BHOC: PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #26

I’ve always liked the concept of the mystery villain. The notion that there’d be some figure in a story who was pulling the strings and whose identity you might be able to work out if you were clever enough and could make sense of all the clues. This is pretty much the premise behind any murder mystery, but of course i was more interested in the notion in a super hero capacity. But comics already had a history at this point for not quite playing fair in this regard. It would have been next to impossible to determine that the Green Goblin was really Norman Osborn given that Osborn was only introduced a few issues before the reveal came, and well after the Goblin had been waging his ongoing war against Spider-Man. Nevertheless, I very quickly became fascinated by writer Bill Mantlo’s new creation Carrion, and the idea that there might be more to his true identity than what appeared on the surface.

PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN had been something of an aimless series. A title that was created to give new incoming Editor in Chief Gerry Conway a Spidey book to write while Len Wein was set up on AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. Gerry only lasted in the job for three weeks, so almost as soon as this series was launched, he was gone from its pages. And despite several efforts over the intervening months, the book never really found its footing. It was plagued by unannounced reprints and emergency fill-in issues. It was disposable, a bit of additional Spider-Man action for anybody who might want that over the course of a month. Writer Bill Mantlo had been working to try to change this impression, though, and beginning with issue #25, he succeeded, at least for a time.

But Carrion was only a background figure in this issue, a brewing subplot. What the main story focused on was Spidey’s encounter with the Masked Marauder, an old Daredevil foe. Mantlo had a habit of bringing back earlier Marvel villains in his assorted stories, and this was no exception. Not only had the Marauder returned but so had his android servitor the Tri-Man, who could transform into a flying wing. The Marauder wasn’t a big deal villain, and Spider-Man might have been able to handle him easily save for one thing: the Marauder packed an Opti-Blast ray in his goggles that would render anybody struck with it blind. And he got the web-slinger good in the face with it, robbing Spidey of his sight. According to the Marauder’s boasts, while the effect used to be temporary, he’s since improved it so that it will be permanent. Bad news for the wall-crawler.

Incapacitated thusly, Spider-Man is unable to prevent the Marauder and his Maggia henchmen from looting the Citicorp building. And of course, once the police arrive, they assume that the web-slinger was in on the robbery as well, and attempt to detain him. I get the impression that this sequence was probably plotted before Mantlo found out that AMAZING SPIDER-MAN writer Marv Wolfman was going to be clearing Spidey’s name of his assorted crimes over in that title, so there’s some hasty copy that’s been added to the cops’ dialogue indicating that headquarters has confirmed that Spider-Man has been cleared. This doesn’t stop the police from shooting at the sightless hero as he attempts to swing his way to safety.

As the newly-blinded Spider-Man shakily attempts to find his way back to his apartment–good luck with that, wall-crawler!–Mantlo shifts his narrative camera to other members of the supporting cast. So we see rivals for Peter’s affection Betty Brant and Mary Jane Watson run into one another at Peter’s apartment–an apartment where Carrion is also lying in wait for his foe. Also, the White Tiger questions the value of his costumed identity, and Flash Thompson, his girlfriend Sha Shan and Hector Ayala’s girlfriend Holly look vainly for Peter Parker on the ESU campus. More critically for this story, Daredevil hears news reports concerning Spider-Man’s involvement in the robbery, and knowing the web-slinger to be a good guy, sets out to find him and offer any needed help.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man is continuing to struggle with his new condition. Even his spider-sense is of limited help to him. He’s been running on pure adrenaline up to this point, but as he begins to have a moment to reflect on his situation, the full enormity of his situation hits him like a ton of bricks. And that’s when Daredevil happens to show up. The sightless swashbuckler isn’t a threat to Spidey, but tell that to teh wall-crawler’s spider-sense. Spidey reflexively takes a step backwards–right off the edge of the building on which he is perched.

Daredevil isn’t too worried about this. After all, he’s seen the web-slinger flit between buildings many times in the past. But as Spidey’s frantic web-shot to try to halt his fall fails to find purchase, DD realizes that the hero is in real trouble, and races groundward to try to catch him before he can go splat. Somehow, in defiance of all the laws of physics, Daredevil is able to do just that–and so he questions the wall-crawler once he’s got him back up on the roof. And the issue ends with Spidey confessing to Daredevil that he’s been struck blind. Which is ironic, because being a blind super hero is Daredevil’s whole thing. Anyway, that’s where things are To Be Continued, with Daredevil clearly about to offer Spider-Man some needed help and advice.