SPIDER-MAN’s 1980s Roller-Coaster: A Gang War, a Wedding and a Funeral
THE SPIDER’S WEB: A lot happened to Spider-Man before Kraven’s Last Hunt… — Welcome to The Spider’s Web — a recurring feature by novelist and Archie Comics Co-President Alex Segura that looks at Spider-Man’s development since his start in 1962’s Amazing Fantasy #15. (Alex has been re-reading from the beginning.) Each installment covers a specific period in Spidey’s history, with Alex giving you a kind of bouncing ball approach, as opposed to an issue-by-issue breakdown. Click here for the complete index of columns. — Dan — By ALEX SEGURA Hey Web-Spinners: Hope you’re hanging in there amid all the madness in the world. Let’s escape for a minute into the life of one Peter Parker, eh? Last time we chatted, we spotlighted the vastly underrated Tom DeFalco/Ron Frenz run on Amazing Spider-Man, and did a few detours to cover things like the classic Death of Jean DeWolff storyline in sister series Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man. We touched on how DeFalco and Frenz had a rocky end to their run, which resulted in a more awkward exit to one of the better creative teams in recent memory. That was a bummer to experience as a reader, and made for a few plot speed bumps along the way. Let’s address those really fast before we get to the good stuff: So, as DeFalco and Frenz departed, ex-Spidey Group Editor Jim Owsley (now known as Christopher Priest) took over for a short spell, writing over some DeFalco plots and crafting the 1986-87 Gang War storyline, which brought to a head many of the organized crime threads bubbling around the Spider-Man books over the last year or so, and tying into Daredevil’s Born Again story — which ended with the Kingpin leaving the country. In the wake of the Kingpin’s departure, a handful of bosses tried to step in to fill the vacuum, including the Rose (who we soon learn is Richard Fisk, son of the Kingpin!), Hammerhead, a cyborg Silvermane (IIRC he became a cyborg toward the end of Mantlo’s run on PPSSM, which was not part of this reread), and “the Arranger,” Kingpin’s right-hand man, who we only happen to see during his appearances in Spider-Man books. (I could be wrong, but I don’t remember him showing up during Born Again, which makes his importance harder to swallow. Anyway.) I’ll...
Read more