Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1970-12-01 00:07:10 |
| Previous: Iron Man #32 | Up: Main 1970 / Box 5 / Silver Age | Next: Daredevil #71 |
Amazing Spider-Man #91-92
Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #91, Amazing Spider-Man #92
Cover Date: Dec 70 - Jan 71
Title: "To smash the Spider!" / "When Iceman Attacks"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Gil Kane - Penciler
Tony Mortellaro & John Romita Sr. - Inker
Review/plot:
Gwen, blaming Spider-Man for the death of her father, decides to work with dirty politician Sam Bullit, who got kicked off the force and is now running on a law and order platform.
Stacy's support is enough to throw the liberals into confusion, and even JJ endorses him when he announces his intention to arrest Spider-Man. JJ's endorsement outrages Robbie, since Bullit is a racist.
Meanwhile, Bobby Drake is attempting to get out of a date (because he's gay) so when he sees Spider-Man swing by holding Gwen (Peter is terrorizing poor Gwen so that she doesn't suspect his identity even though she and Sam Bullit saw him enter Peter Parker's apartment window) he puts her in a cab. Like a true Kirby youth, Bobby is wearing a plaid purple suit jacket on his date. He mentions that he has been out of action for a while now that the X-Men are defunct.
Iceman and Spidey have their classic misunderstanding fight...
...and the Bullit starts bossing Iceman around, acting like Iceman works for him. Iceman is too dumb to put a stop to it.
Meanwhile Robbie has turned JJ around on Bullit, and Bullit has his thugs take Robbie to a warehouse in order to get the evidence that Robbie has been collecting connecting Bullit to racist organizations. Spider-Man and Iceman Team-Up and stop Bullit and his goons.
Gil Kane's new favorite trick is to draw a big close-up of a character's face, and then surround it with a relevant word or phrase. He does it like 3 times in these two issues, and he also did it in issue #89 (Where, where, where?).
Over the top but still good.
A letter in Amazing Adventures #16 (the Beast's book) postulated that Iceman's appearance here was basically a floater to see if Iceman could sustain his own series, and that sales of this issue didn't merit it. The thought didn't even occur to naive little old me, who was just happy to see a guest appearance.
Quality Rating: C+
Historical Significance Rating: 2
Chronological Placement Considerations: Per Jay D.'s comment, this needs to occur after X-Men: The Hidden Years concludes.
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: Marvel Tales #226, Marvel Tales #227
| Previous: Iron Man #32 | Up: Main 1970 / Box 5 / Silver Age | Next: Daredevil #71 |
Comments
Sam Bullitt was probably inspired by segregationist governor George Wallace, who was still making a stink over racial issues even though he was out of office in 1970. He tried to run for president in 1972, but got shot and permanently crippled by grinning psycho Arthur Bremer(some conspiracy theorists think Bremer was mind-controlled by the CIA to take out Wallace and prevent a split conservative vote that could have resulted in McGovern winning the presidency).
Marvelmania #5 announced a 3rd unnamed "split-book" to co-star Iceman and Dr. Strange. Lower than expected sales on this probably torpedoed it, but a Dr. Strange short was done anyway and used in Marvel Feature #1. No idea if an Iceman short was done.
You currently have Iceman appearing here between X-Men: The Hidden Years #15 & 16, which is kinda improbable considering there are really no gaps there for him to be going solo and dating other girls. You need to move this forward after XMHY #22 (which means placing it after FF 102-104).
Agree. Thanks, Jay.
This was my first Gil Kane issue and I thought the "upnose" panel with Bullit was really good. very appropriate for the context.
I think he should have saved it for special dramatic panels, not a couple of times every issue.
I find tis one interesting in light of the Comics Code Authority's proscriptions against portraying authority figures as evil or wrong; was the Code loosening up, or does the fact that Bullit is just a candidate provide a loophole?
@Omar Karindu - I believe it's just that the Comics Code was loosening up.
The Code was revised a number of times during 1971, initially on January 28, 1971, to allow for, among other things, the sometimes "sympathetic depiction of criminal behavior... [and] corruption among public officials" ("as long as it is portrayed as exceptional and the culprit is punished"[12]) as well as permitting some criminal activities to kill law-enforcement officers and the "suggestion but not portrayal of seduction."[12] Also newly allowed were "vampires, ghouls and werewolves..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics_Code_Authority
ASM #92 was cover dated Jan. 1971, so I'm guessing it may likely have been involved in that January 28, 1971 revision of the code. Good question.
@James Holt: A January 1971 cover date means the story was on the stands around October 1970, so Omar's theory sounds more convincing to me.
@haydn, Point well taken. In either case, RIP Comics Code. As a passive-aggressive, so-called "voluntary" censorship panel, whose censorship was enforced for over a decade, by pressuring newsstands to keep comics they didn't like out of circulation, I won't miss it.
What I do miss, however, is all those Gil Kane up-the-nostril shots and full page spreads. Pretty sure all those noses must have been modeled after Kane's own, by looking in his mirror. 8D
