You can never go wrong with a Spider adventure! Moonstone has released SATAN'S MURDER MACHINES in a limited hardcover edition that includes some nice artwork (especially the stunning Mark Wheatley cover) and a short bonus manuscript style story.
This time around Wentworth is extremely busy dodging his friend Kirkpatrick and the police force when he is set up and has to go head to head with a gang of ROBOT BEASTS that are as vicious and formidable a sci-fi pulp pounding band of rogues as I can remember. These things fry people. They fling full cars. They smash buildings and Wentworth with his trusty fellows (and lovely Nita 'natch) has to stand tall at every page turn.
I loved it...this may actually be the best Spider story I've read for sheer pace and thrills.
"Slowly the right arm of the monster lifted...and Wentworth remembered that its forefinger could spurt lead and death!"
If you enjoy pulp action and want to enjoy some exclamation laden prose and tons of action, this is a great book for your Halloween nights-the robot suits make it. The book is surprisingly nasty, especially once The Spider figures a way to defeat the pilots of the suits. Anyone making a Spider movie and looking to go heavy retro should check it out.
Moonstone puts together a nice package as always, and while the cover price may seem a bit steep, it is nice to have a hardcover Spider book on the shelf and a good story at that. Interior art is a mix of pulp and new stuff, and I liked the look of the monsters as drawn by James Sherman a lot.
I definitely did not appreciate the dedication taking a swipe at the creators of Iron Man as if the character "Iron Man" in here was anything like the character of Marvel Comics Iron Man. If you paid for a hardcover Spider novel I would think you are the kind of buyer that respects writers and creators. It isn't necessary and seems like preaching to a choir that doesn't need the message. I'd take another page of original Spider art over this anytime.
The Spider is a classic character and Satan's Murder Machines will satisfy anyone that purchases it.
1 comment:
Read this in a different edition a few years ago. Page was definitely better at describing action evocatively than his hero-pulp peers, and this story made the Spider my favorite pulp hero. It really does beg to be filmed.
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