"THE NIGHT OF THE PROWLER!"
Writer: Stan Lee/Penciller: John Buscema/Inker: Jim Mooney/Letterer: Sam Rosen/Editor: Stan Lee/Cover Art: John Romita Sr.
Synopsis: Two lost souls drift through the night-time streets of New York: a lovelorn Peter Parker, and down-on-his-luck window cleaner, Hobie Brown...
Review: After a pretty mediocre outing with the Lizard and the Human Torch, ASM is back on form with the beginning of an excellent two-parter, one that has always been one of my favourites. Not only is Issue #78 a return to the high quality we consistently got throughout the Petrified Tablet Saga, but it's also a great reminder of just why Spider-Man is such a special character, especially during this time period.
This has to be one of the most beautiful looking issues of ASM ever produced. We open with a gorgeous splash page of Spider-Man swinging over New York at night, the city's lights twinkling like slivers of gold far below him, and this dazzlingly moody visual of the Big Apple after dark is retained throughout the entire issue; there's this wonderful sense of atmosphere in ASM #78 that I don't think has ever been matched in any other Spidey comic. More than any other adventure for the web-head, this is the one that I think would be perfectly accompanied by the jazzy, swinging score composed for the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon, music that's practically the sound of a city's nightlife. As well as giving us some highly effective atmosphere, Buscema throws in some really cool dynamic angles for things that in concept aren't all that exciting, but in the hands of a master artist, even the sight of Spidey retrieving a dime from a drain is dazzling to the eyes. Not only that, but he loads the backgrounds with detail: I've always loved the glimpse of an office worker on the night shift that we can see through a window on page 5. This is an issue that you just want to take your time with, soaking up every drop of its mood.
This issue also brings back some of the more mundane inconveniences that Spider-Man would face a lot in the Ditko era, hammering home the idea that despite being a superhero, he really is just a normal guy with normal problems. I love seeing him have to search for some money so he can use a phone booth, and I love even more that the booth he chooses has a burnt out bulb, meaning he has to dial by feel; these are such minor nuisances that no superhero other than Spider-Man would ever have to deal with, and I can't get enough of them. A good chunk of the issue is spent with Peter out of costume as he wanders the lamplit streets trying to come to terms with the fact that he may have lost Gwen to Flash Thompson, and as someone who also used to walk through the streets aimlessly in the early hours of the morning whenever I'd have something similar on my mind, I can really relate to this, and both Stan and John depict the anxiety and loneliness of such a night-time walk perfectly. Not only that, but some of these panels are just hauntingly beautiful portraits of alienation and longing, as we see Peter surrounded by fellow night-time walkers, but looking completely alone.
It's here that we come to the namesake of the issue: Hobie Brown, alias the Prowler. I'm sounding like a stuck record here, but I just adore the way in which Peter and Hobie briefly see each other on the street, both of them thinking how much easier the other guy must have it; this is another thing I'd love to do on my night-time walks: imagine what the lives of the people I walked past must be like. What makes them happy? What makes them worry? What are their ambitions? What's going on in their life right now? It might sound weird, but I find it a helpful way to increase my empathy towards others. Hobie is a marvellous creation - not to mention the first contribution John Romita Jr made to Spider-Man - and his experiences with prejudice fit right in with the more socially conscious Spidey comics of this era; I really appreciate how well Stan manages to portray the casual racism of Hobie's employer, and how this contrasts with Jameson's more liberal attitudes - this issue features one of my favourite Jameson moments, when he tells Hobie's employer with disgust to get out of his office. Hobie's journey to becoming the Prowler feels all too believable; a young black man suffering from discrimination who ends up feeling that turning to crime is the only way he can ever make a name for himself. It may seem a bit silly having a costumed character who uses gadgets based around window cleaning equipment, but I think it's a nice reflection of Hobie's engineering skills, and come on, the Prowler just looks cool.
We may not see much of the Prowler in this first part, but we get enough of Hobie's backstory to understand who he is and why he decides to turn to crime. And hey, I would argue that in many ways, it's actually Peter who serves as the 'Prowler' of the title; after all, it's him that takes to wandering the streets at night with no real purpose. This is a truly sublime issue of ASM, a tale of two young men who are both at an impasse in their lives, who both feel lost and directionless. For me, it's the perfect Spider-Man comic to sum up the mindset of late-60s America, with the Vietnam War raging, and a generation of people wondering just where the hell their country - and indeed, the world - is headed. I absolutely adore this thing, and can't wait to revisit the conclusion.
Rating: 5/5
Next time, Spider-Man and the Prowler battle across the rooftops of New York, but only one will be the victor...
No comments:
Post a Comment