Look At Mr. Lee: Still The Man

Who'da thunk it? Stan Lee still writes a regular Spider-man comic strip. Not only that, but it's good and fun, the best Spidey stuff I've read in years, and it is being published in current issues of Comic Shop News. It's illustrated by Stan's younger brother,
Larry Lieber (Stan's real name is Stanley Martin Lieber). Lieber the Younger draws in a smooth style in that middle area between cartoony and realistic like past masters such as Kurt Schaffenberger and Ramona Fradon (and more currently, Amanda Conner). Another thing that is noteworthy about the current strips is they involve a Peter Parker married to Mary Jane, a situation that I've never before seen work as well. The current storyline involves some hijinks as Peter and Mary Jane try to keep Wolverine from finding out his identity. There is a technical flaw in this whole idea, as Wolverine possesses a sniffer that should immediately recognize that Peter and Spidey are one and the same (if memory serves that's how Wolvie discovered the identity in comic book continuity - "Scents don't lie - that kid's Spider-man!"), but that aside (and it's always possible Logan already knows and is just having some fun at Spidey's expense), it's fun to read Lee's version of Wolverine, especially when he refers to Mary Jane as a desperate housewife, haha! On a sentimental note, I also like that Lieber draws Peter with wavey hair a la John Romita, Sr.'s version from the seventies. It's more realisitic, since anyone's hair would get wavey from being in a sweaty mask for hours on end! But seriously, it just looks more like how I picture Peter Parker (picked a peck of etc.). Obviously because I grew up (in a manner of speaking) with the John Senior version, for me I recognize the guy when he's got a couple forehead curls pointing at each other (I may or may not have, at about age twelve, tried to force my hair to do that in emulation of Peter, you'll never get me to confess).

So I recommend the strips, they're fun and funny in a Silver Age way and best of all free at most comic stores with the purchase of something else, they run six to an issue of CSN, in full colour -it's a heck of a bargain.


Hmmm, he can call her "Honey" in public but not lift his mask to half mast? Sooo unrealistic!