Mike Esposito & Frank Giacoia swap in on inks this issue. Spidey’s still up to his neck in a flooding sewer as we begin, and page two is another common Ross Andru layout, a very modern-looking “widescreen” page (albeit with more panels than is typical now)…
Things do seem somewhat more dangerous than last issue’s cliffhanger made them out to be. “Holy Hannah” is a pretty standard outburst for this period. I’ve never known who Hannah is. As the aforementioned deluge hits, Spidey is swept away by the current. Somehow. Back down the tunnel the water was coming up to get him? I dunno. Anyway, he keeps it together and goes with the flow, and soon finds himself shot out into the river. He realizes he’d better get back to JJJ’s party, but first he’ll need a change of clothes. Scattering his outfit all over New York was a pretty weird move. Pete heads back to JJJ’s, but everyone’s gone home. There’s some comedy business with a “priceless decanter” someone knocked over, which falls off a table and breaks as Peter shuts the door. Real slapsticky in the Jameson household this storyline. From there, we meet a mysterious drunk guy in a back alley who talks all fancy…
And that’s all we get. I’m sure this guy will be popping up again soon. At school the next day, MJ is pretty mad at Peter for abandoning her last night, and refuses to speak to him.
Wein sure is into broad comedy business. Later, watching a TV in a store window, Spider-Man sees the Mayor play a tape he received of The Shocker demanding a million dollars to keep him from blacking out the whole city. The Mayor says he won’t pay it, so it looks like Spider-Man’s gonna be busy tonight. He starts swinging around town checking out the security at power plants, as Wein continues Conway’s move of filling these sorts of swinging panels with Peter judging his own recent behavior and then saying “Enough with the self-analysis!” You can almost count on at least one page like this in every issue. Spidey eventually find himself at the same power plant that Giant-Size 2 took place in, and as it happens, there’s trouble, as he finds a guard pinned to a wall outside, so he sneaks in.
Some cops rush in to get him, but they’re no match for his vibro-gauntlets. While he’s busy shooting at them, though, Spidey runs up a wall to set up a move…
Spidey has kind of a Bugs Bunny thing going on this issue. Rather more Stan Lee than Conway’s tended to be. As he tries to subdue the cops without hurting them too much, Shocker frees himself. Spidey webs up the cops and dives at his foe. But Shocker somehow comes out ahead in this and tosses Spidey at a giant turbine.
An abrupt wrap up, but all’s well that ends well. Elsewhere in the comic, there’s a pretty good letter in this issue…
As well as an intact Marvel Value Stamp. I know you wondered. I don’t think there was one in the last issue, cut out or not, but this one’s all good. And that’s where we leave this block. But, due to the incredibly convoluted way I’ve wound up doing the Wein run, we jump ahead only a few issues in our next post. Having already covered ASM 153-156 and various Team-Ups in the first Wein block and jumped ahead to the 170s in the 2nd, we now return to 157. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it’s what I got.