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| Cover Art: Erik Larsen |
Original Price: $1.75
Title: "Revenge of the Sinister Six, Part 5: The Sixth Member"
Writer: Erik Larsen
Artist: Erik Larsen
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Colorist: Gregory Wright
Editor: Danny Fingeroth
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco
SYNOPSIS
While the Sinister Six bicker among themselves in their New Jersey hideout, Spider-Man recuperates in his apartment with his wife, Mary Jane. The Sinister Six attack a building in New York that is actually a Hydra satellite relay station, with plans to hold the world hostage with a doomsday satellite. Spider-Man sees this on the news and goes to stop his enemies, but finds Hulk, Ghost Rider, and Sleepwalker outside the building. The heroes team up and storm the building. Sleepwalker fades away when his human host wakes up across town, Hulk and Ghost Rider are smashed down by the villains' newest sixth member, the giant alien Gog, and Spider-Man is left alone and surrounded.
ANNOTATIONS
Spider-Man references the "New Fantastic Four" team that consisted of Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, and the Hulk and first appeared in Fantastic Four (1961) # 347. This issue nearly reunites the quartet, swapping out Sleepwalker for Wolverine.
Ghost Rider fights the Hobgoblin, who he last encountered alongside Spider-Man in Ghost Rider (1990) # 17.
REVIEW
Erik Larsen's Sinister Six story just throws everything but the kitchen sink at the readers, which in this chapter means a sorta reunion of the "New" Fantastic Four.
While there's certainly an old school charm to this comic, the manic vibe combined with the ridiculous space wasted on subplots drags it down to an almost unreadable level. Erik Larsen was an untried writer at this point, with this being (to my knowledge anyway) his first major work as a writer as well as artist. It shows, too, not so much by the characterization since he has a solid handle on Spider-Man and most of the guest-stars but by the way the issue is paced. The storyline to this point had featured Spider-Man and Random Hero getting beat by the Sinister Six, and taking the time in the fifth chapter to show that the villains can't get along is a little labored. Why bother when none of those problems between the villains come back into play in the climax? Similarly, the scenes with Peter and Mary Jane at home are a terrible match to be juxtaposed with the Sinister Six arguments, especially since it's just such a buzzkill for the comic. I didn't mention them in the synopsis, but those scenes involve Mary Jane taking a movie role that has her doing a nude scene, and Peter objects for reasons.
This isn't a Spider-Man blog, so how about that Ghost Rider appearance? Well, he's certainly IN this comic, just not in any substantial way. He's part of a wave of heroes that Larsen has been throwing at the villains for wand-waved plot reasons, and at least Ghost Rider did show up once already in the first chapter. But having this be a really strained attempt to reunite the "New Fantastic Four" is hamstrung when Wolverine is substituted for Sleepwalker. Writers would always miss the point of that "New FF" story, it was a parody of guest-stars being used to inflate sales, not something taken straight as it is here.
Larsen's artwork is dependably solid, even though his Ghost Rider looks garishly out of place. I think that might be my biggest problem with Ghost Rider appearing in this comic, he just doesn't fit at all. He's in a similar situation as the poor Hobgoblin, who is still saddled with the "religious maniac" personality that Todd McFarlane bolted on to him. Neither character seem like they should be in this story, which at the end of the day is just an excuse to show people punching each other.
I can't deny that this story is fun as a throwback to 1960s Spider-Man, but when it invokes such 1990s stuff as Ghost Rider, demon Hobgoblin, and a nude movie role it deducts from that charm.
Grade: C+
ANNOTATIONS
Spider-Man references the "New Fantastic Four" team that consisted of Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, and the Hulk and first appeared in Fantastic Four (1961) # 347. This issue nearly reunites the quartet, swapping out Sleepwalker for Wolverine.
Ghost Rider fights the Hobgoblin, who he last encountered alongside Spider-Man in Ghost Rider (1990) # 17.
REVIEW
Erik Larsen's Sinister Six story just throws everything but the kitchen sink at the readers, which in this chapter means a sorta reunion of the "New" Fantastic Four.
While there's certainly an old school charm to this comic, the manic vibe combined with the ridiculous space wasted on subplots drags it down to an almost unreadable level. Erik Larsen was an untried writer at this point, with this being (to my knowledge anyway) his first major work as a writer as well as artist. It shows, too, not so much by the characterization since he has a solid handle on Spider-Man and most of the guest-stars but by the way the issue is paced. The storyline to this point had featured Spider-Man and Random Hero getting beat by the Sinister Six, and taking the time in the fifth chapter to show that the villains can't get along is a little labored. Why bother when none of those problems between the villains come back into play in the climax? Similarly, the scenes with Peter and Mary Jane at home are a terrible match to be juxtaposed with the Sinister Six arguments, especially since it's just such a buzzkill for the comic. I didn't mention them in the synopsis, but those scenes involve Mary Jane taking a movie role that has her doing a nude scene, and Peter objects for reasons.
This isn't a Spider-Man blog, so how about that Ghost Rider appearance? Well, he's certainly IN this comic, just not in any substantial way. He's part of a wave of heroes that Larsen has been throwing at the villains for wand-waved plot reasons, and at least Ghost Rider did show up once already in the first chapter. But having this be a really strained attempt to reunite the "New Fantastic Four" is hamstrung when Wolverine is substituted for Sleepwalker. Writers would always miss the point of that "New FF" story, it was a parody of guest-stars being used to inflate sales, not something taken straight as it is here.
Larsen's artwork is dependably solid, even though his Ghost Rider looks garishly out of place. I think that might be my biggest problem with Ghost Rider appearing in this comic, he just doesn't fit at all. He's in a similar situation as the poor Hobgoblin, who is still saddled with the "religious maniac" personality that Todd McFarlane bolted on to him. Neither character seem like they should be in this story, which at the end of the day is just an excuse to show people punching each other.
I can't deny that this story is fun as a throwback to 1960s Spider-Man, but when it invokes such 1990s stuff as Ghost Rider, demon Hobgoblin, and a nude movie role it deducts from that charm.
Grade: C+
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