Sunday Splash Page #189

 

"Another Fine Mess Ben's Gotten Himself Into," in Fantastic Four: Grimm Noir, by Ron Garney and Gerry Duggan (storytellers), Matt Milla (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

This one-shot came out just last year, right before the pandemic shut a lot of stuff down. Ben Grimm has been having nightmares, and thinks they might be connected to the disappearance of a neighbor across the street. He ends up having to fight D'Spayre to rescue the neighbor and himself.

I have no idea why this exists, or why it was released when it was. If it ties in to something important from the Dan Slott Fantastic Four run it's concurrent with, or anything like that. Maybe Duggan and Garney just wanted to do a story about Ben fighting his fears. Lot of creative teams have gotten mileage out of that.

Most of the issue is drenched in black. Like there's a single spotlight focused on whatever we're seeing, so everything else is obscured. It's raining constantly. Ben's eyes are either in a shadow cast by his brow, or the white of the eyes themselves is colored black, so that the blue stands out even more. There's a bit of Joe Kubert in Garney's artwork, in the angle of the faces or some of the scratchy lines he uses. Moreso when he gets to draw Ben as a human, rather than when the story focuses on bizarre creatures and body horror (nothing too graphic, depending on how you feel about a rock guy falling to pieces.)

Like I said, seemingly inessential, but as far as random one-shots go, not bad.

What I Bought 2/29/2020

Well, I got a little more rest this weekend than I did last weekend. Not on Friday night, woke up coughing at 4 and couldn't get back to sleep. But Saturday night went better. Take what I can get. Still couldn't find a copy of the first issue of Canopus, so we'll look at the other two remaining books from last month.

Amethyst #1, by Amy Reeder (writer/artist/color artist), and Gabriela Downie (letterer) - I don't know which gemstone is represented by "line of sheet music that barfs up narhwals", but they should ask for a refund on that symbology.

It seems like the events of the original, 12-issue Amethyst series, are in play here. Amy learned she's the princess of an other-dimensional kingdom, fought Dark Opal, still has parents who love and remember her on Earth, etc. She's been on Earth for an unspecified amount of time, but returns to Gemworld for her birthday. She finds her kingdom shattered, her subjects missing. People she believed were friends behave coldly towards her, and she can only find one person willing to help.

I have a few theories, most revolving around this being some sort of trial for Amy. Prove she can get things done without guidance, without everyone else. She admits when she tries to rally Turquoise's people that she's never really had to try and do diplomacy before. Citrine handled that. Amy could just focus on flying her winged horse and magical zappy blasts. Unfortunately, that's probably not all that's involved in running a kingdom. The presence of Dark Opal kind of argues against it just being a test, though, but maybe he's not such a completely irredeemable person in this timeline.

I really want to see how Reeder portrays the various kingdoms, visually. We only saw the remains of Amethyst's castle in hers, although all the little floating pieces were eye-catching. All we needed was some flying turtles and it'd be a great Mario level. The houses in Turquoise's land are kind of barn shaped, with mushroom chimneys. I don't know if there's a significance to that, but it makes what otherwise seems like your standard medieval town a little more distinct. Also, people in Turquoise's kingdom have four arms now, although they only separate at the elbows, and their clothes are a little pirate-like. The kind of thing I associate more with port towns. Sleeveless vests and pants tucked into knee boots. Stuff like that. Don't know if that means anything, just an observation, but I enjoy studying it.

Fantastic Four: Grimm Noir, by Ron Garney and Gerry Duggan (storytellers), Matt Milla (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Hey, Namor's found gainful employment as somebody's butler! Good for him.

Ben's having a lot of nightmares about falling to pieces and failing to protect Alicia. There's a singer named Rosemary who lived across the street that's gone missing. Then he has a nightmare where a shadowy figure abducts Rosemary. he describes what he sees to Alicia, she sculpts, Reed doesn't recognize him, but Wong does. Except "Wong" is really D'Spayre, and the sculpture is him, and now Ben's in a nightmare realm. He digs his way out, puts the boots to D'Spayre, rescues Rosemary, things are good, for now.

It's kind of a fun story, although I don't get why D'Spayre wanted Rosemary around to sing for him so much. In understand her singing was improving Ben's mood and lessening the effect of D'Spayre's attacks on Ben, but it seems like he really enjoyed her singing as well. I'm also not clear why D'Spayre's own demons would attack him after Ben beat him up for a bit, but I'm pretty vague on the guy's powers, other than being a low-rent, second-rate Nightmare.

I'm also not sure it's much of a noir, at least in tone, but that's another matter. Ben has the stubborn, scrapper mentality of a noir detective, but not really the cynicism.

Garney and Milla's artwork are really the sell here, and they do a lot of good stuff. Milla sometimes colors the whites of Ben's eyes black in his nightmares, which both highlights the blue of his eyes, and makes him look more monstrous. D'Spayre's this shifting form of black-and-white. Sometimes he seems to be wearing gloves and a cape, other times it's just his body that's a mix of light and dark. Some high-contrast stuff with Ben when he's in his hat and trenchcoat, almost Frank Miller style to just hint at his rocky texture under the brim's shadow.

So the story isn't great, but it's nice to look at.

31 Days of Scans - Day 23

Favorite Costume. There are a lot of different costumes I like. Spoiler's outfit, Storm's sort of punk leather jacket with the Mohawk look, at least a few of the Iron Man armors (although those depend on who is drawing it), the Scarlet Spider outfit, the Batman Beyond costume.

But for the purposes of this post, I'm going to pick the black-and-white Spider-Man outfit. I probably still like his classic red-and-blue duds more, but I talked about them when I did the Favorite Character post on Spidey. Besides, the symbiont costume was a heck of a lot easier for a little kid enamored with Spider-Man to draw.

The look's a little more limited than his original costume. It lends itself to stories where Spider-Man can lurk in shadows, the eyes and spider emblem shining out of them. You can do similar things with his original costume - Spidey's no stranger to surprising people from the rafters in that get-up - but the black-and white costume rarely seems to get used in more light-hearted or silly stories. It can be - like the one where Peter's landlord's husband spikes the punch at Pete and MJ's moving out party, and Spidey ends up fighting Hobgoblin while drunk - but it's not the norm. It feels like the black costume gets a lot of stories where Peter has to deal with a serious loss or psychological trauma (though he has his fair share in the classic costume, too), but the red-and-blue duds get the stories where it's mostly just Spidey having a less-than-stellar day. The ones where he's more the butt of the universe's joke than anything else.

So the black-and-white outfit is mostly associated with dark, frequently angry Spider-Man stories, and I'm hardly a huge fan of those. But in small doses - and most critically, done well - they can be good. And frankly, I like to see Spider-Man get fed up and stop fooling around with bad guys every so often. I like the jokes, I like the humor, the focus on protecting innocents first, but every once in awhile I just want Spider-Man to wreck a super-villain's face. So when the costume is shorthand for "Spidey's about to remind everyone how he's survived this long", I'm on board with that.

Besides, it's a really cool look. It's very simple, but it works at grabbing attention. It plays up the "spider" in "Spider-Man" a bit more. Despite the lack of web design, it makes him look more spooky, more alien. Big white eyes, framed by darkness, staring from out of shadows, like they're just hovering. The spider emblem much bigger, front and center, you can't miss it. It's playing up that fear some people have of spiders, lurking in the shadows, making traps, watching with their multiple eyes. The original costume is certainly odd in its own way, and if someone dropped down on me in the middle of a mugging wearing it, I'd probably be a little freaked out. But I'd know that was a person in there, just from the all the colors and the look of it. The black-and-white one, I'm not so sure, especially talking about something moving as fast as Spider-Man can. What would that even look like to the naked eye? A dark blur, leaping around, tossing full-grown humans like they're rag dolls, shooting webbing. Spidey's constant chatter would break the illusion a bit, but like I said, in a lot of stories where he wears that suit, he's not very talkative.

And, as demonstrated in the above picture of Eddie Brock, and the one before that of Kraven, just about anybody can look good in it. There were a lot of things I didn't like about Venom, but the look of him wasn't it. Mayday had her own variant for awhile, which wasn't too shabby (although Ron Frenz had altered his art style and not for the better, which hurt it a bit).

Spider-Man enjoys the miracle of a suit that heals you without asking for you to provide proof of insurance first in Ultimate Spider-Man #35, by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Mark Bagley (penciler), Art Thibert (inker), Transparency Digital (colorist), and Chris Eliopoulos (letterer). Spider-Man shows he's no drunken master in Web of Spider-Man #38, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Alex Saviuk (penciler), Keith Williams and Mike Espositio (inkers), Janet Jackson (colorist), Rick Parker (letterer). The Kingpin really needs a better plan than, "fistfight pissed-off Spider-Man" in Amazing Spider-Man #542, by J. Michael Straczynski (writer), Ron Garney (penciler), Bill Reinhold (inker), Matt Milla (colorist), and Cory Petit (letterer). Kraven experiences that awkward moment when he meets the person he's cosplaying as in Web of Spider-Man #32, by J.M. DeMatteis (writer), Mike Zeck (penciler and colorist?), Bob McLeod (inker), Ian Tetrault (colorist), and Rick Parker (letterer). Eddie Brock rocks that symbiont jacket like a boss in Amazing Spider-Man #375, by David Micheline (writer), Bagley (penciler), Randy Emberlin (inker), Bob Sharen (colorist), Richard Starking and Rick Parker (letterers).

Setting Aside The Spider To handle Things As A Man

I recently thought about the Back In Black arc in Amazing Spider-Man, specifically the sequence when Spider-Man has arrived at the prison and confronted the Kingpin, who hired the assassin that shot Aunt May. The part that was sticking with me was after the Kingpin has blah-blah about how all these killers and arsonists in the prison have 1 person they all look down on: the chump, meaning Peter Parker. Spider-Man responds by punching Fisk repeatedly, but without saying a word. After a bit of this, Fisk demands of Spider-Man something to the effect of "Well, you said you were here to kill me, so are you going to do it or not?" At this point we get a lovely 4-panel sequence by Ron Garney, where Spider-Man responds 'I'm not here to kill you', removes his mask and the upper half of his costume, drops them to the floor, and then Peter Parker says 'I am'. The next page is Peter charging towards Fisk*. There's something about that sequence I've always found interesting (I even alluded to it when I reviewed the issue last year), but I never got around to discussing it. Now's as good a time as any though. So first, here's the page in question. Sorry it's not too large, it was the biggest version I could find online. Discussion continues below.

So I think it's clearly meant to be significant that he removes the mask to settle this, even though everyone present already knew who he was under the mask. Spider-Man has often been Peter's way of escaping his problems. How many times over the years has he gone out web-slinging in an attempt to clear his head? How many times has he been moping about some problem in his life, only to see a crime in progress and actually be relieved that he has something to do? Peter Parker, at least occasionally, uses Spider-Man (and the responsibility he feels to use his powers to help others) as a way to avoid dealing with his problems. If Gwen Stacy hates Spider-Man, and is angry at Peter for trying to defend him(self), punching out the Gibbon doesn't solve that, but it does let him ignore the problem for awhile.

Besides that, Peter also uses Spider-Man as a way of dealing with things that bug him in his life, in ways Parker can't. Peter Parker finds himself flailing with the ladies? Well, Spider-Man's never at a loss for a clever line. Flash Thompson picking on him? If Spider-Man shows up, you can be sure Flash will be the first one in line to shower him with love and respect. Jameson using your photos of Spidey saving an old lady to portray him as an enemy of the elderly? Sneak into his office, leave him a little webbing surprise on his chair. He can do all those things because no one knows who is really doing it, so he gets his kicks without facing any responsibility for it**.

Here though, Peter hasn't opted for that. Partially because it doesn't matter (as I said, everyone already knows it's Peter Parker under the mask). Partially because it was Peter that Fisk struck at, not Spider-Man. Most of the time, Spider-Man fights people who want to kill Spider-Man, so it's only proper he fight them as Spider-Man. They didn't know who was under the mask, and he was just fine keeping it that way. It's the guy in the mask with the webbing and the jokes that vexes them, not the nerdy photographer. But this is a case where the villain has aimed at that nerdy (former) photographer, and so he's decided that's who has to respond. It's not the first time I've seen this response, either.

At the end of the Clone Saga, Spider-Man #75, as Spider-Man fights the Green Goblin, he removes both their masks and says it's about two men, named Osborn and Parker. And it is. They're fighting on top of the Daily Bugle, and Norman had tricked many people there to kill them, all because they were close to Peter (Ben Reilly saved them). Plus, Norman returned because he blames Peter for Harry's death, and since Norman knows, it is Peter he blames, not Spider-Man. I imagine on some level, Peter blames Norman for Harry's death, too. And of course, there was the specter of Gwen Stacy. It was about two guys who feel the other has hurt them, as a person, not as a costumed entity, and so it's proper that they end the fight as people.

Which brings us back around to Amazing Spider-Man #542. Fisk attacked Peter Parker. If he'd wished, he could have ordered the killer to go to the address they were given, then follow Spider-Man and try to eliminate him during the giant skirmish that in Civil War #7. He didn't. He wanted it so that even if only one of Peter, MJ, or May was hit, the other two would be present to see it, have it burned into their brains forever, the sight, the sound of that moment, even if "forever" was only the time needed for the sniper to pull the trigger again. Going after a man's loved ones demands that the man respond. It's especially interesting in light of the theme JMS played with through his run, about where Peter's powers come from, and the battles where Peter makes some internal distinction between the Spider and the Man, such as the conflict with Shathra. When he lost control in that battle, Shathra said that the man was gone, only the spider remained, which was what she wanted, since the "spider" was what would be fed to her children. But here with the Kingpin, Peter is completely under control, even though the hurt inflicted on his loved ones is even worse than what Shathra did***.

Nope, Peter isn't blindly reacting here, he's thought out what he's going to do to Fisk, and he executes that plan exactly the way he wanted. The Spider might have killed Fisk for encroaching on its territory, but the Man chooses instead to destroy Kingpin's most valued possession, by making him look weak in front of all these scumbag prisoners, costing Fisk their fear and respect. He leaves Fisk alive, but crippled, and with the knowledge that at the moment Aunt May dies, Peter will come back, and then, Fisk will die. And there's absolutely nothing he can do to stop it. That may even be the Spider showing through a little, striking at his prey, then sitting back and waiting until it can't fight to finish the job****.

The one thing I think would have made the story better is if Peter hadn't revealed his identity to the world. Rather, Fisk found out some other way, ala Born Again. Then the act of removing his mask in front of all these criminals would have real impact, because while they might not know his name*****, he's willingly showed them his face. Because he doesn't care, this has to be handled this way, and besides, he intends to make it very clear why they shouldn't try what the Kingpin did. If Fisk hadn't already mentioned his name, you could have a scene where Fisk does so as Spider-Man goes to leave, and the cons all act as though they heard nothing, simply figuring it isn't information they want to know anymore. Wasn't the hand JMS was dealt, though, so I feel he and Garney did pretty well with what they had.

* Preparing to deal a monumental and humiliating beatdown on Fisk.

** Except for the possibility that his prank puts Jonah is a bad mood, which he takes out on Peter the next day at work.

*** For those not familiar with that story, Shathra assumes human form, and goes on TV claiming to be Spider-Man's mistress. She claims that he looks freaky, and has odd sexual interests, and that of course he's married, but he probably just uses the wife to feel better about himself. Both MJ and May see this report and get rocked by it - especially MJ - and it drives Peter berserk, to the point where's he basically an animal when he attacks.

**** That's a common tactic amongst sharks, for example. Get one good bite, then hang back until the prey bleeds to death, so that it doesn't risk being injured when it tries to feed. Venomous snakes exhibit similar tendencies, so I can imagine certain spiders might as well.

***** I can't recall whether Fisk uses his name in the preamble before the real fight, and if they didn't already know, Fisk might not use it anyway, preferring to keep that little tidbit to himself.

Looming Shadows

That's right, I'm going to try and discuss art again, but at least I've got a picture to go with it this time this time!

In Amazing Spider-Man #541, page 17, the first panel shows Peter in regular clothes, swinging across the city on his way to confront the Kingpin. What caught my eye is that Garney only draws the outline of Peter, and then we a get a sort of psychedelic, watercolor looking thing within the outline. There are no other details within the outline, just colors: Reds and oranges near the feet, blues on the upper torso, getting lighter as you move towards the fingers and the head. It seems so odd, I figure it has to mean something. But what?

My intial thought was that the colors represent inner turmoil, Peter struggling either to bring his darker impulses under control, or to encourage them, knowing that if he really intends to do this, he has to fully embrace his rage. However, I think that for that the colors would need to be blending, swirling around each other more, to demonstrate the conflict. But as I noted, it's mostly reds at the feet, and blues at the head and arms, very little mixing. Perhaps most notable is that his head is more of a pale greenish-blue, whereas his chest (read: heart) is a darker blue. This could suggest either depression, or that if the blue implies anger (an odd choice, but maybe), in his mind, he has more doubts about what's he's planning, that the anger hasn't entirely clouded his judgement. But there's more to the panel than just Peter, so let's go broader.

Starting with the context. Peter has just finished giving Aunt May some of his blood, hoping his spider-strength will assist in recovery. That done, he's decided it's time to face down Wilson Fisk (without drinking any juice or having a cookie, no less). In the panel, Peter is upside-down, the city beneath him. To look at him right-side up, would force up to flip the book upside-down, but the city would still look more or less the same. It perhaps emphasizes just how things are going for Peter. In the past, Peter hid his Spider-Man identity from Aunt May, and his injuries, absences, and lateness caused her great stress, and periodic health problems. But now his identity is out in the open, known not just by her, but by everyone, and May still got hurt because of Spider-Man. For Peter, everything is falling apart (read: upside-down), but the results have wound up the same (the city looking normal whether you view it upside-down or normally). Peter's big decision has only fouled up his life, it hasn't really changed the world in any significant way.

The fact that even as Peter's life has changed so drastically, certain things still hold true (Peter being Spider-Man impairs a loved one's physical well-being), is further reflected in the illustration and coloring of the cityscape below. The buildings are drawn and colored normally, or consistent with how they had been drawn in the issue thus far. Perhaps it symbolizes the disconnect of Peter from the world beneath him, the society that's deemed him a criminal, the society that has said "No more vigilantes!", even as Peter is preparing to take a page out of the Frank Castle book of vigilanteism (that's not even a real word, is it?).

In the upper left corner of the panel is a text box, containing the second half of what Mary Jane is telling a nurse entering May's room. It says 'It's too late.' While this most obviously refers to Mary Jane having missed her last chance to talk Peter out of going after Kingpin (at least at this precise moment), it could also mean it's too late for Peter, in any number of ways. Going after Fisk now won't make Aunt May be uninjured, it's already happened. It may be too late for Peter to step back from the decision he's made to kill Fisk (we know it isn't, but roll with it).

There have also been several scenes of Peter swinging through the city in this story arc thus far. Maybe there's a pattern we can glean from those.

Amazing Spider-Man #539: On pages 5 and 6, Peter swings to the hospital, carrying Aunt May. He's in civilian clothes, fairly well-lit, as is May, until she passes out and her face falls into faint shadow (dark enough it's noticeable, but not dark enough to obscure any facial features). Peter's face is completely visible on page 5, on page 6 we get a shot of him from behind as he cries out 'May!' Perhaps at this point Peter still has hope that things will be OK?

On page 11, the last panel shows him below and from behind, as he swings away from MJ vowing to 'hurt someone'. Even though it's broad daylight (probably not a good idea for a wanted fugitive to be web-swinging at that time in Times Square), he's completely in shadow, an indication that the anger that was observed in panels 2 and 3 of page 7 (as he hears the doctor's commenting on May's condition) has taken a firm hold of him.

By page 15, he's looking for someone to tell him about the piece of the sniper scope he found. The anger is plain on his face in the first panel, as he's extremely well-lit, but by the third panel, he's moved past us, and once again we see his back in shadow. I'm not sure what to make of the first panel, unless it's mean to surprise us with a scene of Spider-Man going into action out of costume, with emotions that would normally be hidden, plainly displayed.

Amazing Spider-Man #540: Peter spends most of this issue in costume, and does all of his web-swinging while wearing the spandex. Interestingly though, a good portion of the issue takes place during the day, whereas #539 and #541 were predominantly at night. This is because shadows are rarely needed to convey anything about Spider-Man's emotional state. The fact that he's donned a costume he threw away because of how it bothered his wife (yeah JMS said it was for a different reason, but he doesn't know jack, so whatever). The fact that he's getting into a fight with a gunman in the middle of a train station. Forget that he's a fugitive and someone was probably calling the police, who would call SHIELD. He attacked this man, who Peter had to know would be armed, with people all around him. His facial expressions don't need to show us how he feels, because that kind of reckless action tells us enough about where his mind is. This is not about getting a killer off the streets before he harms someone else, this is about Aunt May, plain and simple.

I do want to mention a scene on page 17 where he slams the Martino's face into a wall, because his mask is off, but his face is obscured by shadows, and this is placed between two panels of him making threats with a plainly visible face. It seems as long as he's just talking, Peter Parker can stay in some form of control, but if Spider-Man starts to act, the anger gets ahold of him again, and the actions become the sorts of things we're unaccustomed to seeing from our 'friendly neighborhood Spider-Man'.

Amazing Spider-Man #541: There's one other thing I want to touch on in this issue. Page 4, last panel, as Peter swings away with the man who shot the man who shot Aunt May. In the the Aunt May scene, as mentioned previously, he was mostly illuminated, as he held on to May tightly - but carefully - around the torso as he brought her to the hospital. Now, he's shrouded in shadow, moving away from the hospital, and casually holding this man by the ankle. With May, peter was clearly worried too much movement might harm her; with this killer, I don't think Peter would mind if the man cracked his skull open on a roof Peter didn't clear by enough.

So, I've gone 'round and 'round this thing, and I still don't know that I figured out what the coloring was about. Part of me says it's the "emotional turmoil" answer, and my teachers always said that on multiple choice, if you weren't sure, go with your first instinct, because there's got to be a reason why you're picking that one. Still, I just don't feel like that's right, or that the coloring doesn't represent it properly if it does.

I think I've reached a wall, as far as ideas go, if you've got any, chime in, please. There's a lot more I'd like to look at just in this arc besides this, like the last few pages, when both Spidey and Kingpin are getting ready, and Peter's dressed in black, crawling through shadows, while Kingpin strides in the light, dressed in immaculate white. Or why so many police officers' faces were hidden in shadows in these issues (the guards at the end of #541, the cop outside the building Martino shot Aunt May from in #539, but not the cops catching the guy for public urination in #540. Odd).

But I think that may wait for another day, assuming I have any inspirations. Unless you've got some thoughts on those. We could just turn this into a big ole' art discussion.