Luke Caged! Spider-Man's Best Team-Ups 1973

I was so excited, the day in 1986 I found a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #123 in the back issue bin at Amazing World of Fantasy,
For the first of only three times, I attempt to barter with Gordon, the owner. I’d read advice recently then about asking if a shop owner wants to negotiate on back issues you want to collect, especially on older, slower-moving back issues.
“That’s part of the Death of Gwen Stacy storyline!’ protested Gordon, with a whip of his long brown hair. I couldn’t argue with that. I’d have to settle for paying the most I ever had for a comic book: $3.50, as I recall. Maybe $4.50. New issues are holding the line at seventy five cents, so this was a big move in my little hobby world.
I didn’t regret it, though.
I now had the oldest copy of Amazing Spider-Man, yet- from before I was even born!
Better, the art benefits from John Romita, I believe finishing Gil Kane’s pencils. Gerry Conway was settling fandom on its ear with that trilogy: the kidnapping and accidental death (or murder, if you think Gobby already killed her, what have you) of Gwen Stacy, Spider-Man’s grief and vengeance on the Green Goblin, and then, the villain’s accidental death. Now, we have lasting storyline consequences- Gerry Conway’s strength as Stan’s first permanent successor. (Permanent as things are in comics publishing..)

Who do they team up to fight?
Their inner demons, of course.
But first, each other. Which is most of the story!

From Gwen’s graveside into Jonah’s plot to use the Hero For Hire to bring in the wall-crawler, we get two angry heroes making each other mad, illustrated so great. Their flaring tempers and full-on combat – as the fight goes from a paid job to a bit of a grudge match, for Luke Cage-
offer Peter some kind of release.

Luke then uses the other hot spot lead for finding Spider-Man -he basically targets the neighborhood of the Bugle since JJJ hired him, and bursts in on the dance in Empire State University’s gym to challenge Spider-Man. It’s a bluff- he has no way of knowing Spider-Man’s so very close, as a glum Peter Parker. Works, though! This time, we see what makes Peter a hero as well as a human being, as he comes to realize what this fight means to him. Luke Cage invites him to talk, then- and while we don’t see what they say, it’s fascinating to imagine. One result, however, is Cage returning his retainer for the job in memorable fashion. That’s what he gets for taking a job on his off day, I reckon.

So! They don’t team-up to fight anyone, though they end up on the same basic idea of ol’ Skinflint.
The fact that they end up talking about what’s personally been eating them and give up a senseless fight wanted by someone willing to pay the bill (the comics company- imagine 22 pages of Cage tied up talking to Spidey)- that’s the team-up. They work together on their more realistic problems, with a chat I don’t imagine lasted too much longer than the 45 minutes to an hour it’d take for Spidey’s web to dissolve. That’s not what you think of as a usual superhero team-up, to say the least.

It’s got all it takes to be the best Spider-Man Team-Up story of 1973- another pick benefiting as part three of a trilogy, each a defining one at their point in the series (I mean, also, the #17-19 story arc where Spider-Man suffers humiliation while trying to be a better nephew to his ailing aunt, in 1964). The grim idea of the End of Spider-Man is one Pete would rethink, now that his career cost Gwen, life.