Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #186
Cover Date: Nov 78
Title: "Chaos is -- the Chameleon!"
Credits:
Marv Wolfman - Writer
Keith Pollard - Penciler
Mike Esposito - Inker

Review/plot:
Spider-Man is cleared by the police and taken off the wanted list. He's no longer a criminal.

He starts considering joining the Avengers or merchandising or otherwise trying to better himself now that he's able to show himself in public. Surprisingly, this never really goes anywhere.

The Chameleon tries to ruin Spidey's fun...

...but Spidey handles that.

Chameleon was working for Spencer Smythe, who observes the fight via a hidden monitor. MCP only gives Smythe a "behind the scenes" appearance, but he actually appears in the last panel.

The Chameleon's costume is extra funky in this appearance.

I'm sure both the reporter who asks Spider-Man about his plans, and the lady from DC, are based on real people, but i can't tell you who.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 4 - Spider-Man is no longer wanted by the law.

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP place a long run of Marvel Team-Ups and Peter Parkers between Amazing Spider-Man #186-187.

References:

• Spider-Man has been wanted by the police since the death of Captain Stacy in Amazing Spider-Man #90.
  
• Now that the police have determined that it was Doctor Octopus, not Spider-Man, who was guilty, they would be going after him, except that he died in... "Mayhem in Manhattan - the Spidey novel"?!?!? WTF??!?

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The reporter lady was Barbara Walters.

The comic book lady was Jenette Kahn, publisher of DC at the time. Those panels were a rip on "Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali" a tabloid-size comic drawn by Neal Adams. It was rather late, and although I don't know how organized fandom rated the book at the time, every kid my age that I knew who read comics thought it was the dumbest idea ever.

Mark: I guess it was a weird plot (the concept of "intergalactic television" all by itself is pretty depressing, for the 1970s and now -- no escape!). But it is a classic, one of the best-remembered special editions ever. Mainly what I remember is that extraordinary Adams/Giordano/Austin art. The cover with all those famous spectators. That splash page of city life, with care given to every ordinary person -- decades later, I still remember what the Latina mother with the little girl was wearing. Muhammad Ali's expressions on the page in which he names the round in which his opponent will fall. Comic-book art did not get more vivid for that time.

In the Spider-Man issue above, I smiled at "Maybe you forgot I've got the proportionate strength of a spider...whatever the heck THAT means." Wasn't it you, Mark, who just a few issues ago remarked that Wolfman himself often forgot that, showing Spider-Man trounced by non-powered thugs? Maybe he was reminded and was passive-aggressively working it into this script.

I don't think any kid I knew back then bought the book; they just looked at the ad and thoroughly sneered at the concept. Not very mature, but my comic-reading peers were 8-10 years old at the time.

If Wolfman was reminded, then he forgot again real fast.

Spidey (or Wolfman) was prescient: Leon Spinks lost the title back to Ali about a month after this issue hit the stands. As a figure in popular culture, as in sports history, he was no Ali.

"I just gave free rights to the Electric Company TV show."

I love that they plugged that. Electric Company was a truly awesome show and I absolutely loved it, especially because Spider-Man appeared on it. Since I was 4 when this issue came out, I was definitely much more into Electric Company than actual comics.

What took Spidey so long in-universe to do that anyway? His appearance on "The Electric Company" actually started from 1974 (which is the same time the "Spidey Super-Stories" comics started...heck by this point we already had the infamous Star Wars homage with Moondragon and Thanos!)

As someone who deals with licensing his image as a published comic book character to clothing, hot sauces, posters and more, I can tell you... Spidey is a wise man here! LOL it can be a headache bruh!

On page 14, the D.A. says Docor Octopus is dead, and the footnote references Mayhem in Manhattan, the first Marvel novel, making that book, as far as I know, the only Marvel novel that is definitively in continuity.

Oops, I see you mentioned that in the References. But in the Out of Scope section you were saying you weren't sure if any of the novels were in continuity. That one was. I don't blame you if you don't rush out and buy it, though. It was pretty forgettable.

Well it's probably apparent from the way i wrote the Reference that i'm still not convinced it's really in continuity. :-) In any event, i'll only be covering comics on this site.

Marvel must have really been salty about the Superman/Ali comic; as I just wrote, there's another slam at it in MTiO 45.

The Avengers novel "The Man Who Stole Tomorrow" is also in continuity, but of course that's because it was adapted into comics form in Avengers 206-207 (just as was the novella "This Evil Undying" in 201-202).

Avengers 206-207 featured a couple of inventory stories not the "Man Who Stole Tomorrow" adaptation.

Hmm, sorry. I just remembered all the choppiness around that year, and thought they filled a couple of issues with that. What was it, an Annual? I can't seem to find it in comics form, after all.