User blog:Nausiated/Wall-Crawlin' Up The Walls (Or another bunch of musings about Spider-Man)

I'm cringing at the prospects, while there are some milestones in the bunch (Like Harry Osborn becoming the Green Goblin, and Peter's rekindled romance with Mary Jane, the first appearance of the Punisher etc.) there is some absolute DRECK in the bunch. There's the Miles Warren/Jackal plot line, which -- yes -- is also the first appearance of Frank Castle... It's depressing on two fronts: 1.) The Punisher, Mr. Lethal Force of the Marvel Universe is not nearly as bad-ass (And really just pathetic) in these early appearances -- I don't blame the writers, I believe the tight-assed Comic Book Authority Code of the time (Not so long before the Punisher's first appearance they made a huge stink over Stan Lee writing a story which showed the negative effects of drug use -- because showing illegal drug use, regardless of the context was absolutely VERBOTEN as far as the CAC was concerned in those days.) It's no surprised the the Punisher's first appearances in the Marvel Universe are watered down.. Certainly not the stuff of the Marvel MAX books (or even -- to a lesser extent -- the Punisher War Journal being published now either) that he appears in today. The other depressing thing is... dare I say it? Ah what the hell, I'm going to share the pain: CLONES. Damn clones. Not a dirty word back in the 70's when they created the first Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy clones.. But hey, most of you were around for the Clone Saga of the 90's. Yeah. Just think, that's what put in the ground works for that pile. Oh and other than the regular cast of cut-ups that Spidey has to deal with.. You know Doc Oct, The Lizard, The Shocker (speaking of the Shocker, anyone see that Robot Chicken episode that guest starred Stan Lee and he explains what the Shocker does? That's priceless) Oh and then there's another appearance of the Vulture... but not really Adrian Toomes. See, this scientist gets exposed to a ray which makes him looks JUST like Adrian Toomes (I guess it was an "ass ugly" ray, that's the only explanation I have.) Oh and here's a lark, I'm going to get to write about the Spider-Buggy.... The less said about that the better.
 * sigh* Five volumes of Essential Spider-Man down three more to go. And what prospects. I'm getting to realm where Stan Lee's run on the series is about up, and there by into some dark waters. Seriously, once you get past the death of Gwen Stacy (a classic Spider-Man tale... And as an aside if there's one smart decision they made with the whole assenine Brand New Day storyline, it was keeping Gwen Stacy dead.) The stories that are featured in the next sixty or so issues of Amazing Spider-Man are.... well... less than desirable.