Skip to main content

Spidey vs. Firelord

I'm sorry for not having posted a blog entry here for a week. I've been busy with other things. Nothing really important, though. Why bide my time doing worthwhile things when I can commit myself to doing less productive stuff?

Anyway, I wanted to talk about an awesome two part Spidey story I read about a month ago. I should have came on here to talk about it sooner, but like I said before, busy goofing off. The story, I'm referring to Amazing Spider-Man #269-270. Spidey fought a lot of guys that are his superior in strength and power, but Firelord ranks above a lot of them.

Spidey's desperate battle against Firelord all started with a simple screw up behalf of some ignorant fools of New York. In a pizza eatery, Firelord wants some grub and a few of the locals mistake him for a mutant. These peons would only be so lucky if they were dealing with a mutant. When they attack Firelord things get ugly and Spidey comes in to do his hero thing. He not only strikes Firelord, he takes his staff away from him, something no other opponent has managed to do up until this point. Unfortunately for the web-head, he made the mistake of thinking Firelord's staff is what gave him his power. Proving just how wrong Spidey's assumption was, he attacks the building the web-slinger is stinging to and with one hit, it explodes into pieces. This is when Fireloard let's slip that he's the former hearld of Galactus. Now for the uneducated, if you worked under Galactus, that means you're sporting cosmic powers, meaning most people wouldn't want to screw with you. At this point Spidey realizes just how outlcassed he is and chucks Firelord's staff into the New York waters so he can escape. Peter thinks it'd be a good idea to let someone like the Avengers or the Fantastic Four handle Firelord. Since he doesn't know him as Peter Parker he could easily leave things to someone more equipped to handle the situation. When he's about to change, he spots some pictures of uncle Ben, and Peter's unbreakable sense of responsibility kicks in. Win or lose, he's gonna let Firelord know he's been in a fight. "One heck of a fight!"

It doesn't take Firelord long to recover his staff and once he does, he's out turn Spidey into a pile of ashes. Firelord's attacks are not something that can be shanken off like a jolt from Electro or a hard punch from Venom. If someone like Spidey were to take a hit from Firelord, that'd be the end of him. Game Over. The fight moves from skyscrappers, office buildings, subways and ends at a demolition site. Spidey does everything he can think of to stop this guy, even blowing him up in a building. With nowhere left to run, Spidey lays into Firelord, hitting him with everything he's got. He doesn't give Firelord a chance to strike back. He's just beating the crap out of him. Captain America andt he Avengers arrive to let Spidey know the fights over. Spidey looks to the ground to see that his foe is KO'd. Not only did Firelord get owned, he got owned by an everyday man. That had to be a huge blow to his ego.

What can I say about this story? I LOVED IT! This is a lot better than Roger Stern's two parter which pits Spidey against the Juggernaunt. I have great respect for Roger, but Tom DeFalco wrote the better story. You could really feel the fear and tension of the battle that weighed on Spidey. He couldn't let Firelord hurt anyone but the odds of him dying were a lot higher here than in most of his other battles. Spidey is a guy who mostly uses his brains to outwit his opponents, but every now and then, I think we need to see him pulverize the bad guy and that's exactly what he did here.

Comments

Tommy said…
http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/6329600.html

In case anyone wants to see some of it that doesn't have the original or a reprint.
This arc is in my Amazing Spider-Man collection of none reprints.

The cover of part 2 as you saw it yourself Reg is tricky, Captain America eased the tension on Spider-Man by showing him that Firelord fell to the ground unconscious then the Avengers took Firelord away, no one tried to stop Spider-Man from fighting F.L
Avg. Rating: 4.5 Stars

Since this arc was released before the "Amazing Spider-Man: Powerless" it is in the at least 4 stars rate. There are some exceptions that go less than 4 stars before Powerless By "David Michelinie" & "Erik Larsen":
1. Hate Monger: SSM 12-15 or in that era average rating: 2stars
2. Amazing Spider-Man 130-131 (Clifton Shallot)Average rating: 3.5 stars
3. Spider-Man in "Las Vegas" vs "Joe Fixit": Average Rating: "Kerry Wilkinson" rated it well enough for me
The Hate Monger story in the early issues of Spectacular Spidey did indeed suck.
How much do you rate "Hate Monger" dumb arc?
That guy gets a 3 or a 4, but even without taking him into account, that whole arc just sucked.

Popular posts from this blog

Super Hero Secret IDs & Their Friends

I've always felt Clark Kent has had one of the poorest disguises of all time for a secret Identity. All he does is straight up his "S" curl so it isn't visible and put on some glasses. Well, also depending on the era, Clark is either goes out of his way to be a bumbling idiot so people don't suspect he's an alien from another world, or here's the non-clumsy modern version. Personally, I like both, but if Lois is indeed a star reporter then she'd have to see through that disguise. Let's be realistic here. No one is that clumsy unless they are trying to be. I actually read a post on a message board that Lois finding out that Clark was Superman takes away from the whole dynamic. Seriously? The dynamic of making Lois look like a complete idiot who is unable to see what is right in front of her? I didn't miss that one bit. In fact, one of the few problems I had with Superman The Animated Series is that Warner Brothers didn't allow the creators t

Hooray for Reprints!

The Green Goblin has often been touted as Spider-Man's deadliest foe. He is what the Joker is to Batman. I wonder if Stan knew back when Gobby first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #14 that the Goblin would become the menace that he is to Spidey today. What makes the Goblin such an interesting foe isn't the costume. No. Much like Spider-Man, Gobby is such a great villain because the man underneath the suit is fascinating. Norman Osborn is one effed up dude to say the least. He was so annoyed with Spider Man getting in his way that he the battle between the two of them personal. He discovered Spidey's secret ID, revealed his own identity to the wall-crawler and would later go on to make Spidey's life a living nightmare. Gobby not only screws up Spidey's life, he screws up the lives of those Spidey cares about like Flash Thompson or if your name is Gwen Stacy, thinks ain't lookin' too good for you. I've read every early Spidey/Gobby story except one and it

Marvel Wants to Hear From YOU!

In the letter page of Amazing Spider-Man #565, Spidey editor Steve Wacker filled the page with nothing but negative letters from readers that hate Brand New Day. Who says Marvel doesn't listen to the fans? And what's more, Mr. Wacker has even asked us to write in and tell them how we feel. Can you believe that? It takes class to run nothing but angry letters and a couple of those to the right are pretty nasty. My mother actually suggested I write to the editor and state my feelings on the molestation of Spider-Man in ASM. I'd been meaning to write them, but I just never sat down to do so. With the editor of the Spidey books kindly saying that the letter's page is "the place to vent," I think the time has finally come for me to express myself. I don't know if it will get printed since I've stopped reading ASM, but if they take my letter and many others that are outraged by BND to heart, then that's all that matters. Dear ASM Staff, Do you know what