Posted - June 18 & 19, 2014 | July 13 to 18, 2014 | Updated : August 27, 2015

Marvel Knights Spider-Man 1

I love it when a comic references trends current at the time because the references sometimes brings up a delightful sort of nostalgia for the older reader and some historical trivia for the younger set. Marvel Knights Spider-Man started in 2004 and there's a reference to Legally Blonde 2. My favorite is this two panels were the proprietors of an Italian restaurant talk about dvds vs. vhs and compact discs vs. vinyl.

The more time passes the more references like this become period pieces. There are people arriving on the scene these days who don't know what a vhs looks like or what distinguishes a cd from a dvd.

Enough small talk. Artist Terry Dodson is in full swing as he treats us to a panel showing the Green Goblin.

It's Green Goblin vs. Spider-Man but instead of the usual bit where Spidey gets beaten up before taking the fight out of the Goblin, Millar and Dodson do something a little different. Spidey does get beaten up at first but they don't show that anymore, we immediately get to the part where the Goblin gets it handed to him. As in "Who's your Daddy!".

They've been fighting each other for so long the Goblin calls Spidey "Parker" and Spider-Man calls the Goblin "Mr. Osborn".

It gets better. Check out the part when Spider-Man is looking for "something heavy" to hit the Goblin with and a bystander helps him out.

And now for the smash!

What a great way to start Marvel Knights Spider-Man. That's the ideal way for this fight to end, but of course, it could have gone the other way.

It wouldn't be a Spider-Man comic without Peter's banter. Here's a sample:

I love the naughty "nuzzling into their wives" comment.

After the battle Peter looks really, really, bad and he limps on home to MJ and she's like this about the whole super-hero thing:

You know what that is? That's support. That is a partner supporting her mate. It's not a sexist thing, this could very well be the man supporting the woman - that works too. The reason I'm highlighting this panel is because, now that I have a bit of mileage under me, I realize that support between partners is a very rare thing. Singles take this for granted but outside of the short 'honeymoon period' this is a very rare thing. Heck, from were I'm standing this panel is high fantasy. I'll never get this support, but its still nice to see. Even in the comics.

We find the Parker family - May, MJ and Peter - in the middle of a move. Aunt May is moving out of the iconic house were the Spider-Man story started. I think its a bad idea but Aunt May has this to say:

I tend to be clingy about the roof over my head but Aunt May has a very "social" attitude that has me thinking - she has a point. Dodson treats us once again to a very nice panel - this time of Peter's room.

Looking at all the Spidey comics how many panels do you think they have of the Webslinger swinging around the New York skyline? Must be thousands by now. So we get something very rare here when Dodson shows Peter swinging around in street clothes. There are a number of panels. I like the first one:

And I like this second one showng the details of Peter's acrobatic move.

This issue is the first of four parts and it ends as expected: With a cliffhanger. Namely, Aunt May's new apartment - trashed.