Spider_Man. Nearly drowned. Trapped in chains. On a table. Prone before Kingpin and a group of other assorted criminal goons. It’s a terrific final splash.
In “real life”, it’s game over, as most of the goons would quickly pull their guns and start blasting away. Spider powers do not include invulnerability.
But in comics, especially older classics, it’s… continued next issue!
And I am absolutely there for it. (And we know Spidey is going to get out of this — the joy is the “how?”)
Pencils and inks here both by Blevins, who drew most of the early Sleepwalker issues, following his terrific run on New Mutants.
Next issue leads off with a somewhat silly cover — and a great splash page that’s a close-up from the previous closer.
John Romita Sr. turned 90(!) the other day, and we would be
remiss if we didn’t celebrate the amazing artist — even belatedly.
This great action page is from the one-shot Kingpin and it represents the final comic book story collaboration between Romita and Stan Lee (with help from Tom Delfaco and inker Dan Green).
What’s great about this story — and this page, specifically — is that it features three important Romita icons in one place:
Daredevil, Romita’s first pencil gig at Marvel after eight years of DC romance comics.
Spider-Man, the character that Romita will always be most associated with, and the one he brought to new heights of popularity.
Kingpin, the all-too-familiar super-villain that John co-created, and who will likely vex DD, Spidey and others for the rest of time.
This page is obviously not from the classic Romita era — in fact, it comes 30 years later, but it’s still a great example of Romita’s superb draftsmanship and storytelling.
And all it’s missing is Mary Jane Watson.
You can’t have everything.
Early key Romita comics: His first Daredevil action page (over Kirby layouts) from DD #12; the first Romita Spider-Man, crossing over with Daredevil in DD #16; and Kingpin’s first splash appearance (Amazing Spider-Man #51) from his multi-part debut.
Romita on his Spidey assignment:
“I was hoping against it, believe it or not. People laugh when I say this, but I did not want to do Spider-Man. I wanted to stay on Daredevil. The only reason I did Spider-Man was because Stan asked me and I felt that I should help out, like a good soldier. I never really felt comfortable on Spider-Man for years. … I felt obliged to [mimic] Ditko because … I was convinced, in my own mind, that he was going to come back in two or three issues. … I couldn’t believe that a guy would walk away from a successful book that was the second-highest seller at Marvel. … After six months, when I realized it wasn’t temporary, I finally stopped trying to [mimic] Ditko. … “
