Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #255
Cover Date: Aug 84
Title: "Even a Ghost can fear the night!"
Credits:
Tom DeFalco - Writer
Ron Frenz - Penciler
Josef Rubinstein - Inker

Review/plot:
This issue introduces the Black Fox, a cat burgler that's looking for one more big heist before retirement. He gets caught up in a trap set by the Red Ghost...

...who needs the Fox to steal a component to a device that he calls - no kidding - the Cosmicizer.

The initial introduction to the Fox is designed to mislead us into thinking it might be Spider-Man who is breaking into an apartment.

The Red Ghost insists that the Black Fox bring the Super-Apes along with him on the job, which is a really dumb idea because the apes aren't exactly designed for subtlety.

It makes you wonder why the Ghost bothered to ensnare the Fox if he was going to send his apes. Does he not know how they behave?

Anyway, Spider-Man gets involved, "rescues" the Black Fox (and lets him get away with a bag of jewels), and then tracks down the Red Ghost.

The Ghost himself has apparently become agoraphobic, but when Spidey and the police show up at his apartment, he uses his intangibility to flee. The apes also escape.

At the end of the issue, we see someone waiting by the Hobgoblin's battle-van with a planted Spider-Tracer, disappointed that Spidey didn't show up.

Silly stuff. But the Black Fox has some surprising longevity.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 4 - first Black Fox

Chronological Placement Considerations: Moved back in publication time because of Marvel Graphic Novel #17 (Revenge of the Living Monolith). Takes place before Spider-Man and the Black Cat's break-up in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #93. Takes place after Marvel Team-Up #142-143 and before Marvel Team-Up #144.

References:

• Peter notes that he's been off the planet twice recently, in Marvel Team-Up #142-143 and before that, in Secret Wars.
  
• Peter got a check from the Daily Bugle in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #92, but it hasn't cleared yet.
  
• The check was for the pictures that the Black Cat took of him fighting the Blob in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #91. He hasn't yet told her that the Bugle liked the pictures.
  
• Spider-Man faced the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes previously in Amazing Spider-Man #223.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Tales #269

funny that the black fox shows up right when spidey is in black as well.

Being so aged, this Black Fox would have been active at the same time as the Lost Generation's Black Fox.

The Black Fox is always a fun character for more light-hearted stories.