Spider-Rama: Amazing Spider-Man #131

Welcome to Spider-Rama! Every Monday and Wednesday, 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 #131

Spider-Rama

by Gerry Conway, Ross Andru, Frank Giacoia, and D. Hunt

Dr. Octopus is marrying Aunt May because the world is terrible.

POINTLESS TRIVIA

 

BEN: Villain appearance count:

• Doctor Octopus: 17
• Green Goblin: 13
• The Kingpin: 12
• The Vulture: 9
• Kraven the Hunter: 8
• The Lizard: 7
• Mysterio: 6
• Professor Smythe/Spider Slayer: 6
• Hammerhead: 5
• Sandman: 4
• Electro: 3
• The Enforcers: 3
• The Rhino: 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
• The Beetle: 2
• Morbius: 2
• The Gibbon: 2
• The Man-Wolf: 2
• Jonas Harrow: 2
• The Kangaroo: 2
• The Jackal: 2

DUY: Hammerhead is moving up the list fast, passing Sandman even.

WHAT'S AGED THE BEST? 

BEN: All the relationship talk. Some of it was poorly written, but it still worked for me.

BEN: And setting up the Mary Jane relationship.

DUY: "I don't want to love him" is great, great character work. I think I'm remembering that I actually do love Mary Jane Watson.

BEN: You didn’t love “randomly appearing as Harry’s girlfriend” Mary Jane?

DUY: No. No I did not.

WHAT'S AGED THE WORST? 

BEN: Where to begin? There’s the continued utter cluelessness of Aunt May. The secret island/atomic plant inheritance. Doc Ock in a tux. I mean, why would Ock even care about acquiring this plant legally? May doesn’t even know it exists.

DUY: Every single panel with Aunt May in a wedding dress.

BEN: She looks like the human personification of death. Death by marriage.

NITPICKS

BEN: There’s no chance Spider-Man can hear them from the outside of a helicopter.

DUY: That's a low-key great panel though.

FAVORITE PANEL

BEN: Mine:

DUY: That's a great explosion. And not my gold standard for comic book explosions drawn in Amazing Spider-Man. Yes, there's such a thing. And we always talk about how awesome it is when Spidey kicks ass. But what about his villains? Ock is DANGEROUS.

BEN: You’ll fall at his tentacles.

WHO WON THE COMIC?

BEN: Mary Jane, because I feel like even if you were the biggest Gwen fan, they set up this switch to MJ as well as possible.

DUY: Yeah, this issue was easily owned by Mary Jane and her eight panels.

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