Almost a year after the publication of UTS 25, this was released, a squarebound one-off teaming Spider-Man and Dr. Strange. Maybe for the first time? I have no idea where it’s meant to fall in the timeline. I think the idea was to occasionally do some more Untold stuff, and I guess this was the pilot for that idea. But it’s also the only one, so I guess it wasn’t deemed a success, or maybe the writers just moved on. Whatever the case, here we are. One last weird 90s flashback, and then it’s all 60s material for the rest of the block. It’s a Busiek plot with a Stern script, penciled by Neil Vokes, inked by Jay Geldhof and colored by the great Matt Hollingsworth, in a credit earlier than I realized he had at Marvel. He’s got a ton of great work to his name, but before 2000, I thought it was mostly at Dark Horse, DC and Veritgo. Like Busiek, he’s still doing cool stuff today. Ok, finally, let’s get on with the show, which begins with 2 goons robbing the Chicago Museum of Antiquities. One of them is fascinated by some kind of evil lookin’ idol thing, and as his partner tells him to forget it, he appears to become possessed by it.
Doc Strange sends his astral form to check in with his mentor, The Ancient One, who’s also felt a great disturbance in The Force, er, uh, magic or whatever, naming the stolen artifact as the Lantern of Lantarr, but who’s behind it is hidden even to him. He tells his former student that, in his quest to retrieve it, he won’t be alone. And that smash cuts to Spider-Man punching a guy out.
Spidey takes the opportunity to recount his origin (Never passes up the chance!), then mentions many of the people he’s fought since, mixing classic ASM villains and UTS adventures as Peter Parker arrives to school late for class. His teacher gives him a pass, and all the other kids are mean about it.
It’s a weird distinction to make, but in an era where mainstream comics were more cartoony than they’d been at any time since the 40s, it’s not that Neil Vokes’ stuff is cartoony, it’s that he’s a cartoonist. He’s not just doing the open style and exaggeration that’s so common in this period, he’s on his own wave. Even a guy like Mike Weiringo has his best stuff ahead of him in this period, as he continues to get rid of the big feet and big faces from his style, but here, the exaggeration feels natural. Anyway, Peter goes home and has a nice page with Aunt May, and then we skip to the next morning, as he’s at The Bugle looking for work and being given the cold shoulder by Betty for no reason whatsoever. JJJ says he’s not a charity case and is looking for his professional photogs to cover “the Park Avenue kidnappings story,” but his staff photographers are out. He’s ready to give the gig to Peter, but Peter’s already become Spider-Man and is headed to Park Avenue. And when he gets there, he sees 2 goons dragging a lady into an alley.
Soon, we’re back to The Bugle, where JJJ is thrilled with the photos. Betty wants to meet Peter for lunch tomorrow, but he says he has plans, and she does her usual. Then he thinks that he wants to be looking for those kidnappers, but he couldn’t tell her that. He couldn’t spare a lunch break?? Then we jump ahead to the evening, where Spider-Man’s no closer to figuring things out, but feels like he’s being pulled toward The East Village, and the reason for that soon presents itself.
Don’t see why these 2 needed a new, earlier first meeting, but here it is. In fairness, I’ve never read their first meeting, so maybe they act like they’ve met or something. We’ll find out not too long from now. For now, we find out the 2 goons with the lantern are working with Doc Strange’s foe, Baron Mordo. Mordo is weakened from a previous battle with Strange, and thinks the lantern chose the goons, so he has no choice but to keep working with them. He sends them back out to kidnap more people or whatever, and then promises an offering to his patron, Enigma, who’s like a demon or something (I know precious little about Dr. Strange and related characters). The next morning, Aunt May wakes Peter up, saying he can’t waste his vacation, and after breakfast, he heads out. He thinks about how he couldn’t find the goons, and wonders if Dr. Strange is for real.
A lot to take in there. The MJ & Anna cameo was pretty wacky. Peter has accidentally stumbled on the goons mid-kidnapping in his civilian clothes. I’m not… totally sure why. Then everyone else catches up to him, and the goons teleport everyone to… a Ditko dimension, of course. Accept no substitutes. Sending JJJ, Betty and the kids to a bizarre parallel dimension seems kind of nuts. Peter is thinking Strange said he’s appear when he found the lantern, but nothing’s happening. He makes a big show of running away yelling about how this is crazy so he can become Spider-Man, while the goons tell the cast he’ll be lost forever. Even Flash seems to feel bad about that. Spider-Man catches up with everyone just as the cast is being herded into place with all the previous victims.
Mordo begins a spell to sacrifice the people to his boss or whatever, but of course, Spider-Man ruins it, with some typically great Roger Stern quipping, and then it’s fightin’ time.
Spidey fights the beastie boys for another page, and just when I’m starting to think Dr. Strange isn’t doing much in this story, he appears in his astral form. He & Mordo have a chat, and then he tells Spider-Man to keep fighting the monsters while he fights Mordo.
I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise, Dr. Strange only has 2 villains. Dormammu, furious with Mordo for still not providing his sacrifice, banishes him to another dimension or something. And then… Strange just heads back. Weird. Spider-Man beats up the monsters for 2 more pages, until one of them is thrown onto and smashes the lantern. Spidey assumes they’re trapped without it, but Strange reappears, and begins showing them a path back to the real world.
Everyone’s pretty messed up from their experience, and so Spider-Man asks Strange if he can make them forget all this happened. But, of course, Strange points out that would also mean making them forget his heroics. But, come on…
And that’s that for that. A wacky ride. Rrrrather inessential, tho. I’m not sure that just jamming stories into the past just to do them is really worthwhile. Especially for $6 a pop. The original series felt a lot more intentional. But, it was fun, at least. The front cover is by Steve Leialoha, but Vokes gets the back cover for himself:
Very Mike Mignola-eqsue. And with that, Untold Tales really comes to an end.