THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #241

"IN THE BEGINNING..."
Scripter: Roger Stern | Artists: John Romita, Jr. & Frank Giacoia
Letterer: Joe Rosen | Colorist: Glynis Wein | Editor: Tom DeFalco
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Spider-Man comes around, still inside the New York Coliseum, then snags a walkie talkie from Lt. Kris Keating and goes in search of a spider-tracer with which he tagged the Vulture during their fight. The police are also in pursuit of the winged villain and his captive, Gregory Bestman, and Spider-Man hitches a ride on a police chopper which chases the Vulture to a wooded area on Staten Island. The Vulture enters the forest and Spider-Man follows, while the police circle overhead.

The Vulture takes Bestman to his "Vulture's Nest", a farmhouse and silo filled with technological gear and, as Spider-Man listens in, recaps his origin as an ex-business partner of Bestman's driven to crime by the other man's underhanded business practices. As the Vulture prepares to finish Bestman, Spider-Man drops in and challenges his old foe. Their fight takes them out into the woods, where Spider-Man uses the close quarters to his advantage and defeats the Vulture.

The web-slinger turns his enemy over to Lt. Keating, who reveals to Bestman that the police overheard the Vulture's entire story and believes the District Attorney may want to hear it as well. Later that day, photos of the Vulture's capture, taken by Spider-Man's automatic camera, grace the front page of the Daily Bugle.

BOB HARRAS

A (hopefully) fair and honest defense of one of the more polarizing editors in Marvel's long history.

THREAT OR MENACE?

Four years ago yesterday, Bob Harras was appointed DC Comics' editor-in-chief, so this feels like an appropriate weekend for a post I've been thinking about for some time. But I don't read modern DC comics, so this isn't about Harras in his role there. I don't know what DC is up to these days, and it's possible the guy I'm about to ruminate on no longer exists. See, this an article on "vintage" Harras. And not Harras the writer, either, whose work I've seen very little of -- but specifically Harras the Marvel editor on the X-Men franchise and later the editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics from 1996 to 2000 (incidentally, he's the only person to date ever to hold the EiC position at both of the "big two" publishers).

Occasionally around the internet, I've posted comments on Bob Harras ranging from mildly complimentary to frothingly defensive. Harras is no Jim Shooter, but he's certainly viewed with a great amount of disdain from many corners of comic book fandom. He catches flack for everything from pushing Chris Claremont to quitting the X-Men (an accurate criticism) to causing Marvel's mid-nineties bankruptcy and masterminding Spider-Man's "Clone Saga" and the "Heroes Reborn" event (all complete falsehoods; Harras was handed the keys to the company after every one of those things was well underway -- he did, however, spearhead the resurrection of Norman Osborn which ended the Clone Saga).

But all I can say is, I like the guy. I met him once, at Comic-Con in 1999, and he was very friendly. I told him how much I had enjoyed the Black Knight's lightsaber and he thanked me for the compliment. He also participated in the creation of my all-time favorite Con souvenir, which I described a while back.

TRANSFORMERS: REGENERATION ONE #91

"DESTINY, PART 1"
Writer: Simon Furman | Penciler: Andrew Wildman | Inker: Stephen Baskerville
Colorist: John-Paul Bove | Coloring Assist: James Stayte | Letterer: Chris Mowry
Editor: John Barber | Editor-in-Chief: Chris Ryall

The Plot: Bludgeon demonstrates his Blitz Engines, planetary invasion devices powered by the Matrix energy from Thunderwing's Pretender shell, to Soundwave. Following a successful takeover of the planet Cresta Superior, Bludgeon sets course of Cybertron.

Meanwhile, on Cybertron, Hot Rod learns that the fallout from Scorponok's coup has left several Autobots mentally unstable. Amid civil unrest, Hot Rod publicly declares his plan to go beneath the planet's surface and reunite the proto-Transformers with their descendants, an announcement which nearly gets him assassinated.

Nonetheless, Hot Rod proceeds with his plan, aided by the Dinobots. But first he orders Ultra Magnus to restore order on Cybertron and prepare the planet for reunification. Magnus also speaks with Optimus Prime on Earth, who reports that the Ark has fallen into Galvatron's hands.

Someplace else, a Cybertronian warlord receives word of Bludgeon's destruction of Cresta Superior and realizes his path is about to cross with that of the chaotic Decepticons.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #240

"WINGS OF VENGEANCE!"
Stern Writes Again | Roughhouse Romita Jr. to Meet Babyface Bob Layton: Artists Fight!
Rosen Named Letterer of the Year! | Starts Today! Color Section by Bob Sharen
Editorial by Tom DeFalco
Shooter Indicted; Editor-in-Chief Charged in Kickback Scandal!!

The Plot: The Vulture, who has been living in semi-retirement in the Southwest, sees an article in the Daily Bugle announcing that Bestman Electronics will be at the High-Tech Expo in New York City. Infuriated, the Vulture books a flight for New York the next day.

When the Vulture arrives at the Expo and begins wreaking havoc, his escapades make the news on a local public access channel. Spider-Man soon arrives to challenge the Vulture, who is scouring the expo for Gregory Bestman. Vulture eventually grabs Bestman after Spider-Man is stunned by an electrical gizmo. The web-slinger tries to give chase as the Vulture escapes, but instead falls to the ground below.

The Sub-Plots: The Vulture has set up a new life for himself in a retirement community located, presumably, in Arizona. He has stolen enough to set himself up comfortably, but otherwise seems content to live a normal life until he sees Bestman's name in the newspaper.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #239

"NOW STRIKES THE HOBGOBLIN!"
Scripter: Roger Stern | Artists: John Romita, Jr. & Frank Giacoia
Letterer: Diana Albers | Colorist: Glynis Wein | Editor: Tom DeFalco
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Over a span of weeks, the Hobgoblin raids several Osborn Manufacturing facilities, grabbing all the Green Goblin gear he can find, and culminating with the theft of an armored battle van the Goblin had built but never used before his death. When Spider-Man hears about the string of robberies, he heads out to check the only two former Goblin lairs of which he's aware. He finds the first already empty, but at the second he hits pay dirt, coming face to face with the Hobgoblin.

Spider-Man and Hobgoblin fight it out in Greenwich Village, and the web-slinger easily gains the upper hand despite the Hobgoblin's improvements to his predecessor's bombs and gas grenades. When it appears he is about to be unmasked, the Hobgoblin blasts a gas main and Spider-Man is forced to let him go while he locates the feeder line and cuts it off.

As the Hobgoblin glides away, he realizes that the Green Goblin must have had some edge in order to fight Spider-Man one-on-one. He vows to find that secret and use it to defeat his newly inherited foe.

THE UNBOXING - SEPTEMBER 2014

Wow! Talk about a light month -- I received one single item this time, the CAPTAIN AMERICA EPIC COLLECTION: SOCIETY OF SERPENTS. This volume includes CAPTAIN AMERICA issues 302 - 317, marking the beginning of the late Mark Gruenwald's long run on the title.

I have a huge affinity for Gruenwald's Cap, as I think I've mentioned before. As far as I'm concerned, this is the definitive Captain America: no secret identity to get in the way, no civilian supporting cast members to bog him down. Steve Rogers is Captain America 24/7, and he only associates with SHIELD agents and other superheroes. Some characters need large supporting casts and melodramatic soap operatics. Captain America is not one of these.

Anyway -- a decent chunk of Gruenwald's Cap is collected, but there's still a large amount waiting for a nice home. This run isn't the stuff of which Omnibuses are made, so hopefully, given time, the Epic Collection format will see Gruenwald's entire tenure on the character (issues 307 - 443) on my bookcase. And then, someday, I'll review the whole run issue by issue here.

AND NOW BACK TO TRANSFORMERS: REGENERATION ONE

A year ago tomorrow, I posted my review of TRANSFORMERS: REGENERATION ONE issue 80.5. So it seems fitting that today, I announce the second half of my RG1 series. For those who don't recall, TRANSFORMERS: REGENERATION ONE, published by IDW, picks up from issue #80 of the original American TRANSFORMERS series, and is scripted by classic Transformers writer Simon Furman with the goal of tying up all loose ends and concluding with issue #100. I reviewed the first two trades, comprising ten regular issues and a "point five" special, last year. Now we'll cover the next two volumes, also containing ten regular issues plus a "#0" special.

Previously, twenty years after the events which ended the Marvel series, the Autobots returned to Earth to find it a barren wasteland, conquered by Decepticon leader Megatron. Optimus Prime dueled Megatron one last time and the villain was killed thanks to the intervention of Autobot security officer Kup. But at that same instant, the diabolical Galvatron, Megatron's alternate future self, returned to life.

The Autobots left Earth with the exception of Optimus Prime, who stayed behind against the wishes of the planet's dwindling population, in order to destroy all remaining sources of Cybertronian technology and help rebuild. But Prime's mission was for naught as Galvatron joined forces with Starscream and Shockwave, repaired the long-crashed Autobot spacecraft Ark, and departed the planet as Prime watched.