#sta2

Well, that about wraps it up for Strange Tales Annual #2!

A couple years back, I actually read the first 200 or so appearances of Spidey in order for shits and giggles (just for me - no blogs or anything), and I remember not liking this issue as much due to how goofy it was and how much Spidey and Torch fought each other.

Reading it again, however, it's actually really fun!

In Spidey's own comics, he's got pretty personal stories and we spend a lot of time with Peter moping or struggling with his own problems, so it's nice to hop into a story where he's in the costume the whole time and teaming up with other heroes in a bit of a swashbuckling adventure!

Maybe the years have softened my gaze for silly stories even more, but this was a really pleasant read!

I can't wait until the next time Spidey and Torch meet up so that can be best friends right off the bat and NOT fight each other for a dumb reason! Surely that wouldn't happen again, right?

...

...right?

After searching the city, a couple secret bases, and narrowing down their field to Central Park, our heroes discover... A MAN WITH AN ABNORMALLY LARGE TELESCOPE!

Unfortunately, nobody could've suspected he had ROCKET POWERED SKATES! If only one of our heroes was really quick on his fee-

WOAH, Spidey!! CHILL!

If it wasn't for this old granny being The Fox in disguise, this would be a really heartwarming scene for Peter.

Seeing him help an old lady by holding her bag is really sweet - especially when he says she shouldn't have to carry such a heavy bag.

Now THIS is what I like to see in my crossovers!

There's something really pleasant about seeing heroes we know and love come to terms with each other and work together in chill scenarios.

After somehow NOT killing everyone is a supernova blast, Torch visits the deputy police inspector to say that Spidey is innocent. After "long minutes" (which really just sounds like around 10 minutes or so), they somehow come to the conclusion that the guy from earlier "The Fox" was behind all of these crimes happening in the city.

Thank god this turns out to be right, because otherwise this is the most crackpot methodology in guessing someone responsible for crimes. There was barely any detective work done on these pages - just one guy saying someone was innocent and the other guy saying "oh well it must be this other guy."

It's kind of insane how determining who did the thievery of a Da Vinci painting is a toss up between a notorious criminal apparently known for blaming other people for his crimes or... Spider-Man.

According to the official NASA website, a cosmic blast (otherwise known as a nova) is what happens when there's a sudden, short-lived explosion from a compact star.

This explosion happens when a white dwarf circles close to a normal star and a stream of gas flows between them, piling up into a layer on the white dwarf's surface until it reaches a flash point and detonates in a runaway thermonuclear explosion.

This explosion released a piss ton of energy - specifically GAMMA RAYS - at a speed of SEVEN MILLION MILES PER HOUR!

For reference, the explosion releases as much energy as our own sun does over the course of 100,000 YEARS.

One of the hottest nova ever recorded was a large Magellanic Cloud nova named "LMC 1968-12a"

This nova expelled gas that reached 3 million degrees Celsius, or...

5.4 MILLION DEGREES FAHRENHEIT