We are back to 1974. Back to Gerry Conway, Ross Andru, Frank Giacoia & Dave Hunt, back to the ongoing mystery of The Jackal, and just in time to meet… The Grizzly. Not too terribly long since The Gibbon debuted, and now it’s yet another weirdo in a fursuit. Let’s make pact not to sneak a peak at that last page. Spider-Man swings through the city, as he is wont to do…
Conway’s Peter is a weird, weird guy. He’s on his way to check out a little apartment Liz found for him in Chelsea. If you know your Spider-Man, you know how this will go. Liz is waiting for him outside when he switches clothes and walks up. A cantankerous old lady shows them around…
This place is $110 a month! Can you even imagine what it would cost today? Man oh man. Pete says he’ll take it, and now he’s in the apartment he’ll occupy for the next 13 years of comics. Once he’s done with the paperwork, he swings over to the Daily Bugle, where he’s apparently decided to work again. One of those plots that didn’t go anywhere. We similarly seem to have dropped the idea that Flash suspects Peter is Spider-Man. Betty Brant asks if he’s seen MJ since they got blown up, and he tells her she’s been staying with her Aunt while she recuperates. Which is also where Aunt May’s been staying, so it’s pretty crowded over there. Pete & Joe Robertson are having a nice chat when…
The auspicious first appearance of a man wearing a rug to do crime. Not exactly one of the classics. And what a confusing start! “I’m back!” “He’s not actually back, he’s new, don’t worry.” The Grizzly gets to work smashing the place up. Everyone escapes the City Room except Robbie, Peter & Betty. Robbie tells Pete to run for help while he stays to defend Betty. Writers have sometimes intimated that Joe figured out Spider-Man’s secret from time to time. This would be a good example of evidence for that. Anyway, Robbie hits The Grizzly with a chair as he’s going for Betty, and…
A+. Genuinely hilarious. The Grizzly rips the door off the office and tosses JJJ out the window. But, lucky for him, Peter has switched to Spider-Man and happened to be coming up that wall from the outside. Spidey webs him up safely and then swings in to get to fightin’ the Grizzly as JJJ tells him they’re in cahoots.
Spidey dances around with his new foe, trying to get some kind of damage in, but it’s not working too well. The Grizzly, meanwhile, mentions his was “number one in this town” until JJJ ruined him,” and makes various references to boxing until he finally gets ahold of Spidey’ leg and smashes him into a wall.
Robbie almost seems to be covering for Peter there. Spidey heads out looking for his opponent. His tracer leads him to an apartment in Washington Square, where he decides to switch to Peter to try to get some answers. He’s deduced The Grizzly must be some old boxer from the stuff he talked about, but hasn’t got much else to go on. He knocks on the door, and as his Spider Sense goes off, is quickly knocked out by some green hands.
And there you have it, Spidey’s technical first meeting with The Jackal. But how did they “lure Peter Parker here?” I mean, I guess there’s technically a good reason, but… not one a reader could deduce at this point. How will Peter get out of this one? I guess we’ll find out together next issue.
In the letters this month, reacting to ASM 136, a guy begs them not to kill MJ, and Roy Thomas says they’d never do that before she & Peter have the chance to fall in love and get married. Meanwhile, another letter is really tired of Green Goblins and doesn’t like that Harry has taken up the role even a little. Wonder how long he read comics. Roy says if Spidey ever defeats this Goblin for good, he swears there will never be a 3rd one. Oh, Roy…