PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #4

"The Vulture Is A Bird Of Prey!"

• Writer: Archie Goodwin
• Artist: Sal Buscema
• Inker: Mike Esposito
• Print Date: Mar., 1977

Featuring:

Plot Summary:

"The streets of mid-Manhattan's West Side are normally silent at three in the morning. But then, normally, Joe Knuckles isn't racing along them, heart pounding in fear. Joe is an extortionist, professional muscle. It's his job to instill fear, not suffer from it himself..."

The Vulture pursues some common hood through the streets of Manhattan. For what purpose remains unrevealed. Although, Joe claims he was just following orders and didn't know who the Vulture was. The Vulture is simply following instinct, and his instinct tells him to strike when his prey can fight or flee no more. He plucks Joe from the alley and takes him to the sky swiftly carrying the screaming hood over the rooftops only briefly disturbing the sleep of one Peter Parker. The Vulture carries the hood and dumps him in the icy cold and garbage strewn water of the Hudson. A move meant to convey the utter contempt for one so stupid as to strong-arm the Vulture into paying protection.

Daylight finds our friend Mr. Knuckles making a report to his boss Mr. Morgan. Mr. Morgan is a step up the hood food chain, and he's looking make his grab now that Kingpin and Hammerhead are out of the picture.

And if the gangster chief is at his brutal business bright and early, others are not. Peter Parker wakes up with only a minute to catch his bus. We're treated to an page of Spider-Man, riding the top of the bus, in the freezing weather. His efforts to keep warm distracts him from the large tree branch heading his way, and his hitchhiking efforts end in inglorious fashion with him sitting in the middle of the street.

Elsewhere, Mr. Morgan and Joe Knuckles pull up to a non-descript repair shop. Inside, Mr. Morgan offers the Vulture a position in his organization. Before he's completed his spiel though, the Vulture, in a rage, flattens the group the of hoods and leaves Mr. Morgan suspended from a light pole. The Vulture claims he's be rebuilding and increasing his power, not to turn them over to some mere mobster, but for the utter destruction of Spider-Man. Mr. Morgan vows that the Vulture will pay for making him look foolish.

Before we learn what that way is, we have other to make, beginning at Empire State University, where a dozing Peter Parker is berated by Professor Ballinger. Not only did he come in late, but he failed to complete his experiment when he dozed off during lab. First Spider-Man fouled up Peter's personal life, but now he's blowing it in school as well. His wanderings take him by the Oriental restaurant where he and Flash ran into Sha-Shan. Peter stops and asks about her, but the manager claims that they employ no one by that name.

As Peter considers that, he looks up to see The Vulture! The Vulture is swooping down towards Manhattan's crowded mid-day streets, grabbing pedestrians, and stranding them atop a nearby building. A local bystander says that the Vulture's vowed to grab a hostage every fifteen minutes unless Spider-Man faces him. Peter crawls up to a nearby rooftop and in the cold weather and biting wind, slips on his Spider-Man tights. Now he's ready for action.

Meanwhile, another has taken note of the Vulture's action. Mr. Morgan speaks with a shadowy figure called the Hitman. The Hitman takes Mr. Morgan's money and vows to repay the Vulture just the way Mr. Morgan wants.

Downtown, tensions build. The city cops try to clear the streets of pedestrians and try to get an angle on the Vulture. However, the Vulture is too fast and has too many hostages for the snipers to get a clear shot. Down the block, Spider-Man launches himself off a flagpole and towards the Vulture like a missile. Despite Spider-Man's crushing blow, the Vulture stays in the air. Spider-Man swings through the city and lures the Vulture away from the hostages.

Now that the hostages are safe, Spider-Man moves to phase two and crashes into a building. His hopes are to find a crowded interior of an office. The reality is that the floor of the building is abandoned and the interior is bare as a cave. Spider-Man's webbing gives the Vulture no pause, and the Vulture propels them both down an elevator shaft. Spider-Man makes the mistake of attempting to rip out the Vulture's power pack. However, the Vulture has taken steps to make sure he can't be defeated that way again, and an electric surge leaves Spider-Man dazed at the bottom of the shaft. As the Vulture swoops in for the kill, an explosion stuns him, and the Hitman enters the fight. He's going to deny the Vulture his revenge by killing Spider-Man himself!

Comments:

Heh, the movie ad on the inside cover is for the 1976 remake of King Kong. I got a kick when I saw that. Anyways, the long reviews are back. I miss the snarky comments I can't include in the plot summary. Today's music is Lonely Day by "System of a Down".

So, local mobster wants to make big. He starts strong-arming local business for protection money. One of thugs accidentally roust the Vulture from his nest inside a little used repair shop. It's an amusing scenario. Of course, you have to ignore the little details like "Why is the Vulture out of jail? Did he repair an old costume or rebuild a new one? How does he get the money for stuff like this? And why in the world would he invest such time and effort into such a seemingly small goal (killing Spider-Man)?"

I love the "winter in Manhattan" details including the constant snow (and footprints), folk's breaths, and people comments regarding the weather. Later, we see Spider-Man shivering in the cold on several occasions which makes me wonder why he doesn't insulate his costume just a little bit. Presumably, the power pack on the Vulture's costume keeps in warm in the cold weather. And Joe Knuckles is lucky to be alive after being dropped in the Hudson River in the middle of the freezing night.

Not a lot going on with Peter Parker in the first half of the book. We see Peter waking up in the night complaining about how exhausted he is. We have Spider-Man riding the top of the bus to class and getting dumped in the snow. We see Peter dozing in class. Just a bunch of little "slice of life" type of stuff. We don't even see a supporting cast member in this story except for one panel featuring Sha-Shan.

Mr. Morgan. According to a comment in the comic, Mr. Morgan made a prior appearance in Captain America. I'll have to check to see if he's made other appearance before I decide whether or not to give him his own page. "Gang Lord Wanna-bes" are a dime a dozen, and unless he did something significant or made appearances in multiple storylines, he probably won't get his own page.

Apparently, we're seeing a kinder, gentler Vulture these days. Instead of killing Joe Knuckles, he drops in the freezing river. Instead of killing Mr. Morgan and his thugs, he flattens them all and leaves Mr. Morgan hanging from a light pole. Instead of killing hostages, he merely leaves them stranded atop a skyscraper. Lucky for him, he was completed with his efforts to increase his speed and strength before Mr. Morgan forced him to blow his cover.

Slice of life, Peter dozing in a science lab. Peter also stops by the Oriental restaurant where he and Flash saw Sha-Shan last issue. The manager claims that no one by that name works there, but the readers are treated to a scene of Sha Shan standing in the back with tears streaming down her face. I don't know. There's really not a lot to be said about these scenes since nothing really happens.

The next scene, however, is funny as hell when you think about it. Ok, the Vulture has told the local media outlets that he's going to grab a hostage every fifteen minutes until Spider-Man faces him. In the scene, we see the Vulture grabbing a hostage while AT LEAST four hostages huddle on the top of the building. By my math, that means the Vulture has been at this for an hour. And yet, we have a sidewalk full of gawkers (and potential hostages) down below, and no signs of the police.

Ok, well, let's say the Vulture lied and just grabbed a bunch of hostages to start. Then the scene makes a little more sense, but you still think people wouldn't be hanging around in the open watching this. Luckily for the hostages, Peter wasn't on vacation, out of town, out in space, or buried in a shallow grave when the Vulture started his attack.

Also watching this is Mr. Morgan whom we last saw three pages ago hanging from a light pole. He's been humiliated in front of this thugs and in front of the neighborhood he'd like to rule. Seething with rage, Mr. Morgan decides to get his revenge on the Vulture. To this end, he's taken a contract to hit... the one man the Vulture most wants to see dead...

I don't know.. When I'm pissed at someone, it's never occurred to me to take it out on their sworn enemy. Maybe this is some sort criminal underworld code of conduct or something.

And we've got a villain creatively called "The Hitman". He wears a tan bodysuit with a funky red visor, brown bandoliers, and comes equipped with several guns, knives, grenades, and probably kung-fu grip. My first impression is that he's a Punisher knock-off taking contract hits for hire (hence the moniker "The Hitman"). You wonder what's wrong with this guy that we would put that outfit on and think "Damn, I look good/intimidating/business-like/anything flattering". Maybe he's color-blind. I don't know. I can't see any practical use to that outfit other than to distract your opponents with its blandness.

I'm getting ahead of myself though. Fight time and Spider-Man is on the scene. Well, not quite, actually he's got to get to the scene. He uses his "Super Spider Targeting Ability" to web a flag pole, whip up his inertia by doing loops around the flag pole, launching himself like rock from a catapult, and striking the Vulture in mid-air. Remember, the Vulture was too fast for police snipers earlier. Unfortunately, that crushing blow was not enough to put the Vulture out of commission.

Whooo!! Cheeseball line of the issue coming up! Vulture: "Web-Slinging Weakling! You can't outrace my wondrous wings!" (Remember kids, 'Always avoid annoying alliteration').

Spider-Man successfully leads the Vulture away from the hostages, but the 2nd part of his plan doesn't go as well. He crashes into an office building (reasoning "Everyone should be out to lunch..") but instead of finding a tight space crammed with offices, desks, cabinets, and other obstacles, he finds a half-completed floor and thinks "I may be the first super-hero done in by the recession!" The Vulture gets a chance to show off his new strength by ripping through Spider-Man's webbing with ease. And two grapple and dive into the elevator shaft (somewhere around the 10th floor). Ten floors of freefall is enough for Spider-Man to climb around the Vulture and try to rip off his powerpack. In a remarkable show of intelligence, the Vulture is not defeated that way a 2nd time (must've happened in a previous appearance) and has booby-trapped his powerpack to thwart such as attack.

With Spider-Man lying stunned on the floor of the elevator shaft, the Vulture moves in for the kill. His revenge is postponed (for at least one issue) by the timely arrival of "The Hitman" (cue dramatic music).