THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #138

"Madness Means... The Mindworm!"

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

Featuring:

Plot Summary:

After three days without sleep and a battle with his former best friend, Peter returns to his recently demolished apartment. True to his luck, his landlord stops by, and in violation of every tenant law I'm familiar with, evicts Peter effective immediately.

And so, an hour or so later, Peter is slowly working his way through his address book looking for a place to stay. Unfortunately, none of his college friends have space for a roommate, and his Aunt May is living at Anna Watson's. Finally, he gets to the one name he hasn't tried: Flash Thompson. Amazingly, Flash has space for Peter to crash. Soon, Peter hops a cab and is way out to Far Rockaway to an apartment building near the beach. With a sigh, Peter strides forward into the shadows surrounding the lonely apartment complex unaware that his every movement is being observed.

From a solitary home near the apartment complex, the Mindworm introduces himself. He's latched on to Peter's mind and found a sense of power, a strength of will, and seething emotions. Of the emotions on which the Mindworm feeds, Peter's are more complex and involved. The Mindworm snorts, settles himself into a meditative position and begins to feed.

Later, Peter familiarizes himself with Flash's apartment while the two discuss the Flash's army days and their high school days together. Much later, after several hours of conversation, Flash falls asleep on the couch, and Peter rises to do some free-wheeling web-slinging. When he steps out of the apartment's window, he witnesses dozens of people moving like a bunch of sleepwalkers towards the lone house on the beach. When Spider-Man goes to get Flash, he finds that Flash has left the apartment as well and is walking with the rest of the sleepwalkers. Spider-Man goes to investigate.

The mental energies of the sleepwalkers flood the Mindworm, and he flashes back to his origin. Born a freak, he accidentally killed his mother by sapping her of all her mental energies and caused his father to flee in the path of a speeding car. Raised in an orphanage, he worked for years to build his physical strength as well as perfect his mental powers. After the orphanage, he found himself here, in an abandoned shack on the shore, surrounded by people.

Two passing officers call in the sleepwalking crowd, and the cops scramble to call in the riot squad. While that's happening, Spider-Man attempts to pass through the crowd to approach the house, but with a single mental command from the Mindworm, the crowd turns on him, crushing him beneath the weight of dozens of innocent victims. Webbing off the crowd, Spider-Man breaks into the house to confront the Mindworm.

The Mindworm attempts to mentally sap Spidey's strength, and pummel him with mind blasts. Spider-Man's will is too strong for him however, and he subdues the Mindworm with a powerful blow to the head. Just in time too, as the police flood the scene to take the Mindworm into custody.

Comments:

Again, writing to the Science Fiction soundtrack. I do have other CD's, but maybe this one just puts me in more of a mood to write. And I need all the mood I can get with a lame issue like this.

Plot Analysis:

Basically, nothing of significance happens this issue. The only supporting cast to appear is Flash Thompson. The villain is some worthless, third-rate villain that appears one more time in Spider-continuity. Peter does move out of his apartment though. I don't think his old landlord appears enough to be considered a supporting cast though.

Well, to start, without Harry, Peter can't afford rent, and with the apartment bombed out, the landlord doesn't want him there anyways. I'm pretty sure that you can't just evict someone by tomorrow morning. Still, whatever, for the sake of the story, let's accept it.

This issue does set the stage for Peter and Flash's future friendship though. Flash lives way out of town in Far Rockaway (wherever that is). It'll be interesting to see how Peter commutes to town both as a civilian for work, and as Spider-Man. No skyscrapers out in Far Rockaway.

I'm surprised that Peter just changes clothes and wanders around in his costume in front of Flash. I mean, Flash is sleeping, but there is nothing from causing him to wake up to find Spider-Man standing in his living room.

The rest of the comic pretty much focuses on the Mindworm and his actions. He apparently feeds off the emotions of the residents of the apartment building Flash lives in. The Mindworm tries a variety of tactics to defeat Spider-Man. First, he mobs Spider-Man with the innocent civilians under his control. Then, he tries to mentally sap Spider-Man's strength and pummel him with mind blasts. Finally, the fight goes hand to hand.

Surprisingly, the Mindworm is a formidable physical fighter. His strength catches Spider-Man off guard, and he tries to crush our hero in a bear-hug. Spider-Man finally defeats him with a crushing blow to the ears rendering the Mindworm temporarily deaf and unable to sense the minds of others.

Any budding writers out there want to pick the Mindworm up and re-vamp him for a new age?

Art Review:

The artwork was fine if a bit uninspired. Actually, it complimented the story well in that regard. There were no big splash scenes, no creative uses of panels, pretty standard point of perspective, etc.

Action Factor:

Well, we do get see the full array of the Mindworm's awesome powers. However, it's never really explained why he could mentally dominate EVERYONE except Spider-Man. I refuse to believe that Spider-Man's mental fortitude is just that much greater than anyone else's. In any case, much of the fight consists of the Mindworm furrowing his brow while staring intently at Spider-Man and Spider-Man buckling as if under a great weight. Even better was the suggestion that the Mindworm could pin and crush Spider-Man with his great strength. I mean, the Mindworm is obviously some sort of mutant, and it wouldn't be unheard of for him to have great strength. But, his origin suggests that his strength comes strictly from exercise.

Spider-Villain lessons 101:

Tip #1:
Spider-Man's will is absolutely indomitable. It is futile to try to mentally enslave him, sap his mental will, or in defeat him using any sort of telepathic powers. Other than that, there wasn't a lot to be learned from this issue.