Spider-Rama: Amazing Spider-Man #81

Welcome to Spider-Rama! Every day until the end of April, Ben and Duy will look at a Spider-Man issue from the very beginning, in chronological order, and answer questions for various categories, inspired in large part by one of our favorite podcasts, The Rewatchables by The Ringer. Our goal is to make it to Amazing Spider-Man #200. Will we make it? Grab your Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus or crank up your tablet to Marvel Unlimited, and then tune in every Wednesday to find out!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #81
Spider-Rama
by Stan Lee, John Buscema, and Jim Mooney

It's the coming of Spider-Man's greatest foe, the Kangaroo. Sigh...

POINTLESS TRIVIA

BEN: There’s arguably no more pointless bit of trivia than the first appearance of The Kangaroo.

WHAT'S AGED THE BEST?

BEN: A vial of deadly bacteria is a concept way ahead of its time.

DUY: Congratulations, you found the one thing that aged well.

BEN: If a terror upon modern society could be said to have aged well.

WHAT'S AGED THE WORST?

BEN: Uh, you are specifically the one to blame.

DUY:  This issue is soooooooooo stupid. It's soooooooooo sooooooo stupid. The Kangaroo is stupid. His origin is stupid. He's not even presented as a comedy villain or an absurd villain; he's treated purely seriously, like they want him to be the next Vulture or something. And I know the entire concept of Spider-Man is that being Spidey ruins his life as Peter Parker. But this whole thing with Aunt May being the frailest, most overprotective woman on the face of the planet is just the most contrived plotline they've come up with so far.

BEN: Aunt May returns and immediately becomes a drag. How frail do you have to be to faint at the sight of a web dummy? How did she ever survive this long in life?

DUY: A part of me wants to say she should just know his secret.  I suppose all my favorite versions of May know his secret, but I also on principle prefer as few people knowing his secret as possible.

BEN: It's good in contrast to her classic depiction, but I don’t think it’s sustainable.

NITPICKS

BEN: I’m not sure you can get Kangaroo powers just by hanging out with them.

DUY: Tarzan basically became an ape just by hanging out with them. Okay, fine, not the same thing. Whatever. So the Kangaroo is a mutant, right? He's just not classified as one? But how else can you explain it?

BEN: He's not cool enough to be a mutant.

DUY: There's a mutant named Toad.

BEN: Objection!

FAVORITE PANEL

BEN: Mine:

DUY: Two pages in and I instantly knew what mine was:

BEN: You can't pick Jonah for everything.

DUY: I may as well for this one.

WHO WON THE COMIC?

DUY: Jameson by default, or me for even reading this.

BEN: Stop congratulating yourself. I pick myself, for finishing this.

DUY: That's it for Spider-Rama this week.

BEN: Thank you, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko—

DUY: —for telling us we aren't the only ones.

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