Arc Review: The Spider Totem, aka "Coming Home"

J. Michael Straczynski's (hereafter referred to as JMS) run on Amazing Spider-Man is a bit divisive; at the time it was coming out, JMS was a "superstar" writer and his take on the comic was by and large seen as a breath of fresh air. I believe the common view is that his later work on the title is not as good due largely to editorial interference and crossovers with "events" like Civil War. While it's not universally beloved, the Spider-Totem arc made it to spot #13 in CBR's "top 50 greatest Spider-Man stories." In 2009, Marvel began publishing an "Ultimate Collection" of JMS Spider-Man comics; five volumes were published, collecting everything JMS wrote for the book, rather than focus on individual storylines. As a bit of background, I purchased the Amazing Spider-Man DVD some years ago, and have slowly been working my way up through the 70's up until JMS begins his run in 2001. So unlike a reader starting fresh, I came into JMS's run having sat through a truly awful period of comics (and I'm not referring to the Clone Saga, but Howard Mackie and John Byrne's post-Clone Saga relaunch), along with pretty much everything else. Maybe it's this perspective that makes me think that JMS's first story arc is a pretty bad Spider-Man comic.

Review: Avengers #393

Avengers #393, "Dark Days Dawn," Cover Date December 1995
Plot by Bob Harras and Terry Kavanagh, Script by Ben Raab, Pencils by Mike Deodato, Jr., Inks by Tom Palmer

Review: Iron Man #323

Iron Man #323, "Innocent Eyes," Cover Date December 1995
Plot by Terry Kavanagh, Script by Dan Abnett, Pencils by Hector Oliveira, Jim Cheung, and Yancey Labat, Inks by Mark McKenna

Review: War Machine #21

War Machine #21, "Brothers in Arms," Cover Date December 1995 (mistakenly says '96 on cover)
Written by Dan Abnett, Penciled by Fred Haynes and Sandu Florea, Inked by Greene/Palmiotti/Florea

When last we left the mess that is "The Crossing," Mantis, Steve Englehart's pet character from the 70's, returned with a new husband. Iron Man has been having blackouts, but this time they appear to be mind-control, not alcohol black-outs. He's framed Hawkeye for one of his murders and Hawkeye and some of his pals have retreated to an abandoned airstrip to plan their next move!

Review: Badrock #1

Badrock #1, Cover Date March 1995
Plot and pencils by Rob Liefeld, Script by Eric Stephenson, Inks by Jonathan Sibal and Danny Miki

Last week I reviewed Angela, the surprisingly good Spawn spin-off about an Angel that does not wear pants. It probably helped that Neil Gaiman was the writer. So in the interest of fairness, here is another Image comic from a few months later, a Badrock spin-off from Rob Liefeld's Extreme! Studios. Like all Liefeld creations, Badrock is a blatant theft of an existing character (Marvel Comics The Thing), but the twist is: he's only 16 years old when he's turned into a granite rock monster guy. Radical!

Review: Angela #1

Angela #1, Cover Date December 1994
Written by Neil Gaiman, Art by Greg Capullo

Review: Wonder Woman #80

Wonder Woman #80, "It's Never a Good Day to Die," Cover Date November, 1993
William Messner-Loebs- "chief surgeon," Steve Carr and Deryl Skelton- "residents," Aaron McClellan- "head nurse"