(I originally read these comics in early/mid October 2015)
So I just finished the 'Acts of Vengeance' crossover event, which ran through Marvel's titles for three months in summer 1989, with seemingly every hero getting roped in. The main body of what amounts to a pretty loose narrative runs through the Avengers books. This time, six major villains - Dr. Doom, the Red Skull, Magneto, the Mandarin, the Wizard and the Kingpin - are drawn together by a mysterious, Machiavellian mastermind (Loki. It's totally Loki.) to form a volatile cadre of mostly behind-the-scenes players with a novel M.O.: send super-villains to attack heroes with whom they have no prior history. This lack of familiarity will supposedly catch the heroes off guard and give the villains an edge. So we get the Avengers versus Freedom Force, Avengers vs. the U-Foes, Thor vs. the Juggernaut, Iron Man vs. the Wrecker and Cap vs. the Controller. Spidey, headlining three titles of his own at the time, has nine issues to himself where he comes into possession of the Uni-Power, making him virtually omnipotent and capable of taking on real heavy hitters like Graviton, Magneto and... the Trapster.
Inevitably, the villains' union falls apart due to clashing egos. (Magneto has a special grudge against the Red Skull, for obvious reasons.) There's a continuity flub towards the end where the Red Skull appears after having been trapped in a basement and left to die by Magneto as retaliation for his part in the Holocaust. It's none-too-convincingly explained away in an epilogue.
This was all pretty enjoyable. I have to admit, I love this period of Spidey with Erik Larsen drawing the Amazing Spider-Man title and the team of Gerry Conway and Sal Buscema on Spectacular. Conway's a great Spidey scribe!
Avengers Spotlight (1989) # 26-29, Amazing Spider-Man (1963) # 327-329, Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) 158-160, Web of Spider-Man (1985) # 59-61, Avengers (1963) # 311-313, Captain America (1968) # 365-367, Quasar (1989) # 5-7, Iron Man (1968) # 251/252, Avengers West Coast (1989) # 53-55, The Mighty Thor (1966) # 411-413 and Cloak and Dagger (1988) # 9 are collected in:
Hardcover:
Amazing Spider-Man (1963) # 327-329, Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) # 158-160 and Web of Spider-Man (1985) # 59-61 are collected in:
Softcover:
Amazing Spider-Man (1963) # 327-329 are collected in:
Hardcover:
Captain America (1968) # 327 is collected in:
Softcover:
Quasar (1989) # 5-7 are collected in:
Softcover:
Avengers West Coast (1989) # 53-55 are collected in:
Hardcover:
Softcover:
The Mighty Thor (1966) # 411/412 are collected in:
Hardcover:
Softcover:
