Spider-Man devises a way to have Doctor Octopus lose control of his arms. It succeeds, but in the process, Ock knocks over a chimney, which causes the death of Captain George Stacy!
POINTLESS TRIVIA
BEN: Villain appearance count:
- The Kingpin: 12
- Doctor Octopus: 12
- Green Goblin: 8
- The Vulture: 7
- Mysterio: 6
- The Lizard: 5
- Kraven the Hunter: 5
- Sandman: 4
- Electro: 3
- The Enforcers: 3
- The Rhino: 3
- Professor Smythe/Spider Slayer: 3
- Man Mountain Marko: 3
- Silvermane: 3
- The Chameleon: 3
- The Schemer/Richard Fisk: 3
- The Ringmaster: 2
- Scorpion: 2
- Molten Man: 2
- Shocker: 2
BEN: George gets a great death here, but I can’t say I ever cared all that much about the character.
DUY: He's kinda redundant with Robbie around.
BEN: To the point that they were often shown brainstorming together.
WHAT'S AGED THE BEST?
DUY: George dying ages well, I think, even if there's no build-up for it whatsoever. It's one of those things that raises the stakes, which I feel at this point in Spider-Man history was sorely needed.
DUY: I guess, I just hate his polygonal faces.
BEN: I wonder how busy Romita was as art director and if that’s why he kept leaving the book for small stretches, but he also didn’t want to leave permanently, leading to arguably the most bland run in the history of the series from #50-something to now.
DUY: Don't forget, as art director he also sometimes just flat-out redrew stuff.
BEN: I don’t think he was giving his full effort is what I’m thinking, leading to too many instances where Peter luckily finds the one person that can help him lots of times.
DUY: Oh, you mean in terms of actually telling a story. Yes, I agree, those last twenty issues before the Natasha issue felt pretty lazy to me.
BEN: Even the Stone Tablet Saga was overblown.
WHAT'S AGED THE WORST?
DUY: Come off the melodrama, Peter, George is not the "second best friend" you've ever had.
BEN: Who is?
DUY: Flash.
BEN: Also, he's dying, at least call him your best friend. Give him that much as he fades away.
NITPICKS
BEN: Are we to assume his tracers are much tinier in “real life” and not immediately noticeable?
DUY: It's not really a big deal or anything, but anyone who's been reading the book for a while could easily tell from the cover who dies. There's only one male supporting character with that hairstyle and that fashion sense, and if it weren't a supporting character then they wouldn't have hidden his face.
BEN: A message to all fictional moms and dads, please control your children near dangerous life-threatening situations.
DUY: Seriously, why is the child there?
BEN: He’s way too young to be outside on his own.
FAVORITE PANEL
FAVORITE PANEL
BEN: Mine:
DUY: Here is a weird example of an image going over two pages, but not taking up the entire spread. We don't see this often:
BEN: That's because it was a half-page ad spread below it, a weird thing they were doing in the 70s.
WHO WON THE COMIC?
DUY: Octavius exponentially raises his stock as Spider-Man's top villain, and he gets away. So Ock wins..
BEN: Because the arms being wildly out of control was much better?
SO WHEN DID GEORGE KNOW?
BEN: So with the Hobie dressed as Spider-Man plan having just happened three issues ago, how did George come back around to knowing Peter’s secret? Was it a shot in the dark as he was dying, or could he tell that Hobie was clearly a different person?
BEN: If you approach it as him already knowing, he would definitely notice every difference between Hobie and Peter in the Spider-Man costume; size, build and voice.
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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1 comment:
Great stuff.
Next is Gwen Stacy's flirtation with white supremacy...
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