THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #163

"All The Kingpin's Men!"

• Writer: Len Wein
• Artist: Ross Andru
• Inker: Mike Esposito
• Print Date: Dec., 1976

Featuring:

Plot Summary:

"Come on along and take the bus, and leave the driving to us!" -- Apparently this was a 70's jingle.

But, it is invitation enough for our friendly, neighborhood wall-crawler. Spider-Man lays atop a city bus enjoying the relaxing ride and watching a strange helicopter flying overhead. Strange because of the design and lack of FAA markings. Well, there's rarely a dull moment the super-her business as the helicopter descends, picks up a delivery truck, and flies off. A quick web-line gets Spider-Man another free ride this time with the helicopter. The men aboard the helicopter take exception to their hitcher, and several men wearing jet packs drop out and swarm around our hero. As Spider-Man prepares to defend himself, he recognizes the outfits from previous encounters. Distracted by the henchmen swarming around him, Spider-Man doesn't notice a couple others pilfering a "thingamajig" from the truck itself. Their score secured, the truck and its passenger are so much dead weight and dropped as such. A thick webball surrounding him saves Spider-man from the brunt of the impact, and a shadowy figure aboard the helicopter vows that "victory will be mine" next time.

Soon after, back in Manhattan, Peter Parker find MJ is not at home as he tries to drop off some flowers. The walk back to his apartment is a very long and lonely one. However at home, a SURPRISE "Please provide for Peter Parker's Pad" party is waiting for him. Most of Peter's friends have brought over items that they no longer have use for in an effort to furnish Peter's apartment. Included in the haul is a big wooden Indian chief, a lounge chair with no supporting springs, five toasters, and a mounted sailfish from Mrs. Muggins' basement. Attending the party, is MJ, but Peter's every attempt to talk to her alone is stifled by Flash tagging along. Irritated, Peter heads to the roof for a little privacy to stew. Looks like another couple came up to find some privacy of their own, as Peter spies Harry and Liz in their own little interlude.

The next 24 hours are rather hectic for our wall-crawling wonder, but when the sun sets once more on Manhattan, Spider-Man follows up on a hunch. He went to Con Ed suspecting that whoever own that's helicopter is using a lot of power to activate it. Supposedly, the only place on the island using more power than they should is an abandoned movie studio. As Spider-Man searches the place, he walks into a lit office because he's been expected by the Kingpin!

Insolent as ever, Spider-Man dodged the Kingpin's blasts from the Kingpin's cane-blaster. A quick shot of webbing disarms the Kingpin, but he's not alone. A curtain lifts revealing the Kingpin's private army. With one word, the Kingpin could slaughter Spider-Man, but he'd rather have the pleasure of finishing Spider-Man with his bare hands.

KROOOM! goes the heavy oak desk as the Kingpin smashes Spider-Man to the to the floor with it. WOK! POW! The Kingpin flattens Spider-Man with powerful blows. Spider-Man might be down, but he's not out yet. He tumbles the Kingpin with a couple of shots of his own. Finally, it comes down to sheer power, and when it comes to contest of power, the Kingpin never loses. This time though the two combatant are evenly matched. That is, until the Kingpin's gas pin catches Spider-Man off guard and puts him out for the count.

For a time, the Web-Slinger floats in billowing clouds of darkness. Then the muffled sounds of activity probe through the black the surrounds him and draws him reluctantly back to the light. Back in the world of the aware, Spider-Man finds himself strapped into a crazy gizmo next to an unconscious (or dead?) body. Gloating, the Kingpin tells the wall-crawler, "We're going to steal your life!"

Comments:

Ack.. I'm at work. It's lunchtime though, so don't get the impression I'm slacking off here. This weekend was spent creating a Chameleon page which will be up before this issue is, and generally slacking off. I'm hoping to get this issue and next issue reviewed by this weekend and possibly up next week. To do that though, I need to create a Kingpin villain page as well.

Plot Analysis:

Well, this was sort of a "blah" issue. I mean, overall, I like the Kingpin as a villain, but I think he makes a much better crimelord pulling strings behind the scenes than a knock-down brawler type. To my thinking, if the Kingpin has to resort to using physical violence himself, then his plans have gone seriously awry.

The story opens with Spider-Man intercepting a hijacking coordinated by the Kingpin (hidden in shadows). We've got Spider-Man riding the bus. Where he's going and why he's hanging out on top of the bus isn't explained. I can't imagine that flying down the freeway without a bug shield of some sort is a pleasant experience, but the writer ignores that detail. So, the Kingpin's plan is to use some sort of hi-tech transport helicopter to pick the truck up from the freeway and his jet-packed henchmen to steal the truck's cargo in mid-flight. Despite Spider-Man's interference the scheme goes off without a hitch and the truck is dropped from a good distance in the air. It's never mentioned but I assume the truck's original driver and any guards on the truck were killed when the truck smashed into the ground. It seems kind of odd that the writer overlooks this, and in any case, its not often that innocent bystanders are callously killed in this era of comics.

Actually, another little detail. These henchmen of the Kingpin have been showing up here and there for awhile, but it has always appeared that they were working for the villain-du-jour instead of a separate plot. At least, that was my impression when I read them. I don't think it was made clear that these guys were something else altogether.

Next up we have Peter's surprise house-decorating party. Glory Grant got all of Peter's friends together to provide Peter with some furniture and decorations that they don't have use for. The result is a visual feast of tacky curtains, oddball decorations (including a big wooden Indian chief), and bad furniture. The lounge chair has no springs. Peter ends up with five toasters (two of which actually) work, and an large stuffed sailfish for the wall. The party is the highlight of the issue as Peter fails to get a private moment with MJ without Flash around. Robbie offers him some unsolicited advice on his love life, and Harry and Liz's relationship seems to be developing well.

Boy, this writer needs help. Or an imagination. First we have Spider-Man stumbling into a hijacking because he's riding a bus to nowhere. Now, Spider-Man has discovered the villain's secret hideout by going over the electrical records for all of New York to find a building that is using an unusual amount of electricity. Ok, I'll admit, I've never been to New York, but I'm guessing that the electrical company doesn't keep electrical use records for EVERYONE in one handy-dandy single location (especially in the 70's). Also, I DOUBT that they'd just provide those records to anyone if they do have a press pass. Finally, even if I'm wrong on both those counts, how many electrical customers do you figure there are in the entire city? How long would it take to go through those records, by hand, to find a SINGLE location that is using more electricity than it should? It would have been much better, and made more sense in terms of the storyline, if the Kingpin had left Spider-Man with a clue of some sort to lure him into his trap.

Nevertheless, Spider-Man finds the villain's hideout and is confronted by the Kingpin. The Kingpin opts for a physical confrontation to try to subdue Spider-Man and pulls out all the stops: his walking stick laser, thugs with guns, and even just flat-out pummeling the web-crawler. However, despite the Kingpin's strength and skill, he is not and should not be a match for the wall-crawler. After catching Spider-Man off-guard with a couple of early blows (apparently his spider-sense wasn't paying attention), Spider-Man tosses the tubby crimelord around the room. Finally though, the Kingpin's trick tie-pin with the knock-out gas is Spider-Man's undoing. When he awakes, he is strapped to the table and hooked up to some machine listening to the Kingpin gloats about how he's going to "steal your life!"

Art Review:

Ross Andru does a really good jobs with the little touches. Peter's new apartment looked spectacular, and there was a few good shots of Spider-Man swinging through the skyline. What I didn't like was the whole 2nd half of the issue with the battle against the Kingpin. The Kingpin looks more tubby than menacing, and for some reason, the perspective in the Kingpin's hideout just looks completely off.

Action Factor:

The fight in the air was OK, but the fight against the Kingpin dragged on for far too long (5 pages). The Kingpin is nowhere near Spider-Man's weight class, so while he might be a better fighter, he shouldn't have the strength and endurance to keep up with Spider-Man.

Spider-Villain lessons 101:

Tip #1:
Always have a new trick up your sleeve, or, in the Kingpin's case, in your tiepin. The Kingpin's trick gas tiepin gave him the day here.

Tip #2:
If you're going to leave clues to lure the hero in your trap, it doesn't pay to be subtle. The Kingpin bragged about leaving clues for Spider-Man to find, but damn if I could see them when I went back and looked. Spider-Man eventually found the hideout, and walked in the trapped, because he apparently had access to copies of the electrical bill for the entire city of New York and realize this "abandoned warehouse" was drawing too much power. Go figure.