Marvel Age: Spider-Man #20

Background

Not much background here really except that a guy called Peter Parker got bit by a radioactive spider and...oh, why am I telling you this? If you don't know the story behind Peter Parker; you're on the wrong website! And now, Mike Raicht gives us a fairly simple tale of Spider-Man, The Beetle and The Human Torch!

Story 'Where Flies The Beetle!'

I'm going to keep this short and sweet...like this issue. After an introduction to Doris Evans, Johnny Storm's girlfriend we see Peter Parker meeting her and being nice to her. Johnny gets jealous and storms over to Peter; telling him to back off. Then the action starts! The Brilliant Beetle, (yeh, green and pink costume...terrfying!) who is angry at the Human Torch because he beat him and put him in jail, wants revenge!

He breaks into Doris's house just at the same time Peter is going to visit her! Of course, Spider-Man intervenes and puts up a fight against him...only to be hit with a sofa and have the Beetle fly off with Doris! The Human Torch arrives, and they go off to save Doris. Down at the docks, The Beetle has tied up Doris and is talking to her when the Torch and Spidey swing on down! A battle ensues, and after a bit of fighting The Human Torch is thrown into the water. Meanwhile, Spidey unties Doris and tries to stop the Beetle by shooting a web line onto his jet pack and flinging him into a giant web that Spidey has made. It works! The Beetle has been defeated! And after, The Human Torch says to Spidey that maybe if he revealed his identity to the world, and didn't wear a mask, people might trust him more. Just when Spider-Man is thinking about it after, Doris comes over and gives Spider-Man a kiss as a thank you for saving her. And Spider-Man swings off, thinking 'maybe being Spider-Man isn't so bad, after all!'

General Comments

This issue had a fun, young-readers vibe to it. Even though most Marvel Age issues are supposed to, they don't sometimes pull it off but this one does...sort of like the original comic. That wasn't really serious, if I can remember correctly...

Not much else to say about this issue, really, except that I don't actually think new readers have seen the Human Torch and The Beetle fight before, so that might be a bit confusing. I don't collect Marvel Age: Fantastic Four, so if I'm wrong, someone who does collect MA:FF please correct me. Apart from that, this issue was all right.

Overall Rating

Good, fun issue. So it gets a good, fun average rating of three webs!

Footnote

This is the last issue of Marvel Age: Spider-Man but this series carries on into Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man. And of course you still got MA:Spider-Man Team-Up to enjoy! Anyway, i've finished my two cents on the last 6 issues of Marvel Age: Spider-Man and i'm done now. *Walks back into the corner* What should I do now? :)