Another one bagged upside down and sold for $6. An interesting gag on the cover. Allofasudden, it’s another issue with the line art team of Romita, Jr. and Romita, Sr.! Who could ask for more? Roger Stern writes, of course, Bob Sharen on colors. I have already well and truly gushed about the father/son dream team enough elsewhere, so I’ll try to keep it to a minimum, but just know I am staring at every page shaking my head in awe and affection. Spider-Man has just snuck up on his old pal nose Norton, last seen in ASM 231 & 233 and recently home from the hospital.
The next page helpfully catches us up on where we are in the saga of The Hobgoblin, since it’s been a minute.
Nose pulls an instrument case out from under the bed to make sure it’s not damaged, calling it “his little money maker,” but we don’t get to see what’s inside. Meanwhile, our man swings away, thinking he wishes he knew more informants, and then thinking if he knew the city was gonna be picking up Black Cat’s hospital bill, maybe he wouldn’t have quit school. He’s off to switch identities and join Aunts May & Anna for dinner. May mentions his studying must be going well and he elects not to mention he’s quit school yet.
I know I bring it up a lot, but for being someone who didn’t want Peter & MJ to get married, Stern layed a good deal of track. And for being someone else who didn’t want Peter & MJ to get married, Tom DeFalco sure did put a train on that track. Anyway, that’s our pal Nose down there, and Spider-Man put a tracer in his hatband earlier, so he’s right behind him, seeing what he’s up to. He delivers his instrument case to some dudes in your typical comics abandoned building, unaware Spider-Man is watching from the shadows above. As Nose leaves, the guys begin discussing an armored car route, and Spidey webs up his camera and determines to stick around.
Come on. This art team? Come on. The mysterious boss throws a big crate at our hero, who easily dodges it, but before he can go in for the finish… Frog-Man comes down through the skylight and messes everything up. The rare blemish on this run of comics. Frog-Man bounces all over the place uncontrollably, giving the mysterious boss man time to escape in a car as Spidey tries to stop Froggy’s out of control bouncing. He smashes out the front door and up onto a roof, but…
Our man swings off, wondering why anyone would actively want in on his crazy superhero lifestyle… including Black Cat, whose aspirations to adventure he is still very nervous about. Back home in his dark room, Peter finds most of his pictures didn’t turn out, but he accidentally managed to get a shot of a map that lets him know the goons plan to rob an armored car on Long Island tomorrow. Thus, we jump to tomorrow, and learn the instrument case contained a crazy pink scifi weapon. Spidey is on his way on top of a train, but it’s running late, and so he’s not there when the goons shoot “a high energy beam” at the truck, ruining its front axle and sending it careering into the bushes. Then they gas the guards, back up a tow truck and away they go with the whole truck.
…a crowbar. Because the “doc” leading this operation is none other than the villain Thunderball, a member of The Wrecking Crew, 4 guys with crude weapons imbued with Asgardian power in Thor comics, and he made up a gold shipment to con them into helping him get their weapons back. While most of The Wrecking Crew are pretty dumb, Thunderball is a legit evil genius, so naturally it was him who managed to pull this off. Obviously, his hoods don’t like being tricked, but they’re now up against a guy who could give Thor a run for his money, so what’re they gonna do? Get beat up and one of them even through through a wall and outside just as Spider-Man approaches, that’s what.
Uh-oh! This month’s letter page is all reactions to MJ coming back. Overwhelmingly positive reactions. The editors note that they were so flooded with mail about MJ that she’s completely crowded The Hobgoblin out for a change. As has been proven a few times over the years, you kick Mary Jane out of your Spider-Man comics at your own peril, cuz the fans love her.