NEW villains? Or just some of those losers from The Circus of Crime without The Ringmaster?
Asked & answered! The letterer gag is pretty good this month. Usually they’re kinda mean. The Circus of Crime is dumb and will always be dumb, but Princess Python eventually got a new lease on life when The Serpent Society was created by bringing together as many snake-themed villains as Mark Gruenwald could get in Captain America. We open on the Circus dorks in a hotel room, fully outfitted, when Spider-Man shows up. He heard they got outta jail, and also somehow knew where they were, and came to tell them not to mess with him ever again, like they did in ASM 16. In the process of threatening Ringmaster, he slips a tracer onto his hat so he can keep tabs on them, then leaves.
A trustworthy face, to be sure. Everyone in the circus takes turns beating up Ringmaster before he goes, which is hilarious, and then we go see Peter Parker, so wrapped up in a book about Henry Pym’s work that he hasn’t noticed school is over, much to Flash’s annoyance.
Van Der Twilliger! JJJ as a patron of the arts is a new one. The pop art thing is interesting. It’s not too many months from now Stan, ever the promoter, starts slapping “A Marvel Pop Art Production” on the covers trying to cash in on the fad. Well, obviously, the circus folk want to rob this show. After using Cannonball as a battering ram to come in the back, Clown’s genius plan is… he’ll go do a clown act in the gallery to distract everyone while the rest of them steal all the money. What a great plan! And Peter recognizes him immediately, and JJJ hears some noise in the back while this clown he didn’t hire is doing his thing, and the plan falls apart in 5 panels. Genius. Here’s a thing:
Ron Frenz swiped panel 6 for the last page of ASM 259. I’ve read that issue so many times as a youth, but I’m seeing this one for the first time tonight. Shameless. Betty talking like JJJ is dead is kinda weird. Spider-Man catches up to Ringmaster at a police precinct, where he was obviously brought in for questioning after tonight. But, he could honestly say he had nothing to do with it, so they let him go. He’s in his goofy outfit the whole time, of course. Old comics are so funny. “This is my life!” Spidey follows him home, and then uses his own stupid had to hypnotize him and get the location of The Circus’ hideout. Man, how embarrassing. For some reason, Spidey then calls the hospital from Ringy’s phone to see how JJJ’s doing, then goes to bust up the baddies. Maybe shoulda done those things in reverse order. The Circus folk are celebrating their barely coherent plan and trying to come up with a new team name. They settle on the Masters of Menace just as a certain red spotlight shines in on them.
“He hasn’t a chance against ALL of us! I mean, he stomped us instantly last time, but that was different!” Time for a bunch of that unmistakable Ditko acrobatics, making even the lamest villains at least visually interesting. And some kid has colored all the action lines red with a crayon! 60 year old vandalism!
Later, the idea will be that she can hold you in an unbreakable grip, like a python, and it seems like that’s what Ditko’s going for here, but Stan turned it into “I can’t hurt a lady.” Interesting. We cut away to see Spidey’s webbing dissolve on Ringmaster’s hat, allowing him to regain control of himself, and then to Betty being told JJJ will be fine before getting back to the battle. All the guys pile on top of Spider-Man, PP saying if they can’t beat him now, they might as well give up. And he proceeds to knock them all out one by one now that they’re all smashed together and can’t maneuver, with some extra for Cannonball, since he’s the one who hospitalized JJJ. But Princess Python slips away while he’s putting the beat down.
Feel like this page might’ve inspired the Commanda bit in Untold Tales 10. Ringmaster decides to go get some revenge, a police detective sees him light out of his place (STILL in costume), and follows, and Princess Python is really trying to charm our hero. When it doesn’t work, she tries to yoink his mask off and see his face, and when that doesn’t work, she goes for an electric prod she says she uses on her snake. This somehow makes Spidey’s webshooters quit working (Um), and he’s backed into a dark room which contains…
You can see why she might want the prod.
The first time he ever kept Aunt May up worrying! A long tradition. A wacky one. At least Betty wasn’t awful this month. Next post: the 2nd-to-last issue of Untold Tales.