SPIDER-MAN NEWSPAPER STRIP: THE MUTANT AGENDA

DECEMBER 6TH, 1993 - MARCH 3RD, 1994
By Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Paul Ryan, & Joe Sinnott

Surprise! We're not quite done with newspaper Spider-Man after all. As I was making my way through the run of 1980s strips we just covered, it occurred to me that there's one more fully collected Spidey story arc out there from a few years later: "The Mutant Agenda", the storyline conceived by Marvel in 1993 as sort of a "multimedia" project. Marvel published a comic mini-series by the same name, written by Steven Grant and illustrated by Scott Kolins, while the Spider-Man newspaper strip did its own version of the story by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber (with Paul Ryan and Joe Sinnott on Sundays). A year or so later, the story was also adapted into the SPIDER-MAN animated series on Fox.

As it happens, Marvel published a collection a while back of the comic series and the strips, so I figured that since it was out there, I might as well purchase the digital version and check it out. You may recall I've mentioned previously that this was my first exposure to the Spidey newspaper strip in "first run" format. Of course I had the old BEST OF SPIDER-MAN book which I've mentioned many, many times here, and I had read it to pieces when I was seven or eight years old -- but our local paper didn't carry the Spidey strip until "The Mutant Agenda" started. When that happened, I decided to follow along in the papers.

...I didn't last long. I just couldn't get into the strip. I don't know if it was reading only a few little panels per day or if it was Stan's writing or Lieber's artwork or what, but at the age of fifteen, I just couldn't get into the strip. In part, I know it was because it felt simplistic and hokey next to the then-ongoing comics -- but even if you take that out of the equation, it simply didn't seem up to par with even the material in THE BEST OF SPIDER-MAN.

But that was my reaction more than twenty-five years ago -- and I never actually finished the arc. (In fact my recollection is that I barely started it, reading only a few days' worth before I decided to drop it.) Let's see if forty-one-year-old me finds this thing more appealing than fifteen-year-old me, shall we?

Now, since we've skipped ahead about eight years from where we last left Spidey, this arc begins with Peter and Mary Jane happily married. But when MJ spies a headline stating that the Hobgoblin has escaped from prison, she begins to worry over Peter's safety. Spider-Man, we're told, put the 'Goblin away, and he's vowed revenge on our hero. That little encoutner must have happened off-panel at some point, however, because as far as I'm aware, this is the very first appearance of any goblin in the newspaper continuity. (Though it'd be kind of funny if Spider-Man -- who was established as having been in action prior to the start of the strip -- had beaten the Hobgoblin before the strip even began, considering that would mean the fight happened before Hobgoblin was actually created in 1983!)

Anyway -- Peter is less concerned about Hobgoblin than about a symposium on mutants at the Brand Corporation, which he intends to attend, hoping he may learn some secrets there about his spider-powers. When MJ asks him about mutants, Peter randomly mentions the Beast as someone who was born with his powers, while Peter gained them from the famous radioactive spider bite. Peter then heads out for the Brand building, and completely coincidentally runs into the afore-mentioned Beast when he looks for a seat. Beast confides in Peter -- who he's only just met -- that he's here because he doesn't trust Brand's top scientist, Neil Landon, and wants to know what he's up to.

This is the part where I'll note what an odd choice it is to guest-star Beast in this arc. I mean, I don't think it's a bad idea by any means. Beast has the scientific background for this type of story, and he's one of my favorite X-Men. It's just funny to me that we're in 1993 right now, at the height of X-Men mania, and rather than have the ubiquitous Wolverine co-headline the story, it's the somewhat more obscure Beast instead. I suppose Marvel should be applauded for their restraint!

(Wolverine does appear in the comic book version of this story, but in a minor role a the beginning when Beast is hanging out with the X-Men. In the TV adaptation, he and all the X-Men appear, and my recollection is that Wolverine gets as large a role as Beast in the proceedings -- though I haven't seen the episodes in decades, so don't hold me to that.)

Hobgoblin crashes the symposium and steals Landon's notes as he's making his keynote -- but Spider-Man attaches a spider-tracer to the 'Goblin. The villain leads our heroes on a merry chase through the city, apparently doubling back to the Brand Building, where he breaks inside. (This is seriously confusing, and seems to be a disconnect between plot and art. The action clearly begins at a building labeled, on-panel, "Brand Building". But after a chase that lasts through several strips and sees Spider-Man, Beast, and Hobgoblin running all over the city, Hobby reaches his destination, identified in dialogue as "the Brand Building!") The heroes split up inside, and Beast finds Hobgoblin first but is knocked out by Landon's guards. Spider-Man soon spies the 'Goblin blackmailing Landon, who it turns out has secretly been working on plans to destroy mutants (and apparently brought his notes on the subject to his keynote speech for some bizarre reason).

Geographic whiplash follows, as Landon tells the 'Goblin to meet him at his secret lab for his payment -- and then in the very next strip, which no indicaction that any time has passed, everyone is at the secret lab. Landon tries to blast Hobgoblin, but Spider-Man takes the shot from his stun-gun instead. Hobgoblin leaves, promising to double his blackmail fee when next Landon sees him. Landon has Spidey imprisoned with the Beast, and Hobgoblin returns again in very short order with plans to kill the corrupt CEO. (Seriously, Hobgoblin's motives in this story are as clear as mud. First off, he somehow knows what Landon is up to, but it's never explained. Then he tries to extort Landon as described above. But in the end, he randomly decides to kill Landon, with dialogue suggesting that he's doing it over Landon's bigoted views -- telling him he's been a "naughty little mutant-hater" as he's about to blast the guy. None of this behavior adds up.)

Beast and Spider-Man defeat Hobgoblin and save Landon, but he falls into a chemical vat and is mutated into a hideous creature. Beast takes Landon to the X-Men for help, while Spider-Man returns home to Mary Jane.

This arc is kind of a mess, as can be gleaned from the above summary, but I'm honestly not sure what turned me off of it as a teenager. Stan's writing is more-or-less in line with his work earlier in the strip, and while the artwork isn't as flashy as the faux-Image style that was in vogue back in the nineties, it's not bad. But I guess I just had different tastes back then. Right now, I find this arc more appealing than some of the more recent mid-eighties stuff we just finished covering!

I must also mention that one thing I really do like about this story is that we clearly seem to be dealing with some iteration of the original Hobgoblin. He's been simplified for the comic strip, but the old "blackmail a titan of industry" thing was Roderick Kingsley's M.O. in his earliest appearances as Hobgoblin, so it's nice to see that picked up on here. Plus, Larry Lieber is clearly drawing the character based on his original model sheet, with a shorter cape and his original 1983-vintage Goblin Glider, as well. And as a massive fan of Roger Stern's originally conceived Hobgoblin, this is really nice to see. (Though the fact that he's easily defeated and unceremoniously turned over to the police by the end of the arc smacks more of the Jason Macendale Hobgoblin of the era than of the original Kingsley incarnation.)

I should also note, for those inclined to keep track of such things, that while this storyline was swiftly forgotten in the strip continuity (as were pretty much all arcs) and never even acknowledged in the comics outside of the limited series, the television adaptation did have some lasting repercussions. Besides being the opening two-parter in a season-long storyline about Spider-Man mutating, it also cemented Landon as a fairly major player on the series for a few years! Voiced by the brilliant David Warner, Landon became the Kingpin's right-hand man following his mutation, a position I seem to recall he held for at least two seasons!

And now, for real, this brings an end to our look at Spider-Man's newspaper strip adventures -- at least for now. Like I said last week, if and when IDW publishes another volume, I plan to pick it up. But until then (as Stan-by-way-of-Spidey might say), keep thy webs untangled!