I've been pretty guilty of the sin of envy, lately; as people on Twitter keep posting finds like six longboxes worth of comics at a nickel a piece or something. Or a ton of good finds at cut rate prices. Meanwhile, I paid a dollar American for 1994's Spider-Man #51, "Power and Responsibility, part 3: A Heartbeat Away!" Written by Howard Mackie, art by Tom Lyle, finishes by Scott Hanna; and "The Double, part 3: Who Am I?" Written by J.M. DeMatteis, pencils by Liam Sharp, inks by Robin Riggs. With shiny covers! I was wondering if this was multiple fancy ones in a row, but I was thinking of the next chapter in this storyline, which was Spectacular #217.
The recently returned "nobody!" a.k.a. the clone of Peter Parker, visits the hospitalized Aunt May to agonize over if he should help Peter Parker at Ravencroft Asylum; or do nothing and then claim Peter's life after he dies. Luckily, he remembers Aunt May raising him right, so his moral compass is way too strong to let him not act. The clone still had his Spidey mask, gloves, and web-shooters; and leaps back into action. In a leather jacket, jeans, and sensible shoes.
Original flavor Spidey is currently captured by Judas Traveller, who wants to figure out why Ravencroft's inmates are so obsessed with Spidey, and why there is two of them. Spidey has to fight (briefly) through a nightmare army of (better) villains, while the clone makes his way past Traveller's operatives Boone and Medea. Facing both Spidey's, Traveller calls the clone 'Ben,' I wasn't sure if he had taken that name at this point.
In the back-up feature, the Jackal uses drugs, hypnosis, and psychological torture to give his clone of Spider-Man the memories and moreover, personality of the original. While the clone seems to have spirit, Miles Warren mentions having a ton of "time bombs" in the clone's subconscious. Well, I'm sure that'll never come up again.
I was sorry to see Tom Lyle passed away recently; I remember him from the Impact comic the Comet.
1 comment:
Envy huh? You know maybe if you act now you might find a Black Friday sale on the rest of the 7 deadly sins ;)
No I hear you man, finding longboxes for a hot nickel? That's the fucking dream of all comic collectors right?
I too was reading Spider-Man during this era. Don't ask me why, because this was during his grim and emo angsty period...and then the clone saga hit like a ton of a bricks.
Probably bought this for the art, as I usually did back then. If it looked good to me I bought it, and if the story was just as good, well then that was a bonus.
RIP Tom Lyle indeed. Definitely an underrated artist. He wasn't super flashy, but he was solid and I'd like to think if his style was distinctive enough that you could point it out among a sea of comics from other artists.
Spider-Man, The Comet, that Punisher series by Ostrander, and couple others I can't think of right now all defintiely benefited form his touch.
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