Sep 02, 2021
Well, this series is extremely hard to find on the internet. I mean, I literally can't find it anywhere, officially or not... I only bought 18 issues myself and found a few more scans in my native language... In Russia this series was very popular. And mostly because of cards. I mean, no one was interested in these comics, but every boy in that time collected these cards. And they were really cool. In Russia there also was info about character on every card, which is great and better, than it was originally!
Every comic has a story (and these stories are really connected), some info about the world (for example, about spiders, as it was in this issue), some quests for kids (like rebuses, find items tasks, crosswords and other). These qu
ests weren't bad at all, but mostly simple and boring, even for me, and I was around 9-10 in those years... Also there were drawing lessons (Spider-Man in this issue), which are great, I really loved them, they helped me to draw comics when I was a kid. Plus every issue contained character bio with a half-page original comic demonstrating their origin. This issue, for example, had Spider-Man's origin. And as well every issue had a half-page "fun" comic, but they never were fun... I mean... Is it fun, when Green Goblin's pumpkin turns out to be an ordinary real pumpkin? Not a bomb? And it squashes on Spidey's head? I think not. I also want to say, that these covers were made, using arts from other comics (even covers) and that's awful, really.
But what about the story itself? Well, it's stupid for the most part. It was created for kids, so there is a very simple narrative and cartoonish art. This issue introduces us a new universe, but there's no introduction at all. It starts with the spider-man vs green goblin battle and after a few pages we see sinister six: Doctor Octopus, Electro, Lizard, Mysterio, Sandman and, of course, Green Goblin himself. But there was a very quick fight, which was interrupted by Mysterio, messed with some goblin's new gun. It explodes and sinister five runs away. When Spidey wakes up, he sees injured Goblin. And now he must decide help him or not. And that's really all about this 7 pages story. It was bad. Rushed, simple, unentertaining and the cliffhanger is dumb. Very bad start.
So, the story is 4.0 maximum, maybe even worse, but all these additional materials make me to increase this rate up to 5.0.
If you want to look at this comic, then try to search it on com-x.life site, but if you want to read it - you need to learn russian... And the quality of scans is also bad, but still it's enough to get the idea of this series. I think, there must be also scans on other languages, but not in english.
Upd: I've found this issue on French, but only this issue. And this series was called Tower of Power instead of Heroes & Villains. And they got even ACTION FIGURES and real big tower... Like, cool! Also there were more info on cards...
For example, see this card:
Only art, logo and name on the front side - https://postimg.cc/rdR7vDS5
Stats, info and facts on the back side - https://postimg.cc/xc42hDwD
It's just awesome... Also look at this: https://postimg.cc/dLXbnRCJ
Like, real action figures... The tower seems wierd, but still, it's much better, than in UK or Russia. more
