Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #187
Cover Date: Dec 78
Title: "The power of Electro!"
Credits:
Marv Wolfman - Script
Marv Wolfman & Jim Starlin - Plot
Jim Starlin - Layouts
Bob McLeod - Finishes

Review/plot:
A rare treat of Starlin pencils. Like on Hulk #222, he only does layouts, but unlike that issue, the finished art still retains a lot of the classic Starlin look.

Electro is attempting a kidnapping/ransom scheme...

...but it turns out that the rich kid he's captured has the plague! Oops!

Captain America tries to keep Spider-man out of the area in order to prevent him from getting infected.

Spider-man is too stubborn for his own good, however. The implications really aren't that bad; after teaming up to defeat Electro...

...he just needs an inoculation, which Marv Wolfman uses as an opportunity for some bad rear-end jokes ("That's all behind me now").

The hostage scheme was Electro's own idea, but he says he was paid by someone else to destroy the Indian Point power plant. I thought Dum Dum Dugan's conspiratorial dialogue at the end of the issue was pretty cool, though (and a Godzilla reference to boot!).

It's said in the lettercol for #190 that this issue was plotted more than a year ago as a Marvel Team-Up fill-in and re-scripted to fit into current continuity. Bob McLeod is given special kudos for turning Starlin's "very rough" layouts into a finished product. That seems in stark contrast to my observation that this issue is more Starlin-y than other Starlin fill-in layouts; shows what i know.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: I've pushed this forward in time to be closer to issue #188, since that starts with some thugs taking advantage of the blackout here, and it helps explain why Captain America isn't in Avengers #179-180.

References:

• Dum Dum is referring to the destruction of the Seattle power station in Godzilla #2.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Marvel's had at least 4 "Electro" characters. The first was a remote-controlled robot that appeared in Marvel Mystery Comics during the early 1940s written and darwn by Steve Dahlman. The 2nd one was the green-skinned Russian that the 1950s Captain America fought. The 3rd was a Lee-Kirby pre-hero giant alien monster called "Elektro". The 4th was this Electro here. It's possible that more Electros replaced Max Dillon in the future, but I don't know of any. DC also had an Electro (between Marvel's 3rd and 4th ones) that fought Superman, and resembled a walking mass of neon tubes.

I agree with fnord, this looks very "Starlin-y". That drawing of Cap facing off against Spider-Man and the later one of him cutting across panels are two of the best illustrations of Cap I've ever seen.

One of my first comics, ensuring a love of both cap and electro (i already loved spidey). As I got it when I was four years old and couldnt read, I thought for sure Cap was stronger than spider-man.