Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #234, Amazing Spider-Man #235, Amazing Spider-Man #236
Cover Date: Nov 82 - Jan 83
Title: "Now shall Will-o'-the-Wisp have his revenge!" / "Look out, there's a monster coming!" / "Death knell!"
Credits:
Roger Stern - Writer
John Romita Jr. - Penciler
Dan Green / Frank Giacoia - Inker
Linda Grant - Assistant Editor
Tom DeFalco - Editor

Review/plot:
Peter Parker's pictures of the shooting of Nose Norton from last issue turn out to not reveal anything helpful.

The Brand Corporation offers to give the Tarantula actual spider-powers.

Spider-Man shows up to put a stop to it, but the Will O' The Wisp has been pursuing a vendetta against Brand...

...and he shows up during the Tarantula's power transformation.

His interference causes the Tarantula to transform into a spider-monster.

Spider-Man has to divide his time between preventing the Will O' The Wisp from killing any Roxxon agents and fighting the mutated Tarantula.

Meanwhile, a Federal agent shows up at the Daily Bugle, asking them to kill their investigation into Brand and Roxxon because it has the potential to interfere with the Justice Department's case.

In the end, revelations about the Tarantula force a confession out of the head of Brand, and Mr. D'Angelo, head of Roxxon, closes down all of its Brand facilities...

...but of course Roxxon itself escapes scott free. Tarantula dies...

...and Spider-Man and Will O' The Wisp part on good terms.

As always, it's a great arc by the Stern/JRJR team.

Some Daily Bugle cast ongoings:

Issue #234 has a 16 page insert called "The Marvel Guide to Collecting Comics". It's a very basic introduction to collecting comics, with definitions of "Mint" and the "Golden Age" and some other things.

Definitely with a mind towards encouraging speculator behavior (On a page entitled "It's Better Than Money in the Bank", it says: "You can be pretty sure that most No. 1 issues of just about any major comic from DC or MARVEL will become worth more than what you pay for it.")...

Click to see your investment grow.

...but they also encourage people to collect things that they will actually enjoy reading. And they take a minor swipe at the competition:

DC made a very big deal out of the arrival of SHAZAM No. 1, because after many years the original CAPT. MARVEL would again be appearing in new adventures. They were even going to be drawn by the original artist, C.C. Beck. When SHAZAM No. 1 finally came out, many collectors bought dozens of copies. Within a year, however, people found themselves sitting on stacks of SHAZAM No. 1 worth little more than what they had paid for them due to poorly written stories. This comic is slowly rising in price but it will be a long time before it will be worth the trouble collectors and dealers went to get them.

It's worth pointing out that Shazam #1 (1973) now sells on mycomicshop.com for $85 in mint conditions, and it was written by Denny O'Neil, who was an editor and writer for Marvel at the time this Guide was written.

Anyway, the Guide is an interesting artifact, and it's got a nice cover drawn by Walt Simonson.

Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - end of the Brand Corporation

Chronological Placement Considerations: This takes place soon after #233, with Peter Parker and Ben Urich back at the Daily Bugle checking out pictures that Peter took in #233. So preferably no other Spider-Man appearances should occur between #233-234. Takes place after Marvel Team-Up #124.

References:

• The Will O' The Wisp was last seen in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #57.
  
• Aunt May turned her house into a boarding house for retirees in Marvel Team-Up #124.
  
• The Federal agent at the Bugle provides a long history of Roxxon's criminal activities (with no footnotes, dammit!):
  • The Avengers' fight against Orka at Brand in Avengers #149.
    
  • The Manticore's attack on Hawkeye from Ghost Rider #27.
    
  • Roxxon's attempt to acquire vibranium in Iron Man #120-121.
    
  • Using Deathlok and the Grapplers to attack Project Pegasus in Marvel Two-In-One #53-58.
    
  • The Serpent Squad attack in Marvel Two-In-One #64-66
    
  • The raid on Metrobank (a subsidiary of Roxxon) in Marvel Two-In-One #73.
    
  • Iron Man's fight with Sunturion in Iron Man #142-144.
    
  • The attempt on the life of Nose Norton in Amazing Spider-Man #233
• Geraldo (!) is upset that he's been assigned to cover society functions instead of getting juicy assignments like covering Sam Wilson's congressional campaign. That's a reference to recent events in Captain America beginning with Captain America #272, but mainly i wanted to note that Geraldo is apparently a supporting character in Amazing Spider-Man.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Will O' the Wisp's "costume" was designed by Len Wein.

DC's Shazam! did indeed receive a lot of brickbats for its stories at the time of publication, especially by C.C. Beck. He got booted off the book due to refusing to draw one exceptionally awful story(by Elliott S. Maggin, I believe).

I'm not sure what the problem was. When I went back and read the 70's Shazam! book it seemed like decent quality stuff to me. Granted, the end stuff WAS better than the beginning stuff, but the beginning stuff wasn't bad.

Evan Dorkin --of Milk and Cheese fame -- has a letter published in Amazing Spider-Man #236, commenting on how much he is enjoying the series, after having stopped reading comics for three years prior to the Stern/Romita, Jr,/DeFalco run.

I'd assumed the Tarantula dies in this issue, and since I have the same opinion as Stern about the Tarantula as someone who can hold his own against Spider-Man, I've always been quite happy with that. But here the Tarantula is referred to as "seemingly" dying and his death is not listed in the historical significance rating.

While I know there have since been other people calling themselves Tarantula, I thought the original guy really died here. I've had a quick google but can't see any references to the original guy coming back, out of morbid interest can anyone shed some light on where he returns?

This is indeed the last appearance of the original Tarantula. I don't know if his death merits a Sig Rating increase, but i've removed the "seemingly" to avoid confusion.

Thanks for the clarification. I wouldn't argue for a Sig Rating increase (as you can tell I was never really a fan of the character), I was just surprised it wasn't mentioned at all. I'd remembered Conway using him all the time in my youth, but when I look at how many appearances the original had, he actually appears in less issues than I thought.

The original Tarantula probably won't ever come back because the character's origin ensures that the Delvadian government can always whip up a new one if the current one dies.

Well that's you thinking like a sensible person and not a comics writer :) They brought Betty Brant's brother back, they'll bring anyone back.

Well, the second Tarantula, Luiz Alvarez, was introduced by Gerry Conway, who created the first Tarantula. If even Conway decided to just create a new one instead of bringing back the old one, I can't imagine another writer bringing Rodriguez back.

I will say this for the original Tarantula; getting mutated into a giant spider and going insane and committing suicide is a waaaaaaaay better way to go than say, getting shot by Scourge...

Interesting to see Marvel claim they had "the greatest impact on the future of comics" when they published Amazing Fantasy #15, not Fantastic Four #1.

If only speculators or even anyone at Marvel itself in the 90s had read what they said about Shazam #1 here, a lot of the madness of that decade could have been avoided...DC can take some comfort that even when Marvel recognizes DC's mistakes, they don't learn from them.

I actually quite liked the 70s Shazam series.

The character of Amy Powell appears here by search, but she isn't listed in the Characters Appearing section.

Thanks Chris. Added her.

Because that isn't Amy Powell. It's obviously Valerie Cooper going undercover to do some early re recruitment for Freedom Force. (I mean, look at her!)