Curse of the Living Vampire!

Well, this was terrible. First of all, Morbius is such a shitty character, or at least shittily used. His whole story here was completely clichéd and boring. And the end? RIDICULOUS! Morbius drinks a bit of Spidey’s blood and gets by lightning and he’s cured! OMGZ! Gimme a break. The two mildly interesting aspects of this issue were Pete’s awkward run-in with MJ, and that Chip guy’s mutant freak-out.

Buscema and Stone really phoned in the art.

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From the Ashes…

Finally done with stupid ass Spider-Woman comics for a bit.

Peter Parker only appeared in this for one panel, photographing Cap at a new conference. Despite being basically Spidey-less, this was an awesome issue. It was an incredibly dark story that involved Sharon Carter dying, Cap retiring, and a disturbingly gruesome look at World War II. It was extremely well done.

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Murder in Cathedral Canyon!

Well…this thing says it’s the Fourth of July, but once again I think it’ll have to be ignored. I will assume that’s a metaphor, since Pete is kissing Cissy and Fireworks are metaphorically going off (though they are shown on-panel).

Pretty good epic anti-bomb, anti-armament story. I quite liked it.

So Cissy Ironwood’s dad gets killed here, and Spider-Man is powerless to stop it. What the hell’s with Peter’s girlfriends’ dads getting killed?

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A Child is Waiting

This was a mildly entertaining kidnapping caper, in which little Franklin Richards gets abducted and held for ransom. Spidey and the Invisible Girl team up to get him back, and everything ends up wonderful.

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Now You See Me! Now You Die!

Another boring Mysterio issue. I am curious what hidden treasure in the Parker home Mysterio and the Burglar are after, but mostly I just want this story to wrap up.

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Mysterio is Deadlier by the Dozen!

Except for JJJ having a nervous breakdown (or heart attack?), this was a fairly boring issue.

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Might of the Monocle!

Since this takes place the same day as ASM 193, it should take place before those Hostess ads.

This was a really great, if fairly standard, hypnosis story. I usually get annoyed when Spidey and the Torch team up, but this had a really good pacing and was actually funny a bunch of times. Kudos!

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Membership Madness!

Spidey appears in a flashback / TV appearance to the previous issue. This was painful to read.

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Where Were You When The Lights Went Out?

Awesome cover by Ernie Chan!

Where the hell is MJ? Not counting the Hostess ads, we haven’t seen her in ages. Lightmaster kidnaps Hector, Pete figures out Hector’s identity, and then White Tiger willingly reveals it to the world at large. After a stupid fight, Lightmaster basically dies.

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Again, The Enforcers!

The Enforcers are back! Including a new Ox, which is just weird. They are being led by Lightmaster, one of the lamest Spidey villains ever.

After stinking it up a couple issues ago, Buscema kicks ass here! His Enforcers look great!

The issue is mostly a little boring, and the fact that Hector Ayala is in it really irks me. At the end, Lightmaster thinks that Hector is Spider-Man, which means I’m going to have to deal with more White Tiger crap shortly.

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My Friend, My Foe!

The resolution to this whole thing was fairly unsatisfying. In the end, though, Bobby Drake is back to normal and the real bad guy is defeated. At the end there are some epiloguey pages with White Tiger going to ESU (booo) and somebody mysterious and powerful breaking out of prison. Perhaps Electro?

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Whatever Happened to the Iceman?

Spidey’s in LA! Apparently the Champions are splitting up, and Pete’s there to cover it. Unfortunately, Iceman is zombified into being a bad guy. The issue ends with a tense standoff.

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The Beetle and the Badge!

The pencils in this issue are terrible, way below Sal’s usual. The inks and colours are kind of weird too, to be honest. The whole thing looks kinda cheap and rushed.

Kinda shitty dialogue, here, but the plot was good. It had an old-fashioned Stan Lee kinda feel. Much like with that Team-Up I just read, I’ve never heard of this writer.

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The Final Rage!

Cool cover homage to the classic Ditko art in ASM 33.

Everything is wrapped up in a neat little package, with the Man-Beast seemingly destroyed and Sha-Shan and Bobby Sue saved. Awesome arc!

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Killing Me Softly…With His Hate!

This issue was great. All the shit’s about to go down with Hate Monger (who is really the Man-Beast), Sha Shan, etc.

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…The Coming of Razorback!

this issue completely unexpectedly drops the sha-shan story line and starts out with a new bad guy, razorback. he’s huge, wears a boar’s-head-hat, and has an electrified mane. it turns out, though, that he’s actually a good guy. he’s an uninteresting character that does little more than waste space in the issue.

The issue ends in a cliffhanger, with Flash, Razorback, and Spidey manacled and about to be dynamited.

Weaker than the last one, but fairly decent.

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Brother Power, Sister Sun!

Peter fights against a cult, the Legion of Light, run by Sha-Shan and her husband, Achmed Korba — a.k.a. Sister Sun and Brother Power. They somehow possess super powers that may or may not have been given to them by an alien known as “the Mentor”.

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Tiger in a Web!

In addition to all the things I didn’t like about the last issue, this one added a bunch of complexity to the plot that I thought took away a lot more than it added.

…Like a Tiger in the Night!

Overly political, overly contrived. Boo. My impression is that this would have been better in the 70s, but that it hasn’t aged well. Not that racism doesn’t still exist, it’s just that the approach here is a little too hackneyed. I’m also not into the kung-fu thing, as I have mentioned before.

Unfortunately, this is continued next issue.

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Flashback!

Somehow I didn’t even notice this in my list until I was right on top of it. It’s pretty unusual for an issue of Amazing to appear in list out of publication order, but I’m going to trust this is right.

On the anniversary of his Uncle Ben’s death, Spider-Man goes to visit his Ben’s grave. Most of the issue is a retelling of Spidey’s origins and adventures up to this point, however these are interspersed with new scenes at the cemetery. These are actually surprisingly touching – Peter returns the microscope Ben gave him way back in Amazing Fantasy 15, leaving it at the grave. Later, a cemetery worker is lamenting the fact that he can’t afford a gift for his son, who all the other kids pick on. Finding the microscope, he decides to give that as a gift. And so it goes!

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Panic on Pier One!

I’m not a big fan of either Ghost Rider or the Trapster, so this was fairly boring for me. Also, Pete once again just leaves MJ hanging, injured, and takes off.

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Who is — the Man Called Photon?

A whodunnit! Awesome! Nova’s uncle gets killed, and everyone in the house is a suspect. This is just like Clue!

“The answer will be revealed in the Amazing Spider-Man no. 171!”

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When Slays the Silver Samurai!

This was really terrible. I seem to remember Team-Up getting really good for awhile there — what happened? Now it’s back to all fighting, no character development. Am I wrong? Maybe it’s always been this bad.

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…and Only One Shall Survive!

And now, the exciting conclusion of this battle with Morbius, the Living Vampire!

Spidey actually manages to knock Morbius out pretty easily. Unfortunately, the Empathoid takes this as a cue to merge with Spider-Man’s body. When this happens, Spidey gets a bunch of memories that aren’t his own. It turns out Morbius wasn’t on the moon, but some other world, and it was there that he came into contact with the Empathoid. This creature fed off Morbius’s emotions, and forced him to come back to Earth to continue feeding.

Naturally, it all works out in the end, and Pete uses a pretty clever ruse to defeat the Empathoid. The whole thing was a little too fightey for me, but it was entertaining.

We also get some resolution to the whole Flash / Sha Shan thing – the restaurant owner guy is actually Sha Shan’s husband. When Flash learns, he leaves dejectedly.

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Cry Mayhem– Cry Morbius!

This is the 500th comic I’ve read for this project! Wooooo! 500 down, about 3500 to go!

It’s good to get back to some real, honest-to-goodness, Spider-Man storytelling. This issue opens with Spidey going after Mr. Morgan, full throttle. It’s a pretty great opening.

Morbius is controlled by an alien inner voice, presumably that of whoever sent him back to Earth — the Empathoid, apparently. So far, Morbius has kidnapped Glory and Spidey is trying to save her. I’m sure it will all reach a stunning conclusion next issue.

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