SPIDER-MAN versus ELECTRO

Down Among The Dead Men: Part 3 of 4 (Marvel)
Where: Marvel Knights: Spider-man #3 When: August 2004 Why: Mark Millar How: Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson

The Story So Far...
The dual identities of Peter Parker and Spider-man have collided in the worst possible way! The nightmare began with his Uncle Ben's tombstone defaced. Peter soon received a call confirming the worst - that a malicious element has learned his secret identity!

With Aunt May missing, Spider-man begins a frantic chase to find the culprit and rescue his family! Unable to find assistance from his fellow heroes, he finds an unlikely lead from the returning mob boss: The Owl! He points Spidey in the direction of his old enemies Electro and Vulture!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Spider-man 5 (Super-Human)
Intelligence: Spider-man 5 (Professor)
Speed: Spider-man 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Draw 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Spider-man 5 (Cat-Like)
Fighting: Draw 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: Electro 6 (Mass Destruction)
Total: Spider-man 29 (Metahuman)

Time for a recharge and what better way to do it than by pitting Spider-man against one of his most electrifying lethal foes?

Electro was once the struggling electrician Max Dillon -- until a freak accident transformed him into a human capacitor! Now he can drain, store, and generate electrical energy to be utilized through a variety of malicious methods!

His most common attacks are simple arcs or bolts of electricity. His charge can reach significantly high voltage, more than capable of electrocuting a normal human being. He can also create fields of charge to manipulate metals, ignite explosive materials, and even levitate and glide.

Despite being a stalwart classic of the Marvel Universe, we haven't seen a lot of Electro on The Comic Book Fight Club! He nearly spoiled Christmas in the 1992 Holiday Special, but Spidey was able to kayo him with a giant star ornament! He was also back causing trouble in Marvel Knights: Spider-man #11 as part of the Sinister Twelve. He was seen maliciously zapping Black Cat, before he was swiftly neutralized by Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman!

Electro's criminal career is replete with defeats, largely due to his tendency to rely on firepower, rather than tactics. Periodically he receives a helping hand to super-charge his powers, or apply a superior strategy, which can yield results.

The criminal fraternity may just be one of Electro's greatest strengths, and in today's fight, he's out on the town with his old pal Vulture! We missed out on seeing more from him around this time last year, but we'll see if his assistance makes any difference to Electro's chances today!

History is rarely on Electro or Vulture's side, but you don't stick at the super-villain game this long without having a little success. Will this be the one that puts Spidey down for the count? Let's go ahead and find out!

History: Spider-man (2-0-0)
The Tape: Electro & Vulture Ranking: Spider-man (#2)

What Went Down...
Electro opens the door to find the spider's trap waiting to ensnare him! He asks his heroic nemesis to grant two minutes grace for his female acquaintance to clear the area, but Spidey's hip to the phony concern!

With the proportionate speed and agility of an arachnid - Spidey leaps clear of Electro's bolts and delivers a swift right-hand to his unmasked foe!

The blow sends them spilling into the hallway, where Adrian Toomes makes a break for a nearby window with a briefcase in hand! Despite a lack of flightsuit, the trench coated Vulture smashes through the window for an aerial escape -- but Spidey is able to snare the case with a jet of web!

Electro reacts to the loss of funds with a massive blast of electricity that sends Spider-man hurtling from the exploding building in a plume of smoke!

A levitating Toomes delivers the bad news: Their twenty million dollars is gone - scattered to the winds! Suited up for action, Electro instructs Vulture to go get his wings and join him in dismantling Spider-man for costing them their fortune.

Some slick acrobatics and conductive stationary cars help Spidey avoid wild bolts of charge from Electro! He bounces back, leaping onto an idle taxi to deliver a slobber-displacing left hook!

The punch is a momentary distraction. Electro rolls with it and fires back with raw power! Electricity pulses through Spider-man's contorting body! He cries out in agony - throwing his leg at Electro's chest with desperate intent!

The aggressive strike surprises Electro with pain. The spark of his electric energy launches Spidey vertically into the rain-filled sky! A momentary reprieve as Electro's charge fills the street and starts metal shrapnel levitating!

Spidey leaps and contorts to navigate the hail of electrically-charged metal flung into the street! He rips the door off a nearby car to use as a shield, and orders Electro to leave bystanders out of it. Enraged by his losses - Electro lashes out by igniting the car's fuel! It explodes right in front of Spidey!

Fire fills the street and cars rise into the air like toys! Ionized metal an electric suggestion from Doctor Octopus. Electro walks through the fire and brings the evening traffic slamming down on top of a still stunned Spider-man!

Amidst the carnage of twisted metal and exploding gas tanks - Electro gets cocky enough to call Vulture. While he does, a notably battle-damaged Spidey webs across the street and launches himself at his old enemy!

Electro doesn't see it coming as Spider-man rush tackles him from behind! They go smashing into a nearby building, where Spidey just focuses on continuing to hit him! Wild and vicious lefts until a massive finishing uppercut!

Blood trickles from Electro's nose, but the energized villain still crackles with energy. He prepares to flash fry his wild swinging nemesis - until he notices the sign on the wall: Gas & Propane. This time the explosion comes unintentionally!

Both a tattered mess lying in open air. Electro appears the worse for wear, lying amidst the rubble, when Spidey hunches over him to search for answers!

The wall-crawler squats over the exhausted villain and clutches at his suit, but it's no good. Electro and Vulture had nothing to do with May Parker's kidnapping. The Owl played him. The realization leaves Spidey open to one last jolt of electricity! The pooling rain around them the perfect conductor!

Spidey's broken and battered body is blasted from the open rooftop of the gas building. His mind wanders, reviewing the predicament as his limp body hurtles toward the street below. He knows he needs to sling a web - but nothing comes.

The fallen hero smashes into a police car arriving on the scene. The windshield cracks before his body bounces off into a puddle. An ambulance is called, but the threat to Peter Parker is far from over...

The Hammer...
A shocking result! The visual victory appeared to belong to Electro, but under deeper scrutiny, both hero and villain shared a significant amount of damage! Spider-man may've taken a plunge from a building, but they're both on a trip to the emergency room by issue's end -- or at least, that's the plan...

In the next issue: it becomes apparent The Owl's men have collected Electro to punish him for stealing the twenty million dollars. It's a fate he shares with Vulture, who was seen briefly during today's featured fight as his absconding accomplice. That's a story for another day, though...

I was inspired to return to Marvel Knights: Spider-man by last week's Sony demo at E3. Spider-man for the PlayStation 4 seems to be pursuing a confused aesthetic similar to Homecoming, which maintains the utter implausibility of super-powered villains, but little of the joy of iconic fantastical costuming.

Even I can acknowledge yellow & green aren't exactly the go-to colors of electricity. Not that it matters. Hollywood never really got to grips with the whole super-hero deal any way. It was either gaudy dayglow, or drab pleather. Somewhere between these extremes of yesteryear and today lies the happy medium. Pleasing fantasy, and good taste. Occasionally we get both, but these days Marvel Entertainment is selling the classics as short as anyone else.

Electro's costume has always been one of the more challenging designs in three dimensional reality. It's iconic on the page, but the mask and lightning shaped protrusions aren't readily accepted outside of a Mexican pro wrestling ring.

It wasn't entirely surprisingly to see Electro's design addressed when Mark Millar collaborated with Terry and Rachel Dodson. The twelve issue run was ripe for comparison to what Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee did in Hush a year earlier. They'd had creative license with the iconic characters featured. So did team MK Spidey.

Writers of Millar's ilk enjoyed laying the boots in to second-tier villains from time to time. Somewhere in this very issue there's a gratuitous reference to "that loser" Paste Pot Pete. They all had their preferred whipping boys, but it was mostly in good fun. This was a time when the pleather misery of The Ultimates still seemed like a good idea. Fortunately, Marvel Knights: Spider-man was still classic Spidey at heart - even if it had some edge.

Rather than drastically modify Electro's unique look, the circumstances by which it exists were reevaluated. The end result: A slightly more tactile costume, with a mask that clings to his head because of movement, environment, and static electricity. A pleasantly natural in-fiction inspiration for embellishing a classic design. It's still basically the look you know and love, with the subtlety of not having jagged bits sticking off his face in every scene. Not that I really minded.

Spidey still voices the opinion of those who'd diss Electro's fashion sense, but he gets as good as he gives. We should all probably accept the bad guy's costumes as readily as we do the classic red & blue of Spider-man. And we do accept it, whether it has a sporting goods origin story, or not. That's what happens when aesthetic conceits have been established for some eighty years.

Terry Dodson does a great job of bringing the classic into the contemporary, with or without  the rubber souled boots, and costume seams that came into vogue at the time. His work is inky and rubbery and full of volume and energy.

Rachel Dodson's inks no doubt deserve a heaping of credit. Sometimes the black & whites look better than final pages! I like confident blacks and [Terry]'s pencils soak that ink up beautifully.

["Avalon's"] Ian Hannin handled colours on this issue, and deserves a parade for keeping them sumptuous and bold!

His representation of lighting and colour interactions is quite superb, lending a strong impression of reality to the iconic costumes live-action is so reluctant to recreate. Images bathed in blues and reds bring exploding cars and electricity bolts to life better than any big screen blockbuster! The entire art team does a great job of bringing an ominous evening rain to life.

Time and again I'm reminded that good old fashioned Spidey nourishes the soul.

This issue plays rough in ways that won't be comfortable for every fan of the classics, but it keeps a whole lot more than it throws away. Some of what it adds is kinda nice, too. We'll have to make time to talk about what they did with Vulture, but that'll have to wait for another time.

A mean spirit isn't such a bad thing for a villain. Electro feels like a bona fide threat throughout this issue's fight, even if it ends in stalemate. It's useful to re-charge villains from time to time. It keeps their value.  The big action of explosions and floating cars is the good bit of what we saw at E3.

If you're looking for more Marvel Knights Spider-man to nourish your soul, you can check out featured fights from issues #1 and #11! There's a whole lot more to discover by following character tags below, links in this post, or by diving into the Issue Index Archive for all previous featured fights!

Support the Secret Wars on Infinite Earths by sharing your favourite links with friends, or by discovering daily battles to like & share on Twitter and Facebook!

Go one step further by picking yourself up a collected edition containing today's featured fight! By using the convenient purchase link provided, Amazon will contribute to the war effort at no cost to you!

Winner: Draw
#2 (--) Spider-man
#856 (+18) Electro
#540 (+1) Vulture [+1 assist]

GREEN GOBLIN versus SPIDER-MAN
Down Among the Dead Men: Part One of Four (Marvel)
Where: Marvel Knights: Spider-man #1 When: June 2004 Why: Mark Millar How: Terry Dodson

The story so far...
Theirs is a rivalry that has spanned decades and brought about great misery in each of their lives. Norman Osborn has waged a war on Spider-man in both his identity as Green Goblin, and otherwise. Among his exploits, the impregnation of Parker's then-girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, and her ultimate demise atop the George Washington Bridge.

Norman Osborn would seemingly perish in battle with Spider-man, but amidst the chaos of believing he was a clone who had usurped the life of the true Peter Parker, Spider-man finds a bittersweet truth when Norman reemerges to finally kill the true clone, Ben Reilly.

Yet another skirmish in their lifelong war brings Spider-man to lie resting in an alleyway behind a restaurant. At first mistaking the motionless body for a vagrant sleeping in trash, the store deli employees soon become acquainted with the deadly truth: Enter the Green Goblin!

Tale of the tape...
Strength: Spider-man 5 (Super Strength)
Intelligence: Draw 5 (Professor)
Speed: Spider-man 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Draw 5 (Marathon Man)
Agility: Spider-man 5 (Cat-like)
Fighting Ability: Draw 3 (Street Wise)
Energy Powers: Green Goblin 4 (Arsenal)


- Self-made millionaire and brilliant industrialist, Norman Osborn, finds himself enhanced physically and mentally when he investigates an experimental formula developed by his crooked colleague, Dr. Mendel Stromm.

Unbeknownst to Norman the formula had undergone tampering, resulting in an explosion that embues him with the formula's properties, resulting in further increases in his physical and intellectual prowess, at the cost of his mental stability.

Using his technologies to adopt the costumed identity of the first Green Goblin; Norman embarks on a quest for money and power, seeking to become the new boss of organized crime in New York. His goals bring him into conflict with Spider-man, and begin a downward spiral that would make them bitter enemies for decades to come.

- A bite from a radioactive spider should have killed highschool nerd, Peter Parker, but instead it would irradiate his own blood, granting him extraordinary powers.

After turning to a life of profit, Peter is inspired to use his gifts for the greater good when his decision to allow a burglar to escape leads to the murder of his adopted parent and uncle, Ben Parker.
Ben's sage-like advice, "with great power comes great responsibility", becomes a mantra for Parker as he becomes Spider-man!

Spider-man possesses the proportional strength, speed, and agility of a spider. Adding to his arsenal is a precognitive spider-sense that warns him of pending danger. Self-made mechanical webshooters round out Spidey's abilities, allowing him to ensnare opponents in a variety of modes; travel through the city by web-line; and form basic constructs based on the available quantities of his own formula of web-fluid.

Additional: The rivalry between Green Goblin and Spider-man is one of the best documented in comics. Over the course of their careers, each would discover the other's true identity, and embark in a bitter personal struggle that would affect a great many innocents around them.

The Infinite Wars previously featured one of the purest representations of this feud as it was depicted in the Spider-man feature film. Also worth noting is Spider-mans battle with Osborn's gathered Sinister Twelve, although it did not include his active involvement in the melee [Marvel Knights: Spider-man #11].

History: Spider-man (1-0-0)
The Math: Spider-man Ranking: Spider-man (#1)

What went down...
With two restraunt employees unwittingly walking into the battlezone, the Green Goblin descends atop his glider with two flaming pumpkin bombs for Spider-man and the innocents. The web-slinger leaps from the garbage to toss the two men to safety, barely aon his feet as the Goblin begins a new attack.

The pair fly through a light shower, struggling all the way as the glider swoops low above traffic, causing windsheilds to shatter!

Spider-man gains the upperhand and inadvertently starts an upthrust in their trajectory, as he begins to wail on the Green Goblin. He uses the eyesockets of Osborn's mask to drag his face into an opposing action against his fist.

Engrossed in battle, thhe pair find themselves inadvertently plunging through an office window, wreaking havoc through the studio space that no doubt racks up in the thousands!

They come to crash land in the storage space of a delivery truck, where Spider-man finds an offensive edge. Taking full advantage of their shaken state, he puts the full extent of his spider-strength to knock Osborn around inside his Goblin mask, whipping away the water amassing from the rain.

With the one-two having the desired effect, Spidey looks around for "something heavy" to deliver the finishing blow to his levelled opponent. Located in the middle of a manhattan crossjunction, Spidey finds advice from one of the onlooking civilians, who suggests a mailbox.

Finding the notion palatable, Spidey again calls upon his super-strength to rip the postbox from it's station, only to use it as a devestating clubbing weapon, bringing it driving down upon the Green Goblin with a sickening impact!

With the Goblin well and truly out of commission, Spidey webs him upsidedown to a lamp post, where he can be discovered later by authorities.
His work, however, proves yet to be done as onlookers both criticize the severity of his methods, and unwittingly put themselves in peril, exploring several spilled pumpkin bombs that emit a gentle luminous glow. Too exhausted to help, Spidey leaves the crowd to their own devices and injuries - victorious?

The hammer...
So, you wanna hear a funny joke?
First, Marvel erases twenty years of history on the whims of the Editor-in-Chief. Then, in response to the laughable outcome, someone talks about giving Spidey a miss for the year. After that, the first entry of the year declares Spider-man victorious.
By the haw of Hoggoth! That's downright absurd! Or is it?...

See, here's the thing; we aren't totally unreasonable. And although the Infinite Wars will make no bones about standing by Spider-Boycott: 2008; we won't let that interfere in certain structural obligations.

In 2006 we ended the year with our top five characters, which meant when we started fresh for Season 2007, there were some embarassing labour pains in the top five. From now onward, we intend to compensate for that by ensuring the previous year's top ten characters get first bite at the new year.

So, here we are, taking a look at 2007's #1 character: Spider-man.

There are two things that make this a palatable cease-fire to our fledgling boycott. The first, we've already mentioned, but the second is a little less subversive, and ties directly into our motives. Because, as mentioned in the Annual Report, we believe Spider-man fans have had a long wait for truly enjoyable Spider-man stories -- but we failed to consider one man: Mark Millar.

A simple truth: A website like this should really have an entire wing dedicated to Monsieur Millar, because there's every chance we could run the spine of our operations off of Millar's output alone.

Unlike his countrymen; Millar isn't necessarily the kind of writer who will have Americans trying to figure out which corner of their bucket they should be peeing in. Truth be told, there's a lot of the bold yankee spirit beating deep within the cavernous bowels of his writer's heart.
A penchant for "widescreen" action and unashamed superheroics has earned Millar a special place in the comics industry as the closest you can get to a sure thing. His Marvel comics routinely dish out top ten sales figures, making his infamous twelve issue runs some of the most talked about comics every month.

Mark Millar is to us, what Julian Moore is to him: A very foxy ginger.

This far in we should really get to the point, so here it is. In these measly twenty-three pages, Mark Millar teams with Terry and Rachel Dodson to do exactly what One More Day didn't - without a single one of the drawbacks.

Millar pulls out all the stops in a story that I initially criticized for appearing like Marvel's response to the chart topping, Hush. I was quickly silenced by what was quite clearly an excercise in telling a classic kind of Spider-man tale, with a completely modern context. This was Spider-man with a tilted grill, giving us a contemporary fat-free attitude that managed to fullfil all the flavours we wanted, without the old deep-fried calories of boring B-plot, and corny dialogue.

With all of her humanity on show, Mary-Jane provides a frustrated protagonist unable to accompany Spider-man on his journey to save a kidnapped Aunt May.
Though the damsel in distress/bridge top motiff has been repeated ad nauseum, we almost want to meet it on Millar's terms, welcoming it for at least pointing to one of the many uses of the Mary-Jane character.

Dr. Octopus is in obscure full force as a wildcard, playing to a hateful history between he and the Goblin, who provides both an immediate threat, and a sinister mastermind to much larger plots, in his own right. Plots ultimately carried out by Mac Gargan, who gets a revamp not only as Osborn's shadowy super-stooge, but eventually as the much anticipated new Venom.

With Electro, Vulture, and Black Cat in feature positions, this is easily the most inviting experience for fans looking to make the transition from films, to comics, giving them a glimpse of what they sorta know, and what they can come to expect. I almost find a naughty glee in recognising a book that's arguably more ultimate than Ultimate.

In fact, so full of joy for this story am I, that I seem to be getting farther and farther away from my original points. This really is just such a fun read that inspires all of those classic Spider-man feelings, but does so with a vibrant contemporary sheen of confident, velvety inks, and bouncy, kinetic curves.
It's the best of all worlds. It's got the domestic turmoil of Stan Lee, the continuing epic struggle of Gerry Conway, the superhero action of David Michelinie, and the arcing scope of Tom DeFalco. War Mongers, reflecting on One More Day, I don't know whether to laugh, or cry.

To see the same apparent goal achieved so beautifully without any of the disgracefully sloppy writing, or dismissive fan-fiction of blanket retcons, is a bittersweet marvel. Millar seems to understand both Spider-man and modern comics so perfectly, it almost makes you wish the man behind Civil War could've assumed a Geoff Johns/Grant Morrison like hold on his company, to have steered this character to the greener pastures desired, albeit, in a superior way.

At this point, amidst my unashamed fawning, I don't know I've engaged in any kind of coherrent discussion, let alone made an argument for a better way.
I just know that at some point in the future we'll be compelled to end the boycott. It might be the right decision, it might not be, but I know for sure, when that happens, the Infinite Wars will revisit Marvel Knights: Spider-man.

This comic wasn't One More Day.
This comic was smart.

The Fight: 5 The Issue: 6.5

Down Among the Dead Men takes advantage of an awkwardly resurrected Norman Osborn. Though this was uncomfortable, the return of Harry Osborn, post-OMD, breaks the friendship. If you feel the same about the comedy of errors, and are looking for an outlet for some great Spider-man reading, you might like to head over to Amazon to pick up MK: Spider-man! Also feel welcome to save and brandish the Spider-Boycott: 2008 banner featured in this entry, with a link back to us. Because... It's just the kind of hype-driven hit response we could use! Oh no, I'm drowning in irony!!!

THE SINISTER TWELVE versus THE AVENGERS
Last Stand: Part III of IV (Marvel comics)
Where: Marvel Knights: Spider-man #11 When: April 2005
Why: Mark Millar How: Terry & Rachel Dodson

The story so far...
For the entirety of Peter Parker's career one villain has stood ahead of the rest of them, being the first to discover his true identity, and terrorize him in both his alias and civilian identity. Few villains have shaped Spider-man's life the way Norman Osborn has, aka the Green Goblin.

Finally behind bars, Osborn continues to have an influence as Mac Gargan, the Scorpion, sets in motion a contingency plan arranged years earlier between the two lethal villains. A plan that instructed Scorpion to kidnap an elderly woman should he ever go down -- a woman named May Parker!

Having helped his oldest foe to escape prison; Spider-man, along with the Black Cat, walks right into another of his grand schemes bringing together an assembly of Spidey's most lethal of foes as the Sinister Twelve!
With each villain sponsored by Osborn and his advanced technologies, it seems like certain doom for Spider-man and Black Cat, but help may just be on the way!

Previous Form:
Spider-man (#1): Recorded victories against Green Goblin, Venom, Scorpion, Sandman & Tombstone.
Black Cat (#36): Aided in defeats of the Venom Symbiote as well as Carnage.
Venom (#80): Aided in defeat of Jack Flag as member of Thunderbolts.
Green Goblin: Norman Osborn has not yet been featured on the site.
Avengers [#2]: Victories over Secret Avengers, She-Hulk & Atlantis.
Fantastic Four [#6]: Lodged a strong victory against the Frightful Four.

Tale of the tape...
Strength: Thing 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Mr. Fantastic 6 (Genius)
Speed: Lizard 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Iron Man 6 (Generator)
Agility: Sandman 7 (Unlimited)
Fighting Ability: Captain America 6 (Warrior)
Energy Powers: Human Torch 7 (Solar Power)


Okay, so I like to play it sentimentally coy in the opener, but yes. We're fixing for the Avengers to jump in at the last minute, which means this goes from a slaughter to a bloody war between the two super powered factions!

There's a curvy buttload of characters present in these Dodson pencils, so allow me an opportunity to roll call right at the beginning:

The Sinister Twelve: Green Goblin, Venom (Scorpion), Sandman, Lizard, Vulture, Electro, Shocker, Chameleon, Hydro-Man, Hammerhead, Boomerang and Tombstone.

The Avengers: Spider-man, Black Cat, Yellowjacket, Thing, Human Torch, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Daredevil, Iron Man and Captain America.

Whew! That's quite an assembly!
With so many characters, it's going to be tough to really draw any concise conclusions. The versatility of strengths and weaknesses really makes this a mixed bag of conclusions, but with characters like the Fantastic Four, Yellowjacket and Iron Man on the job, certainly the heroes are coming well prepared.

The Sinister Twelve roughly divides fifty-fifty for heavy hitters, and street performers. Guys like Hammerhead, Chameleon and even Boomerang, Tombstone and Vulture are going to have limited success where combatting many of the heroes assembled are concerned. In individual breakdowns I might give them a better shot, but we're talking The Avengers!

Sandman and Hydro-Man both present widespread potential problems for the heroes. Given the nature of their respective powers, they can tackle multiple opponents efficiently, whilst also remaining relatively intangible, and subsequently immune to attack.

This is the story that introduces Mac Gargan to the Venom Symbiote, which also means while he presents a potent threat, there's margin for inexperience. Although, teething problems are going to be fairly minute, down to adjustments to the Symbiote's powers and minor communication problems between the host and costume. Otherwise, the already impression Scorpion is only going to be augmented even further than perhaps even the likes of Eddie Brock.

Green Goblin could potentially tackle with the likes of Iron Man, but even he seems somehow dwarfed by the power packed by the majority of heroes who will provide back-up in this scenario. It's hard to really properly break up the twenty-two parts and anticipate the elimination of one over the other.
I guess that's why we have a system...

The Math: Sinister Twelve (Total) Avengers (Average)
The Pick: The Avengers

What went down...
Having aided the Green Goblin's escape from Rykers prison, Spider-man and Black Cat find themselves set upon by the lethal foes of Spider-man, gathered by the Goblin as -- The Sinister Twelve!

Contrary to Norman's plans which involved outfitting many of the villains in more advanced versions of their standing equipment, Mac Gargan shows up wearing the Venom Symbiote, instead of Osborn's upgraded Scorpion costume.
Ever the consumate planner, Osborn is understandably miffed by the shift in affairs, disturbed less by the fact that Scorpion is "wrong", but that he defied him.

Jetting around on his glider, the Goblin promises to settle matters once he's finished murdering Spidey's wife, Mary-Jane Watson. Charming.
The tiff between the two senior villains garners the attentions of the others assembled, who perhaps look on out of curiosity, or question of how the development effects their position in the plan. Either way, Spidey uses the opportunity to strike!

Spidey shoots web and throws his leg out, instructing the Black Cat to do the same, as they prepare to quite literally fight for their lives!

The Cat nails the ravenous Lizard with a stiff kick, while Spidey frog leaps over the Vulture's head. As though willing it to happen, he thinks of the Black Cat, "make it count, baby."

With the proportionate speed and agility of a spider, Spider-man leaps across the battle field scoring hits against the Sandman and Shocker, while Black Cat does her best with the Lizard and Electro in the background.

Scorpion answers Chameleon's cries for a result, propelling himself from his rooftop vantage point to collide mid-air with the leaping Spider-man. He drives his agile body hard into nearby crates that line the dock area.

The devestating blow distracts the Cat long enough for bad luck to come her way in the form of Electro. He fires off a charge that rattles her to the core!
The attack incurs the unlikely fury of the Vulture, who had called dibs on Black Cat for an encounter that left him badly beaten and injured in an eye. The intervention of Shocker rallies the aggressions of the villains back to Spider-man, whom they all have motive to destroy.

Scorpion, still on top of Spidey taunts him; "Hear that, Spider-man? They all want a piece of you now. And you know what? They're gonna get it. We're gonna carve our names in your corpse and hang it from the nearest flagpole."

Staring death in the face, Peter Parker's resolve remains undying.
With the total of his super human strength, he sends the new Venom flying through the pack of circling villains. Even resigned to the fact he's going to die, Spider-man stands valiantly before the gathered villains.

A blast of water from Hydro-Man sends Spidey into the air, where Lizard descends from a flying leap, soon to be followed a flocking mass of evil. Sandman, Hydro-Man, Electro, Lizard and Vulture all grab on to get their fill.

At that moment, overlooking the dock, a shadowed figure with winged tips protruding from his head raises a finger. "On my mark, ladies and gentlemen..."

Like a miracle, the Avengers assemble.

Daredevil swings in with a kick that topples Venom, while Iron Man plucks an unsuspecting Lizard and Tombstone, and flies them high above the docks where they can do no harm.

The Thing heads for an old friend, scooping up Sandman as well as the Shocker in his mighty grip, while Human Torch and Captain America's shield blaze technicolour in the background. Finally, for Spidey, it sinks in: The cavalry has arrived.

A giant-size Hank Pym snags Boomerang, Chameleon and Hammerhead, while the fantastic Mister and Mrs Fantastic swoop in to take care of Electro. Still shaken, Spidey is left somewhat dumb founded while the action evolves around him.

Despite the relief he no doubt feels having escaped certain doom at the hands of his deadliest foes, the call of great responsibility compells the Spider-man.
Fully aware of the Green Goblin's plans for Mary-Jane, which are as he speaks commencing, Spider-man takes leave of the situation, leaving the Avengers to clean up the docks. Captain America offers his full blessing.

The hammer...
Unfortunately neither the Captain, nor Thing, who clobbers Tombstone one last time, notices that one Venom has escaped the scene. Even so, Spider-man, Black Cat and The Avengers prevail!

Statistically we've got a few tricky calls to make. Even though the scene is mostly summarized in relatively few panels, all the heroes will pick up the win stat, even Black Cat, who despite being flash fried, was right in the thick of things for the first half of the fight.

Green Goblin actually left before the fight got underway, so despite his instrumental involvement in setting up the pieces, I think I'm going to have to omit him from any result. As orchestrator, he is similarly omitted in recent entries featuring the Thunderbolts.

Meanwhile, to get to the discussion side of things, I guess when you ask for an array of Spider-man villains, the cosmos provides via Web-Slinging Wednesdays!
It was only in the last entry [Marvel: Heroes & Legends #1] that we discussed the lethal foes shaped hole in the Spider-man universe, and this was a recent example that was unfortunately omitted!

If there's a writer in comics right now who deserves to own stock in this particular corner of the blogosphere, it's Mark Millar. Noone writes big superhero action on the boom-crash operatic scale of Mr. Millar, who is behind comics like; Wolverine, Ultimates, Civil War, and of course, Marvel Knights: Spider-man.

At the time Millar's twelve issue run on the newly launched Spider-man title under the Marvel Knights imprint really split the paying audience. Spider-man fans seemed uncertain as to whether this was an instant classic, or a malicious assault on the characters they hold near and dear.
Many cried for the safety of Aunt May, the peril of Spider-man, and the apparent bastardizaton of Venom and Scorpion, in what many believed was going to be another stinky symbiote marketing ploy.

Granted, the new Venom (with vanilla swirl!) narrowly avoided the hideousness of the publisized squid costume design, but ultimately I think it's proved to be a lasting positive for the Marvel universe. Mac Gargan has found new and unusual relevance post-Scorpion, currently being treated to a thorough handling by Warren Ellis in Thunderbolts [also featuring Green Goblin, as mentioned earlier!].

Under very unique conditions, Millar did exactly what we asked for: He provided a fluid tale that managed to showcase many feature villain stories, while also cramming in some C-snaps of characters like Rhino, and the barely seen Chameleon, Boomerang, and Tombstone even in the issue reviewed here.

Granted, this isn't quite the context we were talking about. Stories like this, and the preceding Batman: Hush storyarc from DC's Jeph Loeb are unique situations.
What we aren't looking for is broken up twelve issue stories that cram as many villains in as possible. What a story like Millar's Spider-man could have provided was a launching pad for the kind of evolving reality we did discuss, and are seeing in a detached form, lest we forget the ill-fated Secret War mini-series.

I couldn't end the review without also pointing out that the art team of Terry and Rachel Dodson contributes greatly to making this one of the most enjoyable Spider-man stories of the decade. Dodson's pencils flow brilliantly, delivering not only the sensuous feminine curves that have made him famous, but also high quality action that walks a line between common Spidey, and McFarlane-style agility-in-excess.

Likewise, Rachel Dodson's confident, thick inks and Ian Hannin (of Avalon)'s cool, smooth colour palette make for a visually exciting take on the script, that's quite easy on the eyes. It certainly requires far fewer graces than the dynamic, but blunt pencil work of collaborator, John Romita Jr.

Anyway, that's it for now. I've been pegging back one more post at a time!
This was of course the all-in special for Web-Slinging Wednesday; featuring the villains of the Spider-man 3 feature film. The last post of the month will be a fifth-week special that promises to be one of the biggest battles posted on Secret Earths, so DO NOT miss it!

Likewise, this particular issue of Marvel Knights: Spider-man also features another colossal battle within it, so do not scratch it off your list yet. Like many other issues, we will revisit it at some stage in the future. In the mean time, I've got to go have a chat with the Beyonder. Because there is -no way- I've been taking orders from a lowly stinking mutie all this time!...

The Fight: 5 The Issue: 6.5