Issue(s): Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #66
Cover Date: May 82
Title: "--Electro will be free!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Ed Hannigan - Penciler
Jim Mooney - Inker
Mark Gruenwald - Assistant Editor
Tom DeFalco - Editor

Review/plot:
After a pretty cool escape sequence for Electro...

...this comic goes downhill fast, with Debra Whitman reciting the standard line about her boyfriend Biff and her secret love for Peter...

...and then a definitely-not-standard extra gropey Peter Parker.

Peter takes the opportunity of Electro's resurgence to just flat out disappear from Marcy's apartment, without even a mumbled excuse about pictures for the Daily Bugle.

Electro is extra powerful this time around...

...and he's able to defeat Spider-Man in round one, leaving him for dead. Peter does survive, however, and he makes it home and designs a rubber suit to replace his tattered costume (out of a conveniently red and blue rubber raft).

I suspect that's meant to be Ben Urich above in the Daily Bugle scene, but the MCP doesn't list him and he's not named so i didn't tag him (however, that is Lance Bannon in an earlier scan above and he's also not listed by the MCP).

In the rematch fight, the rubber suit makes all the difference.

Even after Electro threatens to zap the crowd if Spider-Man doesn't surrender, and subsequently gets close to Spider-Man for the killing blow, he doesn't seem to notice that Spidey isn't wearing his usual costume.

Throughout all of this, JJ goes through great expense (while power is out throughout the city thanks to Electro) to print a report saying that Spider-Man was killed, and he's humiliated when it turns out to not be true.

The issue ends with a maudlin "nothing ever works out" panel. The whole issue is very by-the-numbers. Another Mantlo Peter Parker that reads more like a fill-in than a part of an ongoing series. The exception is the sudden about-face in Peter and Marcy's relationship (and note Peter trying to blame that on Electro's attack). But the way that's handled isn't a point in this book's favor, either.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP places this between Amazing Spider-man #227-228.

References:

• Electro says he was foolish to join the Frightful Four in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #42 and Fantastic Four #218.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

That one movie poster shows some foresight; Jaws 3 wouldn't come out until mid-1983.

makes you wonder why pete didnt just hang onto the rubber suit. It's not like he'll never fight Electro again.

Peter being extra forward with Marcy, who apparently just thinks they are there to study, does seem very out of character on its own, though the previous issue had featured Marcy answering the door "dressed to kill" (wearing an extremely open top not very suitable for studying) to which Peter says "I'm here to... study?". Marcy responds that she thought he would be hungry and "why don't we just-- eat in?" which readers of Approved By The Comics Code comics will mostly suspect is code for "they're totally doing it, guys, we just can't spell it out more than this".

Not sure if Mantlo intended to push Peter & Marcy together before realising he instead wanted to do the upcoming Debra Whitman (or Black Cat) plots & changing his mind? (Or maybe Mantlo just intended some sort of hot-and-cold thing he never explained. Maybe this is just a standard part of the Contraxian mating ritual...)

This issue seems like it was rather influential where Electro is concerned. A bald Electro, seemingly flying through the air, wreathed in electricity? That's basically Ultimate Electro. And the battle in Times Square and Electro's amped-up power level seem a lot like the battle seen in Marvel Knights Spider-Man #3.