Not a great cover! GG and Spidey look weird. Every issue this series is adapting (Well, every ASM) is plenty to fill one book, but 14 in particular feels like it does not need to share space with another one and be cut in half. Especially since it has to introduce the Enforcers in addition to the Goblin now. Mark McNabb hops in the revolving door of the colorist job. I wonder why it’s changing so often? Well, as tradition demands, the splash page has nothing to do with the cliffhanger last issue, and is just Hulk’s big, dumb face.
“Confused by this stupid, counterproductive gimmick??” If you were a new reader somehow picking this up as your first issue, yes, 100%, and for no good reason. If you’ve been here the whole time, no, not confused, just really, really annoyed.
These 2 pages in a row with no panel borders read like they’re supposed to be a 2-page splash even though they are not. Bad all around. Spidey bumbles around in the illusion for awhile before realizing the tracer he got on Mysterio is overpowering his usual danger sense and making him attack in the wrong direction. What? Whatever. So he starts beating on a shocked Mysterio and eventually knocks him into a movie set, like usual. Byrne seems to have removed Mysterio’s ability to jam our hero’s danger sense. FINALLY, a change I am fully onboard with. This comic is then derailed by one of the worst bound-in advertising junk things I’ve ever seen, a little minicomic selling bottled water to kids. It’s bound in such that you see half of it, then have to read more of the actual comic to see the other half of the extremely intrusive ad you didn’t want to see at all. It interrupts the book twice! Bravo, marketing.
You know, I don’t mind this, either. This movie studio was identified as “Osborn Studios” last issue, which, let me be clear, is very stupid. But it does get Spider-Man into the movie plot of ASM 14 in a less nonsensical way, and having 2 issues in a row related to movies, ok, sure. That’s 2 acceptable changes in one issue! Also, I’ve not heard of Mark McNabb, but he seems to be getting the hang of computer coloring way faster than his peers. This looks like 2002-ish-era comics with him coloring. A lot more modeling, sharper lights and darks, textures in the background… he’s running away with it. Well, anyway, Peter talks May into letting him go, saying he’s 17 already (WHAT?) and that he’ll take his laptop and email every day (Where did he get a laptop?? How did he AFFORD a laptop??). So, next page, Spider-Man’s told to go “react to whatever happens” in the desert and is immediately bombed by the Green Goblin. On a glider, not a broomstick, which is fine by me. I wish Byrne had kept Ditko’s premise that his feet are right at the bottom of each wing and they’re flexible, that just looked cool, but he does not.
So no Enforcers AT ALL? They’ve appeared in so many subsequent comics! The original Ox was just in Adjectiveless Spider-Man 3 months before it ended! Come ON, man!!! And so, Byrne is only adapting about ⅓ of one of the most momentous issues in the canon. Unbelievable. Unbelievable! Spider-Man flees Goblin’s barrage of bombs into a cave. They scrap for a page in there, and then wake up the Hulk, and we’re back where we started. As usual. Except I’m pretty sure we’re gonna hit a real ending this time. I cannot believe he’s reduced such a pivotal issue to almost nothing.
Byrne is writing a relaunched Hulk for Ron Garney as this is being published. I bought those for Garney. I recall them also being pretty bad, but Byrne bailed pretty early, and then Paul Jenkins came onboard and took the book in a striking new direction I really enjoyed, which would have a huge impact on the excellent 2020s Immortal Hulk series. You never know what will happen in comics. The battle continues, Spidey does the bit where he gets so mad he socks Hulk in the jaw and hurts his hand, as in the original. GG is loving this, watching from a distance, saying this is way better than other tests he’s planned for Spider-Man in the past. Spidey soon tricks Hulk into collapsing a portion of the cave on himself as he flees outside. The entrance was never blocked in this version. But, once outside, he’s once again being bombed by his soon-to-be arch foe.
Hulk chases off the Goblin, then Spider-Man hold his breath til Hulk also leaves, more or less the original.
That dedication to cartoonist Lee Falk is a bit odd. I guess Byrne was a big fan. Since he can’t pay off the Goblin business, he’s got to show you who he is early. Can’t believe he wastes time adapting stuff that didn’t even happen in a Spider-Man comic and brutally truncates ASM 14, of all issues!