Spider-Man vs. Juggernaut: To Beat the Unfightable Foe!
To Beat The Unfightable Foe!
We’ve traced Roger Stern’s run on the Amazing Spider-Man through his ongoing sagas of the Vulture, the Foolkiller (from our Peter Parker retrospective) and the Black Cat. Continuing with his art team of John Romita, Junior, and Jim Mooney, Stern borrows a lost X-Men foe- another that, following his appearance here, is fully restored to the regular roster of Marvel villains-for the greatest mismatch in the title’s history. Just as I wondered where I’d get the material for my next step of the journey, I discover my local library’s 741.59 stash of graphic novels-including The Sensational Spider-Man: Nothing Can Stop The Juggernaut!
If the O’Neil run was in any way considered a lackluster collection of foes, and the Wolfman run, one where Spider-Man fought enemies at a power level appropriate for his ill-fated live action TV series, Stern roars back with drama and one of several mammoth-powered antagonists-this time, perhaps the most mighty terrestrial enemy. As though very carefully timed, a quick glance at The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and especially the space-bound X-Men titles tells us what psychic Madame Web discovers: no one’s home but us arachnids.
I noted how eight panel grids, with healthy doses of sevens and nines, too, were the detailed layout of choice particularly in ASM #229. These two issues also make use of the long, thin establishment shot panel along the left borders, packing impressive volume, the illusion of great heights, into many pages. It’s peculiar to this era of jam-packed story telling, this massive amount of panels making use of twenty-two pages to lend an epic sense to the newly-repriced monthly comics. Relying on lots of tiny images of both Spider-Man and the Juggernaut rather than sacrifice story for a wealth of splashes and poster-like panels, we get rather a lot of details of the trucks and buildings- that’s right- thrown at one another.
Spider-Man’s agility’s not short changed in the slightest; in fact, dwarfed though he is in power, the wall-crawler’s nimble postures and impressive gymnastic feats express his own superhumanity. The sheer force of maneuvers like hurtling a three ton wrecking ball sets Spider-Man apart from other street-level fighters, but also builds carefully the force of the Juggernaut. In #230 the panels open up a bit more, including a huge panel of concussive conflagration framed beneath the cold steel eyes of Cain Marko. But he is not Cain Marko, as his friend Black Tom calls him- is he? His indescribable superhuman power has moved him further from human kind, to the point where he’d do something so awful as laser-welding his helmet to his costume, to insure his exercise of elemental fury remains seemingly without weakness. Changed by the Ruby of Cytarrok, he rejects his human name, and, as if his force field shunts his empathy, too, he walks away from the grievously injured Madame Web with the disregard he shows pulverized bricks.
For all the modern sophistication that seems to have accompanied the supporting cast-rich web-slinger, he’s remained a kid favorite since the beginning, and the sheer awe-inspiring scale of his struggle here- the absolute courage and determination and tall-tale compilation of mythology-like detail- has a child-like wonder. Balanced by supporting cast intrigues meant to add adult appeal, such as the open relationship engaged by rival photog Lance Bannon and observational Gloria Grant’s thoughts at the Bugle office, we get a very imaginative kitchen-sink full of urban super warfare tactics as Juggernaut stomps across town to and from his failed kidnapping mission.
There’s a strong sense of Mooney’s distinctive inks at work, as his Spider-Man stylistically resembles the classic wall-crawler drawn by the senior Romita over seven triumphant years following co-creator Steve Ditko’s tenure. I’m particularly struck by moments where a rising, springing Spidey visual also reflects the plucky hero’s attitude- under Romita’s layouts, his dynamism often provides a metaphor for moments of struggle and defeat as well as optimism and determination. The ability to draw every day objects in well-perspective space lends a strong sense of place throughout.
“Nothing Can Stop The Juggernaut!”
I love the variety induced by the creepy nightmare psychic vision that opens the two-part arc. Something about Spider-Man with toes- I’m not sure how that choice was made-throws you off-balance. The floating spider motif replacing his chest insignia and the demonic silhouette of her massive attacker add to the dream-like unreality, capped by someone’s brilliant touch of Web herself now portrayed with no mouth, even as she desperately wishes to scream! Glynis Wein’s sickly green palor and washed-out colors add to the sense of illness in her seeming doom vision. It’s fitting she sees this unrelieved horror image, and no further: this foreshadows a detail at the end of #230, by which she will see the future no more.
We get the diurnal touchstones of Peter Parker’s life: he’s at his apartment when he gets the call from Madame Web, whose powers allow her to cross his Spider-Man business back over into Peter Parker’s. Then we spend a few pages catching up with everyone busy at the Daily Bugle, support characters that reach back to Stan and Steve’s day on the strip. It’s those support characters who are allowed the most opportunity to experience the natural changes and choices of adult hood- I’m thinking particularly about Betty and Ned Leeds, back together. The Bugle allows them each to have relationships, friendships, of their own, adding a layer of storytelling reality. With Ned, Robbie, Jonah and Lance all tying into the coming Brand storyline, we’ll get personable characters functioning as active parts of the action.
Even the remote, demonic Juggernaut- too powerful to be bothered with any puny human efforts at blockade, callous and bored, almost, and devoid of subtlety-has a best friend in Black Tom, who’s engineered the kidnapping of psychic Madame Web. His primary relationship in this story is to play the unstoppable criminal force, transcending the courage and cleverness of the protagonist who proves those qualities while failing time and again.
We get, with this story, one more echo of classic Spider-Man- one I nearly attributed to the Death of Gwen Stacy, cited by some as the last classic component of what we think of as Amazing Spider-Man comics, but really, it was right there in the origin! He simply can’t stop the Juggernaut from getting to Madame Web. Ripped from her life support system chair, she’s of no use as a hostage, at death’s door. All he can do now is wreak vengeance, with the purpose of stopping the Juggernaut from harming anyone else, or simply walking away from the harm he’s done. It’s the narrative reflection from those two key stories that adds emotional resonance to the sheer challenge of street-level hero versus god-level behemoth, a triangulation that’s so unique and different from those stories sharing its pattern, you probably wouldn’t even see it as such.
But the tragic let-down’s not nearly the same. This time, though Madame Web’s hurt seriously (and you might not at the time have been overly attached to her), Spider-Man’s jumped from a burglar he could’ve easily outclassed past a villain who very much matched him toe-to-toe, to probably the most powerful foe he’s faced alone, and by sheer tenacity, using the city of which he’s always been a part, he overcomes- and we feel unadulterated cheer!
Comments
Post a Comment