard that he was partially responsible for this great run. I started reading ASM with 320 or 319 but went back and bought just about everything from the 80s. The only real loser that I remember was 264, which was so bad in comparison to what I had come to expect that it actually pissed me off at the time. It was a sign of Defalco to come.

I worked in a comic store in the late 80s/early 90s, and we had two sales guys from Marvel come out to give a presentation to the shops in our market. One of the store owners asked why Thor was so abysmal, and if anything could be done about Defalco's horrible writing and the awful covers that went with them. The sales guy actually admitted that Tom was horrible and acknowledged that the covers were terrible. He said that sales had tried to explain that splashing word boxes all over the covers weren't helping, but that Tom didn't want to listen. He was EIC and could do what he wanted. Absolute power crapifies Tom Defalco's comics absolutely.

Anyway, add me to the people that are liking Chris' input on these episodes. I think I'm going to go back and reread my run in the near future.

Greg

The grocery store and drug store I went to for comcis rotated Web and Spectacular each month, when one had Web the other had Spectacular, so each month I was covered, until issue #7 of Web. Starting with Web #7 both stores had the same issue of Web or Spectacular each month.

This era of John Romita Jr is my favorite. His modern style isn't bad, but I just don't like it as much as his early Spider-Man work.

I like Mcfarlane's art, but only when he is drawing his own creations. He's a talented artist but I never really liked his work on Hulk and Spider-Man.

Hobgoblin is one of my favorite Spidey villians. I wasn't disappointed in the reveal of Ned Leeds.

I really loved the demonized Hobgoblin, it just seemed right to me to have that villian be demonic.

The two Spider-Man animated series are goofy, but not as goofy as the Spider-Woman series that came before them. Amazing Friends is my absolute favorite cartoon of all time. I've been watching the animated Marvel stuff from 78-82 with my kids, we watch four to six episodes a day and just keep rotating through it all.

I cannot argue one bit with the issues @LibraryBoy listed.

In general, I was sad to see Marvel Team-Up go. I liked seeing Spidey teamed up with a different character each month, even if the stories turned out to be crap. I thought three dedicated Spider-man titles was too much, and even more so when the fourth title started.

BlackUmbrella

Gotta quit listening to this podcast. Keep learning about more and more runs I want to read.

I actually quit buying as a teenager because of that new black costume issue. I stopped in the Bargain Bookstore to buy it, along with whatever else I wanted that week, and the slot was empty. So I asked the owner if they were all gone, and he pointed to the wall behind him where it was already boarded, bagged and marked at $5.00. As I recall, he had more behind the counter, and seemed a little uncomfortable about it. I looked up at it, somewhat surprised, and said, "Oh." Kind of felt screwed. I think this was when I quit buying monthly comics for the most part, because it was almost getting competitive.

AxelBrass

These episodes with Professor Chris Eberle are excellent!

Webhead

Great Episode guys

One Spider-Man story that usually gets over looked is Mad Dog Ward. It is a good follow up to Kraven's Last Hunt and continues on the darker shift in Spider-Man. It was written by Ann Nocenti and penciled by Cyndy Martin.

I remember reading Kraven Last Hunt off the racks and when this came out it felt like a extension of K.L.H. It is not as good as the Kraven story but it is good.



Part 1 Web of Spider-Man #33
Part 2 Amazing Spider-Man #295
Part 3 Spectacular Spider-Man #133

Urbalcloud

Great episode! Glad to learn about the Wizard Masterpiece book, sounds like a convenient way to get some of the best of the era. I definitely plan to seek it out.

I had no idea Hobgoblin was so important during the period. It's nice to get perspective on the villain dynamic of the period.

Chris Eberle continues to shine as a guest Geek. Any chance he'll make the leap to a larger role?

Thanks for the informative episode. Look forward to the next one!

DAR

I am very much enjoying Chris' input for not only these episodes but some of the others he's appeared on recently. I know you'll be busy with the store but your input is very valuable.

And I love the banter between him and Murd, for some reason these guys came to mind:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BYC_7QNMySA/T7JKIjcSjsI/AAAAAAAA50Q/IAuXsQMmRrk/s1600/Goofy-Gophers-Cartoon-Photos.jpg

Krescan

Great episode and Chris is great with the geeks on these Spider-man ones.

It's funny recently a character had something significant happen to him/her in ASM and I didn't care that much. Listening to the episode and them not knowing whether or not the mentioned person had appeared lately made me a little more sad about the situation.

And that's as much as I can dance around the subject without giving too much away, hopefully anyway.

Chuck_Melville

While I recall that the 80's were a peak period for Spider-Man, I also recall that the end of that decade and the start of the next were when I started to lose my interest in the books. While a lot of praise has been heaped on the Kraven's Last Hunt story arc, I wasn't as impressed. It was okay, but, being a J M DeMatteis story -- I've seldom enjoyed any DeMatteis story -- it ran along the usual psychological/spiritual themes he likes to explore. It did have a solid punch at the end, but the main of the story always felt a bit overdone to me.

The arrival of McFarlane and Larsen pretty much killed my interest in the Spider-titles, since I never liked either artist's work. McFarlane especially, as I've always felt he was a clunky visual storyteller, but I was especially put off by his visual approach: he had the Ditko thinness and creepiness right, but his Anime-styled eyes and rope-thick webs just looked and felt wrong. I tried to keep up with just getting Spectacular Spider-Man, which was still being drawn by Sal Buscema, but the Ultimate Carnage story was pretty much the last straw for me for a long time to follow.

Big_Daddy_Summers

McFarlane, Leifield, and foil/hologram covers pretty much killed comics for me for a decade.

TheMarvelMan

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! As enjoyable as ever! Yet nobody mentioned the "original" origin of Venom? Was this an over-sight? Or does the esteemed panel of Spidey Gurus not know "what might have been"?!

TheMarvelMan

OK, I'll give you a hint. Venom's first appearance was looooong before his "official" first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man. It was in the title that was given very short shrift in this episode: Web of Spider-Man. Hint. Hint. Any takers? Who here REALLY knows Spidey history?!