*** Readers, start your page magnifiers -
1962. Unlike Batman, Spiderman's formula is friends, family and life's events rather than gadgets. Many villains are friends Spidey grew up with and who often assist him ad hoc against a common foe. Typical bad guys are from a disfunctional background, interested in science and industry, married (like Spiderman) or widowed, with offspring. Batman and company earn their powers and skills. Spiderman and company acquire theirs by accident ot design. Most of the early baddies wear green, some with purple accessories, a few others in black or gray. Uniforms and equipment are passed down to offspring or happened on by strangers. Stronger and faster than Spiderman, they lift anywhere from 10 to 100 tons according to their size, ranging from bantam to bus. Villains are (ho-hum) out to get Spidey when they're not acquiring more wealth and power. As villains they're mostly unlikeable, predictable, and hard to sympathize with, whining constantly and making no effort to improve themselves.
Cloak and Dagger are admirable for their amicable relationship. If it must be them against the world at least they have adequate means to defend themselves. Mary Jane Watson, Parker's wife, is admirable for her gracious smile regardless of her situation. Unlike with Batman, characters here are often killed off outright. It must be a horrible feeling that your husband might have married someone else (Gwen Stacy, whom he still mourns) had she lived.
Each Spiderman decade is preceded by a two-page Spiderman in different Spiderlike contortions with matching solid blue background. Most comics' lettering here requires magnifying due to abailable inclusion space. Illustrations drawn specifically for this book look more like action figures than like real people. The Millennium relaunches Spidey & Co with character and backstory makeovers and a few new people thrown in including an updated Fantastic 4 team and Spidey's daughter May as Spidergirl. Jump to 2099 when world government is corporate and meet a whole new crowd including a new Spiderman inspired by the original one. DiFalco, writing for Spiderman for decades, loves his characters and what they stand for. He stays on as artists and other writers come and go with Spiderman titles and upgrades. I'm grateful for ultimate guides to Spiderman, Batman and others as they appear.
In May 1939 the world gears up from depression 1930s to wartime and postwar 1940s. Bob Kane created Batman for DC Comics, which in those days cost 10 cents until 1970 when Batman was revamped, still refusing to use firearms after the murder of his parents. Then comics were 15 cents. Batman's evolving origins, vehicles, equipment, headquarters and Batcave are Dorling-Kindersley illustrated and his career chronicled with accompanying annotations. Galleries of Batman-inspired heroes and rogues out to get him include Alfred, Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, Batgirl, Nightwing and many others old and new but somehow leave out Bookworm, the Minstrel and others. Women are (ho hum) size D+ voluptuous in low-necked evening gowns, or in form-fitting costumes with billowing capes and Batmanlike utility belts. Men are mostly a slim 6' tall or taller, with a few shorter and some truck-sized.
Characters good and bad all come with tragic backstories. You almost want the robbers to get away with loot that's insured anyway, because they suffer so much, yet the cops suffer too. Criminals mostly go to prison or to maximum-security Arkham Asylum, whose new building Bane destroyed. You sympathize with them over custodial living conditions and want them to escape even if only to do more mischief, creating more messes for the Dynamic Duo of Batman and Robin to clean up. Batman and company live on long after generations of mortals retire. This book is highly readable - or would be if text colors contrasted with background colors so readers could see it even in incandescent light.
"The old gang of Riddler, Joker, Penguin and Catwoman. Those were the days of hanging out at the go-go. Whatever happened to the Minstrel? The Bookworm? and all the others you never see around any more. Batman and Robin were the straight men but we're the stars. Nobody ever hurt anybody, and nobody died. Nowadays it's different - instead of robberies and heists it's guns and murder. Did I miss something? Where was I when they changed the rules?" the RIDDLER asks in a TV interivew.
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