Peter Parker's Options and Confrontations

“Confrontations!”

From page one, Peter’s life as “boy photographer” (over in Marvel Team-Up, where he encounters some Thinker-constructed androids) has been clashing with his threadbare academic career, so he’s rushing to confront the grade posting following his emergency test-taking after bringing Felicia Hardy to safety, in Peter Parker #76. So, with that really dramatic experience with Black Cat so recent, life’s hurling another beautiful woman at Peter Parker’s location- not even Spider-Sense will save him now! Amy Powell, after nearly a year of stories where she clearly thinks mysterious Peter Parker’s naturally playing hard to get, has gone from dictating their last call to pushing their date straight to his house, and grabs the first opportunity to introduce him to what kind of fun’s on the menu. So- what a scene to find, as MJ to unlocks Pete’s door!
But that’s where we end, as romantically-flavored support character stories have replaced the crime comic atmosphere. In fact, next issue’s going to hand the stage over to what action fans would consider “a downtime issue”! Not this one.
“Confrontations” is a surprisingly funny issue! There’s two mad thinkers of sorts, one out to use Peter Parker, the other, to examine and use Spider-Man. He’s pretty agile against the FF-class touch android-12, but back at the apartment, Peter Parker proves less adept at dodging attractive Amy Powell! She’s trying to drive him crazy, which is part of her latest scheme to protect her from a serious relationship with Lance Bannon. This and the Stilt-Man issue are Amazing Spider-Man stretching its action bounds to more comedic material than average. Unless, of course, you’re one of the people who found the Tarantula’s transformation into a giant spider somehow hilarious- I can see that camp! But here, Lance rolls up on Peter, Mad Thinker sets loose a robot to threaten his life out of sheer curiosity- what if the robot actually fried Spider-Man?

So, you have a sequel of sorts based on what J.M. DeMatteis did over in CAPTAIN AMERICA, which provided the androids based on literary figures hidden in the Thinker base Spider-Man encountered in New Hampshire, over in Marvel Team-Up #129-130 (which, itself, tied in Nostradamus, villain of a previous Marvel Team Up story by Bill Mantlo- like this one, it partners Spider-Man with Scarlet Witch and the Vision in a New England setting). This is quickly referenced by Pete’s thoughts and the footnote on the splash page.

For the Thinker to act on data gathered in his base in that recent story sets up the antagonist’s thread nicely! Motivation’s unique and suitable to the Thinker. The fact that someone correlated information that would predict a 93.5% chance of passing over the East Side during a given day might give Spider-Man pause! Especially someone who can build multi-purpose destructive robots who can give the Fantastic Four themselves a run for their money. I love how Spider-Man tries out different strategies and utilizes the knowledge to improvise an effect trap! He doesn’t know how effective throwing those smaller pieces of metal will be when he comes to realize he’s scrambling its radar approach. It’s a battle of wits, complemented by Spider-witticisms. He survives, his secret intact, but Thinker remains at large and secret. Too bad Spidey’s not got access to some files so he can figure out who builds robots like that...he might’ve correlated this work with the one cobbled together from similar parts, in New Hampshire.

Lance pulling up to have words with Peter Parker, for reasons Pete knows not, is the last moment you might half expect him to turn out to be the Hobgoblin. That bears a crazy dynamic, and I can see how for some, Peter’s career freelance rival would be a good counterpart as his arch. After all, he’s one character Roger’s allowed us a little room to despise on Peter’s behalf, though he’s just a guy making a living. While Lance and Pete are having a long-overdue drink, sussing out the sitch, Pete calls Amy to put a kibosh on her ploy.
Amy steamrolls Peter over the telephone, before nearly knocking him over with some over-done kisses beside a front door that opens at the key turn of Mary Jane Watson herself. That’s simply hilarious.

Aside from that comedic love triangle entanglement thanks to Amy Powell, you’ll see a very vulnerable Black Cat land right in the middle of his uncertainty about moving forward in academia. Taking him out again really makes practical sense for the series, because leveling up in college also undeniably ages him. Marvel Time is still allowing some continuous progress at this point, preserving that whole Marvel Universe story. Peter’s story at this point’s quite well preserved: everything in the past is still present and accounted for, while the stories don’t rely on picking up those old threads directly. Yet, the essential affectations by which one knows the Spider-Man story are honored.

The Mad Thinker is another one of those established Marvel villains, and I love how his plot centers around acquiring information, particularly about Roger’s favorite Spider-power, his warning sense. Spider-Man’s thoughts fighting the Android really tickle me! His “hands behind the head, relaxing” pose after flicking the Android off the wall feeds into the occasional Looney Tunes feel.

OH, and how neat is it that the Thinker can be checked into his prison cell to serve time, safely, while his mind continues using a puppet-like body in his lab to gather data and conduct experiments in mayhem? I love him, because he’s intensely curious about his enemies and not merely bent on death. Sitting like the writer himself in the room opposing Spider-Man through his invention, he activates the spider-sense over and over, with a ballistics analysis to give him some clue to the parameters of the mysterious method by which Spidey survives each attack. I like how the villains throughout this run are impressed by Spider-Man’s abilities- well, after Juggernaut’s sunken in a building foundation for near two years’ publishing time, they at least start being impressed after the fact- and Black Cat, earlier, was also quite impressed, on a very personal level! The villains are also pulling off their missions while not beating Spider-Man himself.

The battles are drawn so awesomely every time! I can only say do find these comics if you like Spider-Man- they’re essential! Modern, different, but somehow, preserving what has gone before and highlighting possibilities that have existed within the wider Marvel U, that ongoing collision with villains established elsewhere and a continuity of institutions. It’s not a highly-experimental way of writing Spider-Man: it’s poetically organized craftsmanship. It’s great Spider-Man for a person coming in fresh from some other media like cartoons, and I think it was pretty terrific for diehards who kept finding their way back each month, at least, every few years.

Amy working her charms, unsuccessfully, in the long process of targeting our favorite Boy Photog



Options!

Amy steamrolls Peter over the telephone, before nearly knocking him over with some over-done kisses beside a front door that opens at the key turn of Mary Jane Watson herself.
You know she is laughing to herself behind that smile: since when has Peter let his hair down like that? But knowing him as she does, she can see how awkward it all is and decides Pete just might be too much a player for her to just barge in in the future. But most of all, she’s laughing that he’s caught in that impression, and with a pretty hot woman, too! MJ’s not expecting anything with Peter.

But Lance, already asked by Peter to come by at 7:30 before she crashes his party at 8, has the corner on jealousy. He’s really more baffled than anything else! I imagine Amy’s reasonably surprised to see MJ let her self in: just who IS this mystery guy, to get caught up in the independence of two beautiful women? He describes her to incredulous Amy: “we were engaged, once. Sorta.” He’s just figured out Amy’s using him as a revenge-love-interest against Bugle rival Bannon, and now up walks the one woman he asked to marry him- the girl who turned him down.
Yet, Pete did nothing to cause any of this, really. Aside from leave MJ a working key. That’s kinda interesting. I’d say she’s been out of town around a year or so Marvel Time.
I think she’s glad he looks like he’s moved on!
It’s possibly the most realistic issue of Amazing yet. It’s Peter, often in costume, working on problems and taking aboard insights. In true Parker fashion, he gets happy...he crashes down to reality.

Picking a good villain is something this team’s got in spades. They’re even smart enough to swap in some terrorists holding a church hostage, to keep some variety in Spidey’s crime-fighting. I think it’s hard not to go with ‘super-villain’ because they’re colorful and kids inherently like them better overall. I actually rather imagine a modern Marvel wouldn’t take a chance of producing an issue without one. For one, it connects him with common folk, who cheer him on for a change.

Best touch: was it visiting Curt Connors (the Lizard) in his lab with the piece from the android last issue- and realizing a science career will confine him to a quieter life of knowledge? Or is it that moment Dean Sloan walks in, shocked Spider-Man’s hanging on Connors’ ceiling? Spider-Man sees the A grade on Parker’s exam- and kisses the Dean’s head!

All to set up a heavy, real life turning-point ending- not a genre cliffhanger, but a hard choice between dreams. There’s only room for one life- even that of the Amazing Spider-Man!