Only for serious action-fiends.
Peter Parker and his wife Mary Jane had been discussing having a baby. Mary Jane is uneasy with it due to her acting career about to take off, plus the strong possibility of the baby being born a mutant or something much worse because of Peter's radioactive blood. He searches for a professional opinion from the Beast. -summary
During the early 90's Eric Larsen enjoyed a short run on the non-titled Spider-Man series. This took place some time before he left to co-found Image comics and focus on his own creation Savage Dragon. In 1991 he followed up David Michelinie's The Amazing Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six with his sequel Revenge of the Sinister Six. Despite the group being around since 1964, and consisting of six notorious Spider-Man A-list villains, the group only clashed with the Wall-Crawler by then three times counting this story. I understood the re-gathering of this group was a good thing for Spider-Man lore, but I never understood the fascination with this story. I understood even less what got it reprinted three times. Revenge of the Sinister Six embodies all those things that gives the 90's a very bad rep, most notably style over substance and not that great of style either. This TPB collects Spider-Man issues 15, & 18 - 23. I believe issues 16 & 17 were omitted due to not being written by Larsen. However, 16 which was a X-Force crossover can be found in X-Force: A Force to be Reckoned, and issue 17 was added to the Infinity Gauntlet Omnibus.
This is a pretty bad story, and as a fan of Spider-Man and these villains I have to say they deserved much better than this even by 90's standards. The first story follows Spider-Man as he seeks out Beast to speak about the child birth situation. The only thing interesting about this first story is their discussion as Beast pretty much shatters all of his motivation to being a father ever. It was hilarious in a dark comedic way, yet so sad because Spider-Man didn't ask for his powers or the drama that comes with it. Unfortunately the action portion of it is so boring, and all it did was leave Beast looking terrible by constantly being leveled by no name villains.
The real story picks up when Dr. Octopus is able to obtain adamantium arms which is the same metal that makes up Wolverine's bones. He then seeks out the remaining members of the Sinister Six for his plan of world domination: the line up consists of Electro, Hobgoblin, Vulture, Mysterio, and Sandman. The group have a bone to pick with Octopus for a past betrayal, but everyone except for Sandman comes to terms. From here they go on to battle Spider-Man, Hulk, and several other superheroes whom needed a buzz at this time making token appearances.
There are several problems with this book. Everything outside of the Sinister Six delivering beat downs is boring. The sub plots and Spider-Man preparing to leap into battle only to be trashed again is badly written. The build up is awful and the story itself isn't believable even for a comic. We're suppose to believe that the Sinister Six are suppose to take over the world just by getting guns from a different dimension, and using satellites that they plan to steal from the terrorist group Hydra. The story is difficult to buy into because if it was this easy to do it Hydra would have already done it; and I'm not exaggerating about these meaningless character appearances. Nova from the New Warriors checks in early in the event, he disappears for a mission, then shows up at the end when things look bad. One of Marvel's worse creations of the 90's by the name of Sleepwalker appears for a few panels only to disappear based on how his powers work, with a foot note stating to pick up his book. You get nothing cool with this character and Marvel wanted you to grab his title back then.... Unreal.
There are a few key elements that keep this from the realm of complete garbage; for one thing the Sinister Six came off as a really tough unit that can give almost any hero or group big trouble. Also this is the story that I think made Dr. Octopus into a serious threat, because after this it seemed like Spider-Man couldn't beat him anymore, and finally, this is when comic fans began to doubt the Hulk's dominance in the Marvel Universe. All that talk you heard about Juggernaut taking Hulk's place as the strongest began here and not in the video games.
Eric Larsen's artwork gets too much praise here. I'll give him credit for some of his character designs. I always thought Octopus looked cool dealing out punishment in a suit. I believe this is where his cockiness really began. The few females here look good yet they appear to be of the same design. The Sinister Six do look awesome with their guns, and Electro stands out the most here with a multi-mounted blaster that increases his powers. The action panels can be bone crushing cool at times with Ock smashing his enemies around. Besides there being moments when the action panels can feel cluttered; there are times the backgrounds are non existent. There's one occasion Peter and Mary Jane are arguing, and it's taking place in a pure white setting. There's nothing around at all despite them being in their house. It feels so lazy like Larsen didn't care and there are many moments like this.
Overall the story is very weak with some things happening only for plot progress. There's a small amount of entertainment value through the action and that's all, but if you want a Spider-Man event that does have plenty of action and better stories then try these instead: Return of the Burglar, Spider-Man vs. Silver Sable, Vengeance of Venom, Round Robin The Sidekick's Revenge, and Invasion of the Spider-Slayers.
Pros:Lots of action and plenty of characters, artwork delivers the action
Cons:Overall, poor storytelling does it in