Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #213, Amazing Spider-Man #214, Amazing Spider-Man #215
Cover Date: Feb-Apr 81
Title: "All they want to do is kill you, Spider-Man..." / "Then shall we both be betrayed!" / "By my powers shall I be vanquished!"
Credits:
Denny O'Neil - Writer
John Romita Jr. - Penciler
Jim Mooney - Inker

Review/plot:
Ah. This is a good one. A three issue arc with Spider-Man teaming up with the Sub-Mariner to fight a Frightful Four that includes Namor enemy Llyra - the Lemurian who killed Namor's wife Dorma - as the rotating fourth member.

Llyra disguises herself as a human woman - depicted very nicely by John Romita Jr. and poses as one of Peter's apartment mates.

He becomes attracted to her, which results in a Misunderstanding Fight when Namor initially enters the picture.

In order to find Spider-Man's civilian identity, the Wizard lures Spider-Man to a trap at the World Trade Center using a giant robotic spider, which Spider-Man feels obligated to investigate.

From there, they are able to trace Spider-Man back to his apartment building. The rest of the Frightful Four never learn that Spider-Man is Peter Parker specifically, just that he lives in a particular building, but even that is pretty dangerous knowledge for them, and clearly Llyra knows his ID.

Peter's entire apartment building is destroyed by the Wizard, but Spider-Man manages to rescue all of the residents.

If you're wondering why Spider-Man's costume looks so faded in that picture above, it's because Spider-Man accidentally bleaches his costume trying to get the brine out from his previous encounter with the Sub-Mariner.

Later, the Wizard manages to take away Spider-Man's Spider-sense and put it in Namor, making Spider-Man vulnerable and driving the Sub-Mariner crazy.

Mr. Fantastic restores the Spider-sense at the end of the story.

The story has got beautiful art by JRJR . It's got a great build up, with Llyra, identity obscured, breaking the Wizard out of Ryker's, and a later break-out of the other members.

There's a number of good jokes, including the costume gag and some problems with neighbors. And then of course a number of good fight scenes.

There's also continuing interaction between Peter and Debbie. Peter is still acting uncharacteristically badly, but i think it's an interesting study of someone who is typically the rejected loser acting just as badly when the tables are turned.

Overall, a fun arc.

I suspect that Namor's inclusion in these stories is the reason he was in the Spider-Man arcade game. Someone working on that must have liked these issues. Doesn't explain Hawkeye, though.

Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Spider-Man's costume has been itchy since it was soaked in brine in Amazing Spider-Man #211. ASM #211 was also when Spider-Man and the Sub-Mariner last met.
  
• Llyra was last seen in Sub-Mariner #50.
  
• A footnote says "Don't miss Llyra's mysterious re-appearance" in Defenders #93. They actually mean Lady Dorma's re-appearance.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

In Marvelmania #3(6/70), a spoof article was based on a future issue of Marvelmania from July 1980. In the article was mentioned a reprint title called "Marvel Masterworks" and Spider-Man by John Romita Jr.

I thought Peter's behaviour towards Debra Whitman, was disgraceful, and wholly out of character for him. He leaves nonchalantly with barely a 'by-your-leave' after she cooks a huge breakfast and buys tickets to a show. I thought it put the hero in a very poor light and revealed him as a user. All the while he was chasing another girl. Nice art though, good action.

Just reading this series and found it strange the prison let Sandman & Trapster wear their criminal outfits in their cells! Maybe it was an own clothes day in the prison...

The story strongly implies that Llyra is somehow causing Peter's sudden, obsessive attraction to her. Even after she reveals her true form, he's unable to harm her, and Namor says that he is "under her spell." Presumably it's some application of the telepathic powers she uses to control sea life.

While in her surfacewoman disguise, Llyra must have telepathically caused everyone to think that her pointy eyebrows were more fashionably rounded than they actually are. Or maybe it was makeup. That much makeup would be hard to pull off without looking caked-on, but you know our Peter, he's such a sucker for eye makeup.

Llyra's had limited shapeshifting powers in her very first appearance, and they allowed her to pass for human. Interestingly, she psychotically believed her human form was a "twin sister" in her very first appearance; neither this angle nor her powers, were used in her subsequent appearances as a Namor villain in the 1960s and early 1970s. However, those abilities were chronicled in the Marvel Handbook. Much later, in the 1990s, she'll use these talents to impersonate Sue Richards in order to manipulate Namor.

Thanks Omar. That makes more sense than using makeup but it's comics. Is this first appearance from a retcon listed in the Marvel Handbook? I'm not finding any Llyra appearances prior to Sub-Mariner #32 (1970).

Llyras shape shifting powers enabled her to impersonate Dorma in her second appearance.

D'oh! That's right. Interestingly, neither that impersonation nor her transformation into a "surface-woman:" here seem to trigger her dissociative identity problems. Perhaps the shock treatment her mother used to revive her in her second appearance resolved that, because...comic books?

I must confess that I never liked this arc because it undid Llyra's karmic death in the old Sub-Mariner stories, and did so with no explanation whatsoever.

Thanks for helping me find this link, guys. I remember reading this now but I guess I forgot it. If anyone else cares, it's in

http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/sub-mariner_37.shtml