Pretty Poison

Working in the ESU science lab, Peter Parker and Steve Hopkins are interrupted when armed crooks break in. They steal a barrel of the chemical neo-atropine. Peter manages to tag their getaway vehicle with a spider-tracer however, cannot go after them right away because he gets caught up in the resulting police questioning when the authorities arrive.

Once he manages to get away and change into Spider-Man, the wall-crawler tracks the goons to the penthouse apartment of fashion designer Roderick Kingsley. Kingsley is attacked by the goons and their leader Madame Belladonna, who accuses Kingsley of stealing her fashion designs, blaming him for stealing her ideas. Spider-Man gets involved and prevents the robbery, however, Kingsley is less than enthusiastic that Spider-Man got involved.

Knowing that Belladonna would strike at Kingsley again, Peter uses his press connections at the Daily Globe to report at Kingsley's latest fashion show. There, true to form, Belladonna appears to terrorize the event, and Peter changes into Spider-Man to stop her. Although he foils Belladonna's plot to steal any of Kingsley's works, she manages to escape when she slips out of her overcoat and flips on the lights when Spider-Man tries to grab her, blinding him as a side effect of her belladonna gas.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Belladonna, Debra Whitman, Roderick Kingsley, Steve Hopkins, Sandy Jones

Continuity Notes

• Peter Parker makes a passing comment of reactivating his ulcer. He was first stricken with an ulcer in Amazing Spider-Man #113.

• Belladonna refers to Roderick Kingsley as a "Flaming Simp", a homophobic slur, it was used to imply that Roderick was gay. Later, in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #57, Peter sees Roderick out with a centerfold model and remarks that he never figured Kingsly for a "ladies man". At the time this story was published, openly gay characters were not featured in comics, as those were the sensibilities at the time of publication. Since Kingsley became the Hobgoblin all exploration of his sexuality have been ignored (not that it really matters one way or the other)