STAN LEE MEETS THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: This comic is fun. Yeah, yeah, I know it's not considered cool to be a Stan Lee fan anymore, is it? But I still like the guy a lot: he's the bombastic uncle we all wish we had, and while you can scold him for takin' more credit than he might be entitled to, I got no personal quibbles with Smilin' Stan. That's why this first in a series commemorating Stan's sixty-fifth anniversary writing comics is a goofy, boisterous breath of fresh air: a forgivable horn-tooting homage to the former Mister Lieber. This comic's just about as clear a definition of "fun" as this little stuffed bull can make: a quartet of short stories celebrating Stan's place both in and for the Marvel Universe. The first is a lovely little silly vignette of Spidey himself dropping in on a cookie-bakin' Stan to help cope with a crisis of faith—who better to get you over the web-slinging blues than Stan, who (in a rare moment of modern Marvel tweaking itself) points out that Spider-Man isn't just important as a hero but as a marketable character who's "Single-handedly keeping our economy afloat!" The second story's my favorite: at an interdimensional comic-con we learn that there's really only one (or two) true Stan Lees. (The mock-up covers of comics from a Stan-less universe are worth the price of admission alone: from The Normal Four contemplating an empty pothole that doesn't hold a Mole Man monster at all to the Punisher laying down the line about not making your bed.)The third is a two-piece humor piece by Fred Hembeck and the issue wraps up with a reprint of one of Stan's classic Spider-Man tales (Amazing #87). Sure, it's shameless backpatting and the joke might run thin after three or four more issues of Marvel heroes meeting Stan, but it's done with a light and goofy self-deprecating touch that wouldn't have been outta place in the Golden Age of Stan Lee Marvel cameos. Face front, true believers!
Saturday, October 07, 2006
24 Hour Comics Reviewing Day, Hour Nine: Stan Lee Meets the Amazing Spider-Man
STAN LEE MEETS THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: This comic is fun. Yeah, yeah, I know it's not considered cool to be a Stan Lee fan anymore, is it? But I still like the guy a lot: he's the bombastic uncle we all wish we had, and while you can scold him for takin' more credit than he might be entitled to, I got no personal quibbles with Smilin' Stan. That's why this first in a series commemorating Stan's sixty-fifth anniversary writing comics is a goofy, boisterous breath of fresh air: a forgivable horn-tooting homage to the former Mister Lieber. This comic's just about as clear a definition of "fun" as this little stuffed bull can make: a quartet of short stories celebrating Stan's place both in and for the Marvel Universe. The first is a lovely little silly vignette of Spidey himself dropping in on a cookie-bakin' Stan to help cope with a crisis of faith—who better to get you over the web-slinging blues than Stan, who (in a rare moment of modern Marvel tweaking itself) points out that Spider-Man isn't just important as a hero but as a marketable character who's "Single-handedly keeping our economy afloat!" The second story's my favorite: at an interdimensional comic-con we learn that there's really only one (or two) true Stan Lees. (The mock-up covers of comics from a Stan-less universe are worth the price of admission alone: from The Normal Four contemplating an empty pothole that doesn't hold a Mole Man monster at all to the Punisher laying down the line about not making your bed.)The third is a two-piece humor piece by Fred Hembeck and the issue wraps up with a reprint of one of Stan's classic Spider-Man tales (Amazing #87). Sure, it's shameless backpatting and the joke might run thin after three or four more issues of Marvel heroes meeting Stan, but it's done with a light and goofy self-deprecating touch that wouldn't have been outta place in the Golden Age of Stan Lee Marvel cameos. Face front, true believers!
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