"WHEN FALLS THE METEOR!"
Writer: Stan Lee/Plot/Pencils: Steve Ditko/Inker: Steve Ditko/Letterer: Artie Simek/Editor: Stan Lee/Cover Art: Steve Ditko
Synopsis: After becoming exposed to a gas pocket from a meteorite fragment, Norton G. Fester is gifted with superhuman strength and endurance, thus becoming a super criminal, the Looter...
Review: The Looter - sometimes called the Meteor Man - has always been one of Spidey's D-List villains, and even that might be a bit too generous; he probably falls a bit further down the alphabet than that, but his first appearance here is one of the best of the final five Ditko issues, and the Looter himself actually makes a good impression. I love the way Ditko gives Fester's face so much life and character; when he's scheming in his laboratory, every line in his face is accentuated, and I adore the characterful expressions that Ditko gives him. His costume as well is really cool, another Ditko classic, and I also get a kick out of his backstory as a failed scientist who holds the deluded belief that he's smarter than anyone else in the world. Really, it's a wonder that he's never been a more popular character based on his debut. True, he doesn't exactly give Spider-Man much trouble, and his future appearances paint him as little more than your average super-powered petty criminal, but in this issue specifically, he's a lot of fun, and it's nice to see that Stan and Steve can still pull out a great new bad guy even in the twilight years of their run.
Ditko's fight scenes are just as brilliant as ever; in fact, I think this may be his best work since the Master Planner Saga. It's just fantastic seeing Spidey and the Looter battling it out inside the space exhibit - itself a wonderfully drawn setting - with the Looter making use of the various contraptions on display against his foe, and the final confrontation as the villain tries to escape using a balloon backpack - yes indeed - is also pretty tremendous. I always love to see Spider-Man fighting a villain in mid-air, high above the city, and this is a great example of that, with the web-head using his webbing to hang onto the slippery surface of the balloon, and when that fails, he's forced to grab onto the Looter's foot to save himself from falling. Terrific stuff. The issue ends pretty abruptly after our hero's victory, but I'm not going to complain after such a brilliant sequence.
What I do take issue with - and it's the same thing I criticised in my review of Issue #34 - is Steve's continued insistence on keeping Peter as an outcast from the rest of society. It's clear from his other work that Steve loved to tell stories about characters who were determinedly individualistic, often to the point of being scorned by their peers, but the problem is that it just doesn't work for Spider-Man, at least not at this stage. He's at university now, his life needs to move on from his lonely high school days, but Stan is still being forced to contrive reasons as to why Peter won't get involved with any of the other students at ESU; here it's explained that Peter doesn't want to be thought of only as an egghead after a girl invites him to a party based on his intelligence. Now maybe this will make some kind of sense to some of you out there, but it's just nonsensical to me. In addition to this, his classmates in this issue, particularly Gwen, are just downright unpleasant. Gwen is angry with Peter because she sees him run off to change to Spider-Man when the Looter attacks the space exhibit, and believes him to be a coward. What exactly did she expect him to do? Go toe to toe with the Looter? As far as she's aware, he has no super-powers; running away would be perfectly reasonable behaviour in this situation. It's what everyone else is doing, and I don't see Gwen doing anything to lend a hand. After the way she treats him in this issue, it's a wonder he ever falls in love with her.
ASM #36 is the best issue of Ditko's final five so far. It has a really fun new villain, exciting fight sequences, and the gorgeous artwork we've come to expect from Ditko. Unfortunately, we also get the same problems that plague the rest of these last few issues, namely Peter's continued status as a pariah. Not only is it contrived, it's also becoming very tired by this point; something new needs to happen, some fresh development that injects the book with some intrigue again, because as good as this issue is, you can't escape the feeling that the title is starting to spin its wheels a bit.
Rating: 4/5
Next time, Spidey goes up against a pair of rampaging robots, and for the first time, we're introduced to one Norman Osborn...
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