Amazing Spider-Man #129 (2025 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

In the 2000 film Coyote Ugly, the lead character's potential love interest secretly buys a comic book while on a date. Viewers are first led to believe that the character played by Adam Garcia, is purchasing something nefarious as the item in question is concealed in a plain brown paper bag. His paramour becomes suspicious of the whole transaction and refuses to be further seen with Garcia's character if he's secretly buying drugs. Reluctantly, the lad reveals the contents of bag: a prestige copy of Amazing Spider-Man #129. The first appearance of the Punisher and in his own words 'The Holy Grail of Comics.'

While it's debatable that Frank Castle's first appearance in comic books is the most sought after comic of them all, it cannot be disputed that that scene in the movie introduced a new phrase in comic book collecting. Social media is filled these days with collectors sharing their grail finds in the wild. Books such as New Mutants #98, Fantastic Four #52 and The House of Secrets #92 have graced my social media feed as grail finds that fans finally found. From what I see on Facebook, The Incredible Hulk #181 is way more coveted than ASM #129. Heck, I posted a grail find post once when I found a mint copy of the first appearance of Lobo, Omega Men #3, for only a buck at a local thrift shop!

With a publication date of February 1974, the world was introduced to not only the Punisher , a paid assassin with a code of honor, but also to the creepy Green Goblin clone known as the Jackal. Gerry Conway, Ross Andru and John Romita Sr. were the creative team behind the scenes. Conway wrote the issue's script. Frank Goacoia and Dave Hunt assisted Andru on the interior art. Romita and Gil Kane crafted the iconic cover that would be recreated ad nauseam on the cover a plethora of other titles from numerous publishers.

The plot of 'The Punisher Strikes Twice' takes place shortly after the deaths of both Peter Parker's girlfriend, Gwen Stacy and the Green Goblin. Spider-Man has been falsely accused once again, this time for Norman Osborne's murder. Seeking a chance to fill the criminal power vacuum in the wake of the Green Goblin's demise, the Jackal hires the Punisher to terminate Spider-Man.

Originally convinced that Spidey is a villain worthy of terminal punishment, the Punisher accepts the hit. The Punisher's mission becomes personal when he finds the wall crawler standing over the body of an associate of his. However, some quick thinking on the part Spider-Man, it's revealed that the assignment the Punisher is a trap on the part of the Jackal, framing the mercenary for the death of his colleague.

Eventually it's revealed that the Jackal is Professor Miles Warren. A mentor to Peter Parker at Empire Stste University, the educator had secretly fallen in love with Gwen Stacy. Blaming Spider-Man for her death, the Jackal unleashed holy hell on the Big Apple. He'll initiate a gang war between Hammerhead and Doctor Octopus, enhance his DNA with that of a real jackal, break the Tarantula out of the slammer and attempt to bomb reporter Ned Leeds into oblivion. Bur perhaps the fiend's most unforgivable crime will come as a result of learning Spider-Man's secret identity. Stealing some of Peter Parker's DNA, the Jackal will create a near identical duplicate; ushering in the God-awful Clone Saga!

As for the Punisher, he'll go on to become one of the most popular characters in Marvel Comics history. His origin will be revealed that his one-man mission on crime was the result of his wife and children being slaughtered by mobsters during a seemingly innocent sunny day in Central Park. PTSD from a tour in Vietnam didn't help matters much. Several series would chronicle the character's war against evil to the extent of death, resurrection and becoming a cosmic hellfire powered caretaker of a baby Thanos. Actors Dolph Lundgren, Thomas Jane and the late Ray Stevenson would portray the Punisher in several live action films. The Walking Dead's Jon Bernthal currently carries the mantle in the Marvel cinematic universe.

A facsimile edition of Amazing Spider-Man #129 was released in April, 2025.

Completing this review completes Task #37 (A Facsimile Edition) of the 2025 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Our Army at War #81 (Facsimile Edition)

Whether or not you consider this facsimile edition of Our Army at War to contain the first appearance of the tough as nails Sgt. Rock, this issue was a fascinating piece of pop culture history.

A prototype of Sgt. Frank Rock had appeared in the war anthology series a couple of years prior. Because the character is referred to as 'Sgt. Rocky', some historians and fans consider issues #82-83 to be the soldier's official first appearances in comics, when he receives his official moniker. It feels a bit like the debate over what is the first appearance of Wolverine. Is it #180 with the Canuck's entrance on the book's very last panel or is it Incredible Hulk #181 where not only does the mutant appear throughout the whole book but makes the cover as well? What cannot be denied is that Our Army at War #81 marks the first appearance of the World War II Army unit called Easy Company, whose troops are the focus of 2 separate adventures. 

The cover by Jerry Grandenetti is super clean. It features the Rock character taking on a Nazi soldier welding a potato masher, while the American hero carries a fallen comrade on his back. It, along with the vibrant reproduction of those late 1950s ads are what sold me on the book. As for the material inside, it was a bit of a mixed bag that had great art, neat ideas and very limited dialogue to the point of getting annoying.

Aside from a couple of one and two-page shorts and a letters page, the main body of this book is written by Bob Haney. There's the Rocky story, the other Easy Company tale where 2 grunts take on an entire Nazi division, a morality play about a paratrooper jealous of his brother: the fighter pilot and a story of cat and mouse in the African desert. Each story focuses on a single phrase or word which is then used as nauseam in literally every panel. For instance, the paratrooper keeps referring to himself as a 'parachute pilot' because of how he can maneuver like a pro when falling while strapped to the silks. I've never heard this term before. It very well could be a thing soldier's during the second world war said. But the problem was that the jumper keeps beating himself up about not being good enough to be an actual pilot to the point I could pretty much determine what the character was going to whine about on the next scene... Verbatim!

I swear, if those 2 dog faces from Easy Company used the word 'pocket' one more time, I was going to scream. I think my wife appreciates that I kept my frustrations from just writing this review. But what do you know? The freakin' captured Kraut commander at the end of the story just has to say 'pocket!'

I did notice something unique about this DC Comics facsimile edition. At the bottom of the front page, underneath all the copyright jargon, there was a disclaimer. It stated that this issue contained material that was considered racist and stereotypical for the time period; both intentional and unintentional. Rather than remove the offense material, DC decided to leave this issue uncensored for historical purposes and in hopes of opening dialogue about sensitive matters. I'm perfectly okay with that. I just can't figure out what DC is talking about.

There's Nazis galore in this book. I think they get called 'Ratzis' at least once. Other than that, the stories in this book are extremely tame. I'm wondering if the disclaimer was about the ads, which are vintage 1959 comic book advertisements. One ad tells kids how to make money selling Bible Quotes door-to-door. Could that be the offensive material? The Bible doesn't offend me. But I know it can be a source of derision for some. Or is it the one-pager titled ' What's Your B.Q.?', brought to you by the National Social Welfare Assembly?

In this public service announcement, readers are asked to test their Brotherhood Quotient.  To do this, readers are asked to rate on a 4-point scale how well they like things such as 'cabbage, alligators, Catholics, Jews and Negroes'. The idea of this seems very shocking and misguided; which makes me wonder why the school district I work for hasn't tried to implement this test before with our high schoolers. You know what they say about where the road of good intentions leads to and I'm just gobsmacked to think that any public program with the purpose of spreading social unity thought this print commercial was a good idea! Even in 1959!!!

You know, I really can't figure out how to end this review. Holy cow! I'm dumbfounded. I plan on keeping this as I doubt I could ever afford a copy of the original and the Ross Andru and Russ Heath art is amazing. But man, I thought the tests in Cosmo were bad...

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Weird Western Tales #50 (2023 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Weird Western Tales actually started out as the second volume of the fan favorite anthology series All-Star Western. The first issues featured some basic historical characters like Billy the Kid, Buffalo Bill, and Davy Crockett. DC creations such as Pow Wow Smith and Bat Lash made appearances as well as the demon possessed gunslinger known as El Diablo. In issue #10, readers were introduced to the mysterious bounty hunter, Jonah Hex.                                             

A former Confederate soldier turned bounty hunter, Hex's visage was disfigured by a Native American shaman for allegedly violating rules of combat. This brand was called the 'mark of the demon'. While Hex didn't have any supernatural powers, his stories tended to have an element of the strange and macabre due the nature of his facial injury. 

During this time period, the Comics Code was lessening its rules on horror tales. As a result, DC Comics created the wildly popular Weird War Tales in 1971. Seeing dollar signs, the editors at DC and publisher Carmine Infantino made the call to switch All-Star Western's format and title. The book was renamed Weird Western Tales with issue #12 (June, 1972). 

For the first half dozen issues El Diablo and Jonah Hex rotated as the star of Weird Western Tales. Assorted Western themed horror tales rounded out the issue. Issue #17 saw Jonah Hex becoming the main feature of the series and within another dozen issues, Weird Western Tales dropped the back-up features. Hex's last appearance in the series was in issue #38. Readers fell in love with the character and by April of 1977, Jonah Hex was starring in his own self-titled issue. 

Issue #39 saw the character of Scalphunter becoming the star of Weird Western Tales. In his debut we learn that the Scalphunter was a white man named Brian Savage. Abducted by the Kiowa Indians as a child, the Native Americans raised Brian under the name Ke-Wok-No-Tay, meaning 'He Who Is Less Than Human'. Skilled at combat, Brian left the tribe going by the name of Scalphunter. 

Scalphunter eventually learned that he had a little sister and that's where this issue picks up. Heading over to Atlanta, Scalphunter follows up on a tip that takes him to a Confederate Army occupied mansion. Inside, he finds numerous members of a prominent family placed under house arrest under suspicion of being a spy for the North; including a pair of criminal who tried to kill Scalphunter previous in New Orleans and his baby sister, Samantha Savage!

Featuring artwork by Dick Ayers (Rawhide Kid), the script was written by Gerry Conway (Superman). Cover artwork by Ross Andru and Marvel Fanfare's  Al Milgrom.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Completing this review completes Task #47 (A Western) of the 2023 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Superman Vs. The Amazing Spider-Man in The Battle of the Century

This 1995 joint publication reprints the very first DC/Marvel crossover ever! In 1976, worlds literally collided as the Man of Steel and your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man fought against each other and then joined forces against the combined might of Lex Luthor and Doctor Octopus!

You might also note that I did not refer to this book as having reprinted the first DC/Marvel collaboration. In 1975, DC and Marvel were approached by MGM Studios to craft a joint adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. Having great success with this venture, the two publishers finally decided it was time for their most famous characters to meet!

I wasn't born when this team-up occurred. But as a kid, I saw ads for it in back issues and I salivated over it. But for some reason or another, I never could find a copy of this. Then last year at a con, my search was finally complete as I found this banged up copy for only a buck!

Gerry Conway, a veteran at writing both Spider-Man and Superman, wrote the script. Ross Andru was on pencils and Dick Giordano did inks. 

Carmine Infantino and Stan Lee were the editors on this. It was during this time, Infantino expressed frustration at not getting a chance to be DC's head editor due to the lengthy tenure of Julius Schwartz. Lee made all sorts of promises to Carmine and eventually poached the DC man when his contract came up later in the year. This is why Infantino worked on the Marvel Star Wars series in 1977-78. But Stan Lee was known to make promises that he never intended to keep and made Jim Shooter EIC instead in 1978. 

Superman Vs. Spider-Man follows the tried but true (but not always the best) rules of first time ever crossovers. The first act has both Superman/Clark Kent and Spidey/Peter Parker acting independently of the other. And of course, the lives of both run socking parallel. 

The second act has the real villains pulling off their master scheme. Some misunderstanding makes our heroes believe that the other is behind the attack. Epic battling ensues.

Then in our final act, our heroes discover that neither is a baddie. So Superman and Spider-Man team up to put the true foes behind bars. Then you get a hinted promise of a rematch/continued rivalry to conclude the yarn.

A couple of years after this book, the two heroes would met again. This time against Doctor Doom and the Parasite. I've actually read that one previously. A few years ago, I found a pocket paperback reprinting of that story. 

While the story was chopped all to hell to fit a paperback's format limitations, I enjoyed that team-up just a little bit better. Maybe that's because with the two already knowing each other, Superman and Spidey don't spend half the book fighting each other. Plus there is a great twist as Kent goes to work by J. Jonah Jameson at the Daily Bugle and Parker becomes the new Daily Planet photographer.

A good read that doesn't disappoint but really doesn't do much on surprises either. An important milestone in comic book history on so many levels, any copy of this story is a must for collectors!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.