THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #130

"Betrayed!"

• Writer: Gerry Conway
• Artist: Ross Andru
• Inker: F. Giacoia & D. Hunt
• Print Date: Mar., 1974

Featuring:

Plot Summary:

Sometimes, even a Spider-Man has a hard time sleeping, but unlike us, his solution for these occasional bouts of insomnia isn't a good book or a bad late night movie, it's a healthy bit of web-slinging and a rousing hour of good clean fun. Luckily tonight, the fun is easily found as four thugs (dressed in bright yellow costumes) climb out of a nearby dinner and hand out rifles. They openly discuss their plan to hit a nearby skyscraper and make reference to a mysterious 'boss'. On their short hike, Spider-Man waylays the foursome, easily evades the shots of the 'death-ray' laser rifles, and subdues the group. While interrogating one of criminals about their guns, the skyscraper, and their 'boss', one of the pleads "If I ever begin to say his name, it'll kill me." Not listening to his own pleas, the thug goes on: "He can do it, Spider-Man. I've seen Ha-Hamm-Ha...AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" as something triggers in his brain, shorting it out like a blown circuit.

Naturally, the writer doesn't want to keep us in suspense forever (or even for more than a page), so we turn our attention to a pier near 34th Street and 12th Avenue, where an unusual meeting is still in progress. Two easily recognizable characters, Hammerhead and the recently introduced the recently introduced Jackal are having a discussion. The Jackal obviously wants something from Hammerhead, but when Hammerhead asks what he gets in return, the Jackal feeds him some line about how the Jackal can go anywhere, do anything, and is the most powerful ganglord in New York. This is all explained to Hammerhead along with the point that Hammerhead recently failed in his bid to become head of the gangsters. Taunting Hammerhead mercilessly, the Jackal, happy that Hammerhead is playing right into his hands, slinks away while Hammerhead blusters, "Someday I'll make you burn -- You and Doc Ock both!"

While the writer hasn't introduced all the characters of this tale, he's introduced enough of them for now. We take a moment's rest and follow our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man across town to a familiar midtown tower, the Manhattan headquarters of a group of adventurers called The Fantastic Four! It's 7:00 AM, so Spidey slips in through the window and rousts a sleepy Johnny Storm out of bed. Johnny has promises the web-slinger that his car would be ready and Spider-Man is here to collect. After all, he won't get the 2nd half of his advance until he produces the completed buggy. And, with much ado, we're introduced to.. The Spider-Mobile! Obviously, it's time for a test drive.

Our hero soon finds himself in a near-by sidestreet where Storm goes over the highlights of the car: Spider-Signal, web-shooters, and every hero's car has to have an seat ejector. Storm builds his car with class (if not taste). The Torch flames on to follow as Spidey takes the buggy out to see how she moves. Immediate catastrophe on snowy streets is narrowly avoided as the car is steered into the wrong lane. Swerving out of traffic on onto the sidewalk, Spider-Man admits that he's never learned how to drive an automobile. Several narrowly missed pedestrians later, Storm pulls over Spider-Man to give him a sorely needed lesson in driving.

After a moment's perfunctory argument, Spidey reluctantly agrees to hand Johnny the reins, and thy drive off unaware that hostile eyes have been watching their performance. Eyes that now crinkle into a smile on the face of the man called Doctor Octopus. Octopus muses the good luck in his life. First, the accident that turned him into a human octopus, next the stroke of chance which introduced him to May Parker, and now his arch-enemy Spider-Man delivered to him with all he needs to destroy Spidey forever! A few short moments later, Octopus approaches his helicoptor waiting for him atop the Pan Am building. For making him walk thirty-four blocks instead of picking him up at the jail as planned, Octopus knocks out one of the thugs and leaves him for the authorities atop the heliport before flying off toward Ock's Westchester hideaway.

We pick up our web-slinging hero a few hours later, as he returns to his pad from a grueling first lesson in the art of the auto. Immediately after removing his costume and donning a bathrobe, Aunt May calls from Octopus' Westchester estate. Peter tries to talk Aunt May into returning to Queens when Mary Jane interrupts the call with a visit. Declaring herself Peter's official guardian angel in charge of making sure he doesn't foul-up college anymore than he has, the two head uptown to campus discussing Betty and Ned's upcoming Christmas party.

Three days pass, and then, on the night of the fourth day, called Christmas Eve, in a section of town already familiar to us, an explosion rocks a familiar skyscraper. Levitating themselves on jetpack, our gaudily dressed gang of thugs flees the scene of a successful heist. Lowering themselves to the street, they are greeted with the sight of a huge Spider-Signal playing out on the nearby wall. "It's no game, punko. It's the Spider-Mobile" shouts Spidey as he charges into their midst. Webbing flies as Spider-Man entangles three of the thugs with the Spider-Mobile's web-shooters. As the fourth thug, carrying two boxes of files, hoofs it off down the street, Spider-Man steps out of his car to give chase. Before he can pursue, his spider-sense tingles warning him of danger, and he turns to the sight of Hammerhead charging his car. Slamming the buggy with enough force to up-end it, Hammerhead turns to follow a dodging Spider-Man and quickly slams into a nearby brick wall. Thinking he has a few seconds for Hammerhead to recover, Spider-Man fails to realize that his foe has been practicing and moves faster now than the last time they met. Hammerhead catches Spider-Man off guard, and his blow knocks him unconscious and into a nearby alley.

Sixteen minutes pass as Spider-Man lays stunned, and when he awakes, his antagonists are gone, and the police have arrive and are investigating a suspicious looking buggy tip up on its side. Needing the car to collect his rent money, Spider-Man sprays the boys in blue with some gooey webbing and rights his car. On his way out of the alley, he sees a bright yellow file with Aunt May's name on it laying in the snow. Speeding off with the buggy and the file, Spider-Man is unaware of the Jackal slinking off on a nearby rooftop. "He found it, just as I planned! Now Spider-Man knows what both Hammerhead and Doctor Octopus know, and they'll all three destroy each other!"

Shortly, Peter approaches the party. But first, he hits a switch activating a special camouflage mode on the Spider-Mobile making it look like any other jalopy on the street. Joining Betty, Ned, Flash, and Mary Jane at the party, Peter comments that he would've hated spending Christmas Eve alone. Trouble approaches as Peter's hollering publisher, J. Jonah Jameson, approaches Peter: "Peter...It's time I gave you a Christmas bonus." Eagerly awaiting a check, Peter is instead handed one of Jonah's personal-mixture cigars. Frustrating, Peter blows off Mary Jane's advances to sneak into an empty bedroom. There, he opens the files and finds out exactly what Octopus' latest scheme is. Exclaiming "I've got to warn Aunt May!", Peter skips out on the party out the window to his way to Westchester.

How long does it take to travel thirty-two miles? Not long at all if you can hitch-hike like a certain costumed hero. Spider-Man stealthily evades Octopus' guards and approaches the estate. Hearing Aunt May's voice from a nearby window, Peter peers in to see.. No.. It can't be happening! It can't be --- Doc Ock is marrying Aunt May!!

Comments:

I've had a new vision of hell, and it is London's Gatwick Airport at Christmastime. I showed up 4 hours early, stood in line to check in for an hour, failed to get an upgrade (*sniff*), stood in line for lunch, ate a quick breakfast/lunch, and now I've found a quiet area of the terminal to wait for my flight. I've decided that Duty Free shopping isn't such a good deal, but I bought some chocolate for Michelle for taping Survivor in my absence and that's about it. I'm going to try and take my mind off of where I am in send it to New York, circa 1973, around Christmastime coincidentally enough...

Plot Analysis:

Ok, so, it's Christmas in New York, Spider-Man's got insomnia (much like myself last night), and is doing some web-slinging to clear his mind. I suspect that one of Spider-Man unstated powers is the ability to ignore the elements as he's out in December in the cold (determined by the amount of snow on the ground). He's lucked into seeing a group of ne'er-do-wells climbing out of the sewers. If climbing out of the sewers wasn't enough of a clue that these guys are no good, they are dressed in the traditional 'bad-guy' yellow jumpsuits and toting some sort of futuristic rifles. I have to say, I like the modern-day version of Hammerhead's goons much better and much more in-line with the type of gangster/villain Hammerhead is. For those that don't know what I'm talking about, these days, Hammerhead's henchmen are much more likely to be dressed in traditional 30's gangster garb (pinstripe suits, etc.) and toting Tommy-guns in today's comics. The 'high-tech' look is OK for villains that tend to the high-tech end of the spectrum (say Dr. Octopus), but not for an old gangster.

Anyways, ambushing the bad-guys from behind (hey, much better than last issue), Spider-Man quickly subdues the group despite their high-tech weaponry. During an interrogation of the last conscious villain, some sort of subliminal programming in the bad-guy's head shorts out his brain when he tries to mention Hammerhead's name. Of course, the bad-guy, being a complete idiot knows this and accidentally says Hammerhead's name while begging for mercy. In another odd turn of events, and one that really goes unremarked upon in the issue, the remaining three thugs escape, even the web that covered in webbing from head-to-foot and dangling from a street sign.

Next we have an interesting conversation down by the docks between Hammerhead and the recently introduced Jackal. We still don't have lot of information on the Jackal or his plans other than he wants to become the 'crimelord of New York' whatever that means. The Jackal does demonstrated a remarkable ability to manipulate other as he goads Hammerhead into losing his temper and vowing revenge against both the Jackal and Doc Ock. I'm not sure what happened in Spider-Man #113-115 to cause such animosity between Octopus and Hammerhead, but I'm sure I'll get there eventually. Anyways, after upsetting Hammerhead to no end, the Jackal slinks off in glee that his plans are working so well.

Ok, back to Spider-Man who has some really good friends. I wish I had friends that would build a customized dune buggy for me at no charge, and that's apparently what Johnny Storm (The Human Torch) has done for Spidey. Spider-Man is either easily recognized by the Fantastic Four's security (most likely), or the have no security (unlikely). Either way, Spider-Man awakes at 7:00 AM by climbing in his open bedroom window (proving once again that no one locks doors and windows 30 stories up). Dramatically, we're introduced to the Spider-Mobile, a marketing monstrosity that manages to hang around in one sense or another for the next thirty issues. I can hardly wait until some current writer drags this piece of Spider-Lore out of the dustbin and into modern continuity.

The Spider-Mobile comes equipped with web-shooters, spotlight Spider-Signal, ejector seat, and, shown later, a camoflage mode. After speeding down the wrong side of the street, veering up on the sidewalk, and nearly killing several pedestrians, Johnny Storm realizes that Spider-Man has no clue how to drive a car. Actually, besides the comic relief of Spider-Man swerving all over the place, I like this little bit of attention to detail. To my knowledge, we've seen Peter riding a motorcycle around town on occasion, but I don't recall him ever driving a car before.

Wow, ok, brief interruption to real life, but apparently anti-discrimination laws are alive and well in England. Now, I'm not usually one to comment on someone's weight, but the stewardess that just walked by is so large, I'm honestly not sure how she makes it down the aisle. "In the event of a water landing, Margerie can be used as a floatation device..." On the down side, any hijacker armed with a handful of Twinkies is going to have at least one unlikely ally in their takeover attempt.

Now... for the 2nd time in two issues, Spider-Man is unknowingly being watched by a strange figure in the shadows across the street. The writer really needs to come up with a different shtick for bad guys spying on good guys. This time, it's Dr. Octopus who, in the spirit of Christmas, is reflecting on all things he has to be happy for this season: Mentally controlled mechanical arms, May Parker, and his arch-enemy Spider-Man complete with the means to destroy the web-slinger. I think the only thing that could be left on his Christmas list to Santa is a new bowl to aid him in cutting his own hair.

To be honest, I've read this issue and next, and I have no idea what Doctor Octopus is referring to when he says, of Spider-Man, "The fool has given me all I need to destroy him forever!" It seems like he's referring to the Spider-Mobile, but I've seen no other mention of these means in this issue or the next. After a short thirty-floor block hike from the local jail (why isn't he still there?) to the heliport on top of the Pan-Am Building, Octopus catches up with his ride. He punishes one of his henchmen (who are wearing much less gaudy outfits than Hammerhead's) for making him walk so far by knocking him unconscious and leaving him for the police. That's probably in violation of his parole, but Octopus doesn't seem to mind and is soon off through the air to his Westchester Hideaway. The location of which is a secret to no one. I think it's even marked on the "Maps to Villain's Secret Hide-outs" that you can by in Times Square.

Back to Spider-Man again post-driving lessons. Peter wanders around his apartment wearing nothing but a bathrobe. If my roommate spent an inordinate amount of time wearing nothing but a bathrobe, I'd probably be as mad as Harry currently is. Aunt May calls (remember her?) for no particular reason. Which is probably good because n nothing in particular to her before Mary Jane comes over and cuts their call short. Despite her thoughts of ditching Peter as a friend last issue, Mary Jane is still up in the air about it. Anyways, she's decided that it is her job to make sure Peter doesn't get bounced out of college, so While Peter changes clothes for class, she peruses the heavy science textbooks on the coffee table and flips though Peter and Harry's record collection which includes "Aretha Sings the Blues" (Wow, going back in time before MP3's, CD Players, and tape decks...).

Three days past between panels, and on Christmas Eve, Hammerhead's "High Visibility Yellow" brigade has return to perform the heist that Spider-Man foiled earlier. It's apparently the same three will saw earlier this issue with a new fourth member. This time, since the laser rifles weren't high-tech enough, they've got personal jet packs (a la James Bond) and glide slowly to the street below. "Hold it, what the heck is that??" is the exclamation as the Spider-Signal shines on the wall ahead of them. I'll have to check. Modern-day Spidey has a portable Spider-Signal on his belt, and I'm wondering if that came about 'post-Spider-Mobile' or not.

"It's the Spider-Mobile!" is Spidey's response as he comes barreling up the street in the snow. Again, three crooks go down quickly between getting run over by Spidey's buggy (how's that going to go over with Corona for their much sought after publicity?) and getting webbed-up by the buggy's web-shooters. The fourth goes trudging down the street toting to big boxes of files? What in the world were they stealing? It obviously wasn't money or anything immediately identifiable as valuable. Spidey's moment of victory is brief though as his Spider-Sense warns him of danger, "OH no! Not you! Not -- Hammerhead!"

Hammerhead comes charging out and slams into the Spider-Mobile. He's gotten enough momentum to flip the Spider-Mobile over on its side, but miraculously the Spider-Mobile remain undamaged. You would've thought that Hammerhead's head would've put a dent in it or something. Y'know, I've probably mentioned this before, but, Hammerhead is an interesting concept for a mobster, and visually, he looks good. His method of attack is pretty ridiculous though. Watching him charge around like a bull slamming his steel-plate head into everything is pretty funny. I can't imagine why Spider-Man doesn't take him down in about two seconds flat with a gob of webbing. Oh, and in case you're wondering WHY Hammerhead is ambushing Spider-Man, it's partly because Spider-Man interfered with his earlier attempt to get these files, and partly because Spider-Man and Doc Ock interrupt his attempt to take over the city's underworld in an earlier issue (Amazing Spider-Man #113 to be exact). Spider-Man doesn't really seem to take Hammerhead seriously as a threat (who would?), and Hammerhead catches him off-guard with his speed and slams him into a nearby alley knocking his web-spinning victim unconscious. Of course, instead of finishing off the web-head, Hammerhead and his crew just take the opportunity to escape.

And so, when Spider-Man awakes, he's alone in the alley, but two patrolmen are looking over the upended Spider-Mobile. Instead of abandoning the monstrosity, Spider-Man needs to recover the Spider-Mobile so he can collect his rent money. To that end, he webs up the two boys in blue and flips the Spider-Mobile back on its feet. On his way out of the alley, he spots a bright yellow envelope with Aunt May's name on it sticking up out of the snow. A quick webline to snag the envelope, and Spider-Man speeds off through the snow. What Spidey doesn't know is that the envelope was subtly planted there by none other than the Jackal.

Now, I couldn't understand this at all. Spidey's got an envelope with Aunt May's name on it. It probably holds the connection to all of Hammerhead's plans. And, instead of tearing it open and running off to defeat the bad guy (or at least see what's going on with Aunt May!), he decides to attend Ned and Betty's Christmas party. It's probably an attempt on the writer's part to introduce a little character interaction, but it probably would've been better if Peter attended the party first, and was waylaid by Hammerhead second. No matter, Peter comes in, visits with the gang (Betty, Ned, Flash, and Mary Jane), gets a Christmas stogie from Jonah, and only then, despite MJ's best attempts to smuggle him off to the mistletoe, he remembers the envelope. Opening it, he finds something so shocking and so threatening to Aunt May, he's got to sneak out of the party to handle.

Making his way to Westchester, Spider-Man arrives at Doc Ock inaptly title 'secret hideaway' just in time to witness the wedding of Doctor Octopus and Aunt May.

Art Review:

Hahahahahaha! The Spider-Mobile! Good grief, this car looks great in a corny sort of way. I don't know whether to give kudos to the artist or writer or both, but that was the best part of the issue. Actually, what's particularly nice about it is that the writer knows how's corny it is and plays it up quite a bit. It's good for a laugh. Otherwise, Andru's art is pretty solid. The backgrounds are detailed. The facial expressions are detailed. Again, and this seems to be a consistent problem, the villains are wearing high-visibility yellow jumpsuits. Whether this is to help prevent them from shooting each other or to make them better targets for the cops, I don't know.

Action Factor:

This issue was good, but a little action deficient. Spider-Man beats up on a gang of thugs. Then, a few days later, he beats up on the same gang of thugs (love that New York justice system!). Finally, he has a two-page fight with Hammerhead that ends rather quickly. Next issue, with Hammerhead and Doc Ock promises to be better though!

Spider-Villain lessons 101:

Tip #1:
Again, the Jackal shows himself to be a master manipulator. While risk getting your hands dirty when you can simply manipulate others into doing it for you. He maneuvers Hammerhead and Doc Ock into a collision course, and then, with a subtle clue, throws Spider-Man in the mix in an effort to remove three potential obstacles to his plans to become New York's crimelord.