Amazing Spider-Man #44-45 : SuperMegaMonkey : chronocomic

1967-01-01 00:01:10
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Alpha Flight #5-8 (origins) Up:
Main
1967 / Box 4 / Silver Age
Next:
Daredevil #24

Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #44, Amazing Spider-Man #45
Cover Date: Jan-Feb 67
Title: "Where crawls the Lizard!" / "Spidey smashes out!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
John Romita Sr. - Penciler
John Romita Sr. - Inker

Review/plot:
When Doc Connors helped Spider-Man create special webbing that dissolved the Rhino's armor, he used the formula that turned him into the Lizard, and since he inhaled some of the fumes (perhaps with subconscious intent, considering some of the comments he made at the time?) his inner lizard begins to emerge while waiting for his wife and son at the train station.

Peter is seeing Aunt May off to a vacation she is taking on her doctor's recommendation...

...and he sees Mrs. Connors distressed in the crowd. He changes to Spidey and talks with her and finds out that the Doc is the Lizard again. After hunting for a while, Peter finds the Lizard but gets beat up pretty bad and sprains his arm.

Meanwhile Foswell decides to find out how Peter always gets exclusive pictures of Spider-man, and Flash, Harry, and Gwen meet Mary Jane and find out that Peter is sort of dating her, triggering their collective jealousy. Peter is conflicted between Mary Jane and Gwen.

In the rematch by a circus train, featuring a reptile car...

...Spidey beats the Lizard by luring him into the train's refrigerated car which slows down his cold-blooded metabolism. Then Spidey takes the Lizard back to Connor's lab and works out the cure.

Great art from Romita.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 3

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

We get a big flashback to Amazing Spider-Man #6, which is a little incongruous since we know Spidey subsequently faced the Lizard in Untold Tales of Spider-Man #9, but what can you do?

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Tales #184, Marvel Tales #185

Inbound References (2): show

Characters Appearing: Aunt May, Aunt Watson, Betty Brant, Big Man (Frederick Foswell), Billy Connors, Flash Thompson, Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn, J. Jonah Jameson, Lizard, Martha Connors, Mary Jane Watson, Ned Leeds, Spider-Man

Previous:
Alpha Flight #5-8 (origins) Up:
Main
1967 / Box 4 / Silver Age
Next:
Daredevil #24

Comments

Shouldn't you list Mrs. Conners as a character appearing?

Posted by: Silverbird | June 15, 2014 6:55 PM

Thanks, Silverbird. Looks like i was missing her and Billy. Added them both.

Posted by: fnord12 | June 15, 2014 7:17 PM

How convenient that Curt Conners, like Bruce Banner, always seems to be wearing the same outfit when he transforms.

Posted by: Erik Beck | January 15, 2015 2:06 PM

I liked this return of the Lizard since he is one of Spider's best villains and wasn't used near enough in my opinion. More soap opera as well. Lee could have written for the daytime soaps, He did it very well in DD and Spider-Man not so well in the other books.

Posted by: Bobby Sisemore | November 8, 2016 10:36 PM

How I loathe retcons like Untold Tales. It just didn't need any of the regressive stuff like that, the original runs were good as they were.

Posted by: Flying Tiger Comics | March 10, 2017 6:47 AM

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