Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #208
Cover Date: Sep 80
Title: "Fusion!"
Credits:
Denny O'Neil - Writer
Mark Gruenwald, Jim Shooter & the fans at MapleCon II in Ottowa - Plot assist
John Romita Jr. - Penciler
Brett Breeding & Al Milgrom - Inker

Review/plot:
Denny O'Neil is given writing credits but Fusion was apparently created during a comic convention so note the additional plot assist credit.

A dwarf scientist and his down-to-earth twin brother, who is a janitor...

...get merged together into a super-powered energy-absorbing creature.

Eventually the janitor brother resists the urge to drain power and splits apart.

Weird. Pretty well told, though, and with Romita Jr. art!

This issue is also the first appearance of Lance Bannon, Peter's rival photographer. Peter is still working for Barney Bushkin at the Daily Globe at this point and that's where Bannon starts as well, but they'll both wind up at the Bugle.

Actually, events are in motion on that front already. This issue also introduces Rupert Dockery (to the Spider-Man series; he's already appeared in Spider-Woman), who i think is pretty clearly a Rupert Murdoch stand-in, although it seems pretty early for him to be getting satirized in an American comic book.

Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: 4

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP places this after Spectacular Spider-Man #46 and after Spider-Man's appearance in Spider-Woman #28-29. Rupert Dockery appears here after Spider-Woman #30.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Rupert Murdoch moved to New York in 1974, and started buying up New York newspapers and magazines as part of his Australia based media empire's expansion. Marvel was a part, however small, of the New York magazine industry he was raiding, so the Marvel people would naturally come to learn more than they ever wanted to know about him. Soon thereafter, Murdoch would become a US citizen in 1985, as his empire continued to grow to the point where it is today.