Hilarity in the Face of Cosmic Disaster

Before the main crux of the post, a few words quickly about the convention. I only stayed an hour, meaning I missed Gary Friedrich, creator/writer of Ghost Rider. Which sucks, but I just get kind of edgy if I'm in a place with a lot of people and noise for awhile, and I was pretty much broke. Seriously underestimated how much stuff there would be I'd want to buy (complete set of Marvel Universe Series 3 cards, WHOOOO!). For the time I was there though, lot of fun.

One more thing: I've read blogs, and Wizard. I know people dress as fictional characters at these things. Still, it's entirely different to actually turn from a longbox, pleased to have found a couple of issues from the Busiek/Larsen Defenders series, and almost run into a stormtrooper. It was a surreal moment, especially when a little girl (like 5 or younger) posed for a picture with Emperor Palpatine. Incidentally, what kind of salute do you give a stormtooper?

Chris wanted to know about our first comic. My first comic could be anyone of about fifty I got Christmas of '87 (including the final issue of ROM), so it's hard to say which I read first. I do know which had the greatest effect on me, and that would be the two-part story of Amazing Spider-Man #273 and Spectacular Spider-Man #111. So we'll run with that.

This two-part story deals with the Puma being called on to defend his tribe from the greatest threat it's ever known, the Beyonder. He's mostly bored with the whole thing, until he actually meets Jheri-Curl Boy. The One From the Land of Bad Plot Devices senses Puma's heart isn't in it, so he sends him to Japan for the hostile takeover he had planned originally. Suffice to say, he got Puma's attention. Puma makes it back to America and turns to Spider-Man for aid, and away we go.

This was a nice intro to who Spider-Man is, how his life is ups offset by downs. Plus: he gets to spend time with the smokin' hot Mary Jane Watson. Minus: they spend that time repainting his apartment, which had been burned up recently. Minus: while trying to convince the Puma he's crazy to go after the Beyonder, Spidey says 'All I'd have to do is say "Hey Beyonder," and. . .' and Beyonder appears in Peter's apartment, wanting to know what Peter wants. Plus: Mary Jane was already safely gone, having wisely left after Puma showed up. Even if she does know Peter is Spidey, no reason for her to get in the middle of that. Plus, there was absurdity.

While in Japan, Puma visited his old master. He gets past the guards, and advances on his master, who sits there uncaring, face hidden under his hood, listening to a rock 'n roll tape?! The Beyonder helps the old man get a gig for his rock band at a club in New York? The Puma reaches perfect harmony with the universe, actually becoming powerful enough to destroy Beyonder, and Beyonder doesn't want Spider-Man to try and protect him?! So what, Peter had to act like a wimp in front of his reporter friend Joy (also hot) so he could change into Spidey uniform for this?

Hilarious.

Even with Spidey donning the cloth black-and-white costume, as opposed to the classic red-and-blue, just fantastic. I saw enough of Spider-Man and Peter Parker to see a character that had some hard knocks (this also followed the "Death of Jean DeWolf" story), but didn't let moping stop him from trying to save the day. He's funny, looks cool, has cool powers, tries to do the right thing, awesome. And no Spider-Totem, eye-ripping, stinger-sprouting in sight.

Just loved it.