Pretty cool cover! That’ll get your attention on the stands. I feel glad to be part of the great new breed of magaziner reader. I guess this is the first reference to the MMMS on a cover. The Merry Marvel Marching Society, the inexplicably named official Marvel fan club from the early days. The splash promises Spider-Man on a psychiatrist’s couch seeing his enemies, a less gonzo version of the idea on the cover, and then we get into it.
This 2nd page is of note to me because Dan Atkins swiped the panel 1 Spidey for the cover of X-Men 35. The oldest swipe in Marvel history? Could be, I don’t know. Spidey says Foswell would know Peter wasn’t there, so he can’t sell the pictures. But that happens all the time, and also he hung the camera pretty high up, he could’ve bluffed his way through it. Ah, well, he goes to The Bugle, anyway, hoping to find work, and instead sees a letter from Betty to Ned that hasn’t gone out yet. He gives her some of her own overreacting for once, but feels bad before he gets too far away. Meanwhile, JJJ is trying to talk Foswell into writing up the incident earlier as Spider-Man brutally attacking those robbers, but he’s not buying. This gives JJJ the idea to start running features where people other than him talk about how terrible Spider-Man is.
“How I hate that egghead bookworm!” is such a funny line. Feels very much held over from their romance comics.
Dr. Ludwig Rinehart! Now there’s a familiar name! And if the ghosts and whatnot on the cover and splash weren’t a big enough arrow pointing at Mysterio, this certainly clinches it for anyone who’s seen those later issues. And it also makes you wonder how on Earth Peter didn’t catch on when a “Dr. Rinehart” was in charge of his Aunt in ASM 196. Ah, well. In short order (Like ⅔ of a page), Rinehart says he can prove Spider-Man’s crazy, JJJ runs the proof in a paper, Peter reads the paper, and he calls Betty, who says it’s all true. And then Peter decides he must be going insane without knowing it. Because he read it in the paper. Hilarious. He goes running to meet this doctor and try to find out what’s wrong with him, and Flash sees him running and follows him. Peter notices and ditches him before becoming Spider-Man. Rinehart calls The Bugle to say he’s coming over with even more evidence that “Spider-Man’s sanity can’t last much longer!”
Spidey’s good and convinced he’s losing it now, even as he sees The Vulture attack and disappear. He goes home freaking out, sees how crazy he looks in a mirror due to freaking out, which only makes him MORE freaked out, then runs back out of the house. As stupid as this is, Ditko’s ability to ratchet up the tension is really good. All those years on thrillers and scifi and horror and stuff put to use. Peter got Rinehart’s address out of the newspaper article (Yikes!) and arrives as Spider-Man. But when he goes into the guy’s office, it’s upside down! Oh no! He finds Rinehart sitting at his desk, on the ceiling (And all his dialogue is upside down, which is nice), and runs out of the room. But then the doc comes after him and tells him he can help, walking him back into the room to find it’s rightside up.
Very dramatic. Meanwhile, Foswell runs into JJJ’s office, and we don’t hear what he says, but he puts JJJ in a panic over trusting Rinehart. So much so that he orders the next edition of the paper paused and rushes out to see Reinhart himself. When he arrives, Flash happens to be walking by, looking for Peter & Liz, and starts hassling JJJ about always being mean to Spider-Man, which is pretty funny. JJJ hopes to rush into Rinehart’s to avoid Flash’s barrage of insults.
Flash is like the opposite of JJJ here, the same crazy overreaction, but pro-Spider-Man instead of against.
This month’s letters include a missive from Donald McGregor, whose professional comics writing has appeared on the blog in SM 28-29. I’m kind of surprised how this stopped happening in the 80s. I’ve been so eager to check out letter columns in the 90s hoping to spot 21st Century talent, but so far, no good. Elsewhere in the book, a house ad show this month saw release of Daredevil #7, noteworthy as the debut of his familiar red suit, designed by Wally Wood. Big month for DD!