Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #88, Amazing Spider-Man #89, Amazing Spider-Man #90
Published Date: Sep-Nov 70
Title: "The arms of Doctor Octopus!" / "Doc Ock lives!" / "And death shall come!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
John Romita Sr. / Gil Kane - Penciler
Jim Mooney / Tony Mortellaro & John Romita Sr. - Inker
Stan Lee - Editor

Review/plot:
The credits don't actually list Tony Mortellaro but we'll take the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators' word for it.

Dr. Octopus, in a prison in the midwest, summons his arms from New York.

In the saddest display of police incompetance in a comic book ever, the NYC police fail (along with Spidey) to stop the arms or to alert the prison guards that they are coming. So Doc Ock escapes and catches a plane out of Chicago back to New York. Think about how far those arms would have had to travel in order to make it worth Dr. Octopus' while to fly home from Chicago. You could have had the entire state police plus the Avengers waiting near his cell by the time those arms arrived.

Anyway, the plane he chooses also happens to contain J. Jonah Jameson, his son John, and General Su, who is flying to the UN for peace talks (by way of Chicago?) where he will delight the UN delegates with such phrases as "Ah so! There are those who would wish us harm!" and "When the wise man cannot act, he waits... and bides his time!".

It also contains some flight attendents in funky go-go gear. So really, it was a good choice for Doc Ock; he gets a little of everything.

Peter and Robbie show up at the NYC airport in order to get the story, and they find retired police chief Captain Stacy there as well. That old man has his fingers in everything. There's also a bunch of hippies protesting General Su, so i guess he is supposed to be the south Vietnamese representative. When Robbie sees the protesters he snaps, foaming at the mouth and shaking his fist. Clearly, this relates to pent up frustration with his son. Peter sneaks away while Robbie is ranting to attack Doctor Octopus as Spider-Man. In the fight Doc Ock is seemingly killed in a plane explosion.

Issue #88 was drawn entirely by Romita and, coupled with the nicer production values of the one shot it was reprinted in, it looks really nice compared with the issues where he's only been doing breakdowns (again, though, it may be due to the quality of the older Marvel Tales reprints).

The remaining isses are drawn by Gil Kane, who i am not a fan of, but are inked by Romita (and apparently Tom Mortellaro) and look pretty good.

Peter begs off on another protest organized by Randy (against air pollution), despite the fact that Ralph Nader was going to show up.

Peter wants to search for Doctor Octopus instead, but that seems kind of like an excuse because he's presumed dead and certainly not actively raising a fuss.

After searching for Doc Ock for a while (Where? Where? Where? Where?)...

...he finally finds him and, after a preliminary battle that Spidey loses...

....the two of it go at it in a battle on a rooftop. A crowd gathers below, and as Octopus knocks a bunch of bricks off a chimney into the crowd, Captain Stacy pushes a kid out of the way, getting hit by the bricks himself.

Peter defeats Dr. Octopus using a device that scrambles his mechanical arms, and then he rushes down to get Stacy. It's too late to take him to the hospital but with his dying words Stacy reveals that he knows that Peter is Spider-Man and he tells him to look after his daughter.

To the crowd it seems that Spider-Man killed the Captain and then took the body away.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 4 - death of Captain Stacy

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Cross-over: N/A

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: The Death of Captain Stacy