"Featuring more stupidity and deaths at a wedding than even the most silly of telenovelas."
Series-Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1
Issue-#131
Cover Date-April 1974
Welcome to Comic Strike. The show where we look at comics and comic related material and see what's worth our time and not. Of course if the comic is not worth our time I've already wasted it by reading and reviewing it. Anyway, let's talk comics. Obviously, if I'm gonna make a show about them then I have to have an appreciation for them. In fact, it's more than that. Snark aside, comic books and superheroes are an important part of my life. They inspire me, make me feel good. Bring me so much happiness. And the character that represents that the most for me is Spider-Man. Spider-Man is the everyman of superheroes. No matter how much shit the writers throw his way, and there's a ton of it, he always remains the good-hearted guy he is, on the path for justice and great responsibility. And ruining his Aunt May's wedding. The 70s were a weird time in comics. We were still transitioning from the weirdness of the Silver Age to the new trends of the Bronze Age. This isn't the weirdest story by any means, but it's silly and stupid enough to be deserving of a covering. So let's dig into The Amazing Spider-Man #131 and tune in to the wedding of Doc Ock and Aunt May.
The cover is pretty good. You may argue it's a little crowded, but I love the style of these older comics, and it's very enticing. Making you curious about this whole story. Plus I think it's set up in a way that even though a lot is going on it doesn't feel overwhelming. Though I will admit that it's kinda weird how everyone else is reacting to Spidey's intrusion, but Aunt May is still making an unaware face. Her heart probably stopped or something knowing how frail she is.
We open up to the title of this comic. My Uncle...My Enemy. It starts with Peter, as Spidey, looking in through the window at Aunt May and Doc Ock's wedding. Yep, it's already going down. This is technically a two-parter that started last issue. Peter complains about how he had to leave Betty Brant's party for this. Betty Brant being one of Peter's many many many love interest.
A helpful little note from the editor tells us that this all happened Last-ish.
That sounds a little unsure Roy. Last-Ish. Maybe it was last issue maybe not.
Ok, I'll admit it took me wayyy to long to realize that Ish was an abbreviation of issue. I've just never seen that before. Is "issue" too long to write? Like, you're just removing 2 letters.
Anyway, the marriage is undergoing while Peter tries to think of a way to stop this. Fearing that if he just barges in there Doc's men will inevitably start shooting thus putting Aunt May in danger. Spider-Man's spider senses go off and Doc Ock's...um, octo senses also go off. Ok, the point is that they both sense that something is amiss. That something is the villain Hammerhead. Who bursts through the door wanting to kidnap Aunt May.
I doubt our good ol' Doc needs any introduction. Hammerhead might though. He first appeared in Issue #113, not that long ago to this comic. So there's not a whole lot of continuity we need to know about this guy. He is essentially a guy with a super hard head. He appears from time to time on TV and in the comics, but never often enough for me to ever want to find out more about him. But I did look up his origin, and apparently, some doctor that had just lost his license found him disfigured in an alley, and decided that it would be fun to put steel implants in his head. So...that happened. He can bash through pretty much anything with his head and even take a good thwacking up there. Even once being able to live through a bullet being shot in there. It still damaged him a lot, but he lived. So there's your backstory.
Spidey thinks now is a good time to burst through and, you know, be a hero. All the while he exposites and recaps the last ish.
Ewwwwwww.
That's right. Aunt May is only superficially attracted to those bionic tentacles.
Doc Ock and Aunt May leave the area to head outside. Aunt May wants to know why this is happening, and why Hammerhead is after them. Spider-Man stays behind a little longer and compliments Doc Ock, saying he's got the right idea about running away with Aunt May. Once he's outside with her though Spidey appears before him,
and then he promptly gets his ass kicked.
Man, you really suck at this huh?
Also, that brings up a question I've always had and I'm unsure if they ever brought it up in the comics. But, why is he called Doctor Octopus when he only has 4 robotic hands? 6 if you want to count the non-superpowered robot arms. The reason it's OCTOpus is because they have 8 arms, or tentacles I guess. So shouldn't he be Doctor Hexapus? Anyway, Spider-Man once again decides to stay back, our hero everyone. Just letting the two baddies duke it out themselves. I'm kidding a bit. They give an explanation that makes somewhat sense as Spidey decides that it might cause Aunt May's poor heart to go out seeing the "menace" Spider-Man fighting her future husband to be. See this was back in the time when Spidey was still considered to be New York Enemy #1. Not just by J. Jonah, but by...pretty much all of New York's law enforcement. Something you might be familiar with as some other adaptations follow this plotline. Most well known probably being the old 60's cartoon. Also another reference to Aunt May's fragile heart. With how much building up how poor her heart is, I'm surprised a gentle breeze hasn't set her off yet. Let alone a fucking super-human attempting to kidnap her at her own wedding.
Like I said Spidey says he'll play spectator. He sees Octo bragging about his genius as an underground helicopter emerges. Spidey has this to say.
Dig It: Old Ass Slang.
God this artwork is gorgeous. Also once again surprised Aunt Mahy isn't exploding on the inside out with this emerging out of the ground. Hammerhead does catch up and begins shooting at the heli, but there's a problem.
Then...why didn't you bring regular guns? I mean I doubt those would do much either, but...why would a bad guy only bring stun pellets?
They did set this up earlier as Hammerhead mentioned it when he busted in with his crew. I guess you could argue that Hammerhead didn't want to hurt Aunt May, but I don't know. I feel like you should've brought something else just in case.
Hammerhead says they'll get their own helicopter and chase Doc Ock. Spider-Man then starts rooting for Hammerhead.
For a hero, Spider-Man sure compliments the villains a lot huh? Spider-Man follows both helis by hanging onto Hammerhead's plane, realizing that this can't just be anything ordinary since Hammerhead is a lower class villain who wouldn't put so much into this operation unless this was something big. So Doc Ock wants to marry you're Aunt and you just now realize this isn't a normal Tuesday evening?
We then cut to Betty Brant's aforementioned party.
There J. Jonah Jameson is bragging about his successes. Normal stuff from the triple J man. You got to love the way everyone just walks away from him though.
Meet Betty Brant, Mary-Jane Watson, and some guy I don't know much about named Ned. They're talking about Peter. I guess I should mention this is before MJ and Peter were the power couple we know today. I don't know much about their relationship at this point in the story, but guessing from this comic it seems MJ does have a crush on Peter and is quite flirty. But she also isn't the most forward about it. Not directly admitting it herself, but I guess everyone knows about it. I'm not sure. I could be off base here. Either way, it kinda feels weird that they're already trying to hook Petey up with a new girl. Gwen Stacey only died 10 Issues ago. That's not even a year in real-time. Probably way less in comics time. But then again Peter has always had many love interests at any given time. In fact, he probably singlehandedly invented the harem genre.
MJ complains that Peter is giving her the cold shoulder. HIS GIRLFRIEND JUST DIED YOU BIMBO!
Ned though thinks Peter is doing just fine though for someone who's girl just died. Oh and apparently Gwen isn't actually going to die for another 90 issues.
Yeah yeah, I know it's supposed to be 121 since that's when the famous "The Night Gwen Stacey Died" story happened, but the font makes the fucking 1 and 2 look exactly the same. Good news Petey, Gwen's not actually dead. Now that I think about it a lot of storylines use that idea huh?
Either way, MJ leaves saying someone like Peter could be a damper on her career.
I guess she was a lot more of a stuck-up bitch in the 70s.
Betty defends this though and simply states that she's afraid of how she feels. Ned apparently doesn't agree to say MJ is too flighty and he doesn't want Peter getting hung up on her.
Joe Robertson intrudes and butts in on the conversation he wasn't included in. He has a thing or two to say about love.
Get it, he's floating on a helicopter. Like, his feet aren't on the ground....cause of the helicopter. Copter's fly. It's funny. Laugh.
Also, did the Kool-Aid Man interrupt the conversation as well?
I'm guessing he's confused cause he busted into the wrong room.
Also Also, is this party just so boring that they have nothing else to do, but discuss Peter and his ships. Well, actually considering how that previous panel with JJ went that actually makes a lot of sense.
So now we see Hammerhead following the Doc Ock heli to Canada. Hammerhead says he doesn't know what Aunt May has inherited, but it must be something good if Ock is going through all these hoops. Peter hears this through the power of...Spider-hearing?
Yeah, I know I didn't go into much detail about this comic's backstory, but you really don't need much. The comic explains it all. Pretty much Aunt May has inherited a big chunk of land. It apparently has one of the biggest supplies of Uranium on all of Earth. So of course Doc Ock just had to have it. In fact, apparently, this plan has been in motion for some time according to Peter and the editor.
Man, even the editor is really bored by this.
Also, they mention Doc Ock having a lawyer killed to keep this secret in Issue 120. So they've been building up to this for a bit. But yeah, Peter figures he doesn't know about the secret of the land yet and that's why in #130 he stole some documents so that he wouldn't need Doc.
Spidey continues to exposite before they get to that aforementioned uranium filled island. Hammerhead doesn't know about the uranium yet so he's pretty pissed.
The narrator goes into some detail about this island.
Pffft, I've been listening. It's obviously Type-Face they're talking about.
Anyway, we see Doc Ock unloading his ship.
You know, I figured Doc is putting on an act to woo Aunt May, but then he still does stuff like this, and I have to wonder why Aunt May doesn't find anything wrong with this picture.
One of his goons actually gets fed up with him and talks back.
This is probably going to go as well as the time someone talked back to Gordon Ramsay on Hell's Kitchen.
Hammerhead shows up and begins shooting at them from the sky. Spidey wants to get down from the copter, but the height would kill anyone, even someone like Spidey.
Why am I suddenly having flashbacks?
Plus using a parachute made of webbing would make him an easy target. Luckily Spidey will be able to get to the ground, because...
JESUS FUCKING CHRIST MAN!
Ok, that's pretty cool.
Hammerhead is not really the thinky type as you can probably tell.
Yeah, let's just trash this thousands of dollars worth of technology.
In the chaos following the crash Spidey swings in and grabs Aunt May.
Why did Peter just call Doc Ock cute? Even as a wisecrack that's not the word I would use.
Is Peter hitting on him? Is Peter going on this quest because he's jealous of Aunt May getting that ring?
I AM NOT CUTE!!!!!
Spider-Man: Super Diplomat.
Doc Ock is very offended by just even the slight idea that he may be childish.
Goes to show how sensitive is pride is.
You don't say?
This is literally the plot synopsis of every Spider-Man comic ever.
The fight continues. So much for growing up. Spidey does eventually get the upper hand and beats the snot out of the Doc in the coolest moment in this comic.
Unfortunately, Aunt May saw the whole thing and faints.
Spidey fears that Aunt May may actually be dead, you know due to that frail heart that rarely if ever gets brought up much.
She's fine though because we can't have Aunt May die on us. Especially so close to the two major character deaths that happened during issues 121-122. Marvel apparently got a lot of death threats over that story I just recently found out. Yeah, Marvel probably didn't want to kill another important character off so soon. Keep in mind this was before death was considered an extended vacation for comic characters.
Either way, Spidey swings off with Aunt May into a warehouse filled with goons.
"Spider-Man!"
"Wrong chuckles. I'm Spider-Man!"
"Yeah....that's what I said isn't it?"
After that bit of weird dialogue, we cut back to our good pal Otto as he begins to curse the web-slinger out.
He makes chase for Spidey, but luckily our friendly neighborhood hero finds a helicopter. Just laying around an abandoned nuclear plant. Even more fortunate...
Oh, not so smart for a science major now are you, Petey?
Even spidey is getting confused by all these new powers.
Doc Ock heads into the nuclear breeder of the power plant in chase of Spidey. In chase of Doc comes Hammerhead. Hammerhead is ready to ram Doc Ock down once and for all, which I shouldn't have to tell you is a very very bad idea.
But come on. This is Doc Ock. One of the most famous Spidey villains. Plus Green Goblin just died 9 issues ago like I said. They wouldn't really do something like kill...
HOLY SHIT ON A SHIT SANDWICH!
Yeah, he's dead. And Spidey has a joke prepared just for this occasion.
Which, just seems...off. I mean let's look at his reaction to Green Goblin's death.
It just seems weird for him to make a joke like this. I know the Doc was trying to kill his aunt probably to steal her inheritance, but the Goblin literally killed his girlfriend, and even then he had more nuance than this.
Aunt May does wake up.
Before promptly passing out again.
You can tell she's obviously worried about Otto. So how does Spidey clear this over with her? I...don't know. It doesn't happen in this issue, but I did read the next issue a bit, and well...
Yeah, that's it.
Hope you liked that resolution.
We then cut to the epilogue.
Really, most people are asleep now in New York, when New Years is approaching? And so the comic ends with Betty Brant asking MJ about Peter. She says she doesn't want to talk about it now, and she'll think about Peter tomorrow. Ending with a shot that makes MJ look like a villain.
At the end of the day, this comic isn't bad. It has some major problems, like just passing off the conclusion to the Aunt May stuff, Peter's reaction to Doc and Hammerhead's death, and just some other odd weridities here and there. Overall though it's fine. Not one of the greatest Spidey stories ever, even for its time, but it's fun enough. I even recommend it if you want something fun to just riff on. And like I said earlier the art is really good. But yeah. Not bad, just weird. Very very weird. I joked about Spidey not doing much, but it is interesting to see him rooting for the villains in this gang war of sorts. And his reasons for not taking much action at some points do make sense. Plus we still do get that classic Spidey goodness. It has some fun action scenes, and that part where Spidey is just wailing on Doc Ock does bring a smile to my face. So not bad at all. In fact, mostly leaning on the good side.
Next time we'll cover something that is hopefully awful. See you guys then.
And before we end...YES, obviously both Doc Ock and Hammerhead came back to life. When they say death is just an extended vacation they're not fucking around. Hell, this isn't even the only time the good doctor would die.
