Author: Robert Greenberger

Spider-Man Panel by Panel
By Stan Lee, Chip Kidd, Steve Ditko, and Jack Kirby
384 pages/Abrams ComicArts/$60

After the success of Fantastic Four Panel by Panel, this book was inevitable. Thankfully, we get not only Amazing Fantasy #15, but all of Amazing Spider-Man #1. As with the first book, the first few hundred pages are composed of close-up photographs of selected panels and pages from these issues. Geoff Spears is back to do the honors, and there’s a chance to relive the early Silver Age with inferior four-color printing, with its limited color palette and registration issues. There’s something quaint and almost comforting in seeing the old 64-line screens (Ben Day dots to old-timers like me) that we only know now from exaggerated Roy Lichtenstein pieces. When the FF book arrived, I questioned the number of pages devoted to this and still do.

The real treat, and the real substance of the book, arrives partway through. We get the cover feature from Amazing Fantasy, and there are pristine black-and-white scans of Steve Ditko’s original art opposite the printed pages. We therefore get a chance to enjoy Ditko’s linework and the occasional border notes. The side-by-side comparisons are a real treasure, and I remain thankful to the anonymous donor who gave the entire story to the Library of Congress.

The last few dozen pages are where the substance arrives in the form of essays. First, Chip Kidd is waxing nostalgic about these embryonic tales and talking about the approach to this book. Then, Marvel’s Executive Editor, Tom Brevoort, steps up to the plate and delivers a detailed analysis of the stories included, beginning with the cover, which Ditko initially rejected, and the one by Jack Kirby and Ditko that was printed. He nicely reviews the threads that led to the character’s creation, giving just credit to Kirby and his then-partner Joe Simon. He then takes us through both comics, page by page, calling our attention to the marginalia and the intent behind them, such as the stories in Amazing Spider-Man #1 were intended for the following issues of Amazing Fantasy before that title was abruptly cancelled. He shows the evolution of the hyphen in the character’s name and has us study how Ditko handled the FF for the first time.

The book concludes with a contextual essay from historian Peter Sanderson and some words from Sara W. Duke, curator of Popular and Applied Graphic Art in the Prints and Photographs Division of the LOC.

For me, these text pieces make the book worth having. You would have to love Spidey to buy this expensive book, gorgeous as it is with thick paper stock and excellent reproduction.

Dick Giordano was a major Robert B. Parker fan, which is how I first learned of him and his creation, Spenser. In fact, I once spent a lengthy lunch hour in line at the Fifth Avenue Barnes & Noble to get the latest release autographed for Dick. From there, I began reading the books and fell in love with them, reading his oeuvre until Parker’s passing.

As a result, I missed the ABC adaptation Spenser for Hire, which aired from September 20, 1985, to May 7, 1988, and only knew it as the show where fans first discovered a pre-Star Trek: DS9 Avery Brooks, who played Hawk.

Thankfully, Warner Home Entertainment has now released the three-season, 66-episode series in a DVD box set, basically collecting the previous DVD releases with no new extras and not even a Blu-ray upgrade.

Robert Urich played the eponymous lead, backed by Brooks, Richard Jaeckel, and Barbara Stock (whose Susan Silverman was only in the first and third seasons). The ever-growing rich supporting cast of the novels was still developing at this stage, so they are absent, although a few of the existing ones (i.e., Henry Cimoli or the other cops) could have been used to enrich the show.

John J. O’Connor noted at the time in The New York Times, “Not surprisingly, many of the plots are merely serviceable, dotted with the perfunctory shoot-outs and car chases. Nevertheless, the series has managed to establish a distinctive personality. The key characters are well conceived, as are such regulars as the police lieutenant (Richard Jaeckel) and the police sergeant (Ron McLarty). Furthermore and not least, a good deal of the location shooting is actually done in Boston, lending the shows a precise and well-defined sense of place, which is rare in American prime time.”

Apparently, the ratings were good despite ABC’s persistence for moving its air dates, and it was finally felled by the expensive location shooting in Boston, which is a shame since it is basically an entertaining private eye show.

While the cases are fine, the real fun is in the chemistry between Spenser and Hawk, two badasses who are complex figures in their own right. When Susan gets pregnant, she considers abortion, something the Catholic Spenser could not abide, and she departs. As a result, during the second season, ADA Rita Fiori (Carolyn McCormick) becomes a potential romantic interest. In both cases, the women were not written as strongly as the men.

None of the novels was used as source material, something that happened in subsequent adaptations, although none have captured the spare writing style that was uniquely Parker. (For the record, Ulrich and Brooks made four telefilms for A&E, none of which are included.)

Had the writers and showrunner John Wilder hewed closer to Spenser’s worldview and avoided case-of-the-week syndrome (still the standard in the 1980s), it could have developed a far more distinctive personality.

Avatar Legends: City of Echoes
By Judy L. Lin
320 pages/Amulet Books/$21.99

I know this much about The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, so I approached this first novel in what is being billed as the Avatar: Legends series. Is the title intended to be about stories set in and around the Avatar series, or is the legend in question the protagonist in this Young Adult novel? That’s open to interpretation.

Set in Ba Sing Se, the last major city in the Earth Kingdom, mainly in the Lower Ring, we come across refugees from the atrocities committed by the Fire Nation, as they seemingly rampage across the world. The Avatar is nowhere to be seen and is rumored to be dead (we know better, right?). We focus on Jun, a sixteen-year-old whose family has been lost, so she and her grandfather take refuge wherever they can. She enrolls in school, utilizing her skills as a calligrapher to do what she can to support herself.

Jin’s best friend, Susu, is from a family that owns the popular Wen Bakery. Things kick off when Susu signs a contract to serve the Upper Ring after her father gambles away the bakery. Jin promises to find a way to raise the funds to settle the debt and regain her friend. This results in allying herself with the somewhat aloof Xuan, a classmate whose family runs the apothecary where she gets her grandfather’s medicine.

From there, she takes on increasing risks to find money and Susu, becoming a messenger for the Black Market Silver Fangs before being initiated into their ranks. When she encounters Susu, she is a brainwashed member of the Joo Dee and does not recognize her bestie. As the Fire Kingdom’s soldiers invade the city, she also becomes part of the resistance.

Our focus rarely leaves Jin, who is constantly challenged about her assumptions regarding people, as well as her nascent skills as an Earthbender. Her growth drives the narrative as she befriends other refugees-turned-freedom fighters, including Smellerbee and Longshot.

Lin keeps the story moving along at a good pace, offering each character just enough of a personality to be interesting, but none are provided much in the way of depth. Conversations that would have allowed the characters to grow are truncated in favor of advancing the plot. The contrasting lives of the two rings are also given short shrift, so she imagines her readers can picture the locales based on the animated series. Speaking of which, we see Jet’s familiar attack on the Pao Family Tea House from Jin’s point of view, giving you an anchor as to where this fits into the overall continuity.

Events present obstacles and challenges, but few of the characters are truly endangered, blunting the edge this could have had.

Clearly, I am not the audience for this work, but it was an entertaining enough read and fans of the series should enjoy this self-contained story.

All the Hulk Feels
By Dan Santat
Abrams Fanfare/40 pages/$19.99

This Mighty Marvel Comics Picture Book, aimed at 4-8-year-olds, conveys a wonderful message about managing anger. This is a particularly challenging age for kids who act out when they lack the vocabulary to express their feelings.

Visually, Dan Santat, known for his work on The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend and Are We There Yet?, presents a Hulk that’s not too frightening to readers. This is a fascinating blend of the more childlike jade-jawed giant and the angry behemoth seen most everywhere.

Across the story, the Hulk and his alter ego, Bruce Banner, exchange messages about how they’re feeling and how neither fully understands what the other is going through. It nicely resolves itself while in the background, the Leader is working to free an assortment of deadly threats, including the Abomination and Juggernaut (not your typical Hulk foe).

However, the story makes little sense. Banner transforms into the Hulk while driving because he dislikes a song on the radio. After punching the console, he walks out of the car and leaps away, winding up at a fast food restaurant where the Leader happens to be there, disguised as an employee.

The Hulk is scaled down here but is still too large to comfortably fit in the car (which should be shredded) or on a restaurant table (which should not perplex him but further enrage him). We also have Hulk and Banner sharing their feelings via notes on the same sheet of paper, which can’t possibly contain all those words. We’ve never known the Hulk to read or write (let alone spell). Instead, this entire exchange needed to be in their shared conscience, which would have also provided Santat with some great visual opportunities.

The climax, with the villains escaping, is resolved off-panel.

While well-intentioned, the story does not serve the message particularly well.

Frank Herbert didn’t necessarily intend to create a large, enduring legacy like Dune became. But once the novel finally arrived in the mid-1960s, it was immediately embraced and spawned several sequels until Herbert’s death. His son Brian, in concert with Kevin J. Anderson, has been keeping the flames burning bright with a series of prequels and sequels that further the ideas first presented sixty years ago.

Herbert thought on a grand scale, his history spanning tens of thousands of years, so HBO Max’s Dune: Prophecy is set 10,000 years before events found in Dune (and therefore, the first two Denis Villeneuve film adaptations). While drawing material from Herbert and Anderson’s Sisterhood of Dune, it charts its course, focusing on the evolution of the female-centric Bene Gesserit.

Legendary Entertainment is used to thinking in grandiose terms given their work with Godzilla and King Kong, and here, plans for the TV tie-in began in 2019, well before the first feature film was released. The six-episode first season aired last winter and is now available on 4K Ultra HD from Warner Home Entertainment.

There are timeframes running in parallel, tracing the relationship between two sisters: Valya Harkonnen (Jessica Barden) and Tula Harkonnen (Emma Canning) as they leave home for training in the mystic order. As adults, the two (Emily Watson and Olivia Williams respectively) contend with changes within the order, including a threat in the form of Desmond Hart (Travis Frimmel), who is the fly in the Sisterhood’s ointment, immune to Vialya’s Voice, a power that compels people to do her bidding. The emperor has no use for the Bene Gesserit and wants them eradicated.

As one would expect, the two timelines are populated with friends, kin, and enemies, sometimes making it hard to track who is who and who is out to get whom. Still, there are many familiar terms and images, notably the Sandworm of Arrakis. Despite the ten-thousand-year difference, it still looks and feels like Villeneuve’s Dune. There are enough intriguing details and character moments to make each episode interesting and keep you coming back.

In the hands of showrunner Alison Schapker, the stories have some pleasant, compelling moments and fun characters. The series boasts an attractive and talented cast, which connected with the audience, leading to a second season being commissioned before the first season was completed airing last December.

The series is available as either 4K or Blu-ray without a combo pack or digital code. The HVEC/H.265 encoded 2160p transfers in 2.00:1 is rich in visual detail, nicely capturing the color palette, and looks fabulous on a home screen. It pairs quite well with the immersive Dolby Atmos audio track.

Alas, being a repackaging of the series, the Special Features are drawn mainly from the Inside the Episode packages that accompany most Max productions. Disc One also offers up Entering the Dune Universe (2:58) and Houses Divided (2:47). Disc Two provides us with Truth or Lie (5:38) and Expanding the Universe (2:32) while Disc Three has Behind the Veil (34:45) and Building Worlds – Home Entertainment Exclusive (HD; 13:04) is another production design focused featurette. One wishes the features were as rich in detail as the episodes themselves.

Dune: Prophecy

Iron Man: Something Strange!
By Dean Hale and Douglas Holgate
Abrams Fanfare/96 pages/12.99

After three team-up books featuring Spider-Man, the young reader line shines the spotlight on Iron Man and Doctor Strange, and it’s a fun time. Aimed at 5-9-year-old readers, the book ostensibly is about an alien infestation that comes to shellhead’s attention when the Avengers’ communication system fails. It turns out the ten little creatures are the offspring of an interdimensional creature who is none-too-happy to be on Iron Man’s plane of existence.

When the Golden Avenger runs out of science-based options, he takes Thor’s advice and seeks supernatural help from the Master of the Mystic Arts. Here’s where the real theme emerges: science versus magic becomes a running gag between the two heroes. With just an hour to collect the children of Great Gargantos, Scourge of the Outer Planes, Tonty Stark challenges Stephen Strange to see who can corral the most children.

Dean Hale is no stranger to writing young superhero stories, and here, he does a fine job simplifying all the heroes into child-sized personalities without losing Stark’s egocentrism. He finely weaves in humorous cameos from the Avengers and Spidey. It’s interesting that the most wisdom comes not from the armored Avenger or Sorcerer Supreme but from Ms. Marvel, in another cameo. The only sour note is his bad explanation for why the armor’s AI is named Friday.

Douglas Holgate’s art is well-suited to the characters and the story, keeping things easy to follow and filled with nice little touches throughout. Ian Herring’s colors keep up with the frenetic pace.

This is a solid addition to the Mighty Marvel Yea-Ups from Abrams Fanfare.