Spectacular Spider-Man 95

The Dagger at the End of the Tunnel
By Al Milgrom, Jim Mooney
Oct 84

- Spidey is injured from his fight with Silvermane; Black Cat helps him get home and into bed and then she leaves him to rest
-Silvermane continues to search for Dagger
- Dagger continues to be plagued by weakness which she can't understand but somehow seems to be tied to Silvermane and the fact that she's the one who killed him
- Spider-Man's costume possesses him while he is sleeping and had him go out swinging around; he later returns unaware of what he has been up to; not sure if that is going to be revealed in a future ish of SSM or possibly in the current ish of ASM
- the Answer is the one who first figures out about the connection between Dagger and Silvermane, he also contacts the Rose (on the Kingpin's behalf) and gives him a job
- the Rose doesn't understand the request but follows orders
- Black Cat goes out looking for C&D while Peter is sleeping, then she sees Spidey swing by; she calls out to him but he doesn't respond or give any indication he heard her; eventually she tracks down a lead which leads her to the docks; she seems to be jealous of Dagger even though Spidey seems to be with BC he keeps talking about D
- Kingpin is concerned about his wife who still hasn't recovered from the events of DD 180; maybe he thinks Dagger can cure her?
- the docks is where the Rose has laid a trap for C&D
- Peter wakes up back on bed and puts the the black costume on and goes out; he calls Ben Urich who gives him some intel about a big drug deal down on the docks
- everyone winds up at the docks in the end: C&D, Spidey, BC, Answer, Silvermane, the Rose; a big fight ensues; it ends with (1) the Answer flying in and swooping off with Dagger and (2) Silvermane jumping into Cloak's cape and Cloak disappearing

- was this the first reference to the Dark Dinension in a C&D story? (p. 16)
- reference to ASM Annual 18 which involves J Jonah Jameson on a page where they show what's going on in the lives of some of the supporting characters of Spidey's books
- lots going on

The Fade Out 1

The Wild Party
By Ed Brubaker, Sean Philips, Elizabeth Breitweiser, and David Brothers
Aug 2014

- Charlie Hirsch, a screen writer, wakes up in a bathtub in Los Angeles in the Fall of 1948; he can't remember how he got there or where there is
- bit by bit Charlie manages to put some of the pieces together
- he remembers helping Gil Mason, another writer, after he got beat up at the Brown Derby
- he remembers going to a party thrown by Earl Rath, a big shot actor and then he remembers a little more and walks out into the living room and finds the body of Valeria Sommers, an up and coming actress, who was also at Rath's party
- she was strangled, he can see the bruises on her neck
- instead of calling the police he does his best to remove all traces that he was there and heads to the studio
- Charlie crashes in his office and dreams of men without faces, he is woken later by Dotty Quinn, publicity girl, who tells him of the news he already knows, he acts surprised
- Charlie gets summoned to Phil Brodsky's office, head of security; Brodsky gives him a hard time for being seen with Gil a known Commie whom Charlie named to HUAC (?)
- Brodsky also wants to hear what Charlie knows about Valeria and lets drop that they are going to spin it as a suicide
- Charlie gets a peak at a picture on Brodsky's desk of Val hanging but she was on the ground when he left and still wearing her hose which are around her neck in the picture
- remembers a little more about last night and wonders about his complicity in the cover up by the studio
- he gets home, Gil is waiting for him; Gil is his writing partner or maybe Charlie is just a front for Gil; Gil tells him a story about an idea he had for a Hope and Crosby Road movie, The Road to Berlin
- as the issue ends Charlie finds a pair of black panties in his pocket and starts to think that maybe he's the one that killed Valeria

- a little confusing but a couple extra reads helped me to see something's clearer
- great job with the tone, feels very much like a noir
- love that the back matter is included

5/27

Spectacular Spider-Man 94

How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down at the Morgue After They've Seen N.Y.C.?
By Bill Mantlo, Al Milgrom, Jim Mooney
Sep 84

- Kingpin, with some help from some scientists and the Answer, revives Silvermane and sends him out to run some errands, but not before placing a submission collar around his neck
- Cloak and Dagger rough up some drug dealers but Dagger discovers that something has happened to her powers to make them inert
- Spider-Man runs into Silvermane while he is chasing a common criminal, they fight and Silvermane beats the heck out of Spidey
- Kingpin and friends seem to lose control of Silvermane
- Spidey shows up at the Black Cat's apartment out of breath and badly beaten

- not crazy about Spidey's black outfit
- the Answer's 1st Appearance was in SSM 91
- this Kingpin Appearance is post Miller Daredevil; DD 210 (Sep 84)
- although C&D aren't in it the story in this issue seems to flow out of the story in the previous one which is not included in this collection
- a little confusing but knowing that there's more to this story that isn't in this collection helps

5/26

It Rhymes with Lust - Ch 6

Chapter 6: The Serpent Coils

- Rust and Monk rush to the mine with some muscle to try and fix the situation which is spinning out of control
- the miners aren't receptive to Rust's demands; one of them gets shot down when he tries charging Rust
- Rust and Monk get in a large bucket and have Tiny raise them up above the crowd
- Jeffers shows up and starts the bucket moving again; Monk tries to shoot the controls but only hits Jeffers, killing him
- the bucket reaches the top and spills Rust and Monk to their deaths
- peace is restored in Copper City

- last chapter seems very Rust focused even though Hal is the main character

5/24

It Rhymes with Lust - Ch 5

Chapter 5: The Counterplot

- Using all the information he has gathered about Rust and her underhanded business, Hal spends the night writing an expose which he gets finished in time for the next day's paper
- Jeffers tries to make the most of the expose to his own benefit
- the Times publishes an extra edition claiming that what the Express is printing is all lies

5/20

Avengers (1963) 92

All Things Must End!
By Roy Thomas, Sal Buscema
Sep 1971

In the aftermath of their battle with Ronan the Accuser and Sentry 459, the Avengers are brought before a Presidential Commission (the Alien Activities Commission) to answer questions about the Kree; specifically why they have been protecting Mar-Vell
- 3 technicians - the ones fromthe Avengers previous adventure on Alaska, who were turned into cavemen by Ronan, are the ones who spill the beans about the Kree
- H. Warren Craddock - appointed by the president to run the AAC; 153 alien spies
- Carol Danvers - crash lands in a helicopter at Avengers HQ; she is there to return the favor to Captain Marvel for saving her life numerous times including in this issue
- Nick Fury and Dum Dum Dugan - in SHIELD jets are there to keep an eye on the Avengers; gets into argument with HWC; Fury lets Danvers and Mar-Vell escape and sites The American internment camps of WWII as his reason
- the Invaders - briefly shown or at least it looks like them
- Avengers venture outside the brownstone and are served with a summons to appear before the Committee
- anti-Avenger demonstrations
- in the midst of the hearings Rick Jones remembers a dream he had the night before and realizes that Captain Marvel and Carol Danvers are in danger and runs out

5/19

It Rhymes with Lust - Ch 4

Chapter 4: Indecision

- Hal finally seems to wise up
- first Hal makes up with Audrey; then they go to see what Rust is up to; they suspect she is planning to kill Jeffers
- they confront Rust but this time Audrey is the one who winds up rushing off and Hal is the one who sticks around
- Hal seems to be torn between Audrey on the one hand and Rust and drinking on the other; for the moment he seems to side with Rust but maybe that's just an act
- on orders from Rust, Hal helps One of her henchmen (Tiny) to dump the unconscious Jeffers on the outskirts of town, then he heads back to his place
- there's message waiting for him from Rust telling him to come on over, he decides not to and is about to have a drink when he sees one of Audrey's gloves that she left behind when she ran off
- he holds the bottle in one hand and the glove in the other trying to decide between the two; the chapter ends with him smashing the bottle

- Rust's declaration about what Hal really wants
- Monk trying to get some from Rust and being rebuffed

Marvel Team-Up Annual 6

The Hunters and the Hunted!
By Bill Mantlo, Ron Frenz, Jevin Dzuban
1983

- Spider-Man and the New Mutants guest-starring Cloak and Dagger
- New Mutants: Cannonball, Psyche, Wolfsbane, Sunspot
- published at the same time as Marvel Comics cover dated Oct 1983 including New Mutants 8, in other words very early in their publication history; at this point they were still wearing their costumes that looked like the old X-Men uniforms

- New Mutants? Why New? Who refers to themselves that way? I feel the same about the name New Teen Titans; it's fine for a title but not the actual team's name

- Spider-Man runs into C&D on the docks, taking down some criminals breaking down stolen cars, but it turns out also have ties to gangsters doing drug experiments on teenagers like the one that gave C&D their powers; the difference is that they want to create super-powered teenagers that they can control, find bodies of teens killed in the experiments

- C&D's responses to the appearance of Spidey; Spider-Man? Spider-Man!

- New Mutants in Manhattan, in civilian attire; just leaving the theater after seeing Cats (the musical); go into an arcade, get into a fight; they leave but are followed and get into a fight with a big gang
- Wolfsbane and Sunspot get knocked out and dragged away by a couple mobsters, who work for the same criminals that are trying to repeat the experiment that created C&D; Cannonball and Psyche don't notice their teammates are gone until it is too late
- Spidey, C&D, Cannonball and Psyche all wind up at the Holy Ghost Church on 42nd St run by Father Francis Xavier Delgado; at first it looks like they might fight but then they decide to team-up to look for Sunspot and Wolfsbane
- the team of 5 finds the other two New Mutants but it is too late, they have already been injected with the experimental drug; SS and WB break free and start attacking everyone (gangsters, superheros) in a crazed state
- Cloak heals Sunspot when Sunspot jumps into his cape; Wolfsbane bites Dagger which infects her with the drug just as Dagger hits WB with her light daggers which cure WB; Dagger then attacks Cloak; somehow he is able to cure her
- afterward Spidey suggests that maybe Professor X could help C&D; they like the idea but reject it because they want to work things out themselves

- not great; C&D still seem a little one-note; they are all about being vigilantes and not accepting help from others

It Rhymes with Lust - Ch 3

By Drake Waller, Matt Baker, and Ray Osrin
OGN

Chapter 3: Deadly Female

- Rust ruthlessly bargains with Jeffers and then with X
-At first Hal refuses to believe the evidence but then, after a little convincing from Audrey he starts to see the light: Rust is behind the bombing
- Hal gets another visit from the cabbie who has scoop for him about Rust this time, her mining company is running a very unsafe operation which is putting many lives in danger
- Hal and the cabbie go to investigate the mines themselves and almost get killed; Hal plans to do a story about the unsafe mining operation but then he gets a call from Rust
- Hal goes to visit Rust who claims that it's Jeffers fault, he is in charge of safety at the mine, she knew nothing; Hal starts to come around to her perspective when Audrey walks in just in time to catch Hal and Rust embracing
- Rust tells Hal to take a walk and then slaps Audrey around
- not great, a but formulaic
- there was one part that read kind of weird where I didn't follow Hal's logic
- it seems like Hal's heart belongs to whomever he has been with most recently

5/13

Avengers (1963) 91

Take One Giant Step -- Backward!
By Roy Thomas, Sal Buscema
Aug 1971

- Yellowjacket, who has been turned into a primitive by Ronan, runs off with the Wasp
- Vision, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Rick Jones battle Kree Sentry 459 and Goliath
- Ronan argues with his prisoner Mar-Vell as he explains his plan to revert humanity to a primitive state using the Evo-Ray, and then later to amoebas
- Goliath is knocked out by Vision but Scarlet Witch and Vision are then captured the Sentry 459 and taken back to The Kree Citadel
- Sentry 459 reveals that he analyzed Visions powers and programmed himself to turn Vision's powers against himself
- Vision and Scarlet Witch almost share a kiss while captured, but Vision backs off at the last second unable to go thru with it because he is just a machine
- Rick Jones and Quicksilver break into the Citadel and RJ destroys the power source that is keeping Mar-Vell imprisoned using the Captain's Uni-Beam
- Ronan gets a call telling him to return to the Kree Homeworld because the Kree are now at war with the Skrulls and he quickly departs
- the Avengers finish off Sentry 459
- With the power source destroyed Yellowjacket reverts back to human form
- as the Avengers prepare to leave the island begins to turn icy again and the Kree Citadel sinks below the ice

- love the almost kiss and the evil look on Ronan's face as he observes it
- not great but lots of fun

5/12

It Rhymes with Lust - Ch 2

By Drake Waller, Matt Baker, and Ray Osrin
OGN

Chapter 2: Caught in the Web

- a week has gone by and although he hasn't seen her Hal can't get Audrey out if his head; then she comes to see him at the office and takes him back to her place, for lunch
- Hal gets a call from an unknown person who has damning information about Marcus Jeffers; the mystery man turns out to be the cabbie who have him a ride from the train station when he first arrived in town
- Hal calls Rust and tells her he's got something on Jeffers; she insists on meeting at a cabin; he (unsuccessfully) tries to play it cool but quickly succumbs to Rusts charms and finds himself being unfaithful to Audrey
- Rust uses the information she gets about Jeffers to order a hit on one of his gambling dens; this is after telling Hal to investigate the club

5/11

Avengers (1963) 90

Judgment Day
By Roy Thomas, Sal Buscema
Jul 1971

- Vision, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Rick Jones fight back against the Kree Sentry but are unable to prevent it from abducting Mar-Vell
- the Avengers head back to Avengers Mansion and along the way get a history lesson from Rock Jones about Mar-Vell, Ronan the Accuser, and the Kree Sentries
- just as they get back to the mansion they receive a message from Goliath that Wasp and Yellowjacket are in Alaska and in need of assistance; Goliath is already on his way north
- Goliath arrives before the others and finds Wasp in tears; she explains what happened, about the island they found in the arctic circle with a tropical atmosphere and how Yellowjacket forced Wasp to turn around while he continued to investigate
- Goliath leaves Wasp behind and heads for the island where he is attacked by Kree Sentry 459 and Ronan the Accuser
- the other Avengers arrive and along with Wasp head for the island where they also encounter the Sentry and Ronan the Accuser plus Holiath who looks as though he has been hypnotized
- Ronan explains his plan (as many comic book villains are wont to do) and then brings out Yellowjacket who has been mutated into a giant man-ape

- Ronan's plan?
- Rick Jones history lesson?
- Vision and the Kree Sentry; brothers; analysis of Vision's powers

- Jarvis getting bowled over by the Avengers quick departure
- Hank slapping Janet
-Clint's thought of his former girlfriends: Natasha and Wanda

5/9

It Rhymes with Lust - Ch 1

By Arnold Drake, Reed Waller, Matt Baker, Ray Osrin
OGN

Chapter 1

- Hal Weber rolls into Copper City on the same day that Rust Masson is burying her husband; he is there at her request
- Hal and Rust were a couple 10 years ago; she left him; she needs his help discrediting a local politician; Hal also learns that Rust owns both of the town's newspapers, the Times and the Express, the one he works for although  it's a well kept secret that she owns the Express which is critical of her
- Audrey, Rust's step-daughter, wants nothing to do with her step-mother, and seems to fall hard for Hal or does she, maybe it's all just a ploy

- so far I like it; not too sophisticated but I like the way that Hal gets himself caught between Audrey and Rust so quickly

5/6

Spectacular Spider-Man 82

Crime and Punishment!
By Bill Mantlo, Al Milgrom, Jim Mooney
Sep 1983

- Part 2
- the Punisher, on a rooftop, dealing out justice to a man who attacks his wife one minute and to a litterbug the next
- Spidey visits the Kingpin to warn him but KP already knows what's coming and has made preparations
- the first to arrive is C&D; Spidey spars with them, in effect defending KP which gives KP a chance to escape into another room where the Punisher is waiting for him
- running from Dagger's light knives Spidey ducks into another room and runs into a bunch of KP's goons who aren't overjoyed to see him and do their best to take him down
- C&D catch up to Spidey and help to end that fight before renewing their battle with web head; Spidey gets sucked into Cloak's cape once again and only escapes when Dagger's light knives follow him in and show him the way out
- for the first (?) time Cloak seems to benefit from Dagger's light knives and says something about feeding off of the light, which creeps Spidey out
- it looks like Punisher has the upper hand but KP manages to defeat him, KP gets especially angry when Punisher threatens Vanessa, his wife

- this is it for Cloak and Dagger, for now, the Punisher's part of the story continues in the next issue

Hellblazer 180

Red Sepulchre (Part 4)
By Mike Carey and Macelo Frusin
Mar 2003

- John breaks free from his handlers, whom he has tricked into believing that they have killed Clarice and Albert
- John makes his way back to Domine Fredericks home; he has figured out the secret behind the RS
- back at DF's home he unleashes the RS on the one guard standing in his way; the RS is a garrote, it was disguised as the drawstring for a duffle bag; it turns the guard into a murderous rage; he attacks and kills two of his mates before turning on DF
- DF still has sway over Gemma but Clarice and Albert work some magic to push Gemma into a trance so that DF can't kill her
- John disables the spell that the RS is using to control the guard who killed his 2 mates plus DF
- the RS was originally a treasure of the the death cult of the phansigars as John explained in chapter 3 to Gemma and DF, who worship Kali
- the story ends with Kohn and Clarice wondering why DF wanted the RS; something about DF wanting it to open 3 doors, one of those being the door between the living and the dead

- when I bought it, based on the description on the back I thought that the girl on the cover to the trade was Gemma but once I got into it I started thinking it was supposed to Angie; the only problem with that is that It was also the cover to Hellblazer 180 and Angie isn't in that chapter but the cover artist doesn't do the interiors and who knows what sort of instructions he was getting or if he knew what the content of the issue was going to be or if he even has any say in choosing which image goes on which issue
- this was my first time reading Hellblazer and based on reading this I want to continue reading Mike Carey's run on the book

- thugees
- phansigars

Spectacular Spider-Man 81

Stalkers in they Shadows
By Bill Mantlo, Al Milgrom, Jim Mooney
Aug 1983

- part 1 of 2
- with some help from Boomerang who is also incarcerated there, Punisher breaks out of Dannemora State Prison; he double crosses Boomerang at the last minute so only the Punisher escapes
- Peter helps his landlady, mrs. Muggins to fight off some addicts
- Cloak and Dagger tangle with the same addicts a few minutes later, not realizing that Peter (the kid who they saw fighting them off) is also Spider-Man; using her light daggers Dagger cures the junkies
- Punisher shows up just after C&D depart to interrogate them to learn whom they were getting drugs from
- Peter goes to visit Felicia Hardy (Black Cat) in the hospital although he has to change into costume to get past the policemen and women guarding her, including Captain Jean DeWolff
- Spidey investigates a boarded up building that he is swinging by when his spider-sense starts tingling and he finds C&D surrounded by the bodies of the junkies; he suspects them of killing the druggies and also reiterates his belief that Cloak must have some sort of hold on Dagger; after unsuccessfully  trying to take down Cloak, Dagger shows him that he's wrong
- by lighting up the room she enables him to see that they were shot with bullets, laced with a sedative according to Cloak
- the Punisher stands alone on a rooftop and states his plan to kill the man behind the drugs, the Kingpin

- better than the last three issues, possibly due to the inclusion of the Punisher

I now want to read some or most of the stories that fall in between SSM 70 and 81

Punisher
- Punisher is by no means a new character at this point
- he first appeared in ASM 129 (1974) but other than a couple stories in black and white comic book magazines he had only made guest appearances (mostly in Spidey's books) up to this point
- his appearance in this story is about a year after his appearances in Frank Miller's run on Daredevil
- just prior to this story he had appeared in SSM 78, 79 and just following this story in SSM 83 (which is not included in this collection) he goes on trial
- it would be a couple more years before he would get his first mini-series: Circle of Blood

Black Cat
- first appeared in ASM 194 (Jul 1979)
- had about a dozen appearances combined prior to this in ASM and SSM

Hellblazer 179

Red Sepulchre (Part 3)
By Mike Carey and Macelo Frusin
Feb 2003

- John tells Gemma (and Domine Fredericks) about some of their family's history; Gemma loves the story but doesn't love what her uncle wants her to do, leave DF
- Clarice Sackville sends the demon she summoned to DF's place to retrieve the RS; the demon wrecks a lot of havoc but in the end is stopped
- the demon's attack gives John a chance to contact Map but doesn't get much in the way of help from him
- once the demon has been dispatched DF's right hand man takes a couple of his men plus John to hunt down Clarice and friends

- this story gets better the further I get into it: loved the family history and the uneasy alliances
- the book (or maybe it's just this story) reminds of what I assume BPRD must be like
- the art of Marcelo Frusin is killer and Lee Loughridge does a spectacular job with the colors
- I love the look of the demon and the action sequences are beautifully detailed