Spider-Man: The Gauntlet Vol. 1: Electro and Sandman

TV shows like Charmed, or ER last for a while. My favorite TV show in recent history, The Office, lasted for a good 7 seasons (and then a weirder 2 seasons after), clocking in at a total of 9 seasons. But actors get older -- Pam and Jim got married, Michael moved on, and Jim started his sports company. TV shows last as long as their stars.

Comic books are different. Peter Parker, well, has been 20- to 30-something now, for over 40 years. He's been married on and off, sometimes he's dating and sometimes he has a kid. So when you pick up a comic book, it'll seem familiar to you, activate some of the stuff you knew before. But occasionally there's a little nugget of something that teases you, makes you furrow your brow a little. Wait, Aunt May's married now? Huh, Mary Jane died in a plane crash? It makes you want to read how it got to that point, from wherever you are.

Such was the case with Spider-Man. So, I'm immediately following Died in Your Arms Tonight with. . .

Spider-Man: The Gauntlet Vol. 1: Electro and Sandman
collecting Amazing Spider-Man #'s 612-616, Dark Reign: The List -- Spider-Man
By Dan Slott, Mark Waid, Fred Van Lente, Paul Azaceta, Barry Kitson, and Javier Pulido

Man that was the best title they could come up with? "Volume 1: Electro and Sandman." Well I guess they tell you what you're putting your money down for.

"The Gauntlet" refers to Kraven, the Hunter's family (The Kravinoff family, in case you were wondering), setting loose a number of Spider-Man's supervillains to attack him. They're putting him through a "gauntlet" of villains as revenge, to slowly chip away at his health and destroy the Spider family.

Electro and Sandman are the first of the gauntlet -- Electro's the first, helmed by Mark Waid and Paul Azaceta.

Electro (Max Dillon) used to have substantial savings from his criminal deeds, but, lost it all from the financial collapse. You see, this comic was written in 2009 when the housing bubble burst and led to business failures, home evictions and the like. More info here. In a way, Electro becomes a modern-day "champion of the proletariat," making a vlog called "Power to the People," in which he rails against the government-given bailouts for millionaires, particularly Dexter Bennett of the Daily Bugle.

His vlog goes viral, and Electro even rallies the general public to protests around New York City. Eventually, his powers escalate, and he tells citizens to turn on all of their electrical equipment, like vacuums and ceiling fans, so he can travel through the city's electrical grid. Pretty neat! It's also interesting to read the comic with several years of distance. At the time, it was very topical, and with the electrical blackouts during the summer, even seasonal.

It ends exactly the way you'd think -- through a fit of ingenuity, Spider-Man fiddles with a Spider-tracer to track down the power surges associated with Electro. Only, their fight concludes in the DB, resulting in a massive collapse of the building. Dexter Bennett loses the use of his legs, and the DB is no more.

An interesting note here is the "ret-con" of events from issue 601. In that issue, Peter Parker got so drunk (supposedly), that he forgot the details of his planned meeting with MJ. In issue 611, they go out of their way to explain that it wasn't actually the alcohol -- just nerves.

I think it was pretty funny to read. There's a letter section at the end of 611 where a reader rails against 601 for portraying Peter as an alcoholic. I think that's a little quick to jump to conclusions, but I guess it was important enough that the writers had to retroactively rewrite that scene.

I'm usually impressed by Mark Waid's work. His Daredevil run is what got me into Daredevil. There are some lines and some jokes that just miss the mark for Spider-Man, but for every two-ish jokes he lands a pretty good one.

Azaceta seems better suited for a noir story, with his strong lines and muted colors. There's a tinge of vintage to it as well, reminiscent to me of Bullet Points.

"Power to the People" is followed up with "Keemia's Castle," a two-part story featuring Sandman. If anything, these two issues redeem the entire paperback. Tightly plotted, snappy dialogue, and a highly personal story that makes you feel for all sides of the story. Issue 615 revolves around three murder mysteries. Eventually, Spider-Man Spider-Sleuthes that it's Sandman, only, here's the twist -- now he's created an entire sandcastle on Governors Island, an abandoned part of the city, for a little girl called Keemia. He tends to her every need, cares for her, and keeps her warm at night. He calls her Princess, and she even calls him King, as he creates a sandcastle bed for her.

There's a tragedy behind Sandman, and we get to see it here. As it turns out, he never meant to murder those three people. It was his subconscious, acting out his desire to secure Keemia as his daughter. When Spider-Man accuses him of the murders, he genuinely doesn't even know about them. He wants to be a good person, but he doesn't really know how to do it. So when he tries, it comes out wrong. It's basically kidnapping, as Spider-Man puts it:

We BOTH know Keemia isn't REALLY your daughter! You're lacking some ESSENTIAL PARTS for BABY-MAKING!

Sandman: SO? I'm the only guy who ever TREATED Keemia like a father! Even when I was in Riker's I sent her gifts! I sent her letters! Then, one day, while I was visiting just on her OWN--Keemia started calling me "Daddy!" You know what that MEANS to a freak like ME, who's never had anything PERMANENT in his life? Everything always SLIPS THROUGH MY FINGERS--Like YOU-KNOW-WHAT!

You try and take this AWAY from me, and I'll NEVER forgive you, wall-crawler! YOU HEAR ME?!? NEVER!!

Spider-Man does "save" Keemia from Flint Marko, intending to return her to her abuelita, only to find out that Social Services found her to be unfit to care for children -- putting Keemia into foster care. It's an awful ending that makes Keemia feel betrayed by Spider-Man.

Not only has she been taken away from her daddy, she's lost her entire family too, thanks to Spider-Man. Flint's lost a person that made his life whole. Life is harsh. Nobody wins. It's a tragic lesson to teach a child, and that's the life that Spider-Man has to bear. I love to read these kinds of stories here. For all the fantastic, out-of-this-world antics like a man made out of a sand, they're grounded in real human emotion and tragedy. "Keemia's Castle" comes highly recommended.

Javier Pulido on the art does a fantastic job with the story. The layouts keep the story at a fast pace, and are different every page. Here are a couple of two-page spreads.

BONUS PANELS:

In memory of the Daily Bugle building, Mayor J. Jonah Jameson offers up plans for a "Freedom of the Press" Tower, plastered with his grinning face. Hilarious!

His face is bigger than those two buildings! I guess it's reflective of his ego!

Spider-sleuth in knee high socks! Winter Spidey!

As Spider-Man delivers a "finishing blow," Sandman cries out for the person that was keeping him sane. Powerful moment:

The covers are brilliant, for each of these issues. Here are the collages I made for it.

I've already written too many words for this paperback. But there's also a Dark Reign one-shot featuring "The List," apparently a list of people that Norman Osborn's made to "take down" one way or another. It's a nice, topical-for-the-time issue that focuses on Peter Parker as an Everyman. There are some chilling parallels between this story and the modern-day President, and there may come a day when people find that the emperor has no clothes, so to speak.

The trade is bookended with another Dark Reign one-shot, revolving around Jessica Jones's baby, and Osborn as the Goblin. I think they used oneshots to tell different parts of Dark Reign, so if you wanted to see Osborn apprehended, this is the one to read.

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