Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #81
Cover Date: Feb 70
Title: "The coming of the Kangaroo!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
John Romita Sr. - Breakdowns
John Buscema - Finishes
Jim Mooney - Inker

Review/plot:
Poor Australians. You're just a joke to us. And it's not fair.

Spider-Man fights the *ahem* Kangaroo...

...who has stolen a vial full of deadly bacteria but thinks it's money.

The Kangaroo seems to have developed jumping powers by living with kangaroos.

He'll later get enhanced by Dr. Jonas Harrow, not that it really improves his reputation.

Spidey also gives his poor aunt a heart attack by making a dummy Peter out of webbing and putting it in his Aunt's guest bed.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Kangaroo

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Tales #62

How badly was the Kangaroo received? So badly that nobody complained when Gerry Conway killed him off in #126, and as far as I know, nobody has attempted to bring him back.

Someone actually introduced a second Kangaroo, though.

Yeah, there was a second Kangaroo AND an Ultimate Kangaroo!

This story was adapted for Ryoichi Ikegami's Spider-Man manga. There, Kangaroo is a violent wrestler who goes rogue and steals the bacteria vial. He and Spider-Man have a discussion about how they're too strong for this world or something like that and Spider-Man briefly considers letting the bacteria go loose and leaving everyone in the city to die because they hate him (he decides not to when he remembers his aunt). In the end he just punches the Kangaroo away and throws the Spidey costume into a river (which leads to a Mysterio storyline).

There's also a scene where Kangaroo delivers a super-powered double kick on Spider-Man's face and he doesn't flinch, saying that he concentrated all his power on his chin. Yes.

Wasn't that actually his ear?