And all the Stars a Stage; Childhood's End, passage Compare and Contrast

Originally posted December 6, 2009

I found it absolutely fascinating that the last two novels I've read both had very similar passages in which it is purported that oral contraceptives and paternity tests will revolutionize society. Here are the two passages, after which I will do some compare and contrast.

"In particular, the pattern of sexual mores- insofar as there had ever been one pattern- had altered radically. It had been virtually shattered by two invention, which were, ironically enough, of purely human origin and owed nothing to the Overlords.

The first was a completely reliable oral contraceptive: the second was an equally infallible method- as certain as fingerprinting, and based on a very detailed analysis of the blood- of identifying the father of any child. The effect of these two inventions upon human society could only be described as devastating, and they had swept away the last remnants of the Puritan aberration." (p 73 in my copy of Childhood's End.) 1953

"The relevant technique was called sperm electrophoresis, a ridiculously simple trick to perform in glassware- and the pharmaceutical manufacturers had quickly come up with a medium, an anion or cation exchange gel, which made it equally easy to perform in situ. Its purpose was sex determination of the child at conception….

Had it not been Selektrojel, it would have been something else. That had appeared almost simultaneously with another dangerous triumph of the pharmaceutical research laboratories: a cheap, simple, safe, foolproof oral contraceptive. This, couples with the fact that venereal disease had disappeared (as a natural consequence of the virtually complete conquest of infectious
disease by chemotherapy, immunology, and universal sanitation), might easily have destroyed the immemorial family system entirely, by making sexual relations so free of any unwanted consequence that they could hardly seem worth the price of a lifetime contract, especially to the innately roving-eyed- male. "In fact," one of the leading doctors of the time had remarked in an immortal burst of unconscious humor, "venereal disease is now almost as pleasant to cure as it is
to catch.") Legal protection could still be afforded the woman afflicted with an accident of impulse, since modern genetics made it possible to determine the parents of any child ninety-nine times out of a hundred by blood tests alone." (6-8 in my copy of And All the Stars a Stage) 1960 or 1971

As I stated in my review of Childhood's End: "We of course have both of these technologies. "The Pill" came out in the 60s and it about 99% effective if properly used. I'd call that reliable. And DNA testing first reported in 1985 can offer definitive paternal proof.

So did these two discoveries change sexual mores, absolutely without the pill there would have been no free love movement in the 60s and DNA testing in paternity cases can be really important. On a lighter note, I've heard that on "the Montel Show" "you are not the father" is practically his catchphrase. However, have these discovers lead to an end to the "Puritan aberration?" Not so far. Not as long as the bible belt pushes abstinence only programs, television
networks get sued for showing a nipple on television for 3 seconds, and every day it seems like from the way people talk about abortion, it was outlawed instead of legally protected in the Roe vs. Wade judgment. So in my opinion, the sexual mores of today may be different than those of the 50s, but we still have a long way to go."

And as Bill so brilliantly stated more so than the two changes purported in Childhood's End it was the more seemingly mundane change of woman joining the work force that truly revolutionized modern sexual mores. For the first time woman did not necessarily have to get married in order to have children. Today with artificial insemination a guy doesn't even have to be involved, but that's getting off topic.

The Blish passage brings up some new and interesting ideas. And by interesting I mean crazy. The idea that "venereal diseases disappeared as a natural consequence of the virtually complete conquest of infectious disease by chemotherapy, immunology, and universal sanitation." Okay, lets pick this apart one at a time. The conquest of infectious disease by chemotherapy, I'm guessing that Blish is using the word chemotherapy to mean antibiotics not its modern usage as a cancer medicine. The story originally appeared in 1960 in "an abridged form" and the novel in 1971. Chemotherapy had a major breakthrough and first started to be used for cancer in the mid 60's.

Okay, "the virtually complete conquest of infectious disease by [antibiotics]" at least makes sense as an idea. I can't help but still consider it naive through no fault of Blish's though. When he wrote this book, no one yet experienced the ultimate venereal disease AIDS.

I have nothing to add about immunology, but universal sanitation just makes me laugh. Yes, third word countries have problems with diseases that first world countries don't because of sanitation issues, but America's sanitation is great but our population does still get venereal diseases. Not as much as third world countries, but it is probably sex education and medicine that helps us fight STDs.

Okay then looking at the passage as a whole he is saying that four things, the power to pick the sex of a baby, an effective oral contraceptive, the conquest of venereal diseases, and an accurate paternity test, resulted in the destruction of the whole ideas of marriage and monogamy. Now that just makes no sense to me. The ideas of monogamy had been ingrained into the human psyche seemingly since the days of cave man and certainly since biblical times. I don't see a couple of inventions changing this. Men, as the novel states have had "Roving eyes" for generations, but most men still seem to settle down with one partner because there is something innately special about such an arrangement. I would even concede that polygamist relationships are still the same thing because the man or men are committed to the woman or women in a way equal to a single marriage.

That said despite Blish's statement about the end of families this world does seem to find a different definition of family. The popularity of being able to pick the favored male babies results in there being lots of men and a lot less women. Suddenly due to the laws of supply and demand woman are the greater commodity and find themselves taking over society and the government. It seems that they keep this power by continuing the trend of flooding the market with men rather than correcting the population ratio which would theoretically lessen their power. However, there are still families a single woman has many husbands, but they are still a family unit.

I actually think that the scenario Blish has unfolded seems possible.

Perhaps the present day model of China can serve as an example. There male babies are preferred and that coupled with their governmental controlling of the birth rate result in, "according to a report by the State Population and Family Planning Commission, there will be 30 million more men than women in 2020, potentially leading to social instability." 1

Only time will tell whether this leads to woman gaining more power in Chinese
society as a result of their scarcity.

So anyway, what do you all think about these changes to the social makeup of society. It seems that picking the gender of a baby is now scientifically possible through a form of in vitro fertilization, but it is not yet cost effective for the majority of the population. If and when it becomes more common what long-term effects do you think it will have on society?

Also, does anyone else think it's weird that two authors wrote such similar passages?


Links
Original post at Classic Science Fiction Message Board
Review of Childhood's End

Thoughts on "The Door into Summer"

Originally posted Feb 20, 2010
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ClassicScienceFiction/message/17538

When I finished "The Door into Summer" and found it had a
time-travel-into-the-past-twist and a May-Dec Romance twist at the end, I couldn't help but think of the Heinlein book we read last year "Farnham's Freehold," which also had these same plot points. Maybe some of you are still trying to forget that one. As I recall, it left a bad taste in some member's mouths.

I went back and looked at some of out posts from when we read that book and they weren't quite as negative as I remembered. Some people, myself included, enjoyed
"Freehold," but it was kind of an ugly novel exploring the consequences of nuclear war, and the horror of cannibalism, and it featured lots of unlikable characters.

"Door Into Summer," by comparison seems bright and cheery. In theory, it is primarily about the engineering of robots that would help women around the house. It's also about time travel, cats, the future of civilization, and
betrayal.

I thoroughly enjoyed the narrative style, it was kind of light and easy to read, it doesn't challenge the reader to understand technical aspects of robotic engineering though that is the narrator's (D.B. Davis) job. Perhaps this lack of more hard science bothered some readers? Instead the novel focused more on Davis' humanity, his relationship with his cat, his relationship with his
business partners (Miles and Belle), and his relationship with Miles' "daughter" Ricky.

(Side note: I told my wife about the novel, especially all the cat stuff, because we have a cat, and she commented that Heinlein captured the human/cat relationship so well that must have been a cat-person himself).

The novel is, in a way, timeless since it explored a future (1970) where robotic technology was exploding; a time that has not yet come to be. Then it explores a further future (2000) where man had begun to explore the solar system. While reading the novel it really bothered me that Heinlein picked the close years of 1970 and 200. Why didn't he choose 2300 or 2XXX. But upon reflection, I decided that the close year must have been a sort of optimism that civilization was
going to go through great changes quickly or maybe he didn't think anyone would still be reading his novels after the turn of the century.

What did you all think about the significance of the years?

Bill talked about the casualness of references to nuclear war bothering him. This didn't bother me; mostly because it was so in the background I hardly noticed it. Also, after reading Bill's post I thought that leaving it in the background just kind of fit. As I said before, the novel was written in a very intimate sort of narrative voice. It explored Davis' character and his life and interpersonal relationships. It explored the differences between 1970 and 2000, but only anecdotally. So, I felt it fit that there were questions sort of left unanswered about the "6 Weeks War."

Imagine someone in another reality writing a sci-fi novel about our reality. Would Sept. 11 be mentioned? Maybe, but only if it was important to the story, perhaps it would only be mentioned in passing. Certainly the nuclear war hinted to in this novel which caused Denver to become the US's capital had a bigger impact than 9/11, but I think the analogy works.

Now, I want to talk about the ending. Specifically, Davis pining for and marrying a girl he'd only known till she was 11. Doug talked about having met "old souls" in real life. I know the concept fairly well because I've always been kind of an "old soul" myself. I had older siblings growing up and I've always been pretty smart, so, growing up, I was often more comfortable with older kids or adults, more so than I was with kids my own age.

Anyway, Mary Beth thought the end of "Door Into Summer" was a sort of romantic fairy tale ending, but I found it to be downright creepy. I was fine with this plot-thread until the end. Remembering "Freehold" and the relationship between that story's protagonist and the much younger Barbara, I was worried where this story was headed when Ricky's character was first introduced. But for the bulk of the novel Davis' love for Ricky seemed to be platonic or fatherly. I thought, in the future Davis was searching for Ricky as a friend, a link to his past, not
a lover. Though maybe I failed to read between the lines since Davis gives up the moment he finds out she's married.

In my opinion, Davis falls in love with an idea. The idea of him finding Ricky and living happily-ever-after keeps him going when he is thrust into a future where he doesn't belong. But, how can you fall in love with an abstract idea? The Ricky who emerges from cold sleep is not an 11-year-old girl, but a 21-year-old woman Davis has never met.

I always feel like the man I am today bears little resemblance to the man I was 8 years ago when I was 18. Maybe I'm closer to that version of John than I think, but one thing is for sure, 10 years can be a long time.

Personally, I think the novel would have made more sense if Davis had met Ricky in 2000 and fallen in love with her. Given the time-loop quality of the novel, she would have been already married to Davis' future self, but she could have played coy and implied she was married to someone else. Thiscould have been the event that caused Davis to visit Denver and Dr. Twitchell. Or when Davis tracked Ricky down he could have met his future self. It would have spoiled the ending, but it would have been an interesting meeting. The same scenario I just
described happened in the Red Dwarf episode "Stasis Leak," one of the best of the series.

Either of these would have made the ending less "creepy" and more realistic, but maybe I'm just not a "romantic," as I wouldn't fall in love with a person I'd never met or talked to as an adult.

What do you think was Heinlein's thought process: Was he a romantic, was he making a statement about pedophilia or was it all incidental because he just wanted an interesting time-travel-twist ending?

Or I'll ask the same question in a different way: Why didn't Heinlein have Davis meet Ricky in 2000? Was it to maintain tension in the story or was it supposed to be romantic?

Thoughts on "The Naked Sun"

The Naked Sun
Originally Posted March 24, 2010
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ClassicScienceFiction/message/17763

I was a bit disappointed that there was little interplay between Baley and Daneel. It's been about a year since I read the first book, but the way I remember it in "Caves of Steel" Baley was worried about Daneel solving the case before he could. Every clue Daneel recognized was suspenseful, here is a walking computer, limitless amounts of knowledge and all Baley has going for himself is human intuition.

However, in this book, there is never a doubt that Baley is in control and Daneel is the one that is outclassed. There is never a doubt that despite Daneel's knowledge he could never hope to outthink a human.

Like others said this is basically a sociology book with a plot. First there are the Solarians who have made eschewing human contact a way of life. It was fascinating to read about the way they were raising children. The children wanted to play together when they were younger, but the Solarians slowly forced it out of them, isolating them more and more all their lives. The Solarian scientists purport that this need for contact would be slowly breed out of them. To any sensible Earthling this is of course complete hogwash, but it is fascinating to imagine a world where everyone has been given the same phobias. I liked that there was one woman, Gladia, that rejected the indoctrination. She still craved human contact even though they had tried to force it out of her during her childhood. It reminded me of the topsy turvy
realities explored in classic Twilight Zone episodes.

The other interesting bit of sociology was first introduced by the lone sociologist on Solaria. He says that theirs is the first civilization where humans are all on even terms and have nothing to do but enjoy themselves because robots replace the working class. The unexpected result of this is that the people of Solaria lose the human drive, since all of their needs are met they stagnant instead of striving and becoming stronger due to hardship.

I really like how despite spacer's best efforts to build safe machines even positronic-brained robots can unknowingly break their three laws. I did however come up with an easy solution to the problem presented in this book. If two robots are being given orders that seem benign on there own but are deadly when combined the solution is to have a central positronic-brain imbedded into the house that does nothing but monitor the house and watch all the robots for just such happenings and when it begins to see one it can shut robots down by remote control or alter their orders.

Even though I read the final Foundation book, I don't think the idea of a Spacer/Earther conflict every really sunk in, it's a shame Asimov never wrote a book devoted to the conflict. He just showed the effects in the final Foundation book. I'll need to go back and re-read that because I didn't know the significance of the worlds they were visiting in "Foundation and Earth" because I'd never read this book.

It strikes me that Asimov seemed to spend all of the 80s putting a button onto his classic works, linking them together, explaining things left unexplained. He always made sure they were good stories by themselves too though.

"Live at Budokan" takes me back to the past...

I listened to Cheap Trick’s “Live at Budokan” for the first time and it hit me like a religious experience.

I don’t mean that in a literal sense; I’m not praying to Robin Zander or anything. I mean it figuratively, “Live at Budokan” is just an album (not even a well mixed one), but it metaphorically transported me back in time.

I apologize to those of you hoping for a detailed analysis of the “Live at Budokan” album itself, but my post is primarily about the thoughts in back of my mind that the Budokan album rushed, raised or percolated to the surface. Some information about the album itself and some of my frustrations with it appear at the bottom of the post.

In the seminal music movie “Almost Famous,” The protagonist’s (William Miller) older sister leaves him all of her records when she escapes their mother’s conservative household at the age of 18 (I believe it was supposed to be the Summer of 69’!). Her copy of the Who’s “Tommy” has a note inside of it that said, “Listen to Tommy with a candle burning and you will see your entire future.” For me, great Rock music has the opposite effect, it washes over me like a wave and I see visions of my past in Technicolor, surround sound, and Smell-O-Vision.

This particular CD reminded me of being a high school freshman. Momma Grayshaw’s baby boy was short, rail thin, with big glasses, wearing the Kurt Cobain grunge look of band shirts and flannels over them; a style that even at the time was probably outdated, but I thought I was the coolest. At the time, the epitome of cool was defined by being rebellious, anti-establishment, and generally aimless. Because of this I even made friends with the “gang” that hung out on the far side of the park outside of my high school. I thought they were a gang because they were a group of long-haired, long coat wearing, loud music playing dudes. Looking back, they were probably just a couple of guys that cut last period together.

I remember during gym class when I was a freshman, rather than play basketball or volleyball, I’d often talk to two older boys; they were probably seniors. We’d talk mostly about music, especially Pink Floyd. One of them gave me a tape with the “Animals” on one side and maybe part of “Wish You Were Here” on the other. It was on of those tapes that sounded like a copy of a copy; maybe he only had a bootleg copy himself. Incidentally, the sound quality of the “Live at Budokan” CD is roughly that of a third generation bootleg tape. Anyway, these gym discussions took place in the days before Digital Music on the Internet, before Napster, and for me, before paychecks, so the gift of music was always welcome.

Around the same time, when music was still King in my world, I discovered that MTV only played some of their Alternative music videos late at night during “Alternative Nation,” and “120 Minutes.” To me, this could only be because parents and generally everyone over 30 was summarily programmed by the establishment to go to bed after the 11 o’clock news. So I, of course, made it my mission to stay up as late as I could. Also, I had to tape these shows because, I had to not only own every album by bands like Nirvana, Green Day and Smashing Pumpkins; I had to own every video too.

I also experienced less focused memories like my Junior High School friend Mikey Deluca that had a drum set in his second floor bedroom and he would sit with a recording of Metallica or something like that, and listen to 30 seconds at a time and figure out and imitate every drum sound. Or, my guitar playing friends Steve and Tommy who freshman year of High School paid for “practice space” to jam in; it was basically a large closet in some rundown building. But hey, what else are you gonna do if you’ve got nowhere else to play?

I hope you enjoyed some of my memories, feel free to share some of your own.


Trick’s “Live at Budokan was released in 1979. Previously the band had done 3 studio albums, but had not had any substantial hits in America. Ironically their albums were big hits in Japan. So in 1978, they did a tour there and afterwards released “Live at Budokan,” originally thinking it would only be sold in Japan. However, it was released in America and to everyone’s surprise it was a huge hit. Bear in mind all the hits from “Budokan” were songs featured on their previous albums. I guess they’re one of those bands that’s just better live.

Now the version I got was the “Complete Concert” released in 98. It included more songs than the original record and in theory was digitally remastered. It’s a CD, it has to have better sound, right? Well I don’t know about that, I thoughts the levels were really poorly mixed. I heard the instrumentals fine, but the voice track was pretty garbled. I can’t help but wonder if the record is a better recording.

My other main problem with the CD is that they put all sorts of CD extra on it. I put the CD in my computer and a program comes up and it says I can install CD extras or play music. I click play music and nothing happens. I click install extras and it wants to install a 10-year-old version of Adobe Acrobat. This thing was designed to run on Windows 95 or Windows 98. I think I’d need a Windows 98 emulator to play this on the computer. Luckily the thing plays fine in my CD player and DVD player. I’m happy that the whole CD extras trend seems to have largely died off with the 90s.

Of Time Travel and Time Loops

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ClassicScienceFiction/message/17171

At the end of “the Stainless Steel Rat Save the World,” by Harry Harrison, our hero Slippery Jim is in the year 20,000. He has for a third time failed to kill his time traveling enemy “He” before He can make an escape to a time unknown.

Since Jim destroyed the time-helix in an attempt to stop He, Jim is stuck, but out of nowhere pops another time-helix machine with a recording from Coypu, Jim’s scientist friend in the year 30,000 or so. Coypu gives Jim the code to postpone the launch of some nuclear weapons and Jim and his wife Angelina return to the year 30,000 something.

However they arrive before Coypu sends them the time-helix, in fact Jim dictates the instructions on the disarming of the weapons to the scientist who them makes the recording and sends the device back.

Jim learned the disarmament sequence in the past and gave it to Coypu in the present, who in turn gave it to himself in the past, but where did this knowledge originally come from?

The answer according to the logic of the novel is nowhere; Slippery Jim had found himself in a time loop.

And so it follows that if an idea can appear in a time loop out of nothingness why not a person…

At the start of the novel, Jim is in the office of Special Corps, the secret police of the galaxy, when everyone around him begins to disappear. Scientists rush up to him and explain that they have been attacked and are in a Time War. Someone is changing time and erasing Special Corp’s very existence.

Jim travels back to the 1970s as the lone hope for his future. He defeats his enemy a mad creature called He, a cyborg in a red android body. However, He escapes to 1805 where he joins forces with Napoleon and conquers England; Jim again thwarts his plans. However, just as He is about to escape into the time helix Jim alters the controls so that He ends up in the year 20,000 something, instead of where he had intended.

Then just as the alternate 1805 was collapsing all around him, Angelina traveled back from a restored year 30,000 to rescue her husband. Together they traveled to 20,000 something to defeat He once and for all.

For whatever reason they arrived 200 years after He. In the meanwhile He had armed all the nuclear weapons on the planet. Jim defeats He again, but once again He escapes and as I said earlier Jim escapes back to his present with the help of a time loop containing the knowledge to postpone the termination of the nuclear weapons.

But the point of all of this is Jim wants to follow He again, but Coypu tells him not to. You see from the year 20,000 something, He traveled to the 1970s where he launched an attack on Special Corps, that Jim had already defeated as evidenced by everyone in Special Corps being alive.

You see He was locked inside a time loop himself, eternally fighting Jim in 1970s, 1805, and the 20,000s .

“Where did he originally come from?” Jim asked.
“Nowhere,” was Coypu’s reply.

At first after reading this I was skeptical after all how can a person come from nowhere and exist only in a loop of time. But I can’t deny the simple example of the disarming codes existing out of nothingness, so why not an evil cyborg too?

My only question is how He doesn’t realize he is stuck in a loop? Does He experience some sort of amnesia when Jim alters the controls at the last second in 1805, so that when He arrives in 20,000 something he only remembers his hatred of Special Corps. That would explain things.

Here is a crude visual aid. He’s time loop is in black ink while Jim’s trip is in blue. Disregard my notes for this article at the sides of the chart.



What do you think, is a time loop possible or is that not how you think time travel works? I’d love to hear any opinions.

John

Spectacular Spider-Man 61-68 and Annual 3

Annual 3 "Dark Side of the Moon"

After the total disaster of Annual 2, I was frightened to read Annual 3. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was actually a good issue.

This was the final Man-Wolf issue since John Jameson was cured at the end of the issue. Just like Curt Conners gets cured at the end of every Lizard saga. However all kidding aside it does seem like this cure takes, at least for the rest of the Bronze Age.

Since this issue alluded to past adventures, I looked up Man-Wolf’s history and was surprised to find he starred in his own set of comics Creatures on the Loose 30-37, and Marvel Premiere 45-46. So in the end, it’s kind of sad that Man-Wolf was gone.



Issue 61 "By the Light of the Silvery Moonstone!"

I love the tagline on the cover of this issue “The Moonstone is a Harsh Mistress,” because it’s a play on the title of my favorite Heinlein book.

Anyway, this story begins with a neat little PSA. A kid is climbing down his apartment building on tied together bed sheets. This is his attempt to be like Spider-Man. But Spidey tells him the equivalent of “Don’t try this at home!” It sounds corny, but the real dialogue works.

Spider-Man then swings over to ESU where he gets into a fight with Moonstone. She gets away with one of Dr. Connor’s gizmos and hurts Marcy Kane on her way out. Peter decides the unconscious Kane needs CPR and when Marcy wakes up, suddenly she really kind of digs Petey.

I’d never read Moonstone’s origin before, she was a hooker for criminal Mastermind Dr. Faustus until she stole the original Moonstone’s power. Hooker to super villain, for some reason I see a Julia Roberts movie in there somewhere.

It’s always a nice sort of oddity to see Spidey go up against a woman. I wish his Rogues Gallery had more female opponents.

Issue 62 "Gold Fever"

This issue makes no sense. Peter Parker wrote an article about “The radiation absorption of precious metals” Parker’s mentor Dr. Sloan says, numerous financial institutions and even the government expressed an interest in the article because they wanted to know what would happen to gold in the event of a nuclear attack.

Okay, so far I can suspend my disbelief. Then these financial institutions, or maybe the Government, let Parker and ESU borrow an entire pallet of gold bars! And Peter proceeds to irradiate them.

Any experiment could have been done with merely an ounce of gold. There is no need for a pallet of gold except that the villain, Gold Bug wouldn’t be very cool if he stole an once of gold.

On his way out of the lab, Gold Bug sprays two security guards and Deb Whitman with gold dust which makes them statues, but Parker mixes an acid solution that “melts through gold, but won’t burn the skin underneath.” I think it’s the same formula as Coca Cola.

But Gold Bug as it turns out isn’t much of a reader, when he learned about the gold from a newspaper article he missed that whole irradiating the gold part. So he is unprepared when his gold starts poisoning people and then he’s “killed.”- The End.

Issue 63 "A Firebug"

The next issue is kind of sad. Spidey suspects that the Molten Man is back even though he seemed to have dead at the end of ASM 173. So Spidey tries to track down Harry Osborn and Liz Allen, now Liz Osborn. But he doesn’t have the right phone number so he calls Flash Thompson. Now, Flash was in practically every early issue of Spectacular, so it was sad to see him get only a few panels in this one. Then it was even sadder to hear that Harry and Liz got married off-screen, or I guess off-panel; even Flash didn’t go to the wedding.

It’s funny, Liz’s last Silver Age appearance was ASM 30 and Harry’s first was ASM 31, so the two didn’t know each other. So, it’s kind of unexpected them getting together, kind of like if Sue Richards married Foggy Nelson, or if Storm married the Black Panther (wait a minute…), but I digress.

Liz and Harry live in a cute little neighborhood in NJ, the kind of town you hear exists in NJ, but have never actually seen. They have a darling little house that is completely destroyed by the Molten Man and Spider-Man’s fight, but it’s okay because it brings unity to the little suburban neighborhood. As they work together dousing the Molten Man with water from their garden hoses they learn the true meaning of community.

This issue reminds me of that Tom Hanks movie “The Burbs.” What a great flick, rent it if you haven’t seen it.

Issue 64 “Cloak and Dagger”

This, the origin story of Cloak and Dagger, is dark and gritty, like great film noir. The B+W Essential actually enhanced this issue. Cloak and Dagger were two of several runaway children the mob found in the gutters of Manhattan. Cloak and Dagger were born from the ashes of a mob drug experiment, gone wrong. Cloak and Dagger exist for one purpose, revenge!

Spider-Man of course takes the view that the mobsters have to answer for their crimes through the legal system and that vigilantism makes Cloak and Dagger criminals themselves. But he is unable to convince them and unable to stop them.

By the Early 90s when I first started reading Spider-Man, Cloak and Dagger where just superhero buddies of Spidey and their darker nature had been toned way down.

Personally, I don’t see how Spider-Man could work with “heroes” of this ilk; the Punisher springs to mind. By working with them he is legitimizing them and lowering his own moral standards. If he believes it is wrong to act as judge, jury and executioner, then he cannot work with somebody who does. It’s a simple case of guilt by association. Hasn’t he ever heard the phrase “in order for evil to win all good has to do is nothing?” Surely, no on understands this better than Spider-Man who has been haunted for years by the fact that his inaction lead to his Uncle’s death.

In the past, though they have challenged him physically, Spider-Man has judged many people to be innocent of any crimes, the Prowler for an example. By that same token, Spider-Man has fought many true villains such as Doctor Octopus, but he has never tried to kill them. If he can make these moral distinctions, why doesn’t he realize that he must capture Cloak and Dagger or die trying, and must never assist them?

Issue 65 "the Heart is a Lonely Hunter"

Kraven is that rare Super-Villain that though tweaked in the head follows his own moral code that is not necessarily completely villainous.

Kraven perfected his mind and body so that he could subdue, without killing, even the most fearsome of beasts. However, he became bored when no creature that lived caused him any challenge. Then he heard about Spider-Man and instantly became obsessed with conquering this new foe. He might have had a shorter career if he’d become obsessed with the Thing or the Hulk.
Kraven is insane because he never seems to understand that Spider-Man is a human being, not an animal, (though someone from PETA would argue there is no difference).

He doesn’t understand that Spider-Man has a life outside of swinging around the streets of Manhattan on a webline. He’s an actual thinking and reasoning person that should enjoy the rights of any other man, but as far as Kraven is concerned Spider-Man is a lion or a gazelle that exists only to be subdued by the self-appointed, “World’s Greatest Hunter.”

But Kraven has a sense of honor and fair play. He wants to win against Spider-Man fair and square, so while he is willing to block Spidey’s spider-sense with loud drumming, he flies off the handle when his lover secretly shoots a psychotropic drug into Spidey’s foot.

To Kraven, this caused the hunt to be compromised and he’d have no honor from defeating Spider-Man this way, so he ends up helping Spider-Man, so that he’d have the opportunity for a proper fight another day.

I love the trippy drug induced view of the world from Spider-man’s drug-fueled perspective.


Issue 66 "Electro Will be Free"

(Another example of the word “Epic” appears as a neon light on this issue’s cover)

Electro has found a way to use his power to instantly draw power from any metal object. This issue really ramps up his power to a ridiculous level. I mean if Electro was able to absorb as much power as he seems to in this issue, Spider-Man wouldn’t have just been “shocked senseless” when he was hit by one of Electro’s blasts, Spider-Man would have been liquefied.

It’s a pretty decent issue; I can’t really fault it except that it fails to break any new ground.

Issue 67 "Boomerang the Killer who Keeps Coming Back!"

From page 1, you can tell that this issue is going to be a little different. Edward Hannigan’s layout is at times unique. I love the shot of Boomerang on the Daily Bugle’s roof.

Boomerang is another in this series of villains that Spider-Man just doesn’t take seriously. From the start he relentlessly slams Boomerang with jokes about his failed major league pitching career, while also pounding him with various punches and kicks.

After Spider-Man beats the tar out of him and disarms him of all his boomerangs, Kingpin’s goons corner him in an alley and point their Tommy guns at him. At this point, you actually feel pretty sorry for him and are happy that Spidey throws him a ‘rang at the last second, so he can easily disarm the goons.

You don’t feel bad that Boomerang gets arrested, but you’re glad he wasn’t killed.

Issue 68 "Hell Hath no Fury like a Robot Scorned"

At the start of this tale, a man named Danvers runs frantically to a phone and when he picks up the receiver he is killed by the mysterious Robot Master. Then the narration says, “Tiny electronic bores emerge from the dead man’s ears….and following a cold mechanical voice, take the shortest route back to their master.” Then the little screws fly into the telephone. I hate this old cliché. No machine, no matter how tiny could travel via phone lines!

I really like the splash page of Peter and Aunt May visiting Uncle Ben’s grave. Though he died in the first issue, Uncle Ben is never forgotten.

I also enjoyed that Spidey’s origin is retold in 4 panels. I mean, the guys that did 15 minute Hamlet would be impressed with that amount of brevity.


It’s also worth mentioning that May’s new boyfriend Nathan comes to the graveyard with May and Peter, but stays a respectful distance behind as the two mourners visit the grave. I felt like that was extremely respectful. He understood that while it was important for him to be there for her, it was also important for her to not feel like she was in some way showing Ben his replacement.

So anyway, on his way out of the graveyard Peter runs into the middle of a scuffle outside of a mausoleum. Though still in his street clothes Peter springs into action. Peter is stopped by the would be grave robbers who turn out to be with the FBI

The mausoleum is Professor Mendel Stromm’s. Whom Spider-Man faced off with way back in ASM 37. Stromm’s brother, who Peter just assisted, goes to report the incident to the police before Peter can question him.

So Peter goes back to ESU reminiscing about Professor Stromm and ends up getting into a scuffle with Deb Whitman’s boyfriend Biff. Peter slaps him, but then thinks to himself that if he’s used even the smallest amount of Spider-power, he could have killed him. Finally, the increasingly impulsive Parker, passes Deb in the hallway and then runs up to the roof, changes into Spider-Man and webs off. Deb follows him sees Spider-Man webbing away and concludes that Parker must be Spider-Man.

Spider-Man tracks down the FBI agents he’d fought in the Graveyard and after fighting a robot together, they tell him that it appears someone is up to Stromm’s old tricks. So they all return to the mausoleum. There Spider-Man meets Stromm’s brother again only he’s really a robot with Stromm’s memories. He looked human when Spidey met him in the graveyard, but in the privacy of his hideout he wears an ocular over one eye, purpose unknown, but doesn’t it look robotic? It makes me think of that line from the Princess Bride about masks, “They’re just terribly comfortable, I think in the future everyone will be wearing them.”

Spider-Man defeats the robot and writes in webbing on the mausoleum wall that Professor Stromm “died again”

Spectacular Spider-Man 54-60

Issue 54 “To Save the Smuggler”

I like several things about this issue, the first was the beginning where Spider-Man tries to do the right thing and stops a car chasing an ambulance. Only the car turns out to be full of cops and the ambulance a stolen vehicle. Whoops!

Spider-Man is such a physically strong superhero; he is often portrayed as his own worst enemy. This is the case whether he struggles with balancing school, work, and relationships, or whether he can’t tell who the bad guys are.

The next neat thing in this issue is that Spider-Man ends up rescuing one of his enemies. Remember the Smuggler aka Power Man? Remember, Spider-Man had a fight with him in the subway’s catacombs in Spectacular Spider-Man 50? Well, he is losing his powers and was going to go State’s evidence against the Maggia, but the Japanese Mob in some sort of informant exchange program kidnapped him.

Anyway, that brings me to the last cool thing in this issue, Spidey in Samurai armor. The best shot is the one on the cover. The colors on the cover are awful, which is why I uploaded it in glorious B+W the way I enjoyed it in the Spectacular Essential vol. 3.



Issue 55 “The Big Blow-Out”

“Nitro’s Back” the cover proclaims. It’s funny, Nitro wasn’t much of a villain until in modern times he literally set-off the Marvel Civil War. But let’s get back to 1981 and this issue of Spider-Man.

At Project Pegasus Nitro’s daughter and her lawyer appear with a writ and demand the release of her father. The scientist reluctantly consents and wheels out two air tanks. Nitro has been kept in a gaseous state since his last battle in Omega Unknown 8? That was his previous appearance anyway.

Now it’s true that it’s unlawful to keep a man imprisoned without a trial and keeping a man as a gas makes water boarding seem pedestrians as a form of torture. But Nitro is dangerous, shouldn’t the scientist build some sort of holding cell before releasing Nitro from his gaseous state (I really wish there was a way to say this without making it sound like Nitro just has a bad case of indigestion.)

Anyway, I can’t help but think of this Bronze Age Nitro as kinder and gentler than the Modern Age Nitro. This one explodes and destroys building, but never seems to do more to people than knock them out.

I really dig the ending of this issue because Spidey uses his brains and tricks Nitro into chemically combining with nausea gas!

Issue 56 “The Peril…and the Pumpkin?”

Jack O’Lantern is brought to a hospital after a fight with Machine Man (in Machine Man 19). However, apparently Jack’s metal mesh body armor is so strong no one can figure out how to get his costume off, not even the dumb looking pumpkin head. This becomes a moot point when the villain wakes up and with the help of his gang takes the hospital hostage.

It just so happens Aunt May’s boyfriend Nathan is one of the hostages and this causes Peter to have to choose between doing as his Aunt wants and being there to comfort her as she watches the hostage situation on the news or doing something about the situation as we know only he can.

In the end Spider-Man easily defeats Jack, but when Peter goes to be with Aunt May afterwards, she is furious that her nephew wasn’t there when she needed him. “I’m just a foolish old woman who thought she still meant something to you,” she says through tears.

This issue gets a B- for action, but an A+ for guilt tripping.

Issue 57 “These Wings Enslaved!”

I thought JJJ was married, but in this issue he seems to have it bad for scientist Marla Madison. He even finds it in his miserly heart to throw her a black-tie party when she gets a new research job at the ever-evil “Brand Corporation.”

Spidey is swinging through NY when he decides to call Aunt May. He does so, from a payphone, in his Spidey costume to the amazement of the crowd that forms around him. Miraculously, Aunt May has already forgiven Peter regarding the fight they had last issue. After the phone call Spidey swings away. Why didn’t anyone press *69 and see who Spider-Man called? Even if that feature didn’t exist in 1981 surely the police could have pulled the pay phone’s call records.

Okay, so at JJJ’s party Will-O-the Wisp, stuck as, you guessed it a gas, takes over the use of Killer Shrike’s body and kidnaps Madison. He takes her to a secret lab at the Brand Corporation, because she is the only one who can use the machinery to restore his body.

Spider-Man is at ease fighting a room full of Brand Corporation security and then in the middle of the fight decides to call Aunt May again! You’d think someone knows how to track down call logs?

In the end, after saving Will-O’, Spidey isn’t sure whether Will-O’ is a hero or a villain since he took revenge on the Brand Corporation by leveling the whole building and after seeing their dark side Marla decides she can’t work for Brand Corporation.

Overall, this was kind of a dud issue.

Issue 58 “Ring out the Old, in the New!”

Guest penciler John Byrne, makes the most of an issue with a throw-away villain. Fortunately the Ringer, is played for laughs. The Ringer’s suit has a “particulate-matter condensers that form rings right out of the soot and smog in the air.” I couldn’t help but think that with the brainpower to come up with a machine that makes metal out of air, surely this man could better serve society as a scientist. Hell, he could make a fortune as a somewhat disreputable businessman. Why do these guys choose a life of crime?

A highlight of the issue is when Spidey gets bored with his fight against the Ringer and decides to leave and go meet Debra Whitman for dinner. “You can’t leave now!” the villain shouts. “Oh, no? Watch me,” says Spidey.

In the end it turns out that it was the Beetle, itching to try out a new set of armor, that was pulling the Ringer’s strings. (No pun intended)

Of note- This issue features the debut of Marcy Kane’s new brunette look. I think it was a step up, but I’ve always preferred brunettes.

Issue 59 “I Want Spider-Man”

This is kind of a filler issue the builds up to Spider-Man big fight with the Beetle in the following issue.

Marty Blank also known as The Gibbon, is still bitter about his attempt to fight Spidey way back in ASM 110-112. He’s working for a documentary crew looking for new Spider-Man footage. Blank is more than happy to put the old monkey suit on one more time and give Spidey a rematch for the cameras.

The Gibbon is little challenge for our favorite wall-crawler, but he does distract Spider-Man enough for the Beetle to sneak attack our hero and the issue ends with the Beetle hitting Spider-Man with a brick wall. Ouch!

Of note- Marty Black wears a tee-shirt that says “Epic.” It seems that it was the hip thing at this point to slip that word into every issue possible, Anyone know the story behind this?

Issue 60 “Beetlemania!”

This “Special Double-Sized Issue” has a really cool cover.

The issue itself is both good and bad. For two issues the Beetle has been preparing for a battle against Spider-Man. First, he forced the Ringer to fight Spider-Man so he could upload data about Spider-Man’s movements into his new set of armor. The Beetle believed that his suit’s computer would be able to predict Spidey’s movements. Second, toppled a brick wall on top of Spidey when he was busy fighting the Gibbon.


The Beetle quickly realizes that his computer program doesn’t work. He doesn’t find out but it fails because Spider-Man’s movements are not a set of practiced predictable actions, but merely responses to Spider-Man’s spider-sense.

Spider-Man who never really recovered from being hit by the brick wall flees the fight with the Beetle after putting in a fairly good showing. The clueless Beetle believes he has suffered another defeat and kidnaps the Gibbon to
use as bait.

Peter runs into Deb Whitman, who is wearing a particularly frumpy outfit, a nightgown shirt over a full bodysuit.

When Peter realizes that the Beetle has captured the Gibbon he runs to save him and the final battle ensues. After Spider-Man does all the hard work, the Gibbon manages to deliver the punch that knocks the Beetle unconscious. Much to Peter chagrin, the Gibbon gets all the credit for saving the day from the police and the media.

Back-Up Feature “The Birth of a Legend!”

This is a retelling of Spider-Man’s origin; it’s kind of in the same vein as the shot-by-shot remake of Psycho someone did about 10 years ago. The original Amazing Fantasy 15 origin story simply titled “Spider-Man” was 11 pages. This one is 17, but a lot of the individual panels and dialogue have been recreated, they just added panels that weren’t there before, like a shot of Peter shedding a tear when Flash and the gang drive off after making fun of him for wanting to go to the science exhibit.

It’s funny, the original Ditko art does seem kind of primitive, but the art in the remake is also strange since Peter’s whole face and head look different since penciler Greg LaRocque attempts to make Peter look like a sort of Ditko-Peter/Modern-Peter hybrid.

You’d think I’d know ever panel of the original story, but I still had to glance at the Ditko story to be sure if a few panels were in the original for instance I forgot that Peter gets a new microscope from Aunt May and Uncle Ben, after Peter doesn’t stop the criminal and right before the
night Uncle Ben dies.

I was glad they left the “with great power there must also come great responsibility” line as narration instead or attributing it as a quote from Uncle Ben like some retellings have done.

Hang loose till my next set of musings, which includes a piece on Issue 68, which proves Spidey’s origin can be retold in just 4 panels.