Comic Review #60: The Spectacular Spider-Man #148 (1989)

 

Well I think I will use this opening paragraph to tell you fine folks what I will be trying to do with comic books during The Cool Wonderful Awesome Halloween Special Fun Time Super Spectacular That Is So Spooky That You Will Poop Your Pants While Pooping Your Pants. Poopception. Super Spectacular. I plan to talk about 5 comics involving horror and Superheroes or horror superheroes. I also plan to talk about 5 horror comics that don't have a single solitary set of spandex in them. I love superheroes but I really need to talk more about comic books that are not superheroes because there's a lot of wild fun stuff to be discussed outside of superheroes.

Anyway, I've been wanting to talk about this event crossover from the late 1980s for the longest time. Inferno is a X-Men crossover where they fight Demons! And Mister Sinister, you know the guy who looks like a glam rocker. I like Minster Sinister. Uh, anyway, since this story took place in New York. Marvel decided to give us Spider-Man fighting demons. and Daredevil fighting demons. and Fantastic Four fighting demons. and Avengers fighting demons because really who doesn't want to see superheroes fight demons. I honestly forget the entire overall story but it involves a demon named N'Asitrath or something like that (I am way to lazy to check on how to spell his stupid name) who wants to kidnap mutant babies so he will become more powerful or something. 

I picked the Spectacular Spider-Man crossover for a few reasons. I've already talked about Daredevil in a terrible Daredevil comic called Daredevil: Father. I suppose I should talk about a Daredevil issue from his main series but I've read this comic now and you are getting my thoughts on it! I don't really want to discuss this era of either the Fantastic Four or the Avengers right now as they were not great. I picked Spectacular Spider-Man because I did say I wanted to talk about every series Marvel put out and Spider-Man only got like 2,000 of them. I'll get to them all too. Hopefully. Anyway Spectacular Spider-Man is one of the better Spider-Man series. Spectacular Spider-Man ran from 1976 to 1998 and was the second Spider-Man series. I don't count Marvel Team Up because there were issues without Spider-Man in that series. I mean they were only 4 comics but they still happened. Plus I already talked about Marvel Team Up.

I also picked this comic because I remember it being a pretty good little comic. One that doesn't really HAVE Spider-Man in it. You see back in the day, pretty much every superhero would have a supporting cast of usually great characters. Spider-Man had one of the best supporting casts. I've always liked pretty much every one of them. This comic pretty much involves Betty Brant and Flash Thompson taking on their demons. Figuratively AND Literally! Isn't that cool?!? This comic was written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Sal Buscema. Gerry Conway has worked in comic books since 1968 when he was only 16 and Sal Buscema has been working with Marvel since then. The both of them are fantastic at what they do. Gerry has done pretty much every character at DC or Marvel. I'm pretty sure Sal HAS drawn every Marvel character. All 24 thousand of them.

This comic title is "Night of the Living Ned" which is a great title because it involves the character of Ned Leeds who had been killed by terrorists and was shown to be the original Hobgoblin. This was retconned in a different story to show that he had been brainwashed by the original Hobgoblin. Yes comic books are convoluted and sometimes make no sense. All you need to know is that Betty Brant was married to Ned and he died. So it shows Betty and Flash Thompson making it impossible for any of the demons or people rioting to get into Betty's apartment by barricading the doors and stuff.  They mention a gas light that Betty had on because it was cold in the morning. Flash angrily tells her that shit could go boom. Except in different terms. I just wanted to say "go boom"

Flash thinks about all the stuff Betty has gone through lately. Losing Ned, joining a cult (yes). Betty Brant has lived a very interesting life. We then see too demons on the side of the house. I will call these demons Joe and Bob because giving demons people names is very amusing to me. Joe and Bob mention that N'assfuckerstupidname has finally let them terrorize people so they decide to terrorize both Betty and Flash. Despite the fact Betty is already freaking out over seeing Ned come back to life. I guess another demon started this whole thing and just got bored and left. I will ask Gerry Conway about this if I ever get to talk to him. I am sure he will remember everything about this 32 year old comic book.

So Flash is thinking about how he's an over aged Jock who doesn't know what to do with life and feeling that he can't help any of his friends. I like how they brought Flash Thompson into Peter's group of friends and showed that he was more than a bullying jerk in the Steve Ditko/Stan Lee stories. He's going upstairs to try to do something to keep people from getting in via the chimney or something. You know whos up there! Spider-Man! Well not the real Spider-Man (sorry for ruining it for you) Spider-Demon beats the SHIT out of the Flash. I always liked how Sal drew someone getting punched. You totally feel a Sal punch. They are the best punches in comic books! Meanwhile Betty is being tortured by a fucking NED LEEDS ZOMBIE whom she runs the fuck away from. She escapes and all the zombie does is tap on the door. Probably to freak her out and I guess the demon don't want this to be a quick thing. 

So Flash Thompson is fucking webbed up and Spider-Demon is planning to electrocute him because he's webbed to a satellite or something. Spider-Demon pretty much says he feels Flash is annoying and is a loser. Flash still has a screwdriver in his hand and is trying to mess up the webbing. We go back to Betty who is freaking out over you know THE ZOMBIE IN THE NEXT ROOM and BLAM fuckin Ned Leed's ghost appears and gives Betty the emotional strength to do what she has to survive. Flash and Spider-Demon fight on the roof while Betty gets the camping oven that she used. She calls out the Zombie that then turns back into Joe the Demon and he tells Betty to start screaming. Betty gets a totally badass line of "You only scream when you need help and I'm all the help I need!" and turns on the camping oven.

At the same moment lighting strikes the thingadilly Flash WAS tied too and he uses this as a chance to bring the Spider-Demon down. He smashes through a window and a fire starts. Joe the Demon slaps Flash with his giant ass claw and Betty just JAMS the camping oven right into Joe's chest. Flash and Betty escape and Joe and Bob realize that they are fucked. You don't mess with New York!!!! Flash and Betty realize that something must be up because all of New York is going back to normal. They mention to each other how they survived, Betty goes with no heroes or no saviors but Flash says they DID have help. Not from any hero like Spider-Man but the hero they carry INSIDE. Now that's some inspirational shit! 

FINAL VERDICT: This was a wonderful little comic. I love when the heroes friends have to work out a problem on their own. I miss the time where the heroes friends or supporting cast would get an issue to themselves. This should be a very easy comic to add to your collection and you really should. The majority of Inferno should probably find its way into your comic collection because it was a very fun story. I will discuss other parts of it sooner or later as there were like 30 issues.