Amazing Spider-Man: Comics Legend Denny O'Neil gets a fresh start at Marvel Comics (1980-1981)

So, in his initial series, Spider-Man, Denny has the most ideas, initially, bringing in new characters the first few months.  Calypso, Madame Web, Hyrdo Man recur in later stories- such as Todd McFarlane’s smash-selling vehicle Spider=Man title in 1991, and the Madame and Hydro Man even return in cartoons.  Peter even gets an opponent at the Daily Globe, photographer Lance Bannon- before O’Neil abruptly shifts gears and does away with the Daily Globe newspaper era started by Marv Wolfman in a single issue, #210.

However, those characters do not generally add much to any ongoing saga.   In some ways, while the stories in the middle do continue into each other, from 213-218, most O’Neil Spider-Man stories exist in an almost stand-alone fashion.  Hydro Man- who suffers from the most glaring flaw in this era’s villains, his obstinate motivation of revenge, like the Wizard in the next issue- does come back for a sort of humorous rivalry with Sandman over a barfly floosy,  which leads to flared tempers and them, a bizarre mutation of team-up, as they become one big muddy monster with little intelligence.  That is to say, less than thugs Morrie Bench or Flint Marko usually have- almost non-sentience.

The joking build-up to a story for one supporting character- Peter’s yowling neighbor, Mr. Pincus- marks the single instance of character development over the run.  Peter’s completely mistaken as to which neighbor is keeping him off-kilter with his rachet singing of very corny songs at all hours.  But ‘Lonesome Pinky’ has only the simplest interaction with Peter along the way, before Denny’s last story brings him poignantly to the front stage.  In some ways, legend Denny O’Neil kind of ends up being the Lonesome Pinky of Spider-Man writers.  He heroically stands in, when the flagship title needs an experienced writer.  He does end up finding his authentic voice after putting on an act that didn’t necessarily reflect his most earnest ability when engaged.  And then, his work’s largely forgotten.

From Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15 1981 

 script: O'Neil  Art: Miller & Janson

            Denny does use college secretary Debbie Whitman, constantly stood-up by Peter.  She’s basically the one-person stand in for all his absent supporting cast, and she’s rather one-note: she brings up her endangered uncle, to entangle a very reluctant wall-crawler in an ocean-going research adventure that runs smack into an irate Prince Namor, the Submariner.  Otherwise, she replays the same ‘hopeful date/ crushed expectations’ theme, over and over- which increasingly, does not speak well of Peter Parker, basically underscoring the one flaw of insensitivity.  He does get a taste of his own medicine when she starts seeing the rather douchy hometown boyfriend Biff Rifkin, whose alliterative name kind of reflects O’Neil might be phoning it in.  But alliteratiion IS very 'comics.'

            While I don’t think the run works great as a run, however, individual stories do shine for different readers.  As a very young reader who was bought three of these around the time of publication, I didn’t know any better, and loved them.  Sure, I wanted a costumed villain and something of consequence to Peter’s ongoing story in Amazing Spider-Man #216, but looking at it now, the story “Marathon” is one of Denny’s shining moments on the title.  If I had encountered the Frightful Four versus Spider-Man and Namor, I would have been ecstatic!  It’s true, you know, that in this era, Spider-Man’s the subject of two national cartoons of the Saturday morning kids sort- so, more mature and complicated themes probably ran counter to what Jim Shooter wanted to do with the character in the monthly issues.  So, if you didn’t appreciate them as a child, they may not, on whole, stand up as paradigms of comics storytelling that would make an older reader a fan.  Roger Stern’s work on the character, concurrently on the Spectacular Spider-Man title, and succeeding O’Neil on Amazing, on the other hand, seems to absolutely nail a classic run by a continuing consensus of later readers.

            All along, under both writers, we get the rapidly-developing John Romita, Jr, son of the man whose tweaks and co-plotting help bring Spider-Man a much-wider audience in the 1960s and early 70s.  His layouts for action scenes are incredible, as we see much more of in his work at the same time on my second-favorite Marvel hero, Invincible Iron Man.  It’s speculated that Denny gave him full scripts, which detailed the pace and ‘blocking’ of the scenes more closely than his Iron Man collaborators, David Micheleinie and Bob Layton, who probably worked from ‘plot-first’ scripts that gave the artist more room for ‘directing’ the camera.

I love Amazing Spider-Man #216- maybe even more than when I first read it at age seven.  Script: O'Neil  Art: John Romita Jr. and Jim Mooney

He does utilize classic Spidey villains Kraven the Hunter and the Sandman, and both appear with the innovation of partnering them with other O’Neil creations, albeit Sandman’s teamwork with the Frightful Four dates back to the heart of Kirby’s 1960s run on Marvel’s first flagship title, Fantastic Four.

His run generally uses a trick repeated by successor Roger Stern, trying not to wear out the welcome of early mainstay Spider-villains, to try to stay fresh in story ideas, especially for the ongoing anomaly of longtime fans and collectors of those earlier stories.  Denny’s calling up villains, sometimes quite a bit apart from a hero’s A-list of foes, from all over the Marvel Universe.  He opens up with Mesmero, a recurrent second-in-command to Magneto in his clashes with the X-Men, to provide a steady, if not earth-shaking, debut on Amazing.  Spider-Man’s briefly lured back to show business by the hypnotic mutant’s offer.  We afterwards get fights with Prince Namor- whose saga’s continued through many issues of Spider-man, to the point where you wonder if Denny wouldn’t have preferred a crack at writing his title, if he only had one.  In the second Namor storyline, we get the Frightful Four, perpetual counterparts to the Fantastic Four, and even get a supporting cameo from Reed and his team to resolve the diabolical trouble put on them by the Wizard.  We get mad doctor Jonas Harrow and the Grey Gargoyle, and finally, old Daredevil cast-off, Ramrod.

Amazing Spider-Man #221  Script: O'Neil  Art: Alan Kupperberg & Jim Mooney

Summation: the competently-crafted, the very bad, and the best.

I think if you enjoy the issues in, more or less, isolation, they’re well made enough, in general.  I want to lend some praise for O’Neil’s dialogue.  I find his Spider-Man’s pretty funny.  He doesn’t lend himself to many tortured inner monologues, but the two that come to mind are highlights.   He often observes that (unlike Batman) he’s no detective, and reflects a certain humility I think which is true to Denny himself at this point in his life, in the way he seems to bumble into these plots and problems.  He then tries his best to think quickly and resolve things for which he had no preparation.  I love the line where he neurotically reflects it’s too bad I wasn’t bitten by a radioactive Corporation- at least then I’d be more organized!

I like his lines of self-assessment in #213, as he swings to investigate the gigantic mechanical spider- a bomb, really, a laser-bedecked trap created by the Wizard, as part of his plan to either destroy Spidey or first uncover his identity.  It’s like O’Neil himself, resigning himself to his uncertainties where to take this character in any larger sense, and makes the chaos of the story elements feel almost skewed in the telling by Spider-Man’s lack of understanding as to what he’s gotten himself into.  He’s not as morbid and sullen as in the Ditko-plotted and drawn issues- but after Wolfman unraveled Peter’s supporting cast in 1978 and 79, and due to Peter’s lack of care for his connection to Deb Whitman, a girl much more like Peter in his socially more passive years- he is, ultimately, a loner.

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