Mike ZeckRezensionen

Non-stop graphic violence, flimsy plotting, wooden dialog and stiff artwork. Mildly entertaining at best.

One of the darkest Spider-Man stories ever told, this tale lives up to its reputation thanks to writing and artwork that is dismal, dirty, but discerning.

Kraven El Cazador ha acechado y acabado con la vida de todos los animales conocidos por el hombre. Pero hay una bestia que se le resiste, una que se burló de él en cada encuentro: el superhéroe conocido como Spiderman. Ahora el tiempo de jugar ha terminado. Acabará con la araña, la enterrará y se convertirá en ella. Empieza la Última Cacería de Kraven.

3.5

Reads as really dated and the dialogue is... not great. But the concept and story are fun and I get how this was a major event for its time.

This graphic novel collects a classic Spider-Man storyline where the villain Kraven the Hunter decides to take the ultimate revenge. Kraven buries Spider-Man alive while then becoming the Spider-Man to humiliate him with the public. Meanwhile, Vermin rises from the New York sewers to attack the populace.

The better part of the story is told with narration boxes showing the internal monologues of Spider-Man, Kraven, and Vermin. It is an interesting technique as what is on their minds often doesn't match what's happening in the illustration. It does give a depth to their characterization, although I think it also gets overused.

Apparently this book ties together artwork from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, although it all looks like one cohesive storyline and art style, so I'm a bit confused about that. Anyhow, if you're like me and didn't read comics much growing up, this collection is a good introduction to one of Marvel's most famous stories.½

This is one of the few comic book storylines that I still distinctly remember reading. Excitement was a normal part of comics, but this story was scarier than any others I read. And it was also deeply sad.

I did a little independent research about The Wasp after reading this book, and it was interesting to see how her character has developed. Even at this point, she has become more developed from her original appearance as a founding member of The Avengers. She has become more of a force, but still retains some of the stereotypes that were built into her character from the beginning.

As an aside, it was interesting to read a viewpoint on the Marvel characters, how they go to a form of purgatory (from a Hercules story at some point), and they are gambling and playing games when they die. When they win, they get to comeback to life. An interesting viewpoint and backstory for how almost all characters come back from the dead in the comics.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, written by Jim Shooter with pencils by Mike Zeck & Bob Layton, ink by John Beatty, Jack Abel, & Mike Esposito, colors by Christie Scheele & Nel Yomtov, and letters by Joe Rosen collects the 1984 miniseries Secret Wars featuring the biggest names in the Marvel Universe at the time. The story began as a tie-in to promote Mattel’s Marvel Heroes toyline with the title required by Mattel due to market research showing it as more appealing for a toyline, though the comics laid the groundwork for the annual crossover events that Marvel now uses to unite its most popular heroes and shake up continuity.

Within the story, a being called the Beyonder brings groups of heroes and villains to a distant galaxy where he combines parts of planets from around the universe, including a small suburb of Denver, to create the Battleworld. The heroes include the Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel [Monica Rambeau], Thor, the Hulk, Iron Man, the Wasp, Hawkeye, and She-Hulk), Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, the Human Torch, and the Thing), the X-Men (Professor X, Storm, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Wolverine, Rogue, and Lockheed the Dragon), Spider-Man, and Spider-Woman. The Beyonder also included Magneto as a hero and he occasionally aligns with them. The villains include Doctor Doom, Kang the Conqueror, Ultron, the Molecule Man, Absorbing Man, Doctor Octopus, the Enchantress, Klaw, the Lizard, Titania,Volcania, the Wrecking Crew, and Galactus, though Galactus immediately breaks from the others to follow his own course. Both the heroes and the villains break into factions due to different alliances and outlooks, which adds drama to the story as each group must figure out how to respond to the Beyonder’s command that they slay their enemies to win all that they desire.

The 12-issue series laid the groundwork for big crossovers creating significant changes that later played out in individual titles. For example, the second Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter), joins the Marvel Universe. Spider-Man also gets his black costume, which the story suggests is inspired by Julia Carpenter’s costume, though he does not yet know it’s an alien symbiote (the end of the story starts to build suspicions when he sees the other heroes getting replacement costumes from a different machine and they don’t do all the things his new costume can). Colossus falls in love with an alien healer, which ends his relationship with Kitty Pryde when he gets back home. The Thing can change back into Ben Grimm and chooses to remain behind, with She-Hulk taking his place as a member of the Fantastic Four.

Due to its significance in Marvel Comics history, Secret Wars inspired several follow-up series. The sequel, Secret Wars II, was a nine-issue limited series from July 1985 – March 1986 in which the Beyonder visits Earth in search of enlightenment and comes into conflict with various characters from throughout the Marvel Universe. Like the original, Jim Shooter wrote Secret Wars II. While the title itself was only nine issues compared to the original twelve, the full story included crossovers in Captain America, Iron Man, New Mutants, Uncanny X-Men, The Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Web of Spider-Man, Avengers, Daredevil, The Incredible Hulk, Alpha Flight, Dazzler, Rom, Doctor Strange, The Thing, Cloak and Dagger, The Micronauts: The New Voyages, Power Pack, Power Man and Iron Fist, New Defenders, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man, and Quasar. All told, readers had to pick up 34 comic book issues across 22 titles in addition to the nine-issue Secret Wars II series to get the full story. The original Secret Wars concluded in Fantastic Four no. 319 in a story titled “Secret Wars 3.”

Like the use of Crises in DC, Marvel returned to the theme of Secret Wars a couple times afterward. In 2006, Dwayne McDuffie and Scott Kolins portrayed the Beyonder kidnapping heroes and villains to Battleworld again in the six-issue miniseries, Beyond! In 2004-2005, Brian Michael Bendis and Gabriele Dell’Otto’s Secret War storyline followed the model of Secret Wars II with a five-issue miniseries and several crossover stories throughout the other Marvel titles. Though it uses the name, it is unrelated to the original Secret Wars or its sequel, instead focusing on Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. recruiting a team of heroes to overthrow the Latverian government, which is acquiring advanced weapons technology and recruiting supervillains. The story itself is a commentary on military intelligence in a post-9/11 world. Finally, Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribić’s 2015 nine-issue Secret Wars storyline worked to streamline Marvel’s continuity by pitting the various different elements of the multiverse against each other and creating a new Battle World amalgamated world from each element, including the Ultimate Universe, the 1602 world, the 2099 world, the Age of Apocalypse, and more. Like Secret Wars II, the full story played out in the core miniseries and in Avengers, Black Widow, Captain America and the Mighty Avengers, Loki, Magneto, Marvel Zombies, Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, The Punisher, Silk, Silver Surfer, Spider-Woman, Ultimate End, and more, including several miniseries created specifically to explore the events of the crossover in worlds like that of Old Man Logan, 1602, Planet Hulk, and others. It evoked the spirit of the original while also serving as a great way to explore all the different Marvel universes. The tradition began with Jim Shooter’s original, however, which has cast a long shadow influencing stories for 36 years and easily outliving the Secret Wars toyline.

I blogged about it when I read it back then. See my note:

http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/06/booknote-marvel-secret-wars.html

Boy, was this a slog. I could appreciate the kitsch for only so long. I was reminded of the quote from John Waters: "Good bad taste is celebrating something without thinking you're better than it... Bad bad taste is condescending, making fun of others." Unfortunately, Jim Shooter's reckless, overwritten mess of a script inspires the latter.

I could see recommending Secret Wars for its historical value, and for the fact that Dr. Doom has got to be one of the ripest villains for popular revision. He is far and away the most interesting character in this (and other) stories. The camp can be rich, as in this morsel - the Wasp in book 6:

"Oh, no! I broke a nail! I don't even have an emery board and I'm thirty-seven trillion miles from my manicurist and it's her day off anyway!"

Moments like these are just too rare to make the book entertaining. No, mostly it's just boring, which is the worst thing a comic can be.

Boy, was this a slog. I could appreciate the kitsch for only so long. I was reminded of the quote from John Waters: "Good bad taste is celebrating something without thinking you're better than it... Bad bad taste is condescending, making fun of others." Unfortunately, Jim Shooter's reckless, overwritten mess of a script inspires the latter.

I could see recommending Secret Wars for its historical value, and for the fact that Dr. Doom has got to be one of the ripest villains for popular revision. He is far and away the most interesting character in this (and other) stories. The camp can be rich, as in this morsel - the Wasp in book 6:

"Oh, no! I broke a nail! I don't even have an emery board and I'm thirty-seven trillion miles from my manicurist and it's her day off anyway!"

Moments like these are just too rare to make the book entertaining. No, mostly it's just boring, which is the worst thing a comic can be.

This was a great graphic novel. All the main Heroes are here. Cap, Hulk, Spider-man and lesser Heroes such as She-Hulk, Hawkeye, Spider-woman. Scratch that there are no lesser heroes. The artwork dates from the eighties but it's still nice and some of he pages warrant framing in my opinion. If you want to see Dr. Doom and his goons square off against the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic 4 and Spider-Man this is the one to get.

Truly one of the classic Spider-Man stories. Deeply psychological, an excellent look into the minds of hunters and their prey.
The "X-Men/Spider-Man" miniseries has strong ties to this storyline, and "Spider-Man: The Other" treads similarly thought-provoking ground, returning to the concept of The Spider within. I highly recommend all three.

I'm not a Spider-Man fan but this is a great Spider-Man story. It's the best Spider-Man story I've ever read.

This was a pretty good story about how the Punisher, with the support of a shadowy vigilante organization launches a personal war on crime, eliminating various crime lords. All this leads to is increased violence, as secondary crime bosses compete to take the place of the eliminated crime lords. Realizing that his tactics aren't working, the Punisher tries to help negotiate a truce to end the bloodshed, but the organization that had previously backed him now turns against him.½

Amazing story of the rise and fall of Kraven, with Spider-Man, Mary Jane, and Vermin.
Excellent illustrations by Zeck.

Take a bunch of Marvel Super Heroes and Vilains from different comic threads and send them to a planet where they are going to fight for survival.

It's funny to see how some of the characters have changed over the years. Many of them for the better. These were originally published in the 1980's and there age is showing quite badly.

"Oaf! Watch who you're jostling, or I, DOCTOR OCTOPUS, will--"

"Hey, I'm SORRY, butt-head! I, Crusher Creel, the ABSORBIN' MAN, was busy watchin' the show outside! That's keepin' me real busy right now, but when it's done I'll ram you through a bulkhead so's you and your stupid tentacles won't be underfoot no more!"

Classic.

The compilation of one of Marvel's most ambitious mini-series, in which an all-powerful entity, the Beyonder, sets up a contest between Earth's forces of good and evil (although this being Marvel, there is inevitably some gray areas and crossovers) on a planet in a distant galaxy. Much of the action is a see-saw series of battles, neither side winning definitively. When Galactus makes a move to end the conflict by consuming the battle planet, Dr. Doom steals his power and uses it to contend against the Beyonder. Eventually he prevails, although the outcome is short-lived. As it happens, the most lasting repercussions of this conflict are Spider-Man's new black uniform, and Thing's new-found ability to switch back and forth from Ben Grimm to the Thing. As far as I recollect, nobody even dies, except for an alien female healer, Zsaji. A pivotal story, with interesting conflicts and alliances among the players. I especially like following Spider-Man's endeavors in these stories. My son Ben and I are both unimpressed with the artwork, although it is servicable, and in a book with such a large cast, the simplicity of the artwork can actually be a help - although you couldn't prove that by the work of Alex Ross in "Kingdom Come".½

This is a compilation of the books telling the story of how Kraven, always one of the minor Spider-Man villains, reclaims his warped sense of honor by "killing" Spider-Man (actually drugging him into a coma), entombing him for two weeks and passing as Spider-Man in his stead, killing one of the criminals he fights. For some reason Vermin is pulled into this muddled story, and it concludes with Kraven's suicide. The main interest revolves around Peter Parker's two-week absence from his new wife, Mary Jane, although the repercussions of his absence from the world are never explained. A 2-week honeymoon, perhaps? A disappointing storyline that at least had the virtue of doing away with Kraven, always one of the more tiresome villains, and not particularly interesting artwork to boot. We even detect no trace of Spider-Man's trademark humor, although everybody in this downer of a tale is so morose, it's easy to see it getting to Spidey a bit.½