Check Out Those Ads! – The Deadly Foes of Spider-Man #1

DFoS1.Header

The Deadly Foes of Spider-Man is a four issue limited series focusing on the Sinister Syndicate, a lesser-known group of villains. The group of villains consisted of Beetle, the leader of the group, Boomerang, Hydro-Man, Rhino and Speed Demon.

The Sinister Syndicate was a low rent version of the Sinister Six, the real villains Spider-Man was out to stop. The Sinister Syndicate main objective wasn’t to kill Spider-Man, like the Sinister Six. They were mainly a mercenary group working the highest paying job.

The Deadly Foes of Spider-Man #1

Deadly Foes of Spider-Man Cover

In The Deadly Foes of Spider-Man #1 the Sinister Syndicate are robbing the Federal Reserve Bank and Spider-Man attempts to stop them. In the process Boomerang is captured and it’s the first crack in the Syndicate, which may be it’s ultimate undoing.

Through the four issues Spider-Man chases down the Syndicate only to find out the Kingpin is helping the group. Can Spider-man bring the members of the Sinister Syndicate to justice and stop the Kingpin?

I won’t spoil it for you, pick up the four issues and find out.

The Deadly Foes of Spider-Man ran from May 1991 to August 1991. It led to another limited series in 1993 called The Lethal Foes of Spider-Man.

The real question is…what ads are in this issue?

Let’s find out.

Operation C

Deadly Foes of Spider-Man Operation C

This is a great ad, it’s on the inside cover and is in brilliant glossy color. The alien eating the Game Boy, the great box art and a decent amount of screen shots, which look good.

Operation C is the sequel to Super Contra and the first Contra series game for the Game Boy. Unfortunately I didn’t own this game. But I played Contra and Super Contra until I ran out of quarters. They were among my favorites to play in the arcade and on the Nintendo.

Operation C was only released for the Game Boy. No arcade game or console version. If you didn’t get a chance to play Operation C you can watch a play-through. Or better yet, head over to the Arcade Spot and play Operation C yourself.

Score Baseball Cards

Deadly Foes of Spider-Man Score Mickey Mantle

The Mickey Mantle of Baseball Cards? Hmmmm, does that mean Score baseball cards get rip-roaring drunk and try to pick up women? All jokes aside I’d love to have one of the 2,500 personally autographed Mantle cards.

When it comes to baseball Mickey Mantle is a legend. He’s a 20-time All-Star, 7-time World Series champ, 4-time Home Run Leader, 3-time MVP and Gold Glove winner. He played his entire career with the New York Yankees. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974 and the Yankees retired his jersey number (7).

Mantle died of liver caner in 1995 at the age of 63, four years after this ad. These autographed cards could be the last thing he signed before getting sick. Looking online these cards are selling for over $300, not to bad. I still prefer Upper Deck.

G.I. Joe Video Game

Deadly Foes of Spider-Man Score GI Joe

I like this ad, Cobra Commander in the jungle trying to sneak around. And somehow this game snuck right by me. (Do you say snuck or sneaked?? moving on…) I don’t know if I couldn’t find it in the store or if I decided not to buy it, which is highly unlikely. What ever the reason I never owned it or played it.

According to the ad you can play as Duke, Captain Grid-Iron, Blizzard, Rock & Roll and everyone’s favorite Snake Eyes.

Since I missed this game thirty years ago I had to find it and try it out. Thankfully the Arcade Spot came to the rescue, visit the site and and play G.I. Joe and defeat the evil Cobra Commander.

Or if you just want to watch someone else play you can do that too.

It’s a fun game to play though. But do you expect anything less from G.I. Joe? Go Joe!

Mile High Comics

Deadly Foes of Spider-Man Mile High Comics

I’ve shown a few of the Mile High Comics ads before. They really don’t change over the years. My opinion of them doesn’t change either.

I never pass up a chance to deride them. Avoid them at all costs, they are a horrible company, so now you know. And knowing is half the battle!

Spider-Man 1-900 trivia game

Deadly Foes of Spider-Man Trivia Game

A 1-900 number to win prizes. All you need to do is answer Spider-Man trivia questions to win. There are some decent prizes to win; comics, trading cards, watches and more.

It’s a great way for Marvel to make easy money, $1.75 for the first minute and $0.95 for each additional minute. You need a touchtone phone to play. Remember when touchtone phones were new? I knew a lot of people with rotary phones, I hating trying to dial on those.

We weren’t allowed to call long distance when I grew up, if a 1-900 charge every showed up on the phone bill I wouldn’t live long enough to collect the prize.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cereal

Deadly Foes of Spider-Man TMNT

Pizza shaped cereal! Radical dude!

It’s a cool ad, mainly because I’m a sucker for the Turtles.

From the picture it looks like triangle shaped Chex with Lucky Charms marshmallows. I never had this cereal. The most sugary cereal we ever had in the house was Honey Nut Cheerios, or possibly Raisin Bran. Most of the time it was Corn Flakes and Shredded Wheat.

If you had this cereal let me know in the comments. I love hearing about others getting all the sugary goodness I missed out on.

Dungeons & Dragons

Deadly Foes of Spider-Man Dungeons & Dragons

Oh man, this ad is beautiful! Last time we saw an ad for Dungeons & Dragons that said ‘It’s Coming.’ Well guess what baby…It’s Here!

I can be a swordsman, warrior or wizard. Yes, please! I am a big fan of D&D, especially the TSR years. Even though D&D was forbidden in my house, I played it endlessly, but only at my friends house. Never once bringing any manuals, modules or dice into my house. I did sneak in character sheets, but those were easier to hide.

This is a great ad on the back of the comic in full glossy brilliance. The read dragon pops off the page with the powerful warrior about to hack away with his mighty battle axe.

If this doesn’t get your blood pumping to roll a character and start a dungeon crawl nothing will.

Well that ends the ads for The Deadly Foes of Spider-Man #1. While the Dungeons & Dragons ad is the easy winner for me there are some others that come in a close second. Operation C is well done, GI Joe is nicely understated and then there’s the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, need I say more?

Did you read The Deadly Foes of Spider-Man? Did you like it? What is your favorite ad in this issue. Let us know in the comments below.

Until then, keep your comics bagged and boarded…unless you want to thumb through them to check out the great ads!

Check out the previous installments of
Check Out Those Ads!

More From Geekster

About Pitfall Gary 176 Articles
Just your average Gen X'er. Born in the 70s and raised in the Decade of Decadence! I rode my bike without a helmet and was home when the street lights came on. I love to reminisce about the good ol' days; Movies, TV, music, if it happened in my childhood I'll share it with you.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply