ASM 271-278 & Annual 20, TAC 111-116 & Annual 9, WEB 10-15 & Annual 2, Marvel Graphic Novel #22: The Amazing Spider-Man: Hooky. Anything runs as long as Spider-Man will have highs and lows, and Spider-Man really begins circling the drain for a couple years. The Hobgoblin starts wearing a big dumb red button on his chest and then frames Flash Thompson! Black Cat returns to the book after her & Spider-Man’s bad breakup and it is extremely messy! Randy Robertson returns to the book sporting a powerful Jheri Curl! Aunt May and Nathan Lubensky’s relationship gets rocky! Ned Leeds & Betty Brant’s marriage begins to collapse! Some neighborhood tough guys firebomb Peter Parker’s apartment! Peter decides to quit being Spider-Man for the millionth time, and whines and whines and whines every time he’s forced back into action! Wildly inessential new villains Manslaughter Marsdale and Slyde are introduced! A second encounter with inexplicable gangster Ace, based on Prince for some reason! Spider-Man teams with a magical girl in another dimension to fight a monster that can’t die! Plus appearances by Dr. Strange, The New Mutants’ Warlock, The Iron Man of the far off future year of 2020, Puma, The Rose, Sabretooth, The Shocker, The Wraith, some run of the mill hitman, and the always annoying Black Fox! And, in the most memorable issue of the period, The Beyonder wagers the fate of the universe with Mephisto, betting he can make Spider-Man abandon his principles by sending the demon Zarathos to torment him. But Spider-Man persists, and the universe is saved, and no one will ever know it all rested on Spidey’s shoulders. I hadn’t done one in awhile where the Spider-Man wasn’t based on some other artist, and that’s why this one isn’t very good! Originally drawing #34.