Issue(s): Web of Spider-Man #13
Cover Date: Apr 86
Title: "Point of view"
Credits:
Peter David - Writer
Mike Harris - Penciler
Kyle Baker - Inker
Adam Blaustein - Assistant Editor
Christopher Priest - Editor

Review/plot:
This is a story that plays with perspectives by starting with a newspaper article citing eyewitness accounts of Spider-Man deliberately chasing a man into the street so he'd get run over by a truck.

It turns out the guy was a con artist and a criminal that just got scared when he saw Spidey. Ben Urich eventually ferrets that out. But before the new information gets to J. Jonah Jameson, Spider-Man decides he's had enough with the bad press from the Bugle, so he confronts JJ.

Spider-Man backs away when JJ tells him that if he punches him, he'll be as bad as JJ says he is. So Spidey leaves. And when Joe Robertson shows up with the info from Ulrich, JJ agrees to run a retraction. He then says that because he runs the retractions, he's not as bad as Spider-Man claims.

Jonah's justification falls flat to me, and so does the overall effort from Peter David to make this a matter of perspective. Maybe it's because we know Spider-Man so well that we'd never accept a version of him where he's deliberately chasing people to their death. But also just the way the story is structured, Spider-Man is shown trying to stop the truck that's about to hit the guy, and it's nearly impossible to twist that into anything else (the article says "Some say he used his 'webline' to pull the truck... to make certain Corbett was struck" but that just doesn't make sense).

I'd love to see a story entirely from the perspective of someone who didn't know Spider-Man and genuinely thought he as a criminal, but PAD doesn't fully commit to telling that kind of story so this doesn't entirely work.

I'll also note that this story continues the period where Spider-Man is enraged (and wearing his black costume here), despite last issue's seeming desire to revert him to a buttoned-up "normal".

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP places this before Secret Wars II #7 and the Puma tie-ins in Amazing Spider-Man #273 and Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #111.

References:

• When Spider-Man stops some criminals that weren't going to get away with the cash they wanted to steal, someone in a crowd that thinks he was unnecessarily endangering lives by getting involved shouts at him for playing hero, "just like when you fought that Sin-Eater guy". That was in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #110.
  
• No footnote for the above reference or this one, if it really is a reference. When Spider-Man busts in on JJ, he talks about the last time they had a confrontation, when JJ "fainted dead away. Faked a heart attack."
  
• Spider-Man also mentions saving his son's life repeatedly, saving JJ from the Scorpion, and from the Kingpin. The first two happened on several occasions and i won't list them all, but Spidey only saved JJ from the Kingpin twice, in Amazing Spider-Man #51-52 and Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #80.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The unobscured background on the cover appears in Comics Interview #36.

Spidey saved Jonah from the Kingpin during the Kingpin's first appearances (ASMs #50-52). I originally interpreted the "heart attack" reference to be a callback to ASM #70, but that heart attack was not fake, and it was also not the most recent time Spidey and Jonah have had it out.

Thanks TCP. I've added the reference to ASM #51-52.

It's pretty weird for a newsperson to think that correcting false information - that they're responsible for - is optional, and that they should be commended for it. People pay far less attention to corrections than headlines.

A story about some jackass who out of nowhere attacks Spider-Man -- shooting at him as he swings by in public, or assaults him while he's trying to save lives, causing a big distraction -- would be interesting. A sort of inside-out version of CIVIL WAR's Stanford Incident, with civilians causing a catastrophe rather than a super-hero being to blame.

Publishing horrifyingly damaging bullshit about groups and individuals, and then skimping on the corrections is absolutely a real-life phenomena. JJJ is perfectly realistic faux-objective asshole who thinks of himself as champion of free speech. IRL, many of his ilk are way worse, and even more cartoonish. Google f ex "Hillsborough + Sun" if you really want to be depressed.