Issue(s): Spider-Woman #30
Cover Date: Sep 80
Title: "Come into my parlor-- said the Fly!"
Credits:
Michael Fleisher - Writer
Stephen Leialoha - Penciler
Jim Mooney - Inker

Review/plot:
This issue introduces Dr. Karl Malus. He's a minor supporting villain who, like the Tinkerer or Dr. Jonas Harrow, usually doesn't get directly involved with super-heroes, but instead helps create super-villains or beef up existing ones. I think it's cool that guys like this exist in the Marvel Universe. It helps explain where villains come from and where they get all their stuff.

Right now he's helping the Fly, who is losing his powers.

Malus thinks a blood transfusion from another super-person will do the trick, and Spider-Woman is one of the few in Los Angeles. Spider-Woman's partner Scotty McDowell was poisoned by the Enforcer (who, it turns out, also happens to be one of Malus' clients), so Malus tells the Fly to kidnap McDowell and use him as a lure for Spider-Woman. But Spider-Woman happens to be at the hospital when he arrives.

She drives him away with a venom blast. And in the rematch, she kicks his butt pretty good.

Malus himself offers to help Scotty McDowell in return for consideration in sentencing. We'll see the results of that in the next arc.

Using the Fly as a bad guy against either Spider-Man or -Woman doesn't make a lot of sense considering that spiders eat flies. Malus begins to question the name at one point but the Fly threatens him. It's a valid concern, though. (And Malus' complete lack of safeguards when working with these unstable super-villains will bite him in the ass sooner rather than later, too.)

Also in this issue, Spider-Woman helps clear her name from when she was forced to break the law by the Enforcer and Rupert Dockery. Her method for doing so is a little dubious; she dresses up as the Enforcer and pretty much beats a confession out of him, right in front of the police captain.

In an acknowledgment that her methods aren't exactly legal, the police don't actually arrest Dockery but they kick him out of town. He'll be moving to New York and into the Spider-Man books.

In Spider-Man, he'll be a pretty dead on version of Rupert Murdock, but here he's a bit of a doofus. The following monologue is entirely presented in thought bubbles, so we know it's not "ironic" or anything:

Oh, how I love to get dressed up in my tuxedo! It makes me look so dashing, so brilliant, so utterly debonair...

He sounds like he's not all there, mentally.

The writing on the book continues to be simple and stiff. Letter writers deride it as "kiddie-oriented". Leialoha's art is always nice, though.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - first Dr. Karl Malus

Chronological Placement Considerations: Rupert Dockery transfers over to Amazing Spider-Man #208 after this issue.

References:

• The Enforcer poisoned Scotty McDowell in Spider-Woman #28-29.
  
• When fighting Spider-Woman, the Fly says that he "gobbles up you super-types for breakfast", with a reference to Amazing Spider-Man #193, where he really did get the best of poor Spidey.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

interesting to me that even way back when, people knew "rupert" was evil...

Damn good issue, solid exciting story, lovely art from Leihoia and Mooney. Creepy villains and good pacing.