Today is my 18th birthday, but I thought I'd look at a more important man's birthday. Aw, man, I feel JUST like Max Dillon right before he fell into a pool with electric eels!
97 days ago, I asked everyone what they wanted me to review on this site for a special occasion, the poll winner was Amazing Spider-Man #500 by J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita Jr. from all the way back in 2003. However, I feel like I need to review the issues that led up to this. But do not worry, I made the recaps and reviews as short as possible.
This is The Amazing Spider-Man: Happy Birthday by JMS and JRJR.
Issue 57.
This is the cover, by artist Tony Harris, who drew the cover of the next issue, and issue 501. Shows Spidey swinging by the AMERICAN flag while a bunch of New Yorkers watch.
There is some red lightning, Spidey's got to see what's going on... What the hell is going on? Spidey, The Fantastic Four and Thor are fighting against some strange creatures from another dimension, they got to Earth-616 through a vortex of some sort... Who could be behind this? The final page says... Dormammu! It was a pretty interesting issue. 7.5/10.
Issue 58 (Final issue of volume 2)
This is the other cover by Tony Harris... I'm pretty sure he drew another Spider-Man book some time later in the 2000's. This cover shows Spidey in a wall while a mother and her child watch.
Dr. Strange is fighting Dormammu, and it looks like he needs Spidey's help since it's HIS title after all! They somehow go beyond time itself, where you can see everything that is happening, everything that ever happened, and everything that will happen. He sees a future where Peter is old and depressed but he's still Spider-Man. Something happening simultaneously is a flashback to when Peter was first bit by the radioactive spider. I liked it, and I cannot wait to see where this is going. 8/10.
Let's look at issue number 500. Part 3 of Happy Birthday.
This is the cover by J. Scott Campbell, it's great for a milestone issue like this one. Spidey and MJ are swinging away from the Sinister Sixteen... It took me like 4 attempts to get the count right.
Peter is still looking at the 2 things happening simultaneously, not knowing which one to prevent first. Old Man Peter fights against the police and it leads to his demise. There is nothing that Peter could've done to prevent it. Same with his origin, Spidey tries to prevent getting bit by the spider, and he fails at that too.
After that, Peter relives his many adventures that happened prior to this issue. Here is the list:
- Issue 4.
- Issue 2.
- Issue 6.
- Issue 9.
- Issue 11 (or 12, I don't remember).
- Issue 13.
- Issue 14 (No Goblin).
- Issue 33.
- Issue 121.
It is done so beautifully and so well written, it's like I'm reliving those adventures with him. After that he relives all of his fights against his many foes in a beautiful splash page that sums up Spidey's adventures across 500 issues and over 1000 appearances. And it all goes full circle, Spidey is battling the creatures with the other heroes again, and THEY WIN! This feels like a real victory for everyone! And Strange has one last surprise for Spidey... A little box! Dr. Strange's adventures will continue in a mini-series.
The last few pages are drawn by John Romita Sr.; Peter gets the chance to spend 5 more minutes with Uncle Ben. This is one of the best scenes in a Spider-Man comic. This is what comics should be, wonderful stories that tell messages. This is Marvel Comics at its best.
Peter goes back with MJ and the issue is over.
10/10. The art is beautiful, and the colors are nice to look at, the story is one best stories in a Spider-Man comic. This is a great celebration of 500 issues and 40 years of history. It works as a standalone issue and it works as part of a storyline. It's perfect.
Some people say this should've been the end of the series, that Spider-Man's story should've ended here... I find that ridiculous, if I had read this back then (which I didn't because I wasn't born yet), I probably would've thought that there's still many stories to tell with this character and that there's still more Spider-Manning to do...
That's it. That was the birthday special. No deep speech about getting old or anything. Still, happy birthday to ME! The most important man in the world... If you don't count everyone else.
I'd like to announce that I'll be taking a short break from reviewing the JMS Spidey run for a bit so I can focus on other stuff that I've been wanting to review, like:
(NOT IN ORDER)
- UHF
- Doki Doki Literature Club
- Spidey cartoons
- Fantastic Four: 4 Stories About Hope
- Thunderbolts*
- Spider-Man: Blue
- The Clone Saga (Or how it was supposed to go)
- More of 4 Random Issues.
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