{"id":9916,"date":"2021-07-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=9916"},"modified":"2020-07-03T01:46:19","modified_gmt":"2020-07-03T05:46:19","slug":"ssm-annual-96","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2021\/07\/28\/ssm-annual-96\/","title":{"rendered":"SSM Annual ’96"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

75 cents! How could you not? I mean, this is probably gonna be awful, but how could you not? I happily didn\u2019t for $2.95 in 1996 dollars, but 75 cents now? A steal. I could throw this away if I don\u2019t like it and not feel bad for 75 cents (I won\u2019t, tho). Only 2 of the 4 Spider-Titles got an annual this year, and I wonder how they were chosen. Neither has much to do with the present day storyline, so they could\u2019ve slapped any of the 3 titles on this one without issue. Last issue had fun flashbacks. This issue has JM DeMatteis exploring Kraven\u2019s origins, so I am going to haaaaaaate it. He\u2019s joined by Shawn McManus on lines and Atomic Paintbrush on colors, I think marking the first but certainly not the last time a comic here will have colors credited to a group instead of a person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I\u2019m gonna get in early and point out that the character in Kraven\u2019s Last Hunt was acting wildly out of character, on purpose, such that Spider-Man thought \u201cthis isn\u2019t the Kraven I know,\u201d and this book\u2019s attempt to line up with that portrayal instead of Ditko & Lee\u2019s will therefore make no sense and make my teeth grind for 64 pages. But it\u2019s certainly more pointlessly dark and grim like the 90s demand, so I guess we had to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We\u2019ve not seen it, but it was revealed in Kraven\u2019s first appearance that Kraven & fellow Russian The Chameleon were bros. It was a solid choice. They\u2019re both pretty one-note characters and could use each other to bounce off of. Kraven thinks he\u2019s usually put off by Chameleon\u2019s tales of the civilized world, but this time he\u2019s intrigued enough to perhaps go join him. Then we follow a very old man trying to get into a closed jewelry store by pointing at an obscenely expensive ring and saying he wants it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I suppose I should have expected a drastic, continuity-averse overhaul of The Chameleon, but I didn\u2019t. I always got confused by the comic artists Scott McDaniel and Shawn McManus being active at the same time in spite of their wildly different art styles. McManus looks ready to go draw a Spawn spin-off, and that is not a compliment in my mind. Chameleon thinks about how hard it is to be other people as he returns home, and holds up both Kraven and Spider-Man masks as we cut to our hero, who doesn\u2019t look like he\u2019s from a Spawn comic at all, actually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There\u2019s a weird and frequent thing where artists in this period draw Spider-Man one way and everything else a different way. The people around him may look cartoony, but Spider-Man here looks very solid, like an artist in the mode of a Lee Weeks or a Chris Weston drew him. It\u2019s always jarring. Spidey stops a mugging, stops an old lady from getting hit by a truck and even gets a cat out of a tree before he realizes he\u2019s late getting home today of all days, Uncle Ben\u2019s birthday, and how sad Aunt May will be. And she is as he makes a feeble excuse. But she\u2019s also Aunt May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Crrrraazzzy looking art. DeMatteis always did have a good feel for May. Shame he killed her instead of being creative and finding new things to do with her. But any moment of pathos, no matter how fleeting, seemed worth killing one of the classic characters of The 20th Century to DeMatteis. His 90s body count included May, Harry Osborn, and Doc Ock. All terrible choices, all reversed eventually. And as much as I hate a lazy retcon, and 2 out of three of those were EXCEPTIONALLY lazy retcons when they did return (None more than Harry, seeming almost like an afterthought tacked onto the end of one of the most reviled Spider-Man stories ever printed), the ends justified the means. Meanwhile, Kraven is on a posh cruise ship to the US, romancing a countess who\u2019s heard of him while not-so-subtley trying to distance himself from him reputation as being more animal than man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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…in the hunt? Is it any wonder? I mean, yeah man, what you\u2019re describing is a bit silly. In a flashback or a vision or whatever, he\u2019s back in the jungle, babbling about honor and whatnot even though Kraven cheated all the time before the 80s, and about how Chameleon wrote to him about this guy Spider-Man he wants to hunt. Then he eats a bunch of spiders to learn Spider-Man\u2019s secret. I don\u2019t have the words for how much I loathe this. We check in with Chameleon for a second before moving into a version of ASM 15, Kraven\u2019s first appearance, now with a lot more overwrought narration. This is a bit awkward since I plan to cover ASM 15 some day. This is just gonna be spoilers. Kraven arrives in American to much fanfare, Peter, Betty, Liz & JJJ are there, Kraven has to corral a bunch of animals accidentally set loose to show off his skills, and then he announces he\u2019s gonna hunt Spider-Man, just like in the 60s, only with totally new dialogue and dulaing internal monologue by Kraven & Chameleon. I\u2019d rather cover it all in the real book, frankly. Then a much-expanded scene between the villains\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chammy didn\u2019t want to or get to drink the Koolaid in the original. Elsewhere, Spidey does some Spideying. In the original, the goons he fights were hired by Chameleon to help set up the Kraven fight. In this\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Uggggghhhhh. Spidey tries to talk is way out of the fight and can\u2019t, and then it\u2019s on. But also\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kraven ran away for no real reason other than there was more comic left in the original. I guess\u2026 this gives him a reason. But it\u2019s a terrible one. Now he\u2019s all scared and hides behind a trash can in an alley until\u00a0 Chameleon comes and says mean things about Kraven\u2019s parents until Kraven whacks him across the alley. How fun! In the original they just had a little party and were happy about him almost beating Spidey so easily.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So now we have DeMatteis backing up his revelation that May knew Peter\u2019s secret aaaaaall the way to already knowing in ASM 15, which does NOT work. Way too many comics where she\u2019s genuinely terrified of him, way too many comics where they\u2019re both in turmoil over a situation that would be resolved if she knew. MJ knowing works surprisingly well sometimes, this doesn\u2019t work at all. Speaking of, in the original, instead of this, Peter work up the next day with his arm fine and May talked about wanting to set him up with Anna Watson\u2019s niece, in what I believe was the first-ever mention of MJ. Here, we get this, and Peter\u2019s arm is already fine before he even goes to bed, because he heads out after Kraven the same night instead of the next day. I guess that\u2019s ok. Maybe makes more sense. As in the original and as always, Kraven cheats by having Spidey follow The Chameleon dressed as Kraven into a trap, and having Peter narrate this part instead of Kraven trying to rationalize his \u201chonor\u201d is a cop out, frankly. In an ingenious bit of Ditko fight choreography, Spidey escapes a big net only for Kraven to slap some big metal manacles on one arm and one leg that have a strong magnetic attraction, making it really hard for Spider-Man to move. This is also cheating. Our guy covers them in goopy webbing to dull their effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spidey beats Kraven and he & Chameleon flee the country, only with awful narration and more of Kraven being a total jerk to his friend. Whatever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Not how the original wrapped up, I\u2019m sure you\u2019re shocked to hear. Rather talk about it there. What a chore this was. The 2nd story is Mark Gruenwald working of one of his favorite hobbies, bringing back long-gone characters. In this case, the long \u201cdead\u201d original Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew, during an adventure of her replacement, Julia Carpenter, whose suit inspired Spidey\u2019s black one (in-story, anyway). Neither of those characters really fits the mandate of this blog, but thanks for that, Mark. Jessica Drew went on to many new adventures, alone, as an Avenger, and with her good friend Carol Danvers\/Ms. Marvel\/Captain Marvel thanks to this, and I appreciate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And that\u2019s that. At least something good came of this issue. Incredibly, there will be another retelling of ASM 15 about 3 years from this. But, enough of the past (of 1996). Time to get back to the main storyline (of 1996).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

75 cents! How could you not? I mean, this is probably gonna be awful, but how could you not? I happily didn\u2019t for $2.95 in 1996 dollars, but 75 cents now? A…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[410],"tags":[945,35,11,177,13,125,45,172,473,944,2],"class_list":["post-9916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1990s","tag-atomic-paintbrush","tag-aunt-may","tag-betty-brant","tag-chameleon","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-jm-dematteis","tag-kraven-the-hunter","tag-liz-allen","tag-sensational-spider-man","tag-shawn-mcmanus","tag-spider-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9932,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9916\/revisions\/9932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}