Nick Peron

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Amazing Spider-Man #151

Nick Peron

Skirmish Beneath the Streets!

Credits

Convinced that he's really Peter Parker, Spider-Man takes the supposed corpse of his clone, and dumps it down a smokestack. He pauses in this task briefly because his spider-sense goes off, however, he dismisses it as just a false alarm, before leaving. The next day, Peter attends his classes at ESU, where he, Mary Jane, and Flash Thompson are pleasantly surprised that Harry Osborn is back and cured of the insanity that made him think he was the Green Goblin.

That night, everyone is invited to the engagement party of Betty Brant and Ned Leeds, which is being hosted by J. Jonah Jameson. Jameson worries over the guests, while Mary Jane and Harry reconcile their failed relationship and agree to just be friends. Suddenly the lights go out, prompting Peter to go outside on the patio to check it out. When he sees that a police helicopter is equally interested in the sudden and very localized blackout, he hitches a ride on the helicopter and changes into Spider-Man. When the Helicopter gets high enough, Spider-Man sees that the electricity of specific blocks of buildings are having their power cut, so that the darkened building spell out the name "Shocker."

Realizing it's his old foe, Spider-Man determines the only way that the Shocker could pull off this stunt would be cutting off the electrical connections in the sewers. Diving down and crawling down a storm drain, Spider-Man, sure enough, finds his foe blasting an electrical panel with his vibrational gauntlets.

There the two fight, and although Spider-Man has the advantage, his web-fluid soon runs out, allowing the Shocker to make an escape back to the surface. When Spider-Man tries to go after his foe, the Shocker uses his vibro-shockers to cause a collapse in the sewer tunnel. When Spider-Man revives, he finds himself trapped in there with the water quickly rising, threatening to drown him.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Shocker, J. Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant, Ned Leeds, Joe Robertson, Mary Jane Watson, Harry Osborn, Flash Thompson, Spider-Clone (“corpse”)

Continuity Notes

  • Spider-Man's assumption that his clone is dead is incorrect. The clone survives and resurfaces later in Web of Spider-Man #114.

  • Spider-Man detects someone might be spying on him is valid. The identity of this person is revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #180.

  • Mary Jane's joke about Jameson replacing Robert Redford in his next film should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.