1967-1968

ASM 53-62 & Annual 4, X-Men 35, Marvel Super Heroes 14, Fantastic Four 73. Spider-Man meets and wipes the floor with The X-Men in their own book, which seems like a weird choice. Then he fights a robot controlled by a sorcerer in a New Orleans Mardi Gras warehouse! Really! Spidey & The Torch fight Mysterio & The Wizard on the set of a movie the villains made up to lure them into a trap! Doc Ock briefly moves in with Aunt May! Spidey gets amnesia and helps Doc Ock with a plan to steal experimental weapons! JJJ gets a new Spider-Slayer! Mary Jane gets a job dancing and unwittingly hypnotizing government officials at The Gloom Room A-Go Go for The Kingpin, who later puts Gwen Stacy & her police captain dad in a death trap! Spidey, Daredevil and Thor fight The Fantastic Four, who have been tricked into thinking Daredevil is Dr. Doom and the others are Doombots! And my favorite, Medusa and Spider-Man are tricked into fighting all over Manhattan by the head of a hairspray company who thinks footage of this will sell his product! The 60s were on another level! Spider-Man heavily referenced, but not outright copied, from Dazzlin’ Don Heck penicling over John Romita’s layouts. Stan Lee had Romita running all over the place in this period, but since Romita was doing the real plotting for ASM, he couldn’t let him leave it, either. Messy stuff. Originally drawing #18.