This era of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is often overlooked but I remember enjoying it tremendously. Part of the reason for that is that once he got his sea legs under him, writer Marv Wolfman began to focus on running plotlines based more around the character’s life as Peter Parker than his costumed alter ego. I also quite liked the Steve Ditko-inspired penciling of artist Keith Pollard. I thought he was a step up from longtime artist Ross Andru, who is a storied master of the form but whose characters all tended to look a bit like gargoyles facially. It sort of snuck up on me, but I became really invested in this run.
Right off the bat, the issue opens up by raising a question left over from last time; Spidey and his nemesis J. Jonah Jameson had been shackled together to a bomb for 24 hours, and during that time, in order to save their lives, Spidey had to take a hit that rendered him unconscious. Now, even though the immediate danger has passed, he’s haunted by the thought that Jameson may have unmasked him during the time that he was knocked out, which would open up the door to all sorts of additional problems for him. Wolfman wisely plays this scenario out for several issues before telling us the truth of what happened.
What’s more, Jameson had fired Parker from the Daily Bugle staff, but Joe Robertson thought he situation unfair and gave Peter a last chance to prove himself by taking photographs of an Egyptian exhibit. But Peter couldn’t do that as he was shackled to a bomb for the past 24 hours, and so when he shows up at the Bugle offices, not only is Jameson furious to see him again, but Robbie is likewise pissed at him. And for good reason. Leaving, Peter still can’t be sure if Jameson knowing that he’s Spider-Man is the cause of his hostility. In an attempt to make things right with Robbie, Pete decides to head over to the Exhibit and get the photographs that he hadn’t delivered earlier. He’s also got a suspicion based on their tussle last issue that the Fly may be targeting that exhibition, and so he wants to be on hand to tackle him if need be.
I had missed the Annual that had introduced the Fly, and I can remember feeling miffed about that fact as he became a component of this new story–wrong-footed somehow. Anyway, Spidey gets to the museum, but he’s attacked by the security guards who assume he’s there to loot the place (this despite the wall-crawler having been cleared of all outstanding charges by the police a few issues back.) While the web-slinger is trying to avoid security, the fly meanwhile has entered another part of the museum far from the King Tut exhibit that’s drawing all the attention. He isn’t after it at all, but rather the Art of Dresden show that’s on display elsewhere in the structure at the same time. Gathering up his loot, the Fly takes off, but Spider-Man is hot on his trail.
From there, it becomes a running fight between the two combatants, with the Fly becoming more and more rattled not only thanks to Spidey’s formidable powers but also his non-stop patter. Eventually, the Fly hits a boiling point and is able to tag Spidey with a solid blow that momentarily stuns him. That’s all the time the Fly needs to make good his escape. The security guards come running up to let Spidey know that they now realize that he was in the right, which is small comfort to the wall-crawler, who takes that moment to leave. He’s remembered that he’s missing a date with Mary Jane Watson. Once he gets home, he dials up MJ, who tells him off and hangs up on him. At that moment, Betty Brant, Peter’s first crush who has been pursuing him since returning to the series, saunters into the room.
Betty’s there to make sure that Peter is all right, because it turns out that while he’s been running all around for the past couple of nights, he also missed out on picking up his college diploma. This pastoral scene is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Betty’s husband Ned Leeds, who promptly decks Parker for fooling around with his wife before dragging Betty off. This concordance of crushing defeats has Peter pissed. He’s looking for somebody to take his anger out on, and he figures the Fly is elected. So suiting up as Spidey again, he begins to work any underworld contacts that he can find for information on the villain’s whereabouts. The angry web-slinger is practically salivating at the thought of getting to just unload on somebody.
But of course, that isn’t what happens. Rather, Spidey has nowhere to vent his frustrations as, when he rolls up to the Fly’s hideout, he’s in time to see the cops dragging him away. They were able to subdue him with new equipment leased from SHIELD–which is great for them, but leaves Spider-Man without an outlet for his aggression. It’s a weirdly sedate ending for this story, but I like how off-beat it is–it feels very Spider-Man to me. Anyway, in the final panels of the issue, Marv gets back to a plotline that had been set up over twenty issues earlier by his predecessor Len Wein. At the nursing home where Aunt May is now living, its director is paid a visit by a gun-toting criminal: the very burglar who killed Uncle Ben years before. To Be Continued!
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
Yeah Spider-Man wasn’t able to give a Rodney King like beating to the Fly here but during the Clone Saga he did to the Scorpion which I hated ( He did so cause he thought he was the clone ). Why here or then with the Scorpion he didn’t go to the FF, X-Men or Avengers to ask them to use their Danger Rooms to take out his rage there and or talk to a fellow hero or heroes instead of losing control and risking killing someone or seriously injuring them is beyond me.
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Thank you for the issue summary. Such a great cover.
I always loved the simplicity of the Fly’s design. An artist could really test their Burne Hogarth and Neal Adams skills with him.
Seems like an underused character that I’m sure was used as cannon fodder for some killing spree or another during the 90’s or later. With some development, I would make him Spider-Woman’s big bad.
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The trouble with making the Fly a big bad for a Spider-hero is simply that flies don’t prey on spiders. While the names are linked, it’s kind of like having a character called the Predator, and making their arch-villain someone called the Prey. Or giving Yogi Bear a mastermind foe named the Pic-a-nic Basket.
It could be done, I’m sure. But it’s a hurdle you’ve got to surmount, rather than a natural pairing that suggests the spider is in trouble.
Making Spider Spry a villain for the heroic Fly, though, that works.
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Yep, The Fly really doesn’t work in Spider-man’s case. Hero or villain though… who wants to be a fly? or a flea? Archie Comics Fly had a neat costume…a Simon Kirby pedigree, a good looking masthead ,but it’s still working against a hurdle. Spiders are fearsome but Flies are just gross.
I really liked this Spidey run… though I came in after this issue. I really enjoyed Pollard’s work but I gotta say I don’t feel like he was leaning into a Ditko vibe on this title…. if its there it’s subtle?… not like Milgrom or Frenz’s Spiderman work on occasion.
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Great point. It got me thinking about hero/villain dynamics:
Are Daredevil/Superman the prey because Kingpin/Luthor are always trying to control the city?
Or are Daredevil/Superman the predators, forever trying to stop Kingpin/Luthor from controlling the city?
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I don’t think they’re either predators or prey, really. With spiders and flies, that’s a predator/prey relationship, but that doesn’t imply that all conflicts are predator/prey conflicts.
The Punisher seems like a predator. Batman, maybe. Superman not so much.
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if the story’s enjoyable I can forgive “the Fly” as a villain name. Sure, “Dragon Fly” sounds more menacing. Or maybe a villain called the Fly could infect people with a terrible sick feeling. 😅😉
It’s comic books. Guys are bouncing off cars, dodging bullets, flying around with or without wings & capes.
Maybe the guy was tormented as a kid and likes the irony of f the name.
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It’s easy to find ways to justify having a villain called the Fly. Harder (but like I said, not impossible) to make one convincingly a spider-hero’s archenemy.
For me, a fly is so humble that as a super-being it almost cries out to be a child hero — someone who doesn’t seem impressive at all, and has to do their best with a lowly identity. But as a villain, you can lean into flies being scavengers attracted to death and rot but also to sweet things, and make a fly villain pretty creepy.
To make a Fly that a Spider-hero is scared of, though, feels backward. But nothing’s impossible in fiction, however unlikely many things are.
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DC Comics golden age hero The Tarantula also fought a foe named The Fly [ Star Spangled Comics#13 ( October 1942 ) ] and the original Spider-Woman fought the Fly in Spider-Woman#30 ( September 1980 ) — he went to Dr. Karl Malus to help with his fading powers. To bad no one thought to call a university or college to ask if there was an insect that fed on spiders — say like Spider Wasps ( To bad Dr. Karl Malus never re-engineered the Fly into a Spider Wasp ). I have always like the Fly, probably because of the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon Fly Twins ( Stan & Lee Patterson ) – The Spider and the Fly & Trick or Treachery. To me a Fly as a foe to a heroic Spider-Man or Tarantula is as annoying as a male hero called the Banshee [ Fantastic Comics#21 ( August 1941 ) Fox Publication ] & [ X-Men#28 ( January 1967 )] — Banshee ( Ben Side ( woman of the fairy mound or fairy woman ) Old Irish ) is a female spirit in Irish folklore who heralds the death of a family member, usually by screaming, wailing, shrieking, or keening ( Wikipedia ).
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Those Fly Twins were great!
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For once, all of our opinions about this issue are opposite rather than my usual mostly agree. Wolfman’s writing mostly left me cold, this run included, and I bought it for the character. Certainly not the art. Pollard doesn’t remind me of Ditko but whereas I have always disliked Ditko’s art, I just was never moved by Pollard. He’s a good artist but he didn’t move the needle for me either way. The Fly had a good design but he lacked the oomph the better Spider-Man foes had. It was probably a mistake too to go with a nature themed villain rather than the animal kingdom like some of Spider-Man’s best foes.
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Wait, isn’t the Fly both a “nature themed villain” AND from “the animal kingdom”?
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Aren’t insects considered animals? I thought they were two distinct categories.
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@Steve, call me crazy but I considered anything on Earth that isn’t hunan nade to be “nature”. That includes other animals. 😉
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Yes. Insects are the largest category of the kingdom Animalia, to go with the Linnaean classification system. Which is, I think, where the term “Animal Kingdom” comes from.
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@Kurt Busiek, Animalia might’ve also been the name of a girl Muppet who’s brother was the drummer for Electric Mayhem…
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With the exception of your comment about Ditko, I felt the exact same way you did about this run. Plus I always hated Mooney’s inks, which looked so awfully muddy to me.
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A fly is an Animal but, neither a chordate nor a vertebrate and unlike the Scorpion, an insect, like the Beetle (who was inevitable in 1964)…
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Fun issue. Keith Pollard’s art nailed it. For better or worse, we’d already been deep into Peter’s handsome blossoming that started with John Romita. Keith makes Spidey look great. Agile & powerful.
Wolfman, too, keeping the stories moving. This run was highpoint for the series. All the classic, legendary elements are there. And Peter struggling with life. Trying to balance holding down a job to support himself, with maintaining personal relationships, and his self-imposed responsibilities as. Spidey. That’s appealing.
I iked Marv’s compelling, descriptive narration here. And most of the dialog. Jonah really eas a prick. 😉😅
Spidey’s and the Fly’s exposition while fighting is funny now. Though balloons would’ve been more appropriate. But for a kid under 12 it wasn’t a deal breaker.
Again, issues like this just continued to strengthen the character & move his story forward.
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I liked Keith Pollard’s work generally and I think he was the first artist to break with the Ditko/Romita approach to the art.
He really came a long way from his initial Rich Buckler influence (like George Perez did,(
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Keith Pollard is one of my all-time favorites! His Spider-Man wasn’t dynamic, but it was good. I think he’s my favorite Green Lantern artist. His work on the loose leaf style Marvel Handbook (was that called Vol 3?) – that was awesome!
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Am I the only one that looked at the cover and mostly wondered what would be the importance of the massive obelisk?
Although I surmise that the obelisk was just adding a New York feature.
With Google… now I can read about Cleopatra’s Needles, but I have to imagine it would be confused non-New Yorkers back in the day.
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One way to make the Fly a more challenging villain is to make him TWO. I remember the Fly twins being fun foils for Spidey on the 60s cartoon. Certainly better nemesis than “Dr Van Slick” or “Mr Noah Body.”
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I’m glad it was Tom, not me, who made the comment on what Ross Andru’s faces looked like on SPIDER-MAN. Funny thing, the faces he did for WONDER WOMAN and METAL MEN: they’re just kinda bigfoot-comical. But Romita infused me at least to see a relatively photorealistic approach to SPIDER-MAN. I still remember intensely disliking Andru’s scene when Parker first sees the Gwen clone. He rages at her with all the deep emotion of a guy honked off at a taxi driver.
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