Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #62
Cover Date: Jul 68
Title: "Make way for... Medusa!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
John Romita Sr. - Layouts
Don Heck - Finishes
Mike Esposito - Inker

Review/plot:
The way i've written out the credits is basically a guess. The book says: "Another Titanic Triumph by Smilin' Stan Lee and Jazzy John Romita, Delineated by Don Heck". That could mean that Lee and Romita get co-plotting credit or that Heck drew the whole thing, but in surrounding issues Heck & Romita have been sharing the penciling duties from a Layouts/Finishes perspective. The quality of the art has definitely suffered for it too.

This issue features "Glamazon" Medusa from the Inhumans, who flies to New York on a weird hover platform to see if the humans are still freaked out by the Inhumans. And really, they aren't all that freaked out. Medusa then gets hired by a hairspray company to act as a model, which she goes along with in order to study the humans more closely.

Spidey gets involved when she tries to quit the job and the CEO manipulates Spidey into fighting her.

Medusa decides that even though the normal man isn't all that freaked out by her, she is still freaked out by the normal man and heads back to Black Bolt to recommend continued isolation for the Inhumans.

Meanwhile Gwen is still angry at Peter over the whole beating up her dad thing, which Mary Jane tries to take advantage of to no avail. Also, Norman Osborn continues to go crazy. This may be taking a little too long to develop, which is unusual for comics of this time period.

Medusa is treated very respectfully. She is very powerful, pretty much correct in how crazy people are, and actually gets to comment a little on male chauvinism. Spider-Man, on the other hand, acts like an ass, attacking Medusa based on a CEO that he himself finds shady and saying "But that's the trouble with women... they just can't keep their mouths shut!" Where the hell did that come from?

Earlier Spider-Man says he never fought a female before. Thanks to Untold Tales, that's not entirely true - he fought Commanda, but he got all flustered and funny when he fought her too, so maybe that's why he's breaking out with the sexist remarks here. Even when he sort-of fought Princess Python he got all nervous and funny.

Medusa's costume looks a lot like the costume Jean Grey will wear in X-Factor.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 2

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• During the Norman Osborn scenes, we get some unfootnoted flashbacks to the Green Goblin/Spider-Man confrontation in Amazing Spider-Man #39-40

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Tales #45

Medusa fights Spider-Man again in an early issue of Peter Parker/Spectacular Spider-Man, but she's clearly at fault there.

Spider-Man, why you gotta be an asshole like that? "Mysterious so-called Inhumans." That's the name the ethnic group gave themselves, dude. How would that sound in some other context? "Mysterious so-called Latinos." "Mysterious so-called Irish-Americans." It would sound wrong, is how.

So anyway, my theory is that Medusa is one of the more powerfully assertive female characters of Marvel's Silver Age. The Scarlet Witch gets some attention during the Kooky Quartet years: she's depicted as a fierce fighter and one of the more powerful members of the team. But as soon as the Wasp rejoins the line-up, the Scarlet Witch becomes less assertive.

Medusa, meanwhile, was bossing around most of the Frightful Four, briefly held off the Fantastic Four plus Dragon Man. But almost immediately she gets caught up with the incoherent, go-nowhere losers of the (so-called) Inhumans.

I remember a Fantastic 4 issue where Medusa teamed up with Thundera (sp?), Sandman and Harpy to take the Fan4 on. (Or Harpy showed up at the end of the battle to finish what had been started and rule over both teams. Hell fire bolts, powerful claws and flying ability) I've yet to see that listed anywhere on line. It was a pretty good issue. This was probably back in late '60s or early '70's. I wondered if anyone remembers or has it. With Medusa's back story - I'd actually have thought her rating would've been higher since she's fought with the Avengers against otherworldly forces (which thanks to the acting and CGI can be brought to screen now)and helped the Avenger's win. It's great that Supermegamonkey has this picture (the one fighting Spiderman)since that's the likeness she had in the Fantastic 4 issue.