"ENTER: DR STRANGE!"
Writer: Stan Lee/Penciller: John Romita Sr./Inker: John Romita Sr./Letterer: Artie Simek/Editor: Stan Lee/Cover Art: John Romita Sr.
Synopsis: Flash Thompson is about to be ritually sacrificed by the monks seeking vengeance for their leader's death, and only the combined forces of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange can stop them...
Review: The second and final part of the Vengeance from Vietnam story is something of a damp squib after the previous issue, but it's still got stuff to like about it. If nothing else, this issue marks the last complete story that Stan contributed during his run on ASM, so it's a bit of a landmark in that regard.
Doctor Strange puts in an appearance in this issue, as the title and cover both suggest, and yet the opening splash page teases a 'surprise star'. This bit of oddness aside, I always enjoy seeing Doctor Strange turn up, as he's one of my favourite Marvel characters, but he may just win the award for Most Pointless Guest Star 1972, as he does very little of interest. It turns out that the old geezer the Vietnamese monks are seeking vengeance for is not actually dead, but in some sort of trance state. Doctor Strange, being the Master of the Mystic Arts that he is, picked up on psychic vibrations from the guy, and possesses the knowledge and power to bring him from his trance. So, whilst he is important to the plot, all he really does in this issue is wake up an old man. Oh, and he makes a sword disappear in one panel as well. John Romita does an excellent job rendering the character, but considering Strange is usually dealing with vast cosmic weirdness and psychedelic alternate dimensions, all of this seems a bit mundane.
Where the issue really comes to life is the stuff with Flash (much the same as the previous issue, then). Flash gets easily the best scene in the whole story, where he is left alone in a cell to contemplate his upcoming death, and his thoughts wander back to Vietnam, back to the atrocities committed there, the massacres perpetrated by soldiers on his own side, and he questions whether he actually deserves to die: "Maybe--someone has to die--to make up--for all we've done to them!" His feelings of guilt and trauma in the aftermath of war are incredibly believable, and despite doing very little other than get captured, he really is the heart of this story; it's his emotions that we're encouraged to connect with. His story, not Spider-Man's. Flash Thompson has come on in leaps and bounds from the meat-headed jock that used to pick on Peter at high school; he has probably one of, if not the best arc out of all the major supporting characters.
Another interesting little scene that will become important in the issues to come is a brief exchange between Gwen and Aunt May, which in all honesty, doesn't paint Gwen in the best light. Peter has seemingly disappeared, and both Gwen and May are worried, May in particular doing her usual "my dear, sweet boy" routine when panicking about her beloved nephew. Gwen, with absolutely no real provocation, snaps at the poor old woman, telling her that Peter is a man, not a boy anymore, and that May needs to let go of her overbearing nature. It's a side to Gwen that we've never really seen before, and won't ever see again. Yes, she's been angry before, but always at something understandable, like a fellow student making a snide comment, not an old woman showing concern for the closest thing she has to a son. Despite it making Gwen look a bit harsh, it is nice to see a different side to a character that can sometimes feel a bit too clean-cut and polite, and it actually kicks off a bit of a shift in Aunt May as well, that will develop over the next year or so of issues.
ASM #109 is perfectly decent in its way, and Romita's artwork is still absolutely gorgeous; he's rightly very proud of the work he did on this story. Everything is lush and detailed, from the figure work, to the inking, to the background detail (especially the cityscapes); it's all top notch. The story, however, is just pretty good. All the stuff with Flash is brilliant, and it's here that we see the seeds of his relationship with Sha Shan first sown, so that's nice. The superheroics, however, feel like an afterthought, and Doctor Strange feels very tacked on. Perhaps it was nothing more than a bit of publicity for his upcoming feature in Marvel Premiere, after several years of not having his own book. I'm glad to have him here, being a big fan of the character, but it would have been nice to have him in a more exciting story. Also, seeing as the monks knew that their leader was in a trance, and not truly dead, couldn't they have just called on the good doctor to begin with, rather than going to the trouble of kidnapping Flash for an elaborate ritual?
And why is Peter still sticking with his lame cover story of having his shoes blown off in an explosion? Weirder still, why is everyone buying it without question?
Rating: 3.5/5
Next time, we say goodbye to Stan Lee, and hello to...the Gibbon...
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