When I read this at the time (and previously, in my younger days), I didn't think much of it since the Tiger was a curiosity and not a character with whom I was terribly familiar. But now, with the benefit of having seen his earliest appearances in DEADLY HANDS and some of his struggles in SPECTACULAR, Stern's callous treatment of the Tiger and his family, characters into whom Bill Mantlo clearly had invested a great deal of his energies and interest (and into whom George Pérez had injected biographical tidbits from his own life and family), reads differently, and is perhaps a blemish on his otherwise wonderful run.
But I'll let you decide! Following are my looks at the White Tiger backup serial Stern used to set up his Gideon Mace tale, and then Spider-Man's battle against Mace himself, originally posted here way back in the summer of '14:
PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN: THE WHITE TIGER SERIAL
PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #52
But if, after reading these stories, you think Roger Stern was rough on the Tiger, just remember that a couple decades later, in the pages of DAREDEVIL, Brian Bendis had him framed for a crime he didn't commit, after which he was gunned down and killed by cops while trying to clear his name.
So that's it for the White Tiger, but we're not quite finished with this saga yet. There's still one last big dangling plot left over from the final days of DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU, so I broke out the Comicraft fonts and prepared a little "primer" to get you ready for it:
Excellent work on that primer there. Given how convoluted long term story telling can get, summing it up that well is quite the achievement.
ReplyDeleteAnd let me just say one thing: dammit, Bendis. How he managed to get so much of Marvel to just plain screw up remains a mystery to me.
Thanks! As they say, graphic design is my passion.
DeleteI am really not a fan of Bendis at all. I'll admit that he's written a small handful of things I liked, but generally speaking, his scripting leaves me totally cold, his disregard for continuity infuriates me, and his repeated shoddy treatment of certain B- and C-list characters really bugs me. (Remember the time he killed the entire classic Alpha Flight team between pages in an issue of NEW AVENGERS? Ugh.)
I will never forget that because it happened in the arc with the worst decompression ever: four splash pages of a view of Earth, with the only change being energy slowly approaching the planet. Bendis' success befuddles me to this day.
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ReplyDelete// a couple decades later, in the pages of Daredevil, Brian Bendis had him framed for a crime he didn't commit, after which he was gunned down and killed by cops while trying to clear his name. //
Ugh.
I have an attachment to the character based almost entirely around Spectacular #19-20 and don’t think Stern treated him terribly, FWIW. Although the cover of #52 had me fearing the worst, Hector gets to literally walk away on his own terms, which feels entirely in keeping with his character.
DeleteMeant to add… I absolutely hate what happened to Hector’s family but I’m a big proponent of secret identities for that reason and it’s hard to argue the consequences as a story point.
Regardless of what I think of Stern's handling of Hector, I actually really like the cover of SPECTACULAR 52. Frank Miller did several covers on the series around that time, and 52 is my favorite.
DeleteTotally agree on secret identities, by the way! And what happens to the Tiger's family is exactly what Peter Parker always fears will happen to Aunt May, Mary Jane, and the rest. I wish more current writers, both in comics and of movies, understood this!