Astute readers will note this is not Amazing Spider-Man 100. But it is a reasonable facsimile. Marvel did this “Selects” thing for a brief period in the year 2000, reprinting seemingly random runs of two titles until they presumably realized none of this made any sense and stopped after 6 issues. Marvel Selects Spider-Man was ASM 100-105. Just for your info, Marvel Selects Fantastic Four was the other, reprinting 107-112 (Arguably an even stranger choice). But hey, it got me a reproduction of ASM 100 for $2, so I ain’t mad. This one comes to you with a cover by the late, great Mike Weiringo who, in the opinion of your humble blogger, went on to be one of the great Spider-Man artists himself.
So! 100 issues of ASM. How do you celebrate this milestone? Let’s find out. As with the last couple, it’s your pals Stan, Gil & Frank in the cut. As we getting rolling, Spidey’s out for a swing, when he happens upon a bank robbery.
Behold that bright, glossy, difficult to photograph modern page. Very different from the usual around here. Spidey has no trouble with those goons, and swings off wondering how many like them he has to stop before people stop thinking he’s a villain. As he continues on his way, he also muses that he’s getting bored with the whole Spider-Man gig. It’s not giving him the excitement it used to.
Pete thinks about how Gwen will always blame Spider-Man for her father’s death, and how that will only get more complicated once they’re married. Thus, there’s only one thing to do:
“I’ve been working on this project for years” is an incredibly aggressive retcon, wow. You’d think a guy who never stops talking to himself would’ve told us once or twice. Not only that, he goes on to say he actually finished it! Months ago! But he has no way to test it except to drink it. And so he does just that.
The now delirious Peter begins wandering through his own recent life. Through Uncle Ben’s death, through getting his job at The Daily Bugle, losing Betty, meeting Gwen, holding George Stacy as he died. Now dressed as Spider-Man, he hears a voice calling out to him, but trying to find it, he ends up reliving some of his famous battles, starting with The Vulture…
…then The Lizard…
…gotta have Green Goblin in there…
…all of them taunting him for the pain he feels he’s brought others, all trying to keep him from the mysterious voice. As he finishes the Goblin, he feels a strange pain in his side…
The pain keeps getting worse, the villains keep coming, and the recriminations keep getting more cruel…
Gil Kane really knew how to draw a guy throwing a punch. Kingpin defeated, Spidey feels pain in both his sides now, as he keeps pressing on toward the voice.
And that’s our show. Not much to discuss here, really. It was mostly just a greatest hits of Spidey battles. But they promise you a crazy last page, and they sure delivered on that! One of the most infamous twists in the history of the book. How will Spidey get out of this one??
This issue is the end of Stan Lee’s continuous run on ASM. Next issue, Roy Thomas, Stan’s right hand man, will take over for a bit. Then Stan will briefly return, and then he’s out for good. It casts an interesting light on the previous several issues, how issue-oriented they were. Crooked politicians, racism, pollution, drugs, prison reform. Like Stan was hitting any topic he had something to say about on the way out the door. The only title he worked on for more consecutive issues was Fantastic Four (And that’s longer only by a couple issues). It’s the end of an era, as a new generation begins to take up the scripting of Marvel Comics for the first time. And how about leaving your successor with a six-armed Spider-Man? That’s quite a challenge to lay at someone’s feet. We’ll see how Roy Thomas approached that next issue. And if you don’t know… it’s probably not what you think! Finally, here’s the real cover, for the sake of completion:
