Spider-Man Family (Vol. 2) #6 (Story 1)

Background

Inspired by the events of Thor vol. 1 #363, where Loki turned Thor into a frog.

Story 'It's Not Easy Being Green'

A mugger in a Queens park finds himself having a very bad day when he (literally) runs into Thor. Thor turns him over to the authorities, and receives a kiss from the victim. However, a foul plot of Loki is afoot and Thor is turned into a frog! Before he can grab his mystic hammer, Thor is captured by a man and placed in a cage with other frogs.

The next day, Spider-Man swings quickly to his high school where he is (as usual) late for biology class. He stumbles into the room and learns the day's assignment is to dissect a frog. But, as fate would have it, the frog young Parker gets is Thor! Thor bursts out of his jar prison and somehow manages to convince Peter to take him from the room. Thor leads him to the park of his capture and towards Mjlonir and upon grasping it becomes a miniature frog version of his old self, The Mighty Throg!

Now able to speak, Throg enlists Spidey's aid to track down Loki and put the hurt on him. The hammer tracks him back to the high school and to one of Peter's classmates, Loki having taken the guise to observe his bother's demise first-hand. With Spidey's help, Throg takes Loki down and demands the curse be removed. Loki informs him only the kiss of a woman in love can reverse the spell. Just then, Mary Jane offers Spidey a kiss for her rescue from a falling wall during the fight. Begrudgingly, Spidey lets Throg have the kiss and he's returned to his true form.

With that, Thor takes Loki back to Asgard to deal with him properly, leaving Spidey behind the clean up the mess.

General Comments

A fun and cute little story done by the artist best known for his work on the Franklin Richards one-shots. Long-time fans will most certainly recognize the out-of-continuity nature of this story when they see Spidey going to Polk High School, rather than Midtown high, and that Mary Jane is his classmate when they officially met sometime after his graduation.

So what does that give us? An all-ages friendly story about the titanic team- up of the Amazing Spider-Man and the Mighty Throg with no need for any prior continuity knowledge. There was also a quick tribute to the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15, making this a double-homage story. However, while the story was enjoyable, the comedy seemed to fall a little flat.

Overall Rating

4 Webs. A cute and fun story in the Franklin Richards style, although the jokes were a bit flat this time around. Fans of the one-shots should enjoy it, as should the future generation of comic readers.