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Hey comic book world, I hope everyone had a great week and is ready for the weekend and more of your friendly neighborhood wall-crawler! Yes, it’s time for part two of The Sensational Spider-Man TPB in this week’s edition of Ye Olde School Cafe’. In part 1, we saw Spidey and The Punisher mixing it up, but this week’s tale will showcase Dr. Strange and Spidey in a battle with the evil powers of Dormammu and Doctor Doom! This story is contained in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14. Written by Dennis O’Neil and illustrated by Frank Miller.

Our story begins in the bowels of a castle, the castle of Victor Von Doom! Doom is continuing his quest to infuse magic and science to use it as a means to conquer the world. He has some of his lackeys building a device, and when it’s finished, they summon Doom for an inspection. He gives the thumbs up, and then when his servant asks for a reward, Doom blasts him in the face and straps him into the device. Doom tells the servant that he will be making a trip to the realm of Dormammu. Doom and Dormammu have formed an alliance to bring about something called “The Bend Sinister.” Apparently, this “Bend Sinister” will bring about some kind of dark magic that will run rampant on Earth, but needs a follower in this realm to orchestrate the spells.
Doom sends his flunky, Dilby, to the Dark Realm, where Dormammu endows him with the power he needs to accomplish this task. Once he learns what he needs though, his first act is to send a robot of magical and technological construction to deal with this realm’s magical master, Dr. Strange! While meditating, Strange gets a bad vibe outside his home. A package has been delivered, and he and Wong open it. They find a mummy of sorts inside, but when Strange uses The Eye of Agamotto to see what it really is, the evil entity attacks them both! Not knowing what this robot truly is or how to combat it, Strange and Wong are both quickly subdued. Just before he gets knocked out though, Strange uses his astral form to escape, but is abruptly attacked by some demons outside his home. Before he gets torn apart, he sends out a telepathic distress call. The call hits Peter Parker, stunning him for a second. After dismissing his class, he sets out for Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum to investigate. On his way though, he’s attacked by two gargoyles that have been animated by Dilby, along with the demons that subdued Strange. Spidey fights them off just enough to get away, and continues on his path to Strange’s home.

Upon arriving at Strange’s home, Spidey finds Wong flopping around like a trout out of water. Wong then tells Spidey that the only thing he remembers before passing out were the letters “CBGB”. Spidey knows that there’s only one place with those initials in New York, so he heads down to the Bowery district to the famous nightclub. Once he’s back in his Peter Parker disguise, he can sense something isn’t right and starts to investigate. Meanwhile, below the stage we see Dilby mocking Strange and his inability to break free of the spell Dilby has used on him. Dilby tells the Doc that he will be the sacrifice that is needed to bring about chaos.
After not being able to find any clues, Peter bumps into Debra Whitman, whom he was supposed to go on a date with. She gets upset at Peter for blowing her off, but he says he’ll make it up to her by taking her out to dinner (now there’s a guy with his priorities in order). While at dinner, Peter notices the band from CBGBs marching around outside chanting about The Bend Sinister. He then ditches Debra to change back to Spidey and follow them. Spidey then finds them marching around the Latverian embassy, still chanting away. He also notices Dilby on the roof doing a little chanting too, and then sees Strange tied to a giant crystal. Dilby then sees Spidey and sends his robot after him. The robot proves to be too strong for Spidey, so he decides to use his intellect rather than strength, using his agility to confuse the robot and get him to fly straight into the crystal, shattering it into a million pieces. The pieces fade away because the spell is broken, and Dilby is furious. The crystal being shattered also freed Dr. Strange as well, and he isn’t too happy about being tied up (probably because it wasn’t Clea). Strange starts to assault Dilby, but then a force field surrounds him and Dilby is grabbed by an enormous hand from a fiery realm that pulls him away.
After all the demonic forces are pulled back into their own dimension, Spidey is thanked by Dr. Strange for his help. He tells Spidey that if he can repay him in any way, just ask. So Spidey then asks Strange what exactly is The Bend Sinister? Strange states that he cannot say because it is better that mankind doesn’t know, and then he flies away. Spidey gets ticked off and smashes a tree, then calls Strange a “sleazy trickster” and wishes that the next time he’s in trouble, Strange sends his cry for help somewhere else! The last page of this story shows Doctor Doom receiving a package from Dormammu. It’s Dilby, and he’s been trapped inside a crystal like a child’s toy.
This is one of those fun books to read just for the humor and enjoyment. It’s obviously not the length of War and Peace, or as intricate a plot as a James Patterson novel, but it’s entertaining to read for sure. Miller’s art is nothing short of awesome. There’s a scene in CBGBs that just looks absolutely amazing, of Peter walking around. It really looks exactly like one would picture it, as far as the lighting and the silhouettes of the other people in the club. If you want to read a good Spidey story with guest appearances, then pick this one up!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net