Amazing Spider-Man #298 cover detail by Todd McFarlane
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The Amazing Spider-Man #298: “Chance Encounter!”

Spider-Man has to stop Chance from stealing a shipful of weapons, but will his empty wallet get in the way of good journalistic/superheroic ethics? And at what cost?

Chance the Credits

The Amazing Spider-Man #298 cover by Todd McFarlane (pencils AND inks)
Writer: David Michelinie
Pencils: Todd McFarlane
Inks: Bob McLeod
Colors: Janet Jackson
Letterer: Rick Parker, Ken Lopez
Publication Date: November 10, 1987

How Todd McFarlane Started on “The Amazing Spider-Man”

As crazy as this may sound, Todd McFarlane wanted to draw two comics a month.

He already had a regular gig drawing “The Incredible Hulk,” where he handled both pencils and inks. He did two issues of “G.I. Joe” during that time, plus three issues at DC for “Batman: Year Two”.

In fact, “Detective Comics” #576, “Incredible Hulk” #333, and “G.I. Joe” #61 all came out in April 1987. It doesn’t quite count here, because Todd McFarlane’s completed G.I. Joe issue was rejected and redrawn by Marshall Rogers. Read more about that here, or watch the Cartoon Kayfabe video about it.

Quoting McFarlane from his testimony in the Neil Gaiman/Spawn case:

When I was doing the Hulk I was — I was building speed and so I was then capable of doing more than one book a month, and so I’d picked up the odd job, but then the opportunity when I left DC, I told a couple of people I’ll come back and do some Batman and the opportunity came up to do some Batman. I did that, but it was only temporary, three months.

And once that job ended, then I go, well, I — I’m down to one book. I can actually do two books. And so I went looking for another job and I ended up getting the Amazing Spiderman.

– From the Deposition, where the court reporter didn’t know about the hyphen in Spider-Man

During an office visit at Marvel, he stopped by Jim Salicrup’s office to see about working in the Spider-Man office. That’s how McFarlane became the new ongoing artist of “The Amazing Spider-Man.”

The limitation put on McFarlane was that he would have an inker for the first couple of issues to make sure he could concentrate on pulling off the kind of storytelling Salicrup believed the series needed.

In the end, McFarlane drew both “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “The Incredible Hulk” for a few months. The overlap ran through “Hulk” #341-346 and “Amazing Spider-Man” #298-#303. The strain began to show.

To keep this schedule up, McFarlane used an inker to finish his “Hulk” work. Those jobs went to Bob Wiacek and Jim Sanders III. (Sanders, sadly, passed away in 2017.) McFarlane’s final two “Hulk” issues were done as “breakdowns” and “layouts” (the latter for Erik Larsen to pencil), so you can see where the schedule started to strain things. At least he recognized this and slowed down from his initial crazy idea to draw two titles per month. Focusing on the better-selling Spider-Man book was worth it for both short-term and long-term reasons.

That didn’t completely stop McFarlane, though, as he went on to draw “Invasion” #1 for DC Comics. It was released in January 1989, around the same time as “The Amazing Spider-Man” #313. He also drew part of “Invasion” #2 before having to leave it due to the deadline pressures on his monthly series for Marvel.

Some Inking Help

Helping him out for his first two “Amazing Spider-Man” issues was the great inker, Bob McLeod. Heck, he’s a great artist whose skills are most often put to work with inks. His inking style isn’t right for McFarlane at all, but who knew that back then? McLeod was there to be the steady hand to help out should McFarlane have any issues. Given the issues with that “G.I. Joe” issue not that long before that, one has to wonder if the word had gotten around the Marvel offices…

With McLeod’s inks, McFarlane’s style feels more Romita-ish, with clean faces and black-filled hairstyles. It also blends better with the previous artist on the series, Alex Saviuk. (Saviuk would move to “Web of Spider-Man,” where you’d eventually see McFarlane’s influence creeping into Saviuk’s style.)

Sure to give some nightmares, consider what these issues might have looked like if the inker of the previous story had stuck around for McFarlane. That would have been Vince Colletta. We’d all be looking for the pencils to see what got erased.

The Omnibus edition of this material, it should be noted, leaves off McLeod’s credits on the table of contents page. It skips straight over his two issues. Weird. McLeod’s credits are still present on the comic pages (which is where most people will look), so it’s not a total oversight.

Salicrup must have liked what he saw, because McFarlane started inking himself with issue #300. During his run on the series, he only gave up those duties for issues #304 and #305. That was during a bi-weekly summer run of the series. To be honest, he probably should have used one for issue #322, too, during the “Assassin Nation” bi-weekly series. It’s his weakest art in the series. Erik Larsen jumped in to draw the next issue to relieve the deadline stress there.

McFarlane would only relinquish the inks while drawing Spider-Man one more time after that. It was during his adjectiveless “Spider-Man” run when he broke his hand playing baseball.

As excuses go, that’s a pretty good one.

Now, let’s get to this issue’s story:

Taking a Chance

Chance explains why he does what he does

The concept of this Chance character is a goofy little twist on the old standard mercenary character, but series scribe David Michelinie plays it well.

Chance likes the thrill of the gamble, so he doesn’t take a straight payday for the jobs he does. Instead, he bets with his employers on whether he can get the job done or not. It’s a little motivation that keeps him from being just another green-and-darker-green costume-wearing fool with flying boots.

If that sounds silly, trust me: He is far from being the most ludicrous powered character in this series. Just wait for issue #302. . .

The gambling angle could work on a character today, but would likely be weighed down with extra layers to make it seem more serious and relevant. I like it just fine as a novelty. I don’t need to hear about — let’s hypothesize a modern take on the character here — his gambling problem, the money he owes the mob, his childhood neglect from an abusive father, or his days being a card shark to his fellow students, winning him no friends and sending him spiraling down into a supervillain lifestyle to fill the hole in his heart left by blah blah blah.

He’s a mercenary dude with a twist. Throw him at Spider-Man, and let the aerial hijinks fly!

That’s the part I enjoy the most about Chance: He’s an aerial villain. Spider-Man can swing all around, so it makes sense to have villains who can battle with him in the air. Picture Green Goblin on one of his gliders, for example.

When you think about it, though, most of Spider-Man’s rogue’s gallery is confined to gravity’s power. Doctor Octopus can use his arms to climb buildings and lift himself only so far into the air. Chance is one of the few truly 360-degree fliers to battle Spider-Man. And he’s got a pretty cool suit to help him do it, too!

McFarlane’s Quick Start

Todd McFarlane draws Chance flying explosively through the air

It takes only to page three before the classic McFarlane moments start happening in this issue.

First, Chance flies out of a giant explosion behind him. McFarlane draws awesome explosions. I love the life and the volume they have. This one is tame by his standards, but it’s the beginning of a trademark to his style that few mention.

The clouds produced out of Chance’s boots that allow him to fly also have a great life in them, swirling around a central core of power, not unlike the spaghetti webbing McFarlane borrowed from Michael Golden and popularized to the point of normalcy. If McFarlane didn’t make it as a comic book artist, he might have had a career ahead of him as a special effects animator.

The other classic bit is in the last panel on the same page, with “fashion model Mary Jane Watson-Parker” posing awkwardly for a photographer:

Todd McFarlane draws Mary Jane posing oddly in Amazing Spider-Man #298

In an attempt to give her a dynamic pose, McFarlane overdoes it a bit, contorting her legs and hips to the point where they don’t look connected. Heck, that back leg looks like it’s coming from another person altogether.

It’s one of the recurring things you’ll see in this series as we go along. Michelinie gives McFarlane lots of opportunities to deliver crowd-pleasing beautiful model shots, as well as lots of “frisky newlywed” scenes that inevitably end with doors closing or the camera panning away.

What is the Venus Butterfly, and why is Peter offering one to Mary Jane in their bedroom?

In this issue, for example, Peter welcomes Mary Jane into their bedroom with the promise of a “venus butterfly.” Please, for the sake of all that is pure and good in this world, resist your temptation to look that up in the Urban Dictionary. I’m not even giving you a link. Just — don’t.

OK, fine, here, I’ll let Brian Cronin explain it. He tells the actually funny story of where the term comes from without being explicit. It involves L.A. Law, a best-selling book shortly thereafter, and the kind of act Batman may or may not do with Catwoman. It was an actual pop culture term in the late 1980s. (And they’re rebooting L.A. Law now, so what comes around goes around, for sure….)

The Classic Peter Parker Moment

The big character moment of the issue comes when Peter, as Spider-Man, lets Chance carry on with his assault on a weapons delivery haul for the sake of taking better, more valuable pictures for The Daily Bugle.

That leads to Chance injuring one of the soldiers guarding the cache, something for which Peter has a hard time forgiving himself. But this is a monthly comic and the show must go on, so he does get over it quickly enough.

Michelinie always did a good job keeping these character moments in every issue, even as the series was the main action/supervillain-of-the-month title of the Spider-Man family at the time. He could have gotten away with just action-packed bombast but never did.

There are also some nice moments with Peter in the bullpen at the Daily Bugle looking for work and commiserating with his supporting cast, like Robbie Roberts and Joy Mercado. Mercado appears to have disappeared around the Bagley era of The Amazing Spider-Man, never to be seen again. That’s an amazing oversight for Dan Slott. Surely, he found a place for her somewhere during his run on the series?

And just to place this book in the Marvel Universe, there’s a blackout at a key moment on the docks for Spider-Man. A helpful editor’s note tells us to look at “X-Factor” #25 for an explanation of that. Long story, short: It’s Cyclops’ fault. What a jerk!

The Final Page That Eclipses All Else: Venom’s First Second Appearance

Todd McFarlane draws Eddy Brock's hands turning into Venom in his first appearance

In the end, though, nobody remembers Chance from this issue. They remember the final page, which introduces us to the shadowy world of Eddie Brock and Venom… Except it’s not their first appearance, technically. There was a panel in “Web of Spider-Man” #18, where Michelinie had originally planted the seeds of Venom.

It’s also the first example of Todd McFarlane including newspapers in his artwork with his own hand-drawn headlines. We’ll look at some of the messages he hides in those in later reviews.

At the end of the day, it’s the Venom addition to the Spider-Man mythology that Todd McFarlane’s run will be most remembered for. Not the sharks in the Lincoln Tunnel or the guy with the powers of a rabbit, or Humbug, the bug boy.

Some might say that’s for the best, but I don’t know. Humbug had a pretty dynamic visual…

‘80s Flashback Time!

Peter Parker showing off his apartment with the Nagel print
Todd McFarlane (#298)
Peter Parker's apartment from issue #296 by Alex Saviuk
Alex Saviuk (#296)

Peter Parker’s apartment has a framed Patrick Nagel print. It’s not original to McFarlane’s design of the pad, though. A Nagel print was seen in the room above the couch in Alex Saviuk’s art from the previous pair of issues. But it still screams Duran Duran-era 80s

I’ve flipped back and forth between issues a bunch of times. McFarlane was definitely using the same floor plan as Saviuk when he drew this apartment from any angle.

Someone in the Spider Office at the time must have had floor plans to that location. I know they had them for the Bedford Towers condo that we’ll get to in the future. I’m sure a frequently seen location like this was laid out for everyone to draw consistently, down to the furniture and the wall hangings.

Joy Mercado has an execution to cover in New York State

Joy Mercado has a story she can’t cover because she has to go cover an execution. New York State basically outlawed those in 2008.

A huge skyscraper window that opens in.  I don't buy that those exist.

Even in the 1980s, I don’t think the top floor of a skyscraper would have a window that would open into the room like this. I suppose it’s better than opening out, but I don’t think any city building code would allow for this.

Parts That Would Outrage Twitter Today

Times have certainly changed since 1988, and you can see it in the stories throughout Michelinie and McFarlane’s run. It is what it is. But you wouldn’t get away with this stuff today.

Peter Parker admits he has a problem with Mary Jane making more money than him. In 2021 terms, he’s a fragile scumbag. It doesn’t matter that they talk through it at the end of the issue. Just admitting that he feels this way makes Parker toxically misogynistic.

An International board of investors all talk in funny accents, and Peter Parker at one point dons a comedically bad French accent. The only thing that saves this from being a full-on outrage is that it’s all white men speaking in European accents.

Mary Jane says that being married is like being back in school and feeling like she has to report to Mom all the time, except this time it’s Peter. She only forgives him that because he’s so “cute,” not because he’s so smart. She’s shallow and lacks agency.

There’s this piece of confusing dialogue between Peter and Robbie Roberts:

Peter Parker stresses about moving to the Bedford Towers

So, wait, he doesn’t have money, but she makes more than IBM. (Kids, in the late 1980s, IBM was like Microsoft is today: The company all the big companies paid because it was the safest place to do computing and had an expensive support contract to back it up.)

I guess Peter and Mary Jane didn’t merge their checking accounts.

This conversation also shows that David Michelinie was setting up his stories in advance. The Bedford Towers move will happen in issue #300.

Chance cracks a joke about slavery.  Uh oh

If Chance thought that line wouldn’t fly in 1988, imagine how badly it wouldn’t work in 2021, particularly when aimed at a hero in a black costume. Yikes!

The Cover Story

McFarlane drew the initial cover design for this issue on the back of a photocopy of one of his Incredible Hulk pages. You can see that sketch and that piece of paper on McFarlane’s Facebook page. Here’s part of that sketch, with McFarlane’s notes in the margin:

Todd McFarlane points to his notes on his original sketch for the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #298

The note begins,

“Jim + John Romita: I’ll lower drawing to leave enough room for logo. Also, I’ll tilt Spidey more away from border so we don’t have him lining up with side. More of a V.”

John Romita would have been working in the Marvel bullpen in those days with the Romita’s Raiders crew. Was he Art Director officially? I guess he was approving cover designs. “Jim” would be the Amazing Spider-Man editor, Jim Salicrup.

I love Todd McFarlane’s handwriting. It’s just like his signature. It has a very tall and thin look to it, like a European comics font

He would later do an homage of the cover for “Spawn” #298. Pretty sneaky timing there…

Spawn #298 cover by Todd McFarlane in an homage to himself

His signature on the cover includes the number 19 in the place he would late reserve for giving the total number of hidden spiders on the cover. That’s in reference to the year (2019) he drew the Spawn cover, not how many spiders he hid on the cover. (We’ll get to that starting in issue #303.)

It’s nice to see the cover box included, also, even though McFarlane wasn’t drawing his own cover boxes yet at this point in his “Amazing Spider-Man” run.

For you art collectors, Todd posted another video in which he showed the original art for this issue and how his father had trimmed it to fit into a frame. You may audibly gasp now.

BD Recommendation

If you liked this issue, I have a recommendation for you from the world of les bandes dessinées, or Franco-Belgian comics.

Chance is a gambler. He goes for the thrill of chasing the money in high-stakes, very risky missions. In “Ken Games,” one of the three lead characters is a professional poker player. His fiancée thinks he’s just an accountant who works at the bank, but that’s his cover story. What he doesn’t realize is that his fiancée, the teacher and aspiring writer, is really a hit woman. And their friend, Rock, isn’t a post-graduate math student, but a boxer who can see numbers and use math to his advantage in the ring.

It’s the story of three friends whose lives of lies are about to come crashing down upon them. It’s a great three book series, with a bonus fourth book at the end.

You can read my review of “Ken Games” volume 1 to get you started, but once you start reading this one, you’ll breeze through all three. It’s a great starter book for new BD fans.

Next Issue

Chance returns for the next issue to finish off this storyline before the 300th issue extravaganza and the return of the blue-and-red costume.

Also: Venom is coming! Still. Click through to that review below:

Amazing Spider-Man #298 cover detail by Todd McFarlane

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