Spectacular Spider-Man (UK Magazine) #209

Background

This long-running UK Magazine started out by running reprints, but these days it offers a brand new "out of continuity" Spider-Man story every three weekly issue. This is Spidey's primary UK non-reprint magazine. He also appears in the pre-school Spider-Man & Friends (UK Magazine), along with occasional guest appearances in Marvel Heroes (UK Magazine).

The Spider-Man story occupies eleven or twelve pages of this 32 page publication, and is aimed at a pre-teen/early-teen market. The plots for these stories feature classic Marvel characters and villains. While they often echo plots from the mainstream comics, they do so in their own special style.

After a few years of erratic quality at best, this title is finally producing some half-decent material. Too bad that Disney (the new owner of Marvel) has announced its intention to pull the plug on all non-U.S. original stories...

Story 'When Titans Clash'

Loki the Norse God of trickery is up to mischief once more. He contrives a fight between the Hulk and Thor. With both heavyweights too excited to think straight, Loki seems likely to achieve his goal... specifically to ruin Thor's reputation as a hero.

Not knowing the reason for the fight, Spider-Man and the Avengers get involved mostly to try and protect the bystanders. But part-way through the fight, Loki is spotted.

Foolishly, Loki mentions that the trickery was achieved with the power of his amulet. Spider-Man grabs the amulet and arranges for it to be smashed between Thor's fist and Hulk's face. Ouch.

Loki leaves, Thor calms down a bit, and twirls his hammer to create a portal to send Hulk into the desert so that the Green Goliath can also chillax until he feels better.

General Comments

Ah, there's always an amulet, the source of all the power.

Overall Rating

A harmless little tale, with no major flaws. Three webs.