Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #172, Amazing Spider-Man #173
Cover Date: Sep-Oct 77
Title: "The fiend from the fire!" / "If you can't stand the heat...!"
Credits:
Len Wein - Writer
Ross Andru - Penciler
Frank Giacoia / Jim Mooney - Inker

Review/plot:
Four pages. That's how long it takes for Spider-Man to put Rocket Racer in jail in RR's first appearance.

That's a bad showing. It takes some bad guys years to become a joke. Rocket Racer starts off as one. I guess when your powers pretty much start and end with "skateboard" you shouldn't have high hopes.

The rest of the issue is Spidey dealing with Liz Allan and the fact that her step-fatherbrother (thanks, Kveto), the Molten Man, is at it again.

I don't usually have a lot to say about the Molten Man. Not really Spidey's most interesting villain. I know he eventually reforms, so i look for elements that support that (or not), and here he is apologizing to a nurse after terrorizing her and forcing her to administer a cure (that doesn't last long).

Besides that, i've got nothing, so here are some action shots.

After the Molten-Man's seeming death (again), Liz runs away, blaming herself.

Peter gets a letter in #170 saying that he's going to flunk out of school.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - first Rocket Racer

Chronological Placement Considerations: In the aftermath of his first encounter with the Molten Man in this arc, Spider-Man is shot in the shoulder by a security guard. The shoulder injury results in a number of considerations. In this arc, Peter gets himself patched up by Doc Connors off panel ("It's fortunate [he] hadn't left for Florida yet"), so i've included him as a character appearing. In the next arc, Peter is shown returning from his fight with Molten Man, still suffering from the bullet wound. The wound completely heals in Amazing Spider-Man #176, which is part of a continuing story that ends in #180. Then in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #12, Peter is testing out his healed arm with Flash Thompson on a tennis court. So Spider-Man basically appears from ASM #172-180 in a single run, with PPTSSM #12-15 taking place afterwards.

References:

• Peter learns that Marla Madison, JJ's future wife, helped JJ build the Spider-Slayer from "several issues back", in Amazing Spider-Man #167.
  
• The Molton Man previously seemingly died in Amazing Spider-Man #132-133 but pollutants in the water kept him going.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

step-brother, actually

The Rocket-Racer is a nod to the 1970s skateboard fad. The Peter Parker book under Bill Mantlo would do this kind of thing to a much greater(and much more embarrassing) degree). Rocket-Racer actually became a tougher villain for Spider-Man under Marv Wolfman(without changing a thing about him) which doesn't say much for Wolfman's tenure.

What kind of pollutants stop a guy from boiling himself to nothing? Did someone throw a bunch of fire extinguishers into the river?

Maybe brominated vegetable oil, a flame retardant and ingredient in Mountain Dew. I sense the makings of a new marketing campaign...