"DOC OCK LIVES!"
Writer: Stan Lee/Penciller: Gil Kane/Inker: John Romita Sr./Letterer: Sam Rosen/Editor: Stan Lee/Cover Art: John Romita Sr.
Synopsis: Doctor Octopus survived the plane crash he was thought to have died in, and is back for a deadly battle with Spider-Man...
Review: There's not much to talk about regarding the plot of this issue, as there isn't much of one. It's another all-out action story, with most of the pages dedicated to a massive fight between Spider-Man and Doc Ock. Regular readers will know that I'm not much of a fan of these 'one big fight' issues, but I have to make an exception here (to be honest, I feel I say that I'm making an exception almost every time we get a 'one big fight' issue) because it really is incredible stuff.
Issues #89 and #90 contain some of the all-time greatest Spider-Man/Doc Ock fights there have ever been, and I think this is largely down to Gil Kane, making his debut as a Spidey artist here. Kane's style is immediately different from Romita's, featuring more interesting panel layouts and more dynamic - even cinematic - angles. Kane's work on Spider-Man has an atmosphere all its own, and he lends this last stretch of Stan Lee penned issues a raw, gritty vibe that we'd never really seen in ASM before, and I would argue that we'll never see it again once he departs. As well as providing us with some truly phenomenal and creative action during the fight scene, Kane imbues the brief scene of Peter in his civilian identity with so much mood that it makes for equally exciting reading. The streets of New York are cracked and covered with litter, a nice reflection of Randy Robertson's preoccupation with air pollution throughout the scene, as well as doing a nice job of making the city look more like...well, an actual city. New York becomes more of a character than ever before with Kane on art duties, and the way he constantly varies up his angles makes for engaging reading; even something as simple as Peter throwing a newspaper in a trash can is visually exciting.
I really do feel that this is one of those issues where my words could never do justice to just how brilliant it is, so I present some samples of the only evidence you should need to seek this issue out: the artwork of Mr Gil Kane...
ASM #89 is something of a pause story-wise between the other two instalments of this new Doc Ock trilogy, but Lee and Kane make sure that it doesn't falter in the excitement. I may praise the Master Planner Saga as the greatest Spidey story of all time - and it is - but my only complaint about it is that the fight between Spider-Man and Doc Ock is over too quickly when it should have been one of the most epic battles they've ever had. THIS is that battle; it just came four years later, and it's not even done. The final two pages, in which Ock lifts Spider-Man above his head and throws him to the street below in a phenomenal final splash page, is nothing short of brilliant; a masterful piece of dramatic comic book pacing. Thankfully, unlike the readers of 1970, we don't have to wait a whole month to find out what happens next.
Rating: 5/5
Next time, Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus battle to the death...
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