Spider-Woman #12


 

Spider-Woman #12 "The Last Tale of the Brothers Grimm!" 

Writer: Mark Gruenwald
Penciler: Carmine Infantino

Plot: The secret and the objectives of the Brothers Grimm is revealed. 

Comments: Magnus is woken up by dolls who tell him that Jessica is in danger. He has to remind himself that dolls don't talk, because even for the Marvel Universe, that would be too weird. 


Except for opening in Magnus's bedroom and the vision Jessica has later, this story is set almost entirely at the theater. It's what TV shows would call a bottle episode where they make use of one set and a few actors to save money. Paty is given credit for "technical assistance." Usually, credited mononymously as "Paty", Paty Cockrum is X-Men artist Dave Cockrum's (1943-2006) widow and a talented artist in her own right. Her contributions here are unclear. 

Mrs. Doll recounts the origin of the Brothers Grimm. Her husband was Nathan Dolly (Mr. Doll) who was defeated by Iron Man in Tales of Suspense #48. Despite being a lame villain, Mr. Doll should be proud that he was the one who pushed Iron Man to get the red and gold armor. The flashbacks correspond with what Doll told Iron Man in that he got the totem he used and apparently the headgear from a witch doctor in Africa. Mr. Doll then got what would become the Brothers Grimm dolls from Django Maximoff, but accidentally transferred his spirit into both dolls and could not get back into his human body that expired on him. Maximoff had appeared, unidentified, in Avengers #166, #173 and #181, but it was his next appearance in #182 where he was confirmed to be the doll maker that Dolly interacted with. Avengers #182 was released a month after this issue and they both had Roger Stern as an editor. 






Threatening to harm Jessica, Mrs. Dolly (Madame Doll) and the Brothers Grimm (ostensibly her sons Jake and William) coerce Magnus into performing a spell that will transfer Nathan's spirit from the Grimm dolls into Jerry's body. Even though Jessica tells him not to go through with it, Magnus feels like he can't let any harm come to her. It was revealed in Avengers #187 that Magnus had once possessed the body of Jonathan Drew and may have retained some of his paternal protective feelings for Jessica. 


The Brothers Grimm put Spider-Woman under to start the spell and she hallucinates herself in "Red Riding Hood." 



The ritual starts and despite being shot in the arm by Madame Doll, Spider-Woman is able to swing over to Jerry's pentagram and pull him out of it before the spell can reach him. 



William and Jake, the Brothers Grimm, are revealed to be mannequins and not the sons of the Dollys. It turns out that Nathan was able to his divided spirit into life sized mannequins of the Brothers Grimm and they pretended to be the sons of the couple. Without Jerry to possess and unable to get back into pentagram, Nathan's spirit crosses over and Madame Doll goes insane having lost her husband and "sons" at the same time. Channeling Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Jessica shrugs off her bullet wound as just a flesh wound. 



In the letters column published in issue #16, reacting to this issue, I found out that frequent letter writer Ed Via had a character named after him in What If #19. Mark Gruenwald was the editor of that issue. 


An astute reader made the connection to Django Maximoff even before he was named and his connected to Dolly was revealed in Avengers #182. 









Comments

  1. frogoatAugust 1, 2023 at 7:38 PM

    There's something satisfying about all the little connections between characters and their history.

    ReplyDelete

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