Spider-Man in 1969
The first quarter of the year is occupied by a Kingpin story revolving around a mystical tablet. It’s a rare swing-and-a-miss for this series. It just doesn’t excite the emotions at all.
On the social side, I’ve found that Gwen Stacy constantly runs hot and cold with Parker – she loves him, but fears he’s a coward and thinks he’s holding a secret from her. Today, we’d call her tsundere.
Tsundere is based on the push-pull concept. People seek to preach out to that which just barely escapes them. On the character end, this constant vacillation artificially makes someone appear more appealing. Think Shinji Ikari and Asuka Langley Soryu as a good approximation of the Parker-Stacy relationship at this point.
I suspect the concept can burn out eventually, as people will expect some sort of conclusion.
The remainder of the year? There’s a relatively interesting one-shot battle against Quicksilver. Pretty cool to see acrobatics matched up against pure speed. Then, Shocker tries to get ahold of that tablet, as it is apparently quite valuable. For my part, I have yet to read a very good story involving The Shocker; he always struck me as a secondary story villain — the hired muscle or something of that sort.
And the tablet drama continues, and we get introductions to The Maggia and Silvermane, while Dr. Curt Connors returns. And when you have Connors, the Lizard is never far behind. Finally, the year is rounded out by the pseudo-villain, the Prowler.
All in all, eh. Really liking this John Buscema art, though.
