“Grim dark!” More like “grim dumb!” Amiright…?

In this season of the Amazing Spider-Talk, Dan and Mark are going back to the mid-80’s when the Amazing Spider-Man title was handed over to one of the most legendary creative pairings in comics, who were just starting their creative partnership: Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz. It was a time of immense change in the comics industry but together Tom and Ron returned Spider-Man to its Ditko-inspired roots to create one of the most beloved runs on the title.

In this episode, they talk about how the ripple effects of the larger comics industry’s shift towards a greater darkness, or “grim darkness”, and maturity would find its way into the pages of Spider-Man comics. While Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz held to a classical tradition of “hoo-ha”, silver age comic book storytelling, in the pages of Spectacular Spider-Man a new writer on the comic scene, Peter David, would take after the likes of Frank Miller to bring a darker tone to Peter Parker’s adventures.

They specifically talk about the classic Spider-Man story “The Death of Jean DeWolff” which can be found in issues #107-110 of Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man. These issues can be found in reprints and collected editions, as well as on the Marvel digital marketplace and Marvel Unlimited.

This episode was edited by Rick Coste. The video version of this podcast was edited by Alex Galucki. Our artwork comes handcrafted by artists Ron Frenz, Sal Buscema, and Nick Cagnetti. Our theme songs were produced by Ryland Bojack, Tony Thaxton and Spider-Maj. Our animated introduction to the show is by Josh Sutton of Panels to Pixels.

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This week’s Patreon podcasts include a discussion of Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 6) #34, as well as the first six episodes of Season 6! If you’d like to follow along with our reviews as they are released, please check out our Patreon page:
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