Issue(s): Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #54
Cover Date: May 81
Title: "To save the Smuggler!"
Credits:
Roger Stern - Script
Marie Severin - Plot
Marie Severin - Penciler
Jim Mooney - Inker

Review/plot:
Interestingly, Severin is given full credit for the plot on this issue.

Spider-Man stops a car chase, but it turns out he helped the wrong side.

The people driving like maniacs and shooting wildly were actually Lt. Keating and a bunch of undercover cops...

...while the people driving the ambulance were the Maggia, who have kidnapped the Smuggler to prevent him from testifying against them.

Spidey catches up with the ambulance, but it's too late.

Spidey eventually rescues Josten at a riverboat Japanese restaurant.

Neither Medi-Spidey nor Samurai Spidey were ever made into an action figure.

There's a dynamic being set up between Detective Lou Snider, who is generally sympathetic to Spider-Man, and Lt. Keating, who is hostile to him.

Josten is shot during the rescue and it's said that he'll be in a coma for a while and possibly paralyzed.

This issue also begins a running "gag" with Peter Parker's fellow TA Marcy Kane, who starts wearing a head covering every issue.

I really thought it was going to turn out that she had cancer and was losing her hair due to chemotherapy, but it will turn out to be nothing so dramatic.

Severin's art isn't flashy but there's nothing wrong with it. Marvel could have done worse than keep her on as the regular penciler, but unfortunately this book will continue to be the orphan step-child of the line during Stern's run.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #54-56 occur concurrently with Amazing Spider-Man #216-218.

References:

• Spider-Man fought the Smuggler recently in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #49-50.
  
• Josten's powers have been fading since Count Nefaria experimented on him in Avengers #164.
  
• Peter wanted to talk to Debbie Whitman about her new boyfriend Biff Rifkin, who he met in Amazing Spider-Man #216, but she called in sick.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Uncle Walt inked a couple of those pages - and I'm in agreement with you that Marie Severin could have stayed on as PPTSS penciler.

Spider-man in samurai armour is much cooler than I'd have imagined.

As of 2016, there is a Samurai Spider-Man figure (not related to the costume in this issue, though): https://www.amazon.com/Bandai-Tamashii-Nations-Realization-Spider-Man/dp/B01EPJ2TV4

Still holding out for Medi-Spidey.