Continuing from the first part; I am reasonably sure this the book that made me a regular superhero reader.
L’Uomo Ragno #25 (1989)
Published by: Star Comics
The cover is from the second issue translated into the book, which is double length: no X-Men this time around. Likewise, the title “Wild beasts” is taken from that story.
Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #75 (1983)
by Bill Mantlo & Bob Hall
The first story wraps up Debra Whitman’s storyline, after which she will disappear for decades.
Speaking of Debra, she’s having recurrent nightmares about Peter Parker being Spider-Man…
…mostly because he sucked at keeping it a secret from her.
I still have my doubts about this psychiatrist, especially because hiding Peter in the next room during Debra’s session breaks just about every rule about his job that I can think of.
Not helped by the fact that his only idea on how to “cure” Debra is to have Peter dress up as Spider-Man.
Also what is it with Spider-Man comics insisting on how it’s impossible to find a copy of his costume that doesn’t suck?
Where do they keep buying these?
Good on Peter for calling bulls#it on this idea. Although it surprises me that he doesn’t suspect the psychiatrist of being Mysterio or something.
All while a mysterious figure poses for the camera. Her identity would be a secret in the original story, but in the Italian repring you already saw her on the cover.
This is when Spider-Man gets mixed up with the Octopus vs Owl war, as they’re both trying to steal something from a research lab.
Too bad the Spider-Sense prevents Spider-Man from being hurt, not from being embarassed.
But Peter has little time for heroics, or for his upcoming exams even, and he’s now focused on finding out more about Debra.
His teacher is willing to give him SOME information, but in typical Spider-Man fashion doesn’t think too highly of Peter.
Next we have something we don’t see very often: a confrontation between Kingpin and Doctor Octopus.
Considering they’re both pretty important Spider-Man villains, and that Doc Ock sometimes wants to be a crime boss, you’d expect them to cross paths more frequently.
You might say Octopus is too fantastical for him, but it’s not like Kingpin lacks connections to the more far-out parts of the Marvel Universe.
This time Doc Ock doesn’t want Kingpin specifically, but to steal the McGuffin Device he owns.
Too bad he just stole a fake one. The REAL thing gets stolen from Kingpin on the same page!
Peter talks to Debra’s boyfriend Biff (he already met him a couple times in previous issues), discovering that she used to be married…
…and separated because he was an abusive a-hole.
Considering Debra was introduced as the most shallow love interest possible, it’s intriguing that she gets to be such a complex character in what was supposed to be her very last appearance.
All while Spidey is missing out the fight between Octopus and Owl. They both need the two devices (the one the Owl stole from the lab and the one Octopus stole from Kingpin).
Doc Ock doesn’t take kindly to the discovery that he stole a fake.
This entire storyline is not particularly flattering for the Owl.
Peter drops by Debra’s apartment, where he sees the fact that she’s talking to her stuffed animals as proof she’s having a mental breakdown.
But Spider-Man, being Spider-Man, decides that all of her problems are his fault.
Even if Peter HAS been kind of a dick towards Debra in the previous issues, this is taking guilt way too far… which, again, is being Spider-Man.
Peter goes so far as to allow Debra to take off his mask. And somehow cause the words “Spider-Man” to appear out of thin air.
Thankfully for his secret identity Debra doesn’t buy it, and thinks he’s doing this just to help her.
Which IS why he’s doing it, after all.
And that’s all we’ll see of Debra Whitman for a long time.
But don’t feel bad for Peter’s romantic life. He’ll manage.
As mentioned many times this was intended to be the last appearance of Debra Whitman.
She was introduced in 1979 during the Marv Wolfman run, in Amazing Spider-Man #196. But it was Mantlo on Spectacular Spider-Man who pushed her as a romanting interest.
She’s… not exactly a compelling character for most of her appearances.
Despite disappearing from comics in 1983, she was a regular supporting character on Spider-Man: The Animated Series from 1994.
I’m guessing the creators of the series really liked the idea of a somewhat ditzy geeky girl with glasses. Strangely enough, while she was in the middle of romantic subplots, she was mainly the love interest of Flash Thompson and Morbius (!!!).
But in comics, Debra wouldn’t be seen until 2006 and “Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #14” by Peter David.
It’s in the period where Spider-Man revealed his identity to the public during Civil War, which lead to Debra writing a tell-all book about him.
Peter doesn’t take it well (that’s him in disguise).
Although we later find out that she did this because she’s has to pay her mother’s significant medical bills and was paid a lot of money by the Daily Bugle…
…and thanks to Spider-Man’s friend (and first girlfriend!) Betty Brandt, she confesses to a rival newspaper that the book was misleading.
Unfortunately Debra doesn’t even MEET Peter during all this (he’s busy dealing with the Vulture), and she hasn’t reappeared yet.
The world eventually was forced to forget Spidey’s identity through comic book shenanigans, so if she shows up again they can’t really reference this story. Which is a pity, since Peter David’s stories in this period were just about the only good thing coming out of revealing the identity.
I fully expect Debra to appear again at SOME point… never underestimate a character with a role in a popular cartoon adaptation.
Historical significance: 7/10
Debra is not THAT significant, but it’s also part of the larger storyline.
Personal significance: 10/10
I tend to consider this one as one cotinuous story with the follow-up. The rest is WAY more influential for me, but I can’t truly separate them.
Silver Age-ness: 1/10
The way mental health is touched is at least slightly Silver Age.
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
And speaking of the psychiatric aspect, that’s basically the only part of the story that hasn’t waged all that well. But I’m cutting it some slack for several reasons: Mantlo’s heart is in the right place, it’s WAY better than the standards of the era, and while the psychiatrist’s solution is absurd the comic does anything but endorse it. At least Peter recognizes he screwed up with the way he treated Debra in earlier stories, and going overboard with taking the blame is one of his core character traits.
Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #75 (1983)
by Bill Mantlo & Al Milgrom
Star Comics wasn’t as averse to having baloons on the cover as the Corno publisher was, but they’re sometimes omitted like this time.
Spider-Man celebrates the fact that Black Cat is still alive with a splash page, which this comic can easily afford since it’s double-length.
Also for some reason this issue’s title is both in Latin and in English.
They celebrate her return with a somewhat awkwardly-drawn kiss.
But as previously mentioned she WAS considered dead at the time, so this needs an explanation.
Specifically she appeared to have killed herself to escape capture the year before, in Amazing Spider-Man #227.
Obviously I hadn’t read that one, but we’re thankfully remined of what happened there…
…and more importantly we’re told HOW she survived: by getting out of her costume.
So I guess the main reason for why villains don’t escape Spider-Man more easily is modesty?
And she’s spent the past year (in publishing time at least) being Doctor Octopus’s prisoner.
You would expect this to lead to the revelation that they were secretly working together and that she’s actually double-crossing everyone, but shockingly that’s not where this is going.
Instead she just ended up stealing the McGuffin that Doc Ock was trying to steal from Kingpin.
Spider-Man is conflicted about whether he should pursue a relationship with Black Cat once again, thinking back about his previous love interests… kind of.
Of course he thinks back at Gwen and Mary Jane, but instead of thinking back to his first girlfriend Betty Brant he thinks about Debra Whitman… who wasn’t REALLY a love interest.
Even more bizarre is the inclusion of Dagger (that’s supposed to be her with the weird thing around her eye)… which is probably due to Bill Mantlo creating her in this series two years earlier.
That’s weird because Spider-Man didn’t show ANY interest in her. (also isn’t Dagger a teenager at this point?)
But thanks to the proportional horniness of a spider he decides to try again with Black Cat.
He’s probably also reconsidering his choice of work.
This is a fun bit, but even if you take out the comedy and the horniness… Black Cat is still right, because if Spider-Man takes the McGuffin back what’s stopping Doctor Octopus from stealing it again?
Also it goes without saying Mantlo knows 100% what he’s doing here. I doubt the Comics Code would have allowed this in the 60s, but they were a lot more lenient in the 80s.
Doctor Octopus then finds them by… uhm… how DID he find them, exactly?
It doesn’t look like he followed Spider-Man, and this is Black Cat’s room in a hotel. Did she book it under her real name? That doesn’t sound like a mistake a professional like her would make.
I absolutely believe Doc Ock had her as a prisoner for (probably) months without ever figuring out that she had a relationship with Spider-Man. Granted they JUST got together again, but they did have an extremely brief romance before.
To Black Cat’s credit, she’s not a damsel in distress here. But she IS incredibly outmatched.
Considering that he has to protect her AND that they’re in an enclosed space, Spider-Man can’t stop Doctor Octopus from escaping into an advertisement.
Specifically, an add for Marvel’s imprint of Epic Comics.
I suppose Star Comics thought that would be confusing, so they just replace it with an add saying “Read Fantastic Four” to advertise their other ongoing series!
With Doctor Octopus gone, Spider-Man then goes to Kingpin to get information.
For me, this is the moment that established Doctor Octopus as the biggest Spider-Man villain. Not only THE FREAKING KINGPIN is afraid of him…
…but more importantly, his entire motivation for trying to NUKE NEW YORK CITY is just “because”.
Which is why I was probably the only person watching The Dark Knight and thinking of Doctor Octopus.
Kingpin doesn’t want the city to blow up, because that’s where he makes the most money, so he tells Spider-Man where he can find Doctor Octopus… the Owl’s lair.
Said lair is The Aerie, and it looks significantly more badass than the Owl himself.
It’s also a throwback to the first Owl story.
Octopus wants the rest of the McGuffin needed for his bomb, so this turns into a Big Dumb Battle between the two supervillains AND their armies of henchmen.
With Spider-Man caught in the middle, of course.
The first big fight is between the Owl and Octopus, and I’m betting on the guy with more arms.
Especially since the other guy wasn’t even all that impressive WITH his gadgets.
All things considered, the Owl got off easy. Also to the best of my knowledge, he’s never even TRIED a rematch with Doctor Octopus.
Spider-Man left the two armies of henchmen to fight each other, going to rescue Black Cat.
Doctor Octopus is so great at multitasking that he’s fighting Spider-Man WHILE beating up Black Cat WHILE trying to active the bomb!!!
But he’s pushed Spider-Man too far, threatening to kill his girl and blow up his city.
Leading to Spider-Man RIPPING OFF HIS ARMS!!!
That image definitely stayed in my mind, and I think back on it whenever these two interact.
The story REALLY drives home how brutal that was!
All things considered, a happy ending… which will become a brutal affair in the finale.
Historical significance: 10/10
Spider-Man was in love with Black Cat in their previous storyline, sure, but that didn’t go anywhere. This storyline, on the other hand, re-introduces her as a regular member of Spider-Man’s life.
Personal significance: 10/10
I’m positive that THIS story, together with the follow-up, is what made me a regular. I was hooked by the drama, the action, the way we get in Peter’s mind… having read more Spider-Man stories I can now see that this is hardly exclusive to this storyline, but it was way more prevalent than in anything else I had read at the time.
I will discuss on a follow-up to the anniversary my thoughts on Black Cat, her relationship with Spider-Man, and why a lot of editors (and sadly too many writers) don’t seem to GET why people get interested in Spider-Man, using this story as a primary example.
Silver Age-ness: 1/10
That lair!
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
You can understand that it’s very, VERY hard for me to be objective about a story that has meant so much to me personally. So it might be my bias talking, but… I think this still holds up remarkably well. Even the artwork, which REALLY isn’t the best part of this run, seems to be stepping up a notch.
Are u sure you’re not confusing TAS Debra with Felicia, who was courted by Flash and became Morbius’ love interest in that adaptation.
It’s been ages since I’ve seen the show, but I’m pretty sure both Debra and Felicia were involved with Morbius at some point. Though if I remember correctly, Morbius was only interested in Felicia.