***THIS REVIEW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON THE NERD BLITZ PATREON***
As an extra special Christmas treat I wanted to sling another comic review your way, gang, the 1st of 2 for this month.
And what says Christmas more than Spider-Man, a giant green lizard, and an orange dinosaur man?
Let’s take a trip back to 1976 and see what this whole hootenanny was all about!
This is your cold blooded, yet still super serious, and official ***SPOILER ALERT***
Cover by Ross Andru?: No cover credit is given, but I’d be willing to say this is Andru.
This definitely catches the eye!
The snow, the wreaths, the man sized reptiles, this whole thing screams weird 70s bullshit and I love every single swipe of the pencil.
This is fun, comic booky nonsense at its absolute best!
I love it.
Art by Ross Andru: I believe I’m on the record with this, but if not before I am now, I’m ready to call Ross Andru my favorite Spidey artist.
There’s something about the way he draws the wallcrawler, the angles he chooses, the hyperextended poses, that makes him seem far more dynamic than most and he just pops off the page under Andru’s watch.
He makes a ridiculous character like Stegron (a naked, orange, man sized dinosaur) look like he could be the villain of a movie and not be completely cheese dick.
His faces are super detailed and expressive, particularly the craggy and menacingly crazed looks of J. Jonah Jameson.
I’ll risk being a corn ball myself and say it’s damn Amazing.
Story by Len Wein: Just before Christmas, Stegron The Dinosaur Man is wrecking havoc with reanimated dinosaur skeletons.
Stegron has also kidnapped the son of Dr. Curt Conners to try and force Conners to finish some experiment.
The stress of it has caused Conners to transform into the dreadful Lizard, just as Spidey swings by the Conners’ apartment to get some help facing the Dino man.
The Lizard escapes, going on a hunt for Stegron, and Spidey talks to Mrs. Conners who tells him all that’s happened.
He soon follows and finds the 2 battling, along with a troop of fully refleshed dinosaurs ready to take over New York.
Spidey must save Conners, stop Stegron’s crazed plans to oppress man and bring about the return of the age of reptiles!
Ya know, that tired old tale.
Now, I will start off by saying I’m not a big dinosaur fan, never really have been.
I don’t lose my shit for Jurassic Park or Godzilla movies.
The last Dino I cared about was Barney, and that shit got old fuckin’ fast.
My point in telling you all of this is that I need you to know the uphill battle it was for this story to win me over, and it did it real quick just by being your typical, bonkers, 70s comic tale.
It sounds like a wacky fuckin’ joke some stoner came up with and can’t let go of “Okay, so a lizard man, a dinosaur man, and Spider-Man walk into the museum of natural history for some Brontosaur bones”.
How could you not love that set up?
But it’s not all batshit crazy fun, there’s also a plot line of JJJ trying to get the Spider Slayer back in action…wait, that’s fuckin’ nuts too.
Um, okay now, let me think.
Hmm, oh!
Pete has to miss a Christmas party with his friends, that shows a certain engagement get announced.
That’s something normal, right?
The 70s were a hell of a time (as were the drugs, apparently), kids, and when I hear people complain that the MCU movies aren’t serious enough it’s an instant indicator that while they may have read comics from back in the day they sure didn’t pay attention to the goddamn things.
This is, yet again, a perfect example of what comics today are often missing.
Like 60s TV, comics of the 60s, 70s, and 80s did weird and silly shit that was just plain fun.
They tackled serious topics from time to time in the 70s (kidnapping, blackmail) but I can assure you this story would be handled far more dramatically and have parts that would be down right depressing if it were made today.
I can’t recommend this issue highly enough, gang!
If you hate fun, keep on walking.
But if you want an almost Die Hard toned Christmas story that also stars Spider-Man, you probably can’t find one much better than this.
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And finally, given the state of the world, do what you can to leave it a little bit better than you found it.
As difficult as that may be currently, it can have an impact far greater than you know.
Until next time, stay safe out there, gang.
