BHOC: PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #34

PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN had settled into a nice rhythm. It wasn’t a great comic book, but it was solid and reliable. In the hands of its now-regular creative team of Bill Mantlo and Jim Mooney, it had built up a cast of characters around mainstay Peter Parker, a cast that existed in addition to the major players in Peter’s life that were being featured in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. What’s more, it felt like it had a trajectory, that it wasn’t merely a repository for throw-away self-contained fill-in style adventures. The book was still a younger cousin to AMAZING, but it had begun to feel like a title that could hold its own. crafting more multi-part stories and setting up subplots had been a big part of that transformation.

This particular issue featured the wrap-up to a three-issue sequence introducing the Iguana, yet another evil reptile-man spawned by the work of Curt Connors, the Lizard. As in the past in stories featuring Stegron, Connors had once again become his cold-blooded alter-ego in order to do battle with the newcomer, placing the web-slinger in-between two fires. As the story opens, the two reptilian villains confront one another atop a Manhattan building, with the Iguana dangling Spider-Man off the edge from his tail.

The reason that Connors has become his evil alter ego once more is of course to protect his family, wife Martha and son Billy, who were imperiled by the Iguana. The opening is pretty much an extended fight sequence as Spidey inserts himself between the Iguana and the Lizard, trying to prevent either one from killing anybody, including each other. At a key moment in the bout, the Lizard is distracted by a cry from his wife Martha, which gives the Iguana the moment he needs to knock the Lizard off the building. Not to be undone, Spidey proceeds to kick the Iguana out into open space as well–then he dives down after the two falling monsters, hoping to be able to save the Lizard’s life. But the wall-crawler needn’t have worried: the Lizard and the Iguana are able to break their fall with an awning, and they crash down into the sewer system. By the time Spidey can get down there, both creatures have disappeared into the network of tunnels.

In the aftermath, Spidey confabs with Martha and Billy Connors about Curt’s recent state. It was Connors’ invention, the Enervator, which had once been used to save Spidey’s life in a bout with the Kingpin, that began to leech off Connors’ own Lizard intellect, ultimately discharging it into a lab iguana and turning it into a similar creature. From Martha’s account, Spidey has an idea of how he might be able to reverse the process, but he’s going to need to access Connors’ research notes and equipment. That means heading over to Empire State University, where Peter Parker is a grad student. Switching back to his civilian attire, Peter bumps into department head Professor Sloane, who has his own mysterious reasons for being in the lab this early, a note that sets up another future plotline.

In Connors’ lab, Peter studies the Enervator, ultimately deconstructing it and transforming it into a portable unit that he can wear on his back. He’s sure that he can use it to devolve the Iguana and restore Curt Connors to his human persona. Unfortunately, as a grad student, he’s got a class to teach. Peter tries to convince the shrewish Marcy Kane to sub in for him, but she’s only too delighted to see the science wunderkind in a bind. But Pete gets some good luck, in that Professor Sloane intercedes, telling Kane that Peter had been at the lab super=early that morning, so she can certainly help him out this once. With no other recourse, Marcy agrees–allowing Peter to dash off to become Spidey and chase after the twin lizards. But it’s one more thing that Marcy Kane has against Peter.

The Web-Slinger heads out towards the city’s Water Purification Plant, reasoning that that’s where all of the sewer lines converge, and that it’d be a great place for the Lizard and the Iguana to hole up until night–in particular the Iguana, who has an aversion to sunlight. And Spidey is correct, as he’s jumped by the Iguana as soon as the enters the plant. What’s more, the two monsters have used their time together to set aside their differences and work together in common cause. In other words, Spidey has to face both of them at once. Fortunately, he’s packing his portable Enervator, and so after the pre-requisite amount of punching and kicking, he zaps the two critters with it, and it begins to drain even more of the Lizard persona out of the Lizard, transferring it to the Iguana while Connors resume his human form.

That’s good news for Connors but maybe not for Spidey, as he’s just made the Iguana a lot more powerful. But Peter’s calculations took that into account as well, and has reasoned that the Iguana’s body won’t be able to contain all of that power. And he’s right–within a few moments, the Iguana explodes, seemingly destroyed. As Spidey and Connors wander away, the Wall-Crawler indicates that Curt should now be forevermore cured (spoiler: he isn’t) and we get a typical final panel where we see that the tiny lab iguana has still survived in the sewers, even as Spidey indicates that they’ll never need to face the Iguana again. The whole issue is a bit by-the-numbers, but it’s all perfectly fine in its execution.

The Spectacular Spider-Mail letters page in this issue included a letter of comment from future Marvel writer Kurt Busiek, who seems to have felt about the improvements to the series the same way that I did. The one bit that seems a tiny bit funny in retrospect is the point where Kurt indicates that newcomer Frank Miller isn’t up to the same level as ASM’s Keith Pollard. Pollard’s a damn fine artist, and nobody could have predicted the heights that Frank Miller would eventually rise to from just his first stories as an artist, so this is all understandable. Still, it’s very much a comment of its time, I doubt there are many who would echo the sentiment today.