Issue(s): Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #49, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #50, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #51, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #52
Cover Date: Dec 80 - Mar 81
Title: "Enter: The Smuggler! / --The White Tiger!" / "Dilemma / A killer elite!" / "Aliens and illusions! / The menace of Gideon Mace!" / "The day of the hero killers!"
Credits:
Roger Stern - Writer
Jim Mooney / Denys Cowan / John Romita Jr. / Marie Severin / Rick Leonardi - Penciler
Bruce D. Patterson / Jim Mooney / Dave Humphrys & Josef Rubinstein / Dave Humphrys - Inker

Review/plot:
Denys Cowan draws all the White Tiger back-ups. All the other pencilers listed took turns on the main story. There was no consistent inker on either the main story or the back-ups.

Spider-Man runs into Erik Josten, who is now going by the name of the Smuggler.

Josten has lost power since his Power Man days, but he is still very powerful, and Spider-Man only beats him after a long battle...

...and he runs out of web fluid at the end so he can't web Josten up properly.

Josten gets free, but the continued fight takes them to the subway and Josten is electrocuted on the third rail, finally knocking him out.

Aunt May tells Peter that she's getting engaged to Nate Lubenski, a man from her retirement home.

Peter asks Debra Whitman to come along to the date with his Aunt and Nate.

The meal is interrupted when a group of aliens attack the restaurant.

They are the aliens that Spider-Man saw working with the Tinkerer way back in Amazing Spider-Man #2. Now they are working with Mysterio...

...and they are looking for treasure rumored to have been hidden in the Parker household (this is from the ill-advised Amazing Spider-Man #200, which retconned the story of the original thief that killed Uncle Ben so that he was looking for this same treasure).

It turns out that the aliens aren't aliens at all and they weren't back in their first appearance, either. They were just out-of-work movie extras and stuntmen. And one of them went on to become Mysterio. They're back working with him again for this caper.

Peter and Debra are taken by Mysterio, but Peter is able to change into Spider-Man and reprogram Mysterio's main computer program so that it attacks him with images of Spidey.

A back-up story runs through issues #49-51, dealing with the White Tiger.

His family is killed by criminals, and the Tiger starts hunting them down. It turns out that Gideon Mace was behind the murders, as part of his newly declared war on all super-heroes.

The Tiger is badly beaten and his body is dumped in front of the Daily Bugle.

This is dealt with as the main (and only) story in issue #52.

Spider-Man is able to stop Mace and his army...

...and the White Tiger survives. But he removes his amulet despite the withdrawal effects, and asks that it be returned to the Sons of the Tiger. The Sons have been appearing in Power Man & Iron Fist, and they've been wearing their amulets, but it was suggested in a lettercol that they were replicas. We can assume that at some point behind the scenes they get the real ones back.

The problem with this series is the art. This book has a different penciler and inker each issue, and most of the time it feels pretty rushed, so despite Roger Stern's good plots and scripting, this book never really gets great, even when John Romita Jr. is drawing it.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - end of the career of the original White Tiger. Revelations about Mysterio and the aliens from Amazing Spider-Man #2. Aunt May gets engaged to Nate Lubenski.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Issue #49 starts with Peter worrying about the closing of the Daily Globe and the fact that Madam Web knows his secret identity. The back-up White Tiger story all takes place in a continuous arc, culminating in a Spider-Man/White Tiger story in #52, so all of these issues get one entry even though not all main Spider-Man stories were continued. In issue #52, Peter indicates that it's been about a week since the events of issue #49. By issue #52 Peter is working at the Daily Bugle again. I therefore have this concurrent with Amazing Spider-Man #211-212.

References:

• The Daily Globe closed and Spider-Man met Madame Web in Amazing Spider-Man #210.
  
• Spider-man stumbles across the Smuggler's operation when Phillip Chang recognizes a member of the White Dragon's gang. Spider-Man faced the White Dragon in Amazing Spider-Man #184-185.
  
• Spider-Man compares the Smuggler to Luke Cage, which gets him mad since Cage beat Josten for the name of Power Man In Power Man #21. Spider-Man fought Luke Cage in Amazing Spider-Man #123 (incorrectly referenced as #122).
  
• The last time Aunt May got engaged, it was to Doctor Octopus. The near-marriage was in Amazing Spider-Man #131 (incorrectly listed as #133).
  
• Peter and Nate met briefly in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #47
  
• Aunt May's newfound love for Nate gets Peter thinking of Uncle Ben and the events that led to his death in Amazing Fantasy #15.
  
• Spider-Man first encountered the 'aliens' working with Mysterio in Amazing Spider-Man #2.
  
• Mysterio is after the treasure of Dutch Mallone, which had been in the Parker household but was revealed to have been destroyed by silverfish in Amazing Spider-Man #200.
  
• Mysterio previously had mesmerized Aunt May in a storyline beginning in Amazing Spider-Man #193 and ending in Amazing Spider-Man #199.
  
• The White Tiger's identity became public knowledge in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #20.
  
• The White Tiger has been working with a PI named Blackbyrd, who Spider-Man met in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #9-10.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Another "disposable character" retired here. All of Marvel's Kung Fu heroes would be "retired" one way or another before the 1980s ended, probably because Jim Shooter thought they reeked of embarrassing 1970s-ishness.

I LOVE MYSTERIO/QUENTIN BECK.

The first Mysterio picture is duplicated. The first and extraneous stance is among the Power Man images.

Thanks, Luis. Fixed it.

Denys Cowan confirmed in Amazing Heroes #163 that the White Tiger stories were his first Marvel work.

probably the best retcon ever, making those aliens actors and showing where Mysterio's Spider-man obsession started.

Day of the hero killers is one of my personal favourite issues. Spider-man vs the US Army. Doesn't get better than that. The fight is very intense and claustrophobic. And Mace is scarily realistic for a guy with a "morning star"for a hand.

Roger Stern Mysterio is best Mysterio!

Actually considering he's one of the original classic Spidey villains, it's amazing how few appearances he's had. Even fewer still taking into account some of those are Sinister Six team-ups where he's usually superfluous.

Mysterio always seemed like he should be higher up the rogue echelon. He has an awesome and distinctly visual costume and his power set means the creative teams can go wild dreaming up practically any challenge for Spidey. And yet it's never rly panned out the way.

It's mentioned that the Maggia and the Halwani Freedom Front are sponsoring Mace's planned attack on Luke Cage, which is a nice nod to Cage's run-ins with the Hammerhead and Scimitar. Stern is great at those incidental details that flesh out the Marvel Universe.

Interestingly, Stern doesn't directly state that the Smuggler is Josten until issue #54, but enough hints are certainly provided here, and he's still wearing the updated Power Man costume he used in Avengers #164.

There's a great little sequence with Jonah Jameson and Robbie Robertson when the Tiger is dumped in front of the Daily Bugle, where Jonah's hatred of superheroes is briefly shaken by the sight of a young adult like Hector Ayala being brutalized.

Luke didn't have his first run-in with Hammerhead until Power Man and Iron Fist 92, which was published 2 years after this- I guess the Maggia wanted Luke dead on general principles.