Category Archives: Superheroes

Here’s the sixteenth and final part of Balladeer’s Blog’s look at Spider-Man 1970s Classics. For Part One click HERE.

SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #149 (October 1975)

Title: Even if I Live, I Die

Villain: The Jackal

NOTE: Of these two final installments of the lengthy Jackal/ Gwen Stacy saga, this first one wraps up the main storyline and the second one (below) provides a necessary epilogue to tuck away a major loose end.

Synopsis: We pick up right where we left off, on the rooftop where Spider-Man just defeated Tarantula, the Jackal’s latest cat’s paw against our hero. With the Gwen Stacy clone and the ear-plugged & blind-folded Ned Leeds nearby, Spider-Man is lapsing into unconsciousness from the slash he received on the back of his head from the drugged talons of the Jackal.

At last revealing why he has always been undetectable by Spider-Man’s spider sense, the villain removed his mask to reveal that he is really Professor Miles Warren, Peter Parker’s fatherly mentor and academic advisor for years at Empire State University. (Professor Warren had been a supporting character in Spider-Man stories since 1965.)

Peter finally succumbs to unconsciousness, and when he comes to, he is in the basement of an abandoned tenement building in lower Manhattan. He is bound to a table by specially-constructed straps and is alone with the Jackal, who is sitting on a nearby stool. Continue reading →

Here’s Part Fifteen of Spider-Man 1970s Classics. For Part One click HERE.

SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #147 (August 1975)

Title: The Tarantula is a Very Deadly Beast

Villains: The Jackal and the Tarantula

Synopsis: We pick up a few days after the end of our previous installment. Spider-Man swings his way to the Daily Bugle building, where he switches to Peter Parker and walks into the offices. After standard hostile byplay with J Jonah Jameson, Peter is called over to the desk of crime reporter Ned Leeds.

Ned is still investigating the Gwen Stacy clone and who might have made it. (Peter has not told anyone that he fears the Jackal made the clone since that villain has apparently figured out Spider-Man’s secret identity.)

Leeds gives Peter copies of the long line of medical tests that the new Gwen has undergone in the past few days. Somehow the cloning process was accelerated, meaning she was created mere months ago, even though she is an adult as much as the real Gwen was when she was killed.

Meanwhile, the enigmatic villain the Jackal strikes again, busting Spider-Man’s old foe the Tarantula out of prison to use him as his latest operative against our hero as his plans approach fruition. Continue reading →

Here’s Part Fourteen of Spider-Man 1970s Classics. For Part One click HERE.

SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #145 (June 1975)

Title: Gwen Stacy is Alive and Well?

Villains: The Jackal and the Scorpion

Synopsis: We pick up right where we left off in last issue’s cliffhanger: a woman who looks exactly like the late Gwen Stacy has shown up, causing Peter Parker’s Aunt May to have a heart attack and wind up in intensive care at the hospital.

Peter himself is in a state of shock, while the “new” Gwen, whose memories are months out of date, cries and pleads with him to help her understand what is going on. When Gwen tries to embrace him, Peter loses it, recoiling from her and screaming at her that she must be an impersonater.

He angrily tells her he’s not buying the con job and storms downstairs and out of his apartment building in Chelsea, telling Mary Jane’s Aunt Anna that this new Gwen has to be a fake. He says whoever’s behind it has a sick sense of humor and goes off to the hospital where Aunt May is.

Once out of sight of Anna Watson, he switches to Spider-Man and swings over to the hospital. Changing back into Peter Parker, he inquires about his aunt and then sits in the ICU waiting room to sweat out developments while his mind tries to deal with Aunt May possibly dying AND what may be up with this Gwen Stacy situation. Continue reading →

Here’s Part Twelve of Spider-Man 1970s Classics. For Part One click HERE.

MARVEL TEAM-UP Vol 1 #30 (February 1975)

Title: All That Glitters is Not Gold

Villain: Midas (NOT the same Midas as Iron Man’s foe)

Synopsis: This story picks up an unknown amount of time after the previous installment. Peter Parker is well settled in to his new apartment in Chelsea. When he sees his new neighbor, aspiring black model Gloria Grant (introduced last time around) being attacked by two men as she approaches the building, he takes action as Spider-Man.

After he subdues Gloria’s attackers, she pleads with him to carry them to her apartment rather than turning them over to the cops because one of them is her cousin, Ramon. (First appearance for Ramon, who, like Gloria, will be a supporting character in Spider-Man stories for decades to come.)

Our hero complies, and is glad that he did when Ramon abruptly comes to and attacks again, letting Spider-Man and Gloria see that he is under some kind of trance. Spidey webs him to the furniture and he slowly comes out of his trance.

He tells Spider-Man and Gloria that he and his friend (who helped him attack Gloria just now) were at a club called the Hot Spot Disco (lol) when they were dragged before a man in golden armor calling himself Midas. He used drugs on them and Ramon doesn’t remember anything after that until coming to just now. Continue reading →

Here’s Part Ten of Spider-Man 1970s Classics. For Part One click HERE. 

SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #138 (November 1974)

Title: Madness Means the Mindworm

Villain: Mindworm (First Appearance)

Synopsis: The morning after Harry Osborn was taken away by the authorities in the previous issue, Spider-Man sits, mask off, amid the wreckage of what had been his and Harry’s apartment. NOTE: The apartment was demolished by the bomb Harry set hoping to kill Peter a few issues back. 

He switches to Peter Parker before Mr Templeton, the landlord, enters for an inspection of the damage. He angrily mentions all the destruction to the floors above and below Peter’s apartment as well, tears up the lease and orders Peter to vacate the premises by the next day.  

The following morning, Peter gathers what few belongings he was able to salvage from the destruction and stops by the adjoining building’s rooftop to retrieve the spare Spider-Man costume, web fluid cartridges and web shooters that he tossed there days ago to prevent them being found in his apartment after the bomb went off. 

To Peter’s shock, they are all gone. Alarmed, he suspects that maybe Harry found them and made off with them during his brief period as the new Green Goblin. He adds replacing those stolen items to his list of things to do.

NOTE: Our hero is not yet aware that the Jackal, who had been keeping Peter and Harry’s apartment under video surveillance, saw Peter toss out the bundle of Spider-gear on the day of the explosion and has taken the items for his ongoing vendetta against Spider-Man.  

An hour later, at a pay phone, Peter has nearly exhausted all the names in his contact book but no one has room for another roommate at present. The only name left in the book is Flash Thompson, his old enemy since high school.

With nothing to lose he tries Flash anyway, only to be surprised that Flash heard about how Harry blew up their apartment and volunteers to let Peter stay with him until he finds a new place. Peter is pleasantly surprised. He hails a cab, loads his things and rides it to the Far Rockaway apartment building in which Flash Thompson lives.   Continue reading →