Web Slinging; What Makes Spider-man So Amazing! - 'Amazing Spider-man' #229 and #230

In a completely selfish hope that Marvel Comics' new high end collectible Wolverine Adamantium Edition may be followed by a Spider-man Web Slinging Edition I’m taking the opportunity to highlight the stories that I think are representative of what makes Peter Parker “Amazing”.  I’m sticking exclusively with the mainstream Spider-man most people know of and worked hard to keep the page count as close to 720 as possible.  I’m also working in publication order so that we can see the character growth and development as it happened.  Last week I chose the original Clone Saga from Amazing Spider-man #143 – 150.

Now we’ll jump ahead again to June and July of 1982 and the very classic “Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut” and “To Fight the Unbeatable Foe” From Amazing Spider-man #229 and #230.

Recently introduced into the Spider-man stories was a character called Madame Web.  She was a psychic who could see the future.  Unfortunately for her she had come to the attention of Black Tom Cassidy and his associate and partner Cain Marko A.K. A. The Juggernaut.  Juggernaut was dispatched to bring Madame Web back to Black Tom so that they could coerce her abilities for their own ends.  Having seen this ‘Dark One’ coming Madame Web called on Peter to come help.

True to Peter Parker’s character he simply can’t refuse to help someone who asks.  He’s also not so stupid as to not recognize when he’s in over his head.  Calls to everyone and anyone for help all turned out disappointingly, and daunted and definitely concerned Spider-man faced Juggernaut alone.

He thought it was a delaying action and that help would still come.  For a little while that was all that kept him going, as nothing he did had any effect on The Juggernaut whatsoever.  When Cain finally reached Madame Web and attempted to bring her back to Black Tom he realized that she was hooked up to a life machine and now removed, was useless to their plans.  He just dropped her body among the rubble of his path.

And that was too much for Spider-man!  She wasn’t dead but he had answered the call to help her and he was going to be damned if Juggernaut just sauntered away from this with nary a second thought.  Spider-man stepped so far out of the box to use anything in the environment against Juggernaut and it was all frustratingly for naught.  Still help never came.

Yet, he prevailed in the end.  Intellectually, Peter may have known it was only a temporary cell he caged The Juggernaut in, but he was trapped for now, and that was good enough to end the fight of a lifetime.

This to me is the never give up, never say die attitude that drives Spider-man on.  It’s a strength of will and determination that defines him beyond words.  Peter Parker accepted a call for help and even when he saw that he couldn’t win, he fought on.  Even after he’d effectively lost the cause, he fought for justice.  He fought to have not been called in vain.  He gave more than was asked and ultimately won for it.  Life can throw obstacles at us all the time and some are larger than we’d ever like to see, but we’ve now seen how to dig deep, how to persevere.  That’s why this selection is here.

Michael R. Murray has been buying and collecting comics for over 35 years.  At one point his collection included two copies of Amazing Spider-man #1, and one copy each of Amazing Fantasy #15, Fantastic Four #2, Avengers #4, Showcase #22, and dozens more high grade and key issues.  The collection has grown to include original art pages, as well as statues and busts, with the current emphasis on collecting original drawings from appropriate artists on the inside of his hard covers.  His personal collection of graphic novels consists of over 2,000 hard covers and trade paperbacks.   He has attended all of the Boston and New York Comic Cons and experienced Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Diego.  He has championed comic books in the local schools and was very proud that both of his children read at least three years above their grade levels, due nearly exclusively to comics.  He’s quick to point out that none of this makes him an expert, but that his love of comics is most enjoyable when he can share it.  Follow on Twitter at mycomicstore001 or like his Facebook page.

 

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