We have seen the Cobra and Mister Hyde team being formed and sucking all the way through all their appearances. At the conclusion of this Character Chronoloy, how did their partnership end?
Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #46 (1980)
by Roger Stern & Bruce Patterson
cover by Frank Miller
Considering the Cobra is one of the shockingly few supervillains who got powers by being bitten by a radioactive animal, it’s incredible that it took him THIS long to fight Spider-Man.
The Cobra escapes from prison once again, but at least this time they put SOME effort into locking him up.
This is THE turning point in their alliance: the Cobra leaves behind Mister Hyde.
Since the focus of this retrospective is the alliance itself, I’m not going into the specifics of the story itself. It’s fairly generic (surprising given it’s by Roger Stern!) and the Cobra is not exactly breaking new ground.
Captain America #251 (1980)
by Roger Stern & John Byrne
Roger Stern clearly had something in mind: after being abandoned by the Cobra, Mister Hyde is freed and employed by Batroc.
Stern is definitely the writer who rescued Mister Hyde from his loser streak and made him a respectable villain.
Captain America #252 (1980)
by Roger Stern & John Byrne
This is the SECOND time Mister Hyde tries to break Captain America’s shield.
No wonder he will break the original triangular one during his Masters Of Evil membership… which will happen on the Stern run of Avengers.
Reinforcing my idea that Hyde owes everything to Stern at this point.
Mister Hyde is still so angry at the Cobra that his plan is to blow up half the city just to get him.
My praise for Roger Stern is endless, but John Byrne also deserves a lot of credit for absolutely nailing the Mister Hyde look.
Captain America is completely unable to harm Hyde, and only defeats him by exposing him to freezing gas and dropping him in the river.
I’m skipping most of this one to keep track of the alliance, but the ENTIRE Stern-Byrne run is a masterpiece I can’t recommend enough.
Amazing Spider-Man #231 (1982)
by Roger Stern & John Romita Jr.
Stern wasn’t up with the Cobra, bringing him back a couple of years later in a book with an AWESOME cover.
The Cobra is on a crime spree once again.
He’s doing pretty good for himself, not regretting dumping Hyde.
Until he runs into Spider-Man, who had been following a lead on all those robberies.
Take a guess on how their fight goes.
Unfortunately, once Spider-Man tries to bring him to the cops… Mister Hyde attacks.
Amazing Spider-Man #232 (1982)
by Roger Stern & John Romita Jr.
Too bad for Spidey that this is the revamped Hyde from the previous Captain America storyline, not the lame one from the early 70s.
So he’s in the unusual position of needing to save the Cobra FROM Mister Hyde.
Made worse by the fact that Spidey had previously injured his ankle.
His solution is… original, I guess?
I think the only reason the Cobra survives being used as a punching bag is that it’s probably impossible to break his super-flexible bones.
Hyde manages to escape by endangering civilians, taking Cobra back to his hideout…
…for some torture.
Spider-Man tracks him down, using his speed to stay out of range. It is interesting that Stern decides to give Spidey a handicap for this fight; it highlights how Hyde is closer to his original Thor villain status than he’s been for over a decade.
Seriously what is it with Mister Hyde and falling off buildings!?
However Hyde hasn’t fully recovered to his Thor level, so the fall is what eventually takes him down.
Despite the defeat, Mister Hyde still finishes the storyline with his dignity intact.
Which is more than I can say about the Cobra.
Not that the Cobra had much dignity to begin with.
Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #88 (1983)
by Bill Mantlo & Al Milgrom
This made both Cobra and Mister Hyde kind of Spider-Man villains.
And Hyde’s lust for vengeance against the Cobra is now all-consuming.
Even airlifting the Cobra out of prison is useless.
The Cobra might be a loser, but he’s so slippery that he gets away.
Slithering away, he ends up meeting Spider-Man again. Who at this time was with Black Cat.
However, at this point in their relationship, the fact that Black Cat doesn’t have super-powers was causing a rift between the two. So she decides she’s not going to be sidelined.
The Cobra takes advantage of this to escape… in his own way.
Spider-Man gets very close to defeating Mister Hyde again…
…if only Black Cat didn’t get in the way.
Mister Hyde would likely have killed Spider-Man if it wasn’t for the Cobra, who has recovered his gear.
And in typical Cobra fashion… he still can’t pull of a true victory, because they both end up crushed by rubble.
Mister Hyde would next appear on Daredevil and then on Avengers, while the Cobra would appear on Captain America where he joins the Serpent Society… but that part of their history is besides the scope of this Character Chronology.
Captain America #365 through 367 (1990)
by Mark Gruenwald & Mark Bagley
To give SOME closure to the retrospective, however, let’s have a look at the next time they meet.
At this point, Sidewinder has left the Serpent Society and Cobra is its new leader.
Sure, the fact that Mister Hyde is on the loose is the ONLY reason you’re not Doctor Doom, Cobra.
So across several issues where he stars in a back-up feature, the Cobra conquers his fears and defeats Mister Hyde.
This is the first time, and quite possibly the last, that the Cobra comes off as cool.
And that ended Hyde’s murderous rampage.
By 1995, the two managed to hang out at a pool party and reminisce about the old days.
Historical significance
Captain America #251-252: 8/10
All Spider-Man issue: 6/10
As mentioned multiple times, Mister Hyde owes his legitimacy to Roger Stern.
The Spidey stories are only notable for breaking up the team (at least for what concerns the villains, Spidey has his own completely separate significance).
Silver Age-ness: N/A
Does it stand the test of time? N/A
I have skipped way too much to give a honest score. You’re probably tired of hearing me recommend the Stern run on Captain America; the Spider-Man issues I talked about are not among of his best, but it’s still a good read.
The Spectacular run by Mantlo is hardly spectacular in many places; I would recommend the run as a whole, but be ready for it to drag in many places.
And that was it for the Cobra and Mister Hyde Character Chronology.
Next up will be someone you wouldn’t think would give me a lot of material… Electro.
Because while his fights with Spider-Man are timeless classics, he sure got his fair share of terrible issues fighting OTHER heroes in the 60s and 70s.
Given the ups and downs of their partnership, I’m surprised nobody at Marvel has proposed outing Cobra and Mr. Hyde as a gay couple.
Or maybe someone has.
Because you know…comics!
Hopefully not
It is oddly relatable how the two of them sort of keep drifting into situations that they aren’t fully capable to grasp, plan or deal with and team up due to little more than habit and circunstance. Almost like real people. Marvel does that considerably better than DC, and therefore it has a better repertoire of general purpose villains.
Looking forward to the Electro retrospective. His treatment is curious indeed. At times he seems to have it personally for Spider-Man, but at times it almost feels like a similar character became Daredevil’s foe and somehow the two Electros never learned of each other.