Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #222
Cover Date: Nov 81
Title: "Faster than the eye!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Bob Hall - Penciler
Jim Mooney - Inker
Mark Gruenwald - Assistant Editor
Tom DeFalco - Editor

Review/plot:
This fill-in issue in the transition between Denny O'Neil and Roger Stern's run does us the enormous favor of reducing the number of characters we have to refer to as "Whizzer" by one. This is the Squadron Sinister version, and prior to this story, he develops an upgrade to his super-speed chemical formula, gets himself a new costume, and changes his name to Speed Demon, saying "Let the original Whizzer have his name back".

The Speed Demon makes his debut robbing a jewelry store. Spider-Man attempts to stop him, and thinks to himself that his powers have also sped up his senses, allowing him to see the Speed Demon even while he's moving. But the former Whizzer is still too fast for him.

Peter has his camera working during the initial fight, and i'm kind of surprised by this sequence at the Daily Bugle.

First, JJ is angry that Peter only managed to capture the Speed Demon as a blur, but doesn't that actually make for a pretty cool picture? You'd think that would make for a good angle on the story. Second, you'd think Peter would be so upset about the final picture with Speedy having defeated Spidey. It's still a great picture! In any event, you'd think Peter would be more careful about showing how he felt about it. In older stories Peter knew his photos would be used to make Spider-Man look bad; that was part of the trade-off.

For the rematch fight, Spider-Man correctly decides that Speed Demon will attack Bloomingdale's next (Chond Anti-Fungus Spray?)...

...so he scopes out the place and figures out all the exits and good places to put webbing. Which (if you accept that it had to be Bloomingdale's) is a cool idea.

But the fight is depicted in a kind of Looney Tunes sort of way; with Spider-Man acting very casual and making really, really corny jokes.

Did Bugs Bunny ever go up against Speedy Gonzalez? Cause i imagine it would have went exactly like this.

Spidey gets a new picture of himself with the now-defeated Speed Demon.

Super speed characters can be very powerful if used properly, which isn't really the case here. But despite a deliberately silly fight, it's a cool idea that if Spider-Man has time to prep an area, he can handle even a speedster like Speed Demon.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - the Sinister Whizzer becomes Speed Demon

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Spider-Man compares Speed Demon to Quicksilver, who he fought in Amazing Spider-Man #71. He thinks Speed Demon might even be faster.
  
• The Grandmaster helped the Whizzer develop his super-speed formula in Avengers #70.
  
• It was after his last defeat in Avengers annual #8 that he decided to improve on his formula and change his name.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

This provides a reason why I felt Peter David's "Ace" Spider-Man story just couldn't work. Spider-Mabn can figure out how to defeat the Speed Demon, but he couldn't handle the fast but still slower-moving Ace?

I think the idea was that Ace had some sort of power similar to Peter's Spider-sense. It didn't come across very clearly, though.