DAUGHTERS OF THE DRAGON: DEADLY HANDS

"DAUGHTERS OF THE DRAGON" | "SWORD OF VENGEANCE"
Writer: Chris Claremont | Artist: Marshall Rogers
Letterers: Irving Watanabe w/Karen Mantlo | Editor: John Warner

In early 1977, Chris Claremont was at possibly the most diverse phase of his career. He had not yet become the man known exclusively for writing mutant titles. Instead, he was the regular writer on UNCANNY X-MEN and IRON FIST; he had just added MS. MARVEL to that same résumé, and within a few months, MARVEL TEAM-UP would include Spider-Man's adventures among his monthly credits as well.

Marvel was pretty diverse at the time too, publishing, among other things, a line of black-and-white magazines alongside their color comics. The magazines were not restricted by the guidelines of the Comics Code Authority, allowing creators greater freedom with the content of their stories. One of these periodicals was DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG-FU, which had, over the years, been a showcase for characters like Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, and the Sons of the Tiger. Finally, for the series' last two issues, Claremont teamed up with artist Marshall Rogers for a series about Colleen Wing and Misty Knight, supporting characters from his IRON FIST series now striking out on their own.

PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #45

"WINGS OF FIRE, WINGS OF FEAR"
Writer: Roger Stern | Penciler: Marie Severin | Inker: Steve Mitchell
Letterer: Michael Higgins | Colorist: Glynis Wein | Editor: Dennis O'Neil
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Spider-Man manages to escape from his coffin after it has left the sight of the Vulture and his men. While Vulture leads a toast to celebrate the web-slinger's demise, Black Alfred shows up. Knowing that Alfred has been conspiring against him, the Vulture smacks him around a bit, until Spider-Man crashes back into the room, still chained up. Vulture grabs Malachai and retreats, and Black Alfred makes a run for it as well -- but Spider-Man and the remaining mobsters are trapped in the building, now set ablaze by the furnace following the wall-crawler's escape.

Spider-Man snaps his chains and leads the criminals to safety, webbing them to a lamppost outside. Black Alfred, meanwhile, sneaks up on the Vulture and Malachai in an alleyway and guns down the Vulture's nephew. Vulture flies into a vengeful rage, but Spider-Man rescues Black Alfred from a fatal beating. Spidey and the Vulture take their battle airborne while the police arrive to arrest Black Alfred.

Vulture carries Spider-Man across the city and the fight eventually ends in Grand Central Station, where the Vulture knocks himself out by flying into a window while attempting escape. The authorities take the Vulture into custody while Spider-Man heads to the Daily Globe for the street clothes he had stashed there earlier, and changes back to Peter Parker.

PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #44

"THE VENGEANCE GAMBIT"
Writer/Co-Plotter: Marv Wolfman | Layouts/Co-Plotter: Steve Leialoha
Finished Art: Al Gordon | Letterer: Michael Higgins | Colorist: Ben Sean
Editor: Dennis O'Neil | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: As he swings through the city on a cold winter's night, Spider-Man spots a funeral procession. He snaps some pictures and moves on, as the procession arrives at a church. The attendees are all gangsters looking to take over New York's underworld, and have gathered to pay their respects to one of their own, Big Louie. The funeral is presided over by Malachai Toomes, who announces that his uncle has the firmest grasp on the underworld, but he will allow the assembled gangsters to serve him if they will each procure for him a valuable item of his choosing.

The next day, a mobster named Harry Dolenz attempts to steal a jade statue at a Chinese New Year's parade in Chinatown, but is gunned down by men working for his rival, Black Alfred. Peter Parker, covering the parade for the Daily Globe, inadvertently winds up with the killing captured on film. When he realizes this the next day, Peter vows to solve the murder. Later, Black Alfred murders another of his rivals, Mancini, at an elevated train track, while at the same time, Spider-Man shakes down some hoods elsewhere in the city and learns that Dolenz's body was taken to the Taylor Building. The wall-crawler pulls records on the building, learning that it is owned by Malachai Toomes, and that Toomes is the nephew of one of his oldest enemies.

THE UNBOXING - MAY 2014

This month's box is small in content but large in quality, thanks to the long, long, long awaited UNCANNY X-MEN OMNIBUS volume 2. Volume 1 was one of Marvel's very first Omnibus collections and was released eight years ago, in 2006. Let's put that in perspective. The time between the releases of volumes 1 and 2 is longer than the amount of time the X-Men were in reprints in the seventies. It's longer than the amount of years' worth of issues contained in both books together, even taking into account that UNCANNY X-MEN was bi-monthly for much of the first volume! It's a long time!

But it's here at last, and mostly worth the wait. Since I probably won't be writing about this run of issues individually for quite some time, if ever, due to the huge number of sites and blogs that have already done so, I've decided that for now I'll compose a single, stand-alone post about the book itself for next weekend. For now, though, I'm just pleased to have this titanic tome nestled snugly beside volume 1 in my overcrowded bookcase.

The only other arrival this month is TRANSFORMERS: REGENERATION ONE volume 4, which concludes IDW's commitment to finishing out the original Marvel TRANSFORMERS series. As I noted when volume 3 arrived, I will read both 3 and 4 together and then blog about them in a series of posts as I did with the first two volumes last year. Currently, my plan is to get these posts started exactly one year after I began the previous round, which would start us off in September -- so watch for that a few months from now.

And that's it! I'm back from the honeymoon, rested, refreshed, and ready to continue blabbing about comic books.

UNION JACK: LONDON FALLING

Writer: Christos Gage | Penciler: Mike Perkins | Inker: Andrew Hennessy
Colorist: Laura Villari | Letterer: Cory Petit | Production: Brad Johnson
Assistant Editor: Daniel Ketchum | Editor: Andy Schmidt
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada | Publisher: Dan Buckley

After the UNION JACK mini-series by Ben Raab and John Cassaday, Jack fell dormant once again for a few years. He was picked up for the brief NEW INVADERS series, which continued the Baroness storyline from Raab's series, and which I may someday review here. But his next occasion headlining a mini-series came in 2006, when Christos Gage and Mike Perkins joined forces on UNION JACK: LONDON FALLING.

LONDON FALLING does not pack the emotional punch of the previous story, nor does it contain the moody, atmospheric artwork of John Cassaday. But that's okay, because it's just as entertaining in its own way. Where Raab's UNION JACK was a small, personal story focusing on character over all else, Gage brings us Union Jack as an action movie.

In a nice touch of continuity, the story begins with Joey Chapman more or less where we left him after the Raab/Cassaday series. The opening scene sees him battling a trio of vampires, his narration noting that taking on such creatures is a Union Jack tradition. Joey also spends some time reminiscing about his late father, a character element which was introduced in Raab's story.

PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #43

"PRETTY POISON"
Writer: Roger Stern | Penciler: Mike Zeck | Inker: Steve Mitchell
Letterer: John Costanza | Colorist: Bob Sharen | Editor: Dennis O'Neil
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: The Empire State University science lab is robbed of some common chemicals by a group of masked men. Graduate student Peter Parker tags one of them with a Spider-Tracer, then, after giving his statement to the police, changes into Spider-Man canvasses the city in search of his tracking device. He eventually zeroes in on the men -- along with their leader, a woman named Belladonna -- invading the office of fashion magnate Roderick Kingsley. Spider-Man saves Kingsley from the villains, but thanks to Belladonna's sense-dulling gases, the group escapes.

Peter does some research on Kingsley, learns that he has a fashion show coming up a day later, and covers the show under the guise of his night job as a news photographer in order to watch for a return engagement from Belladonna. Sure enough, she arrives in dramatic fashion, defiling Kingsley's new clothing line, then demanding all valuables from the assembled patrons. Spider-Man once more comes to Kingsley's aid and saves the day, but Belladonna and her men escape again.

SPIDER-MAN BY ROGER STERN

"I just tried to write about the guy I'd started reading about fourteen years earlier. He was maybe a few years older -- and he'd been through a lot -- but he was still Spider-Man. I don't know how many times I'd read and reread the stories that preceded mine -- especially the ones that Stan had written -- but I probably knew Peter better than I knew anyone I'd ever gone to school with (after all, I was never privy to my friends' innermost thoughts)."

-- "Roger Stern, the Spectacular Spider-Writer",

MARVEL SPOTLIGHT: SPIDER-MAN, Marvel Comics, March 2007

While regarded by many as the most definitive Spider-Man short of Stan Lee, Roger Stern's issues, aside from certain "evergreen" classics like "Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut" and the Hobgoblin saga, have rarely been reprinted over the years. But somebody in the Marvel collected editions department must be a fan, because this past March saw the release of the much-deserved and long overdue SPIDER-MAN BY ROGER STERN OMNIBUS.