Spider-Rama: Amazing Spider-Man #84

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 #84
Spider-Rama
by Stan Lee, John Romita Sr., John Buscema, and Jim Mooney

What is the connection between The Schemer, whose identity is unknown, and The Kingpin, whose son has gone missing?

POINTLESS TRIVIA

BEN: Villain appearance count:

• The Kingpin: 11
• Doctor Octopus: 9
• 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: 2
• The Ringmaster: 2
• Scorpion: 2
• Molten Man: 2
• Shocker: 2

DUY: Illustrators credited are John Romita, John Buscema, and Jim Mooney. I will say I for the most part can't tell which parts where drawn by which John, so I guess Mooney's inks tied it together.

BEN: That's a helluva lineup.

WHAT'S AGED THE BEST?

DUY: I'm going to say that Vanessa Fisk's look aged really well, in the sense that for a supporting, unmasked character, she has a really distinct look. You always know it's Vanessa Fisk.

WHAT'S AGED THE WORST?

BEN: Are you the Beer Baron?

DUY: Well, if you're talking about root beer, then I feel guil-diddly-ilty as char-diddly-arged.

BEN: He sounds drunk! Take him in! 

DUY: I will say that the Schemer's devices and scientific gadgets are a little way too advanced for a villain of his caliber. Low. That caliber is low.

BEN: First of all, being a superhero is cool, and second, it couldn’t be any worse than her thinking Peter is a flaky guy that doesn’t care. Not everyone is as fragile and dense as May!

DUY: Spider-Man has literally saved Gwen's life, so why would she even think it was a bad thing?

NITPICKS

DUY: I want you to read this entire scene and tell me where the table comes from. It's not there in panels prior to this, and it's not there after. Is it just completely offscreen and then Wilson goes over to it just to hit it?

BEN: He always has a table nearby for smashing.

FAVORITE PANEL

DUY: Look! They both have white streaks through their hair! Does it mean anything?!? She kind of recognizes him! What does it mean??

BEN: Could it be part of his secret???

WHO WON THE COMIC?

DUY: George Stacy. Spoiler warning for everyone: at some point, it will be revealed that George Stacy has figured out who Spider-Man is. It will not actually be revealed until a major retcon sometime in the mid-90s when he figured it out. Let's try to figure out if, at this point in time, Stan Lee and his artists have already decided that George Stacy knows.

BEN: The end of the last issue probably got him thinking about it.

DUY: Here's Gwen Stacy asking Peter Parker why he wasn't hurt in the previous issue's accident, and George quickly rushing to his defense. Does he know and is helping Peter cover up, or did he really buy into the story about the parking meter?

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

DUY: Thank you, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko—

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

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