Post by B5Erik on Jul 6, 2022 3:17:55 GMT
Marvel Graphic Novel 72: Spider-Man 'Fear Itself'
Story by Gerry Conway
Script by Gerry Conway and Stan Lee
Pencils by Ross Andru - Inks by Mike Esposito
Story by Gerry Conway
Script by Gerry Conway and Stan Lee
Pencils by Ross Andru - Inks by Mike Esposito
The Marvel Graphic Novel series ran a pretty long course in the 80's and early 90's. One of the more noteworthy issues of this graphic novel series was this one, not just because of the story, but because of who created it.
Gerry Conway had a distinguished run on The Amazing Spider-Man in the 1970's. He teamed up with artist Ross Andru on a fantastic run for the title (a run that actually started with art by John Romita and Gil Kane). Conway did a great job with the title, writing some exceptional stories, while Ross Andru did a fantastic job taking over for a couple legends. Andru may just be the most underrated of all the Spider-Man artists. His work featured some amazing use of perspective and angles, and he featured real New York landmarks in his artwork, giving the title more realism. His ability to show action also has to be ranked among the all time best. In other words, this was a legendary creative team.
Fast forward more than a decade and a half and that team was back together, including inker Mike Esposito, who had done a very good job following up legendary inker Frank Giacoia. The Andru/Esposito team was very highly regarded back in the late 60's at DC, and again in the mid 70's on The Amazing Spider-Man for Marvel. The band was back together for a one off story that would fit in with the current 1992 continuity, but could also stand alone outside of that continuity.
This story, too, was different from the standard issue Spider-Man stories. This one featured Baron Zemo, Silver Sable, an invisible ninja, and, believe it or not, Adolf Hitler. Yep, this one is a Nazi story that would have fit in well in a Captain America title. But this time Spidey got his shot at stopping the Nazis. While you could be forgiven for thinking that sounds cheesy and out of place, the way that Conway wrote the story it makes sense and it works well. Spider-Man gets inadvertently caught up in the plot as Harry Osborn (at that point in charge of his father's old business) has some rather top secret, and very dangerous, materials stolen from a rather secure facility. Peter Parker goes to Harry as a representative of The Daily Bugle, and finds out how dangerous those materials were, and so he becomes involved because, well, because with great power comes great responsibility. Now that he knows about it, he can't just let it go.
The story is very well written, and it's hard to tell which parts of the dialogue were written by Stan and which parts were written by Gerry. It flows really well.
As for the art, well, it's not up to the standards that the Andru/Esposito team set in the 70's.
It's not bad, it's just a little rough in spots. Part of that is probably due to age, part of it could be due to the book's length both Andru and Esposito had to rush, and part of it could very well be that the style of the times was rougher and less polished than in the mid 70's, and both of them were influenced by that. It's impossible to know for sure why, but, ultimately, the story still works and the art, while a little disappointing, isn't bad. Check it out...
So, not bad at all. Pretty good, actually, even if not up to their previous standards. Andru still did a great job with the composition, perspective, angles, and action. Fantastic. So, yeah, it's a little more rough and raw (a stronger job by Esposito could have fixed most of that) - not unlike this team's work on the first issue of Marvel Team-up - but still quite good.
In the end, this is a really good story with some good dialogue and a classic art team that still knows how to tell a great story, visually.
4 out of 5
Gerry Conway had a distinguished run on The Amazing Spider-Man in the 1970's. He teamed up with artist Ross Andru on a fantastic run for the title (a run that actually started with art by John Romita and Gil Kane). Conway did a great job with the title, writing some exceptional stories, while Ross Andru did a fantastic job taking over for a couple legends. Andru may just be the most underrated of all the Spider-Man artists. His work featured some amazing use of perspective and angles, and he featured real New York landmarks in his artwork, giving the title more realism. His ability to show action also has to be ranked among the all time best. In other words, this was a legendary creative team.
Fast forward more than a decade and a half and that team was back together, including inker Mike Esposito, who had done a very good job following up legendary inker Frank Giacoia. The Andru/Esposito team was very highly regarded back in the late 60's at DC, and again in the mid 70's on The Amazing Spider-Man for Marvel. The band was back together for a one off story that would fit in with the current 1992 continuity, but could also stand alone outside of that continuity.
This story, too, was different from the standard issue Spider-Man stories. This one featured Baron Zemo, Silver Sable, an invisible ninja, and, believe it or not, Adolf Hitler. Yep, this one is a Nazi story that would have fit in well in a Captain America title. But this time Spidey got his shot at stopping the Nazis. While you could be forgiven for thinking that sounds cheesy and out of place, the way that Conway wrote the story it makes sense and it works well. Spider-Man gets inadvertently caught up in the plot as Harry Osborn (at that point in charge of his father's old business) has some rather top secret, and very dangerous, materials stolen from a rather secure facility. Peter Parker goes to Harry as a representative of The Daily Bugle, and finds out how dangerous those materials were, and so he becomes involved because, well, because with great power comes great responsibility. Now that he knows about it, he can't just let it go.
The story is very well written, and it's hard to tell which parts of the dialogue were written by Stan and which parts were written by Gerry. It flows really well.
As for the art, well, it's not up to the standards that the Andru/Esposito team set in the 70's.
It's not bad, it's just a little rough in spots. Part of that is probably due to age, part of it could be due to the book's length both Andru and Esposito had to rush, and part of it could very well be that the style of the times was rougher and less polished than in the mid 70's, and both of them were influenced by that. It's impossible to know for sure why, but, ultimately, the story still works and the art, while a little disappointing, isn't bad. Check it out...
So, not bad at all. Pretty good, actually, even if not up to their previous standards. Andru still did a great job with the composition, perspective, angles, and action. Fantastic. So, yeah, it's a little more rough and raw (a stronger job by Esposito could have fixed most of that) - not unlike this team's work on the first issue of Marvel Team-up - but still quite good.
In the end, this is a really good story with some good dialogue and a classic art team that still knows how to tell a great story, visually.
4 out of 5