Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #126
Cover Date: Nov 73
Title: "The Kangaroo bounces back!"
Credits:
Gerry Conway - Writer
Ross Andru - Penciler
Jim Mooney - Inker

Review/plot:
The Kangaroo returns!

Dr. Jonas Harrow, the doctor who gave Hammerhead his thick metal skull, enhances the Kangaroo's powers...

... and sends him after a radioactive isotope. Spider-Man tries to stop him, warning him that the gamma radiation will kill him, but the Kangaroo doesn't listen, and he is killed.

Spider-Man is contacted by advertising agents for Corona Motors, who have created a non-polluting car engine and they want to pay Spider-Man to build a Spidey Car using the engine.

Spidey eventually agrees...

...and enlists the Human Torch to help him build the car.

Peter is still not socializing with Mary Jane and Flash.

He is not dealing well with Gwen's death. And Aunt May is still upstate with Doctor Octopus.

Harry has gone completely bonkers, and he's got his father's Green Goblin costume.

Harry's problems are in part why Spider-Man agrees to build the Spider-Mobile; Harry hasn't been paying the rent. Everything seems a bit over the top (ok, more than a bit), but it's all interesting, and it's especially good to see the long term effects of Gwen's death, instead of just ignoring that and moving on to a new status quo.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 4 - 1st Harry Osborn as the Green Goblin.

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• The Kangaroo previously appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #81.
  
• Dr. Jonas Harrow was seen in the Hammerhead origin flashback in Amazing Spider-Man #114.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Tales #103

Jonas Harrow mentions something about getting "the power" when the Kangaroo dies, but he doesn't show up again until Len Wein brings him back and the "power" comment is never explained.

i dont know if these types of considerations are important but you mention that Peter isnt socializing with Mary Jane here. but in the previous chronological issue (MTU #15)he was on a date with MJ at the ghost riders show.

First, it definitely is important so thanks for bringing it up.

Now, when i was digging into this, i realized something obvious: there is a reference in MTU #15 to the events in this issue. So i had to reverse the placement of those issues. MTU #15 has to come after this one. And soon afterwards; Peter is talking about winding down after his fight with the Kangaroo. So it doesn't make sense for it to take place after ASM #127-128, for example, or he'd be talking about the Vulture instead of the Kangaroo. This placement also syncs me up with the MCP.

But regarding the timing of Peter's date with MJ, it's still a little incongruous. They leave on bad terms in this issue, and then they're on a date in MTU #15. It's just a casual date, though, so i guess they made up behind the scenes. We know that MJ has been trying to get Peter to get out more after Gwen's death, so i guess she succeeded for once.

hey, glad to help out. I only remember it because when I read it in a reprint in the late 80's-early 90s, I was just so shocked at MJ's enormous platform shoes.

They are good shoes. I threw up a scan on the Team-Up entry.

You know, Harrow doesn't really come off as terribly impressive in this story. Yes, he can put the Kangaroo in S[pider-Man's league, and yes, he's figured out how to keep his latest pawn from ditching him...but he still picked *the Kangaroo*, and given the way the Kangaroo dies int his story, it's not really clear how Harrow expected him to bring back the isotopes in the first place.

Conway otherwise kind of recycles the Kangaroo's first appearance. There, Kanga was too stupid to realize he'd stolen a lethal bacteria sample that might open when he fought Spider-Man; here, he's too stupid to realize that walking into a room full of radioactive material might be a bit unhealthy.

So really, this is a story about a guy who's too stupid to be a mad genius and a guy who's too stupid to be a henchman, who essentially defeat themselves through sheer bloody-minded incompetence.

This may have been mentioned by someone in a later entry, but Carter and Lombardo are drawn to resemble Stan Lee and Roy Thomas.

It looks like this issue has the final break up in the theoretical Mary Jane / Harry relationship. But with Harry now totally crazy, MJ's work is done.

As a Brit, it's always amusing to see how the Comics Code was wary of such mild expletives as 'Hell' and 'Damn' but waved 'Bloody' through multiple times.