Amazing Spider-Man in the 1970s

Jan 22

Jan 22 Amazing Spider-Man in the 1970s

In the 1970s, the Amazing Spider-Man still continued to be popular. Stan Lee continued is long standing run on the title, working with John Buscema on issues #80-82. In these tales Spider-Man faced off against the Chameleon, the laughable Kangaroo (co-created by Lee and John Romita, Sr.), and Electro. John Romita returned as penciler for the series for the start of a three part epic involving the Kingpin and his chief rival, the Schemer in Amazing Spider-Man #83-85. The arc ended with the revelation that the Kingpin’s rival was also is son, Richard, in disguise. Issue #86 featured the return of the Black Widow. It is notable for getting rid of the absurd mask and caped costume that she wore in the pages of the Avengers and replaced it with the skin tight black leather Emma Peele style outfit that has become one of her most iconic looks in comics ever since.

Issue #87 is notable in that it contains one of Stan Lee’s famous cop-out stories. In it, Spider-Man’s powers are fading (a common Lee era trope to make Spider-Man doubt himself without is powers) and reveals to the supporting cast that he as secretly been Spider-Man for years. Realizing that he was actually affected by a flu bug (yet another Stan Lee trope) and is powers are fine, Peter scrambles to undo the damage he has done with his secret identity. He pulls in a favor from Hobie Brown (aka the Prowler) to pose as Spider-Man to help convinced his friends that Peter’s admissions were the ravings of someone with a heavy fever. Everyone buys it because people in the 70s were apparently very gullible.

This whole time Lee had also building up not only the relationship between Peter and his girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, but the close relationship he was also forming with Gwen’s father, George. This would be poignant with the next three issue arc in Amazing Spider-Man #88-90 where a long running battle with Doctor Octopus ends with George being killed by falling debris while pushing a child out of harm’s way. Although this was the doing of Doctor Octopus, Spider-Man takes the blame further vilifying the wall-crawler in the public eye and convincing Peter that he can’t reveal his double-identity to Gwen for fear of losing her forever. It was in the middle of this epic that John Romita left as regular artist and Gil Kane took over.

Although Kane’s pencils were equal in quality to those of Romita, Lee’s story telling was starting to run dry as he began running out of ideas. Issues #91-92 featured a crooked politician named Sam Bullit trying to be elected under a crime and punishment platform using George Stacy’s death to his advantage and guest starred Iceman from the X-Men for no other reason than that the character wasn’t currently being used (since the X-Men book was on a reprint hiatus that would take it into Chris Claremont’s epic reboot in the late 70s) Romita returned for issue #93 for the return of the Prowler, who went after the wall-crawler as well until he too realized that Spider-Man was innocent of any wrong doing — I guess their goal was to have Spider-Man convince people he wasn’t a murderer one person at a time? It was during this point of the story that Gwen Stacy ran off to England.

This is an interesting plot point in that the original premise was that Gwen needed to get away from New York to mourn the loss of her father. Decades later in the early 2000s, J. Michael Strazynski would revisit this point of Spider-Man history in Amazing Spider-Man #509-514. It was then revealed that Gwen had a secret affair with Norman Osborn and part of the reason she ran away from Peter was to hide a secret pregnancy until she could give birth. This goes to tarnish the relatively virtuous Gwen Stacy in the eyes of long time fans, but it certainly adds a layer of explanation to a story that was originally written in the vein of “women are very emotional to the point of hysteria” as Stan Lee intended. Issue #94 was a weak story involving the Beetle which also served as a setting to retell Spider-Man’s origins. To be fair, it was a decade after the wall-crawler’s first appearance and Spider-Man’s origins weren’t totally cemented into the cultural zeitgeist and retold every few years by cartoons and movies like they have done in the last 30 years. The following issue had Peter go to England to try and track down Gwen. Discounting the fact that England is a huge country Peter chickens out after he changes into Spider-Man to take down some terrorists in fear that if Peter Parker showed up on Gwen’s doorstep, she might recall Peter and Spider-Man both being in England and put two-and-two together.

Gil Kane came back for the next three issue arc, which featured the return of the Green Goblin. It is notable because it included a sub-plot about Harry Osborn developing a drug addiction and having an overdose. At the time, the Comic Book Code Authority banned drug use in comics, even from stories that showed the negative impacts of drug addiction. When they ordered Stan to change the story, Lee refused, and published them anyway. At the time, everyone thought that a comic book published with a Comic Book Authority Code seal would be news stand Kryptonite, they were wrong. The issue, according to reports, flew off the shelves and highly regarded by critics. It also forced the CAC to change some of the strict rules they had implemented since the code was established in the 1950s. People say this was such a revolutionary story that it changed the fact of comics. It did, but I don’t think that the risks were as big as people play them out to be. When you take a look at other rating systems (the MPAA, PAL, and the ESRB), much like the CAC, they were implemented because “concerned parents” (read: lunatic Christian groups) thought these forms of entertainment were going to ruin their children, cried to the government, the government in turn told the industry to regulate themselves or be regulated by the government. In every one of those cases the industry (wisely) goes for self regulation. Those regulations start strong and when those crazy Christian groups go on to the next “evil” of the entertainment industry, they start to lax the rules. I think that, by the 1970s, Stan Lee had an inkling that people just didn’t give a shit about comic books anymore and that the perceived risks were an illusion, but I digress. For its time (despite not really knowing much about drugs) it still told an important story that hadn’t been seen in comics before.

By the time the story was over, the Green Goblin was put back in the “selective amnesia” pandoras box and Gwen Stacy returns to be happily reunited with Peter. Issue #100 had Peter struggling between his duty as Spider-Man and his love for Gwen Stacy. Realizing that she could never accept that he was Spider-Man (whom Gwen still blamed for the death of her father) Peter injects himself with a serum that he believes will strip him of his spider-powers. Instead, he wakes up and realizes that he now has six arms. This further complicated Peter’s life since he had to remain in costume because of the obvious connect-the-dots between a six armed Spider-Man and an six armed Peter Parker.

The following arc introduced us to Morbius the Living Vampire. Morbius was another sign that the CAC was lessening the restrictions on comic books as, prior to this, horror elements and monsters (such as vampires) were not allowed in comic books. Morbius was meeting the censors halfway since Morbius wasn’t really a vampire, just a guy mutated into a vampire-like creature, totally different things. This new arc also had Stan Lee pass the torch on to Roy Thomas, who would continue to write Spider-Man and take the title into new directions. By the end of issue #102, the status-quo was restored and Peter and Gwen Stacy were happily reunited. What followed was a really improbably two-part story where Peter is sent on assignment to cover an expedition into the Savage Land. It’s improbably because they allow Gwen to tag along for “eye candy” and it also features Spider-Man and Ka-Zar teaming up against Kraven the Hunter who just happened to find a massive alien creature called Gog and adopted its own. It’s interesting to note that Peter has no concerns about changing into Spider-Man here with Gwen Stacy on the trip with him than he did when he went off to find her in England a few issues before.

Stan Lee retook writing duties after this with a three part story involving the return of Spencer Smythe, inventor of the Spider-Slayer. With the return of Lee, John Romita also came back to the title. It suffers from a familiar Stan Lee trope: Spider-Man’s identity is exposed (this time by surveillance cameras) and comes up with some way to convince people that Peter Parker is not Spider-Man. In this story, Spider-Man fashions a Peter Parker mask, which is the same trope that was also used in Captain America #111 (that was written by Jim Stenranko, but Lee was editor on both titles, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Stan had something to do with the similar plots) After that issues #108 and 109 featured a story about Flash Thompson trying to make a life for himself after Vietnam that involved a woman he fell in love with named Sha Shan and a giant Asian bruiser. Since it was about the far east you can bet it involved Doctor Strange because Asians are magic. It’s notable in that the story is dated. Obviously references to Flash Thompson serving in Veitnam have been purged from modern day Spider-Man stories for more generic military service. Still, it made an attempt to try and do something with Flash now that the Vietnam War was over. It was a very, very sugar coated version about how Americans treated vets who came back from that war, instead of homelessness, physical and mental health issues, and drug addiction, apparently ‘Nam vets came back mopey guys who were trying to recapture their high school glory days. Marvel would do a better job when they later sent Flash to go and serve in Iraq in the 2000s, but we’ll get into that in a later primer.

If there was any proof that Stan Lee was running out of ideas for Spider-Man issue #110-111 cemented this with the creation of the Gibbon. The Gibbon does double duty as being both one of the worst Spider-Man foes but also being one of the most redundantly pointless mutants as well since he’s an animal themed character whose mutant power is having good agility (those kind of mutants are a dime a dozen over in the X-Men books)

Issue #112-115 had Gerry Conway take over as writer, penning a tale where Spider-Man avoided crimes and criminals (and, as expected, being heavily criticized by the public for it) to search for his missing Aunt May. This leads to the introduction of a new villain named Hammerhead, a mobster who has adopted a prohibition-era look and manner of speaking. If you squint, he kind of looks like Flattop from old Dick Tracy comic strips. Given that Conway always liked to borrow from past comic strips/books and had a boner for past decades, I wouldn’t be surprised if Flattop was an inspiration for Hammerhead. Anyway, this leads to a plot where Spider-Man discovers that his Aunt May is being romanced by Doctor Octopus. Apparently Peter’s elderly aunt can’t see that Doc Ock is actually a villain. It’s during this story arc where Peter realizes that his Aunt May does not set off his spider-sense (because he doesn’t consider her a threat). This leads to Peter getting hit over the head with a vase and then almost getting shot by his own Aunt. Thankfully, the easily startled senior citizen misses her shot after getting spooked by police sirens.

Any further motion on this plot is sidelined for the next three issues as Amazing Spider-Man #116-118 was a near reprint of the story featured in Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #1. The story was chopped up into a three part story, colorised and altered to fit current continuity. Which makes it a weird addition since in later Marvel Handbooks and Index address both versions of the stories. So, you know what, make up your own mind. Issues #119-120 feature a story about Spider-Man going to Canada because a lawyer up in Quebec is looking for his Aunt May. This leads to a battle with the Hulk and no real answers.

Gil Kane came back to draw issues #121-122, which is one of the most iconic Spider-Man stories of all time. It featured a double whammy with the deaths of both Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn, the original Green Goblin. The intent here was that, to the writers, the next logical step for the Peter Parker/Gwen Stacy romance was marriage but they thought that Peter was too young to get married and to have a wedding would alienate readers. So instead of doing something logical like having the characters break up or something practical, they killed Gwen off. This would start a recurring theme of writers becoming afraid of Peter Parker growing up too quickly and tossing some kind of tragedy in is way to knock him back to down the insecure teenager that people can only relate with. This is a maddening trend that would endure until the late 2010s, and hopefully with the introduction of Miles Morales to the Marvel Universe we can finally have a Peter Parker who can grow up, and stay grown up, but I digress… Again. Of course, the death of the Green Goblin wouldn’t last forever, but I’ll save that excedrin level headace for a later explanation.

Moving forward, the next story arc had Spider-Man outlawed even more (if that were even possible) leading to clashes with Luke Cage (the Hero for Hire in all of his silk shirt tiara wearing glory). This was followed with a two part story about John Jameson turning into a werewolf — oops, I mean a Man-Wolf — in issues #124-125. With issue #125, Gil Kane was succeeded by Ross Andru, one of the most generic Spider-Man artists of the time. This guy followed the Marvel style to a T. The following issue saw the demise of the Kangaroo, with the character being atomized in a nuclear reactor. A fittingly stupid end for a very stupid character. Issue #128-129 featured yet another Vulture. This time the Vulture was a scientist named Cliffton Shallot who took a potion that, for some unexplained and probably stupid reason, made him look like Adrian Tooms, the original Vulture.

Issue #129 then went on to introduce two new characters that would play important parts in future Spider-Man stories for decades to come. “The Punisher Strikes Twice” introduced the gun-toting vigilante called the Punisher as well as the costumed criminal who known as the Jackal. The following issue also introduced readers to the Spider-Mobile, a dune buggy that Spider-Man was commissioned to create as a promotional gimmick. I believe this bit of self-aware idiocity was to differentiate Spider-Man from someone like Batman who had bat themed vehicles. Naturally, the Spider-Mobile was quickly disposed of after a while. Still, one these plot threads all drew to Amazing Spider-Man #131 which tried to tie up all sorts of loose ends. See, Doctor Octopus was courting Aunt May in order to trick her into marrying him. Why? Because apparently she had inherited a fucking nuclear reactor in Canada. Doctor Octopus wanted to marry her to get access to the nuclear facility for his own ends. This ridiculously over-the-top story ends with the wedding being crashed by Spider-Man, the nuclear plant exploding, and Hammerhead seemingly being killed in the blast. Issues #132-133 was an attempt to flesh out the Molten Man some more, revealing that he was the step-brother of Liz Allan, who had been AWOL from Peter Parker’s life since they graduated high school waaay back in issue #28. It’s interesting to point out that issue #28 was a story which featured the Molten Man as the villain of the month and also had Liz Allan departing from Peter’s supporting cast.

By this point, Marvel had reduced annuals to reprints and were experimenting with a new “Giant-Sized” format. One of the first, Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1 featured a Spider-Man story where he fights both the Man-Wolf and Morbius. The issue was a hit, and instead of doing a second issue, the title was replaced by Giant-Size Spider-Man, which complimented Amazing Spider-Man much like the Annuals used to. Each issue of Giant-Size Spider-Man saw Spider-Man teaming up or fighting some unlikely characters. The first featured Dracula, who was appearing in the pages of Marvel Comics around the time since the CAC lifted the restrictions on vampires and the like since stories — such as Bram Storker’s Dracula — were now considered classic literature and therefore fair game for use in comic books (especially since most of these stories were in the public domain now) The second issue teamed up Spider-Man with the Master of Kung Fu against Fu Manchu, and issue #3 was a time travel story were Spider-Man meets the pulp novel hero known as Doc Savage. At the time Marvel was taking on licenses to popular literature to churn out into comics. This is of interest to note due to the fact that once the licenses to Fu Manchu and Doc Savage ran out these two issues of Giant-Size Spider-Man ended up lost in rights limbo. However, in recent years digital editions of these stories have appeared on Marvel Unlimited and digital reprints that are for sale at places like Comixolgoy. In the case of Fu Manchu, I think Marvel made a deal with Rohmer estate to reprint these stories, I’m sure some kind of deal was done with Doc Savage. Anyway, those long lost stories are available on digital, so you know, read them.

Anyway, back in the main title, the ramifications of the deaths of both Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn (whose double-identity was covered up by is son Harry) was slowly coming to a boiling point. Issues #134-135 introduced the Tarantula, South America’s answer to Captain America, who just also happened to be a bad guy due to politics. By issue #136-137 Harry had figured out that his roommate was really Spider-Man and becomes the new Green Goblin. After his defeat, Harry is sent off to the nut hatch where nobody believes that he knows who Spider-Man really is. After a clash with the mutant known as the Mindworm in issue #138, the Jackal returned to sick the ridiculously garbed Grizzly (a disgraced professional wrestler) against Spider-Man in the next two issues. The next two issues had Spider-Man going to France to clash with Cyclone only to return home and discover that Gwen Stacy was apparently still alive.

That wasn’t the case of course, between this and Aunt May’s recent spate of poor health, the wall crawler fought the Tarantula (again), the Scorpion, and of course the Jackal continues to operate against the wall-crawler. It was later revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #149 that this new Gwen Stacy was actually a clone of the original. The Jackal (actually Peter and Gwen’s former science teacher Miles Warren) was responsible because he blamed Spider-Man for her death. The climax to this story ends with Spider-Man fighting a clone of himself in a battle that leads to the apparent deaths of both the Jackal and the Spider-Clone. It was later revealed that this was not the case, but again that’s a headache for another time. With the original clone saga done, the Gwen Stacy clone was shipped off to start a new life on her own and after a brief identity crisis issue in Amazing Spider-Man #150 (by Archie Goodwin and Gil Kane), Peter disposes of the body of his Spider-Clone. It seemed like this was a plot line that was going to be forgotten, but it would rear its ugly head from time to time (particularly in the 90s, but again, that’s a headache for another time)

Len Wein took over as writer and Ross Andru continued providing pencils. The worked on some unremarkable stories pitting Spider-Man against the Shocker, Sandman, and a sentient crime computer. Issue #156 however is notable because it is the story that brought the long awaited wedding between Betty Brant and Ned Leeds. Throughout this run there was a b-plot about a strange homeless man who appeared to be haunted. This turned out to be none other than Doctor Octopus who was being haunted by the apparent ghost of Hammerhead. issues #157-159 featured an arc where Doctor Octopus regains his marbles and Hammerhead (who was actually trapped between dimensions due to the explosion he was caught in) was freed. Following this, Marvel published the first Amazing Spider-Man Annual with new material in years. Amazing Spider-Man Annual #10, written by Bill Mantlo, introduced the Human Fly. Mantlo figured what other insect themed villain would be fitting for a spider-themed hero other than a spider’s natural food source.

Back on the main book, Len Wein decided to bring back the Spider-Mobile, this time having the Tinkerer — a long forgotten Spider-Foe — use it against the wall-crawler. Issues #161-162 had Spider-Man teaming up with Nightcrawler of the X-Men and the Punisher against an assassin called Jigsaw. Jigsaw, of course, would go on to become a regular Punisher foe in later decades. Issues #163-164 had the Kingpin go after Spider-Man again, this time to revive his son Richard who was in a near death coma following a clash with Daredevil over in his own book. It ended with the apparent demise of the Kingpin himself, but of course, like most villains death didn’t stick for New York’s most notorious fictional crime boss. Issues #165-166 made the obvious choice of pairing up the Lizard with Stegron the Dinosaur Man, a villain introduced in Marvel Team-Up. During this period of time, J. Jonah Jameson started romancing a scientist named Marla Madison and in issue #167, the pair created their own Spider-Slayer to go after Spider-Man. It’s the most ridiculous of the Spider-Slayers, but it was also paired up with a bad villain called Will O’ The Wisp, so it’s kind of hard to decide which Len Wein creation was worse. Also during this period, Harry Osborn returned with no apparent memory of Peter Parker’s double identity. What’s more important is he was regularly seeing a psycologist named Bart Hamilton, this will be important later.

Issue #169 was the first time the clone saga would come back to bite Peter in the ass when someone mails J. Jonah Jameson some damaging photos showing Spider-Man disposing of the body of Peter Parker. This leads Jameson to believe that Spider-Man killed Parker and took his place in order to hide in plain sight. Although Peter convinces Jameson that the photo is a hoax using some vacation photos to convince Jonah that photo was a clever double exposure gag. After a clash with Dr. Faustus and a team-up with Nova (a new hero created by Len Wein), Spider-Man faced a new foe which is another dud created by Len Wein, the skateboard powered villain calling himself the Rocket Racer in issue #172 and another “battle to the death” with the Molten Man in the following issue. Issue #174-175 featured Spider-Man and the Punisher working together to stop the assassin called the Hitman, a man from the Punisher’s past. It ends with the Punisher allowing the Hitman to drop to his death atop the Statue of Liberty. Issue #176-180 was another multipage epic which had Spider-Man juggling between Aunt May’s ill health (AGAIN!) as well as stopping a gang war between Silvermane (who was not a baby anymore) and the Green Goblin. Although Spider-Man at first thinks this is his old friend Harry Osborn, issue #180 reveals a twist you could see coming a mile away. Bart Hamilton, Harry’s shrink, was actually the Goblin and was also responsible for mailing Jameson that damning Spider-Clone photo. But it’s okay, because Hamilton dies at the end, taking Spider-Man’s secret with him to the grave, so that cleans itself up nicely.

Issue #181 was a recap story, covering Spider-Man’s career to date. So dense was Spider-Man’s history at this time (HA!) it required three writers with Len Wein, Bill Mantlo and Archie Goodwin all having a hand at rehashing 16 years of Spider-Man history. Marv Wolfman picked up from there telling a story everyone wanted — apparently — having Spider-Man fight the Rocket Racer and later helping him against a somehow even more absurd villain called Big-Wheel during Amazing Spider-Man #182-183. The following story introduced the Chinese themed villain called the White Dragon. That plot was quickly wrapped up in issue #185 so they could devote the other half of the issue to Peter Parker’s university graduation, only to discover that he missed a credit. Oh, did you miss all of Peter’s university campus antics? That’s because they were mostly being covered in the spin-off series Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man.

Anyway, Wolfman must have gotten sick of Spider-Man constantly being feared and hated by the public and continually being dogged by the law for the deaths of Gwen and George Stacy as well as Norman Osborn. I don’t blame him. This was all but played out (not that it would stop writers from making Spider-Man an outlaw again as part of some tired status quo). Keith Pollard drew that one. In issue #186, as fighting the Chameleon (who had one of the most embarrassing costumes of his career) was cleared of all wrong doing and was actually being hailed as a hero by the TV news. The following issues were uninspiring, battling Electro (drawned by Jim Starlin), and Jigsaw (drawn again by Pollard). Issues #189-190 featured the return of the Man-Wolf, other than delving into the lives of J. Jonah Jameson and his son John, some much needed exposition, it doesn’t really do much here. I will say that these two issues were pencilled by John Byrne, whose work is always phenomenal. By issue #191, Keith Pollard was back on regular art duty. He and Marv Wolfman would do a two part story that featured the return of Spencer Smythe. Smythe, dying of cancer due to constant exposure to radiactive isotopes (never a good idea), goes after both Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson, both of whom he blamed for his current condition. Other than the death of Spencer Smythe the story also had J. Jonah Jameson fires Peter Parker from the Daily Bugle, the firing doesn’t stick for very long, but as Peter start working for the Daily Globe, a rival newspaper, in the interm.

In issue #194-195, Wolfman and Pollard created another character who would later become another huge part of the world of Spider-Man, the Black Cat. Introduced as a cat burglar, the Black Cat wanted to break her father out of prison so she could spend some time with him before he died. After this, the Black Cat seemingly perished, but the character wouldn’t stay gone for long. Also during this period we discover that Betty Brants marriage to Ned Leeds is far from perfect forcing Peter to act like a jerk so Betty will stop running from her problems and try to work on her marriage.with Ned. This doesn’t work out so well as we’ll see in the 80s, but that’s another nightmare headache for later also. As the decade comes to a close, issues #196-199 were setting up for an epic rematch between Spider-Man and the burglar who shot his Uncle Ben way back in Amazing Fantasy #15.

To call the scheme convoluted is an understatement. Throughout Wolfman’s run they set Aunt May in a retirement home that is secretly run by Mysterio. The burglar, released from prison, returns and begins looking for what brought him to the Parker home all those years ago: the hidden stash of money hidden by mobster Dutch Malone. Finding no trace of the cash, the burglar tracks May Parker down to try and get the secret out of her, ending up working the owner of the retirement home, unaware that this is really Mysterio (see, I told you this was complicated). However, this came at a period of time where Peter wasn’t neglecting his aunt and was making regular visits to the retirement home so the pair fake her death. Suspicious over the sudden death of his aunt, Peter (obviously) investigates as Spider-Man leading to a clash with Mysterio and that’s where things leave off, with this story (and the 200th issue of Amazing Spider-Man) concluding in January 1980.