Goofy cover copy like this is going to have dire ramifications down the line. People trying to be like Stan will be just as silly even into the 80s. This month, Stan gives Steve a “plotted and drawn by” credit, and so has to give himself a “edited and written by” credit, so Steve doesn’t sound more important. “Plotted by” and “written by” really reveal Stan’s thoughts on what “writing” meant, and it sure wasn’t coming up with a story. I remain fascinated by the whole situation. But this is no time for semantics, The Green Goblin’s brought an unconscious Spider-Man to Crime-Master’s gang meeting to prove he should be boss!
Yet again, someone has colored the effects in my comic. It would be so crazy if it was the same kid. All the comics in all the world, I wound up with 2 owned by the same person in the 60s. Seems unlikely, tho. The next page is even worse!
Thanks a lot, kid! So “Patch” called the cops, but they didn’t come, but 3 cops who happened to be outside did come? Overly complicated, Stan! The fact that the come in swinging instead of shooting is pretty funny. It’s pure chaos as the masked villains try to shoot Spider-Man, Spidey makes time to set up his camera (Gotta pay rent!) and then dives into the mob to try to help the cops out. He upsets the odds pretty well, but then his suit starts riding up all over again as his webbing wears off. And hopping up out of the fray maybe isn’t a great idea.
I’ve been noticing it the last few issues, but we’re at a time when Stan had the Marvel artists making a concerted effort to include black people in the world. Not as actual characters yet (With the important exception of Gabe Jones in Sgt. Fury & His Howlin’ Commandos), but Black Panther is only a few months away. Stan had been getting comments about how there were only white faces in the books (Unless a hero was fighting an uncomfortable Asian stereotype, that is), and was trying to listen. As with seemingly every instance of representation in media, it was a very slow process. Black Panther was their only black hero for many years, and he had no regular title. But it was something. I saw a documentary about Fantastic Four once wherein the novelist Walter Mosely talked about what a profound experience it was seeing a random black guy in a panel of FF. Just a background character. Because it was the first black person he’d ever seen in a comic book as a kid, and suddenly made The Marvel Universe feel like it was really for him. Even that pretty pathetic bit of “representation” meant the world to him when it was all he could get (In 2022, Mosely got to write a Thing miniseries). That sort of thing only makes me hate these “comic fans” who throw a tantrum every time a comic is about a character who isn’t a white male even more. But, hey, I’m way off topic. More cops finally show up now that the action’s over, and Spider-Man’s off pursuing C-M beneath the docks and into a big drain pipe. But Crimey is paranoid enough to fill the pipe with his gas on the way out, and by the time Spidey navigates that, he’s gone.
With that lead dead, he runs off to The Bugle to warn JJJ he’s got a crook working for him, barely missing Crime-Master lurking on the opposite roof again. When confronted, JJJ says Foswell’s not gone bad, and is working on this mob thing for him. He calls Foswell into his office to defend himself.
Kind of a fraught observation from Spidey, there. He is convinced Foswell isn’t Crime-Master… but not totally convinced he’s not Green Goblin… when he remembers his camera is still at the crime scene. He rushes back there to find it gone, his webbing having dissolved. He soon learns some kids took it, but they give it back. They don’t want anything to do with him, tho, because they’re Human Torch fans.
That top left Spidey sure is a pose we’ve seen swiped before. But wait, check this out:
Barney Bushkin! That was a deep pull when he came back in the late 70s.
And there’s Norman again. Really making sure he gets a lot of panel time. Pretty crazy. But, here comes a nice Peter & Aunt May moment:
That’s sweet. And pretty rare for this period. But, hey, what’s up with Freddy? Is he The Green Goblin?
Like I said, I’m pretty sure we’ve already seen him become “Patch” again in the Romita years, so no big surprise. And not that it’s a smoking gun in a book full of guys in suits but Ditko definitely draws the shadowy Goblin in the same suit jacket as Norman, even if it’s colored differently. But what a nice ending for a change! This issue says they don’t want to tell you a word about what’s coming next month because they want to save the surprises… but it’s more likely Stan just has no idea what Steve is going to do. And considering one of the things he does, Stan may have been in for quite a shock himself.