Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #297
Cover Date: Feb 88
Title: "I'll take Manhattan!"
Credits:
David Michelinie - Writer
Alex Saviuk - Penciler
Vincent Colletta - Inker
Jim Salicrup - Editor

Review/plot:
This continues the Dr. Octopus story from last issue. But first, Spider-Man's new webshooters:

Ummm, i'm not sure how much of that will stick. But sure, those look like some nice changes.

Peter is then taken out to dinner by Aunt May and Aunt Watson (Mary Jane is still away on her photoshoot) and then Peter goes to the Bugle. He's still worried about all the money he spent on his new webshooters, and after making a comment to Joy Mercado, Joe Robertson has a suggestion.

Wow, indeed! And the work Peter just did on his shooters suggest a possible career direction.

Spider-Man then bungles an attempt to stop a robbery ("Senkevich", i believe, is how you pronounce Bill Sienkiewicz's last name).

It's not until halfway through the book that the Doctor Octopus story gets moving. Doc Ock has all his goons dressed up in the old Master Planner costumes, in a new base at the World Trade Center.

He's intending to release a germ bomb to kill the entire city to kill Spider-Man, but Spider-Man tracks him down first.

However, Octavius is the only one that can stop the bomb, and he's paralyzed with fear upon sight of Spidey. So Spider-Man has to make him unafraid.

That plan starts to backfire when Doc Ock gets his confidence back and starts beating Spider-Man for real, but at least he cancels the bomb. Ock then lets Spidey go so that Spider-Man can live with the humiliation and fear that he's been experiencing. But Peter actually considers this to be a moral victory and a step towards adulthood for him.

We're definitely setting up for some growth and changes for the married Peter. And we should now be on a path to make Doctor Octopus the serious menace that he should be again, after a long period where he was unable to face Spider-Man. It all feels a bit forced, and it's not the best art, which is kind of surprising for such a flagship book, but it's all not too bad.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - upgrade to Spider-Man's webshooters. Doctor Octopus no longer afraid of Spider-Man.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Black costume Spider-Man appearances need to take place prior to Fall of the Mutants due to Amazing Spider-Man #298-300.

References:

• Doctor Octopus has been terrified of Spider-Man since Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #79.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

It's been ages since I read these issues so I may be way off on the timeline, but is Robbie's crushing of Peter's soul there leading up to that ill-advised storyline where Peter promotes a book of Spidey photos called "Webs?"

@Robert- no, it's not.
This is really the last work Vince Coletta does for Marvel. There were a couple of Conan issues, and an Inhumans special and a Fred Hembeck story that had been done years before they were published but this is the last major work. Many fans rejoiced.

It definitely is the end of an era. We're seeing the last of Vinnie Colletta at Marvel a month before Todd McFarlane takes over the flagship Spider-Man series. Think about it. Coletta was on nearly every book at one point even before Shooter became EIC and all of a sudden, we go into the Image School.

For better or worse, I'd mark this issue as the true end of the Bronze Age that began back in the Seventies.

I believe we're 2 issues away from seeing Venom...then it all goes wrong.

Hey, the first two Venom stories were well done. Afterwards they really started over using him and then tried to make him some kind of Lethal Protector crap.

I still think the Michilinie writing duties was the last golden age of Spider-Man.

By the time I tried to get back into comics (although I was never a collector) in the 90s he was all over the place. Then there were about six million symbiotes I just lost faith in comics after that. Looking forward to reading the early Venom stuff.

I tried sticking around during the McFarlane and Larsen eras, but the early to mid 90's made me fall out of love with comics completely. I quit shortly after Bagley took over the art and before stuff like the the Clone Saga happened. I think the introduction of Carnage was the last straw for me.

I've never looked back.

Exactly the same action I took Clutch. I did really enjoy ASM during McFarlane's run though during real time. Not sure I would now knowing what it inspired.