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by Dave Scrimgeour & Kevin McCluskey   Cover Date- November 1988 Price- 50p Script- Gerry Conway Pencils- Mark Bagley Inks- Keith Williams Lettering- Rick Parker Colour- Bob Sharen Editor- Jim Salicrup Editor-In-Chief- Tom DeFalco Publisher- Marvel Comics synopsisSpidey finally crosses paths with "Gwen Stacy" and understandably this causes tension in the newly minted Parker marraige, as both Peter and Mary Jane deal with the guilt and insecurities brought to the surface by her return. Meanwhile, undeterred by the failure of his henchmen on several occasions, the High Evolutionary continues his pursuit of the headband sporting blonde, which in turn draws-out 'The Young Gods.' (K) Dave So, we are up to the 64 page super-size annual. Initial thoughts? Kev You mean the 64 page, super-sized 'Young Gods' annual? I'll be honest, I struggled with this one. As is often the case with these annuals, it just felt completely detached from the monthly comic and what's worse, I felt like I'd been hoodwinked into paying 50p for a 'Young Gods' annual that just so happened to have Spidey on the cover. Dave Yeah, I agree. Reading through this was hard work, especially with the Young Gods. It was like reading a totally different comic. Spider-Man and cosmic stuff do not go well together. Gerry Conway sticks to scripting duties, but we have a new artist here in Mark Bagley, who is supported by Keith Williams on inking duties. The cover in itself is alright and the opening, full page is actually a good panel. Kev The cover's good, yeh. It's a very nice image and it gives the reader a fair indication of what's going on inside, well, with regards to Spidey anyway. The text and the design elements of it are a bit intrusive though and I'm not too keen on their yellow and green combination. Dave I think that was purposely done, to keep in with the other worldly theme in this issue. Kev You could be right about that, yeh. That'd make sense. It's always good to see some Mark Bagley on Spider-Man too. Early Bagley as well. A full 3 years before he takes-up pencilling duties on The Amazing Spider-Man. Dave It's another passage of self discovery for Peter, especially with this feelings for Gwen resurfacing and having to face up to some home truths. Kev Definitely, as much as I'm not a fan of the Young Gods stuff, I actually quite like the Peter, Gwen and Mary Jane subplot of this issue and I think Conway handles it really well. Dave Yeah, I like these elements of the story most, as it's a real internal struggle for Peter. Kev Conway does lay it on a bit thick though, with the whole, "...., nothing can touch me. Except my emotions." Dave There are still little bits of humour though like, "Do you fellas have a permit for street-blasting...No? Goodness I am shocked." Kev Yeh, there's some decent enough quips in here. Interlude 1, to me, just feels so divorced from what a Spider-Man story should be. Or rather, what the best Spider-Man stories are, in my opinion. Dave Yeah. There’s some decent Spidey action when he is fighting the flying saucer, with some slick moves thrown in there. Bagley shows a good knack for creating action pieces here.  ".....like a streak of light, he arrives just in time." Kev Yeh, man. I wonder if this was almost like a trial for Bagley. Give him a shot at the character in an annual, see how he gets on and if he does well enough, call him back for something more regular at a later date. Dave He certainly has a different style to Sal Buscema. Kev His style is very different to Buscema, yeh. It's a lot less angular and not as minimal as Sal's. It's also very different to how his work will look in later years, as he refines it over the next couple of decades to become one of the most iconic and recognisable Spider-Man artists of all time. Dave I'm assuming up to this point he didn't really do any Spidey before. Kev I don't think so, no. This is certainly as early as I can remember seeing him tackle the character. Remember when we first started getting into Spidey? All the Spider-Man merchandise (what there was of it, that is) still had very much a John Romita Snr. vibe to it. That all began to change as the model for the character started to move in a much more Todd McFarlane-esque direction, but it was Bagley's style that it seemed to settle on and stayed with, for what seemed like forever. For years on end, any non-movie related Spidey stuff, particularly that which was aimed at kids, was marketed with a Mark Bagley image attached to it. Dave True. To be honest, reading through this I had little interest in the Interludes. They're all just page fillers to me, so I’m glad the story doesn't focus too much on the early stages of them and the story quickly jumps back to Pete, MJ and Gwen. Kev Definitely. Thankfully it gets back to that subplot pretty swiftly, as these bits are really quite good. Peter's guilt and confusion are understandable, as is Mary Jane's fear. Dave It's quite heavy duty this issue, what with MJ's insecurities coming out here and all. Kev Yep. It's pretty intense stuff, probably not helped by Peter saying stupid things like, "The love I'd my life before you were the love of my life, Mary Jane." Yeh, nice one, Pete. I'm sure that went over gangbusters. Although, maybe saying, "I wish she'd just stay dead" is a tad harsh. Dave Yeah, I think he's making her feel worse. Kev "When Gwen was alive, I knew I never had a chance with you. After all, she was smart, educated, a lady-- and what was I? A cheap date. Emphasis on cheap." That's pretty heartbreaking stuff from MJ here. It really hammers home, once again, that the carefree, party-girl persona is all just a front. It's as much of a mask to her as Spider-Man is to Peter.  Peter stealing the old Michael Jackson one glove gimmick. Dave This shows a real vulnerable spot in Pete and MJ's relationship and shows signs that maybe they are not the happily married couple they have been made out to be. Kev You're right. There's certainly emotional baggage, that's for sure. "If Gwen Stacy was a beauty-queen, then I was a pin-up girl." It's difficult not to feel for MJ in this situation. Dave Peter's definitely being a bit selfish. Kev Yeh. Even he's not buying his own bull. "Liar. Liar. Liar." It's brutally honest stuff. Dave Yeah, the humanistic element of Spidey is coming through here. It's brave writing by Conway. Kev Definitely. It seems quite grown-up as well. Quite mature. It's the sort of conversation you could see people having in a real-life relationship. Just not without the clones and the goblins and the High Evolutionaries. That's a nice coming together of the speech bubble dialogue & the caption box inner monologue of Peter in panel 3 of page 18. It perfectly illustrates Peter's inner turmoil. An in a way that only comics could.  No more clones. No, seriously, no more clones. Please no more clones, Dave I do like the panel where the two of them are looking at the photo album though. Their reactions in it are great. And then I found the second interlude to be just another six pages of boring dribble.  MJ pitches her ideas for the Spider-Verse to Sony Pictures. Kev Yeh, this 'Young Gods' stuff is really tough going, isn't it.? The fact that it feels absolutely shoehorned in, or rather Spidey feels shoehorned into IT, doesn't help matters at all. This scene is the best thing about the entire issue in my book, no question. I mean, it's all of 4 pages out of 64, but hey, I'll take what I can get here. Dave It’s still proper Spidey, it's just being held down by the 'Young Gods' stuff. Kev Yep. I get the impression that the idea was to have Spidey elevate them. Certainly didn't pan-out that way though. Dave That panel with him in his housecoat and still wearing the outfit underneath is quite amusing. Kev Ha, ha! He's even still got the right glove on in that last panel of page 16. Dave Yeah, go for it Pete!!! Kev Nice splash page on page 22 though. I also like how Amazing Spider-Man #90 is referred to as a "classic" in the editorial box, but #148 is only a "semi-classic." Ha, ha! Jim Salicrup's opinions on each of them coming through loud and clear there. Dave Yeah, that's a good panel. Nice panel after it as well, when Gwen runs out and Spidey's mid-air jump. I’m just not sold on Spidey in the genre of cosmic/ other world stuff though. Kev Me neither. It's too sci-fi, maybe even Kirby-esque for Spidey. The character works best for me when he's at least tethered to the ground. That last panel of the Gwen clone on page 23 is really sad. I feel sorry for this poor woman. She's been absolutely abused.
Dave Totally. Kev Then she gets abused even further by some complete and utter berk, with delusions of grandeur, who's young and thinks she's a god, who proceeds to wipe out a huge portion of "Gwen's" memories and leaves her to walk the streets of New York, confused and alone and with a shite perm, to boot. And apparently Pete is fine with this. He just lets her walk away. Solves his dilemma, I suppose, but jeez it's harsh and it feels somewhat out of character for Pete. What about responsibility here? Dave Yeah, I also feel those action battles are too cluttered and because of that, they're not engaging. It's like looking at a Michael Bay action scene from a 'Transformers' movie. There's just too much going on. Kev It's very tech and mech heavy as well, isn't it? "This thing's starting to remind me of an action-toy TV show. Giant robots, ray guns and power suits-- Give me a break." I can't help but think this is perhaps Conway speaking, rather than Spidey. And that he's talking about the 'Centurions.' "Power-Extreme!" Dave Yeah, those closing scenes with Spidey and Gwen are excellent though. The panel with the two hugging, with a black background, is very eye catching.  "Even if we're just dancing in the dark." Kev That entire page is great, actually. And it's a terrific panel, yeh. I like the shadowing on Spidey's mask on the last panel too. It really sets the mood of this scene. Dave This cosmic stuff is suited more for a character like Silver Surfer or Quasar. Kev Definitely. 'Quasar' is something I'd like to revisit at some point. Mike had a load of them back in the day, didn't he? In fact, just looking at them again, pages 22 & 23 look like 90's comics before 90's comics. Dave That whole reveal as to why there was a Gwen Stacy clone is just stupid and it doesn't fit in to a Spidey story. Plus, its a cop out to what Spidey was going through emotionally earlier on. Kev Yeh, I felt that the logic for the High Evolutionary wanting the Gwen Stacy clone was tenuous at best and The 'Young Gods' are just unbearable. Dave Not a particularly good storyline at all, but the Pete and MJ scenes really bring the Spidey stuff back to the forefront. Kev My thoughts exactly. You got anything else you want to add, or do you want to quit while we're ahead on this one? Dave This was always gonna be a tricky one to review and most of this issue I did not engage with, but at least there was some good bits. Short-lived, but still good anyway. Kev Yeh. It just feels like a bit of a con, paying your 50p for an annual, in 1988 money, only for Spidey to be in less than half the issue. It's essentially a backdoor pilot for the 'Young Gods.' Dave Probably was, do you remember what month that came out? Kev November, from what I can gather. Dave Still, it's been good to look on this with a fresh perspective. (D) & (K) Next: "An Ill Wind..." 
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