Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #116, Amazing Spider-Man #117, Amazing Spider-Man #118
Cover Date: Jan-Mar 73
Title: "Suddenly... the Smasher!" / "The deadly designs of the Disruptor!" / "Countdown to chaos!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
John Romita Sr. - Penciler
Jim Mooney / Jim Mooney & Tony Mortellaro - Inker

Review/plot:
This three part story was adapted from Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #1. It tells you something about the circulation of that issue if Marvel thought they could get away with reprinting it here. Gerry Conway gets credited with "Additional dialogue". And there are a number of changes in art and story from the original. One necessary modification at the beginning is to Spider-Man's mask, since in the previous arc he threw it out and later replaced it with a commercial version he took from a store.

He retrieves the mask a few pages into #116.

Another change is that Captain Stacy is dead at this point, so his role in the story is played by Joe 'Robbie' Robertson (if you're comparing to these scenes from the original, also note the revision to that portrait).

Other bits of dialogue are added or revised throughout the story to bring it into current continuity (e.g. having Harry mention the current status quo of Aunt May).

Another major change, as Mark notes in the comments, changes are made to obscure the fact that the evil politician Richard Raleigh is evil. In the Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine version, it was clear from the start that he was a bad guy pulling the wool over on the public. In this version, his dialogue is changed in a major way to hide that fact...

...and in the scenes where that would be unavoidable, his character has been erased and replaced with a villain in full costume called the Disruptor.

There's even an entire new scene with the Disruptor on a rampage.

A quick review of the plot. Basically, everyone finds themselves in love with a politician that Peter and Robbie find too good to be true (you can compare the totally revised dialogue and slightly revised art to this same scene in the Spectacular issue).

As the Disruptor, Raleigh keeps sending another bad guy called the Smasher in to, ah, disrupt the politician's rally (So Big, So Fast alert below).

I thought the device of a news ticker giving updates on the election as the battle progressed was a cool idea (and that was not in the original).

In an unshocking shock ending (even if you haven't read the original), the Disruptor turns out to be the politician.

It's a lame plot, and a really weird way to fill three issues (especially since, as Mark notes in the comments, it wasn't exactly cheap to update this story to fit it in here) but there are still some good character moments that are important to the current continuity.

Statement of Ownership Total Paid Circulation: Average of Past 12 months = 288,379. Single issue closest to filing date = 277,954.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Even though this arc retells the story told in Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #1 from 1968, it definitely takes place as part of Spidey's 1973 continuity. There's a reference to issue #113, for example, and Aunt May is living on Doctor Octopus' island.

The original story is also part of continuity, and it has to take place back during the 1968 issues because it ties in with events in Daredevil #42. So basically we're stuck with saying that very similar events regarding politicians named Richard Raleigh happened twice, which doesn't say much for the Raleigh political dynasty. For semi-jokey purposes i'm listing the giant Smasher as the same one that appeared in the previous story (he's a hand-me-down to this Richard Raleigh from the original), but i'm listing this Richard Raleigh as Disruptor, separate from the original.

References:

• Spider-Man gets his mask back from the Daily Bugle, having lost it in Amazing Spider-Man #113.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Tales #95, Marvel Tales #96, Marvel Tales #97

Stan's contribution was just the original Spectacular Spider-Man #1. The Disruptor was not in that original story; the villain was openly Richard Raleigh from the start. Information about this semi-reprint is extremely confusing--some interviews state that Stan was involved, others state this was done to give newly-appointed Marvel art director John Romita some catch-up time, but Gerry Conway claims that art revisions were so extensive that Romita got no relief at all.

Spectacular Spider-Man #1 had a backup story representing Spider-Man's origin that didn't get reprinted for more than 3 decades. It did have some unique scenes, including Uncle Ben's funeral.

The unpublished Spectacular Spider-Man #3, "The Menace of the TV Terror!" is the great lost Spider-Man story. Apparently it does exist, and was completed or near completion when the magazine was cancelled. Marvel promised us we'd see it in a mid-1980s Web of Spider-Man Annual, but changed their minds. Nothing from this story has ever seen the light of day as far as I know.

I really feel this 3-parter with its revisions is inferior to the original in Spec #1. Spec #1 had better pacing (Lots of padding here). Raleigh's motivation and personality don't mesh with the Disruptor, and its confusing how they could be one and the same.

I kinda liked the fact that in Spec #1, Richard Raleigh was a politician in a suit who served as Spidey's antagonist; it was a very good contrast to the costumed nicknamed bad guys Spidey fought in his regular book. By adding the Disruptor and making Raleigh him, it just makes it another costumed bad-guy story.