Comics : Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #56

This story is part of a Lookback Series: Al Observes

Background...

In Detail...

"Disaster!"

	Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #56  Summary: Spidey and Doc Ock Team-Up, First Captain Stacy  Arc: Part 4 of "Doc Ock Wins"
	Editor:  Stan Lee Writer:  Stan Lee Pencils:  John Romita, Sr. Inker:  Mickey Demeo Cover:  John Romita, Sr.	Staff Only Images Review Edit
	Jan 1968 : SMURF 056.500 : SM Title : Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1)  Reprinted In: Marvel Tales #41  Reprinted In: Essential Spider-Man #3  Reprinted In: Spider-Man vs. Doctor Octopus (TPB)
Characters: Watson, Anna, Aunt May Parker, Betty Brant, Doctor Octopus, Gwen Stacy, J. Jonah Jameson, John Jameson (Man-Wolf), Mary Jane Watson-Parker, Joseph

Taking advantage of Spidey's amnesia, Doc Ock has the webhead loading the nullifier into the back of his truck. They then climb in, with Doc telling his driver to "Head for my hilltop retreat!" (Hey! Whatever happened to the "hiding in the factory" plan?) Otto tells Spidey to "keep a lookout" but the webhead is still too confused to comply. "Every instinct within me despises Dr. Octopus... tells me not to trust him", he thinks, and yet he doesn't know what else to do.

As they travel a winding country road, they are passed by a police car. That car is just getting a report to "Be on lookout for maintenance truck escaping from Stark factory". (If it starts to seem like Stan forgot last issue and thought that Ock stole the nullifier from the Stark factory, it's because he probably did!) The squad car does a U-turn to pursue but Ock fires the nullifier at them and their motor stalls out. Now, Stan may have forgotten where the nullifier was when it was stolen but he didn't forget that John Jameson mentioned it needed modifications, for, after it is used on the police car, the device starts to emit steam (of all things). "That must be the reason it was brought to Stark's factory", says Ock (continuing this strange notion that it was already at Stark's when it was stolen). "The isotopical element" is "starting to overheat!" (Uh-huh.) Ock is convinced that he can fix it but Spidey sneaks a peek, too. He realizes that he understands much of the inner workings of the machine and he wonders, "Can it be that I'm some sort of scientist?" But then he decides that "I must be a criminal! I must be the partner of Dr. Octopus". But... when the truck arrives at the hideout (a palatial mansion surrounded by a stone fence; I wonder what sort of rent Doc pays on all these hideout?), why doesn't he think of it as "our hideout"?

Inside, many hours later, after "working halfway through the night", Octavius finally figures out what's wrong with the nullifier. "There's one part that's still missing! As a safety factor, they didn't assemble the entire thing!" (Now, wait a minute! It worked just fine back at the factory!) Ock realizes that he needs "a small quantity of isotope 16 which is stored at Ft. Tyson, a scant few miles from here". Spidey reminds him that Ft. Tyson is an army post. "How can you hope to get in there?" "I don't hope to", Otto replies, "You're going to do it for me". The amnesiac hero gets a tingling all over his body but does not recognize it as his spider-sense warning system. Still, he hesitates to carry out Ock's command. "Don't just stand there when I give you an order!", says the Doctor, "And another thing... before you go, take that moronic mask off! I want to see who you are!" But this command turns out to be a mistake. Pete starts to remove his mask, but again hesitates. After all, "if you don't know my identity, how can we be partners?"

Octopus realizes he must change the subject if he is to maintain his charade. He decides to pick a fight by telling Spidey they aren't partners. "I'm your boss! And I'll show you what happens to those who dare defy me!" Spidey may not know who he is but his spider-sense can recognize an enemy when it senses one. Without thinking, he goes for Otto's throat. But his amnesia causes uncertainty and this allows Ock to fling him away. Spidey leaps up, ready to press the fight. "Maybe I can't remember the past... but one thing I do know... nobody can push me around like that... Nobody!"

Since Ock hasn't finishing taking advantage of Spider-Man yet, he decides to end the battle. Ultimately, he doesn't care enough about Spidey's true identity to press the issue. Instead, he calls a halt to the fight, telling Pete that he was only testing him to see that he really had lost his memory. This ploy works and so Octopus lays out Spidey's task. He pulls a map (rolled up like a new poster) from a safe filled with maps and draws out Spidey's route from the hideout to the Fort. Spidey ties the map to his back and swings off a balcony into the night. "Why did I ever team up with someone like him?", he wonders, "Or, can it be that I'm just as bad?"

And in Forest Hills, Gwen Stacy has teamed up with Harry Osborn to visit May Parker to see if she's heard from her nephew. Peter hasn't been seen by anyone for several days and Gwen is worried. (Harry is less sympathetic. "If you ask me, he gets his kicks by acting like a mystery man", he says.) Aunt May, now recovered from her attack, hasn't seen Peter either and this visit from his friends concerns her. "Do you think there might be something wrong?" Mary Jane shows up with the latest edition of the Bugle, which has a headline reading Extra! Spider-Man Joins Dr. Octopus! (How do they know this already?) and the young people try to assure May that Peter must be off looking for pictures of Ock and Spidey. But this only worries May even more. With tears in her eyes, she says, "Why can't he get some other part-time job... instead of trying to sell news pictures to the Bugle?"

At a meeting of "police and military authorities at City Hall", John Jameson is discussing means for getting the nullifier back. He is told that every exit from the area is blocked and Ock "will never get out of town". One man at the meeting points out that "He may not be trying to leave the city! We've got to catch him here!" This man is grey-haired and walks with a cane. He is thanked by John Jameson for coming "out of retirement to attend our meeting". He is Captain George Stacy, father of Gwen, and this is his very first appearance. After the meeting, Captain Stacy gets a phone call from his daughter. She is concerned about the missing Peter Parker. George promises to check accident reports. "Thanks, Dad!", says Gwendy, "It would make his Aunt feel better!" "Only his Aunt, Gwen?", replies her perceptive father.

By this time, Spidey has arrived at the outskirts of the army fort. He checks his map, trying to figure out a way in. Spotting a trailer truck carrying a "section of missile", he swings down and adheres to the bottom, avoiding detection as he enters the fort. While going through this he wonders, "if I really am a criminal, why is this so distasteful to me? And if I'm not a criminal, why do I wear this mask?"

Now inside the perimeter, he moves to a vent in the roof of a building, uses his strength to tear away the shaft and crawls through until coming to a room holding cannisters behind cell bars. He recognizes the platinum cannister as his intended prize. He bends the bars to get to the isotope and again experiences that "nutty tingling", not knowing it is his spider-sense warning him of danger. Meanwhile, his theft has been witnessed over closed-circuit TV. By the time Pete rounds the corner carrying the cannister, he is met by two Army M.P.s with handguns.

The guards fire, but Spidey is no longer in the spot at which they were shooting. Leaping from one wall to the other, Spider-Man shoots out his webbing (I guess the nullifier effect wore off his web-shooters, eh?) and disarms the two men. He covers the M.P.s with webbing and their struggle to get free puts them right in the path of two more approaching guards. All four end up on the floor in a heap, as Spidey crawls by on the ceiling, finally smashing through a window to escape. As he leaps away, he notices "the map Ock gave me" left behind on the ground. He does not go back for it. As he swings away, he ponders, "It's strange... I could have whisked up the map with my webbing. But I didn't. Almost as if I subconsciously want it to be found."

Back at the crime scene, the map is found by the soldiers. It is given to the arriving John Jameson, who looks it over and realizes, "If this is genuine, it pin-points the area he started from and to where he may be returning." Jameson orders a "chopper and a squad of your best men armed to the teeth!" When the helicopter arrives, John joins the squad. He orders an "iron cordon thrown around the entire area", then boards the 'copter to lead the attack.

At the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson is lamenting his fate. His "own son in charge of Operation Nullifier and not a peep out of him". And if that isn't bad enough, Spider-Man is proven to be a crook (though how anybody other than the military knows this is still a mystery to me) and no photos from Peter Parker, who hasn't been seen for days. "It's a Communist plot", JJJ says, "to drive me batty!"

Meanwhile, Spidey arrives at the hideout, with Doc Ock and one of his Master Planner flunkies awaiting him on the balcony. The wall-crawler still feels "so guilty about what I've done" but he turns the cannister over to Ock anyway. The Doctor starts gloating until his flunky points out that Spidey has returned without the map. "You fool! It pinpoints our location here!", yells Otto, thrusting a fist in Spidey's face, and, when the webhead responds angrily to the physical threat, Octopus suddenly decides he has had enough. "You've suddenly out-lived your usefulness to me", he says, as he slugs Spidey with one tentacle.

Spidey fights back but is quickly wrapped up by Ock's metal arms. They surround his chest, crushing his rib cage. On the verge of blacking out, Pete shoots webbing onto Otto's shoes, then tugs hard, yanking him off his feet. The falling Octopus loosens his hold on his opponent, allowing Spidey to break free. But the Doc quickly retaliates, thrusting his tentacles at an evading Spider-Man. His misses leave great cracks in the walls. Just then, though, the fight is halted. A loud sound is heard outside. It is the Army helicopter, staging its attack.

Ock orders his men to "head them off", but the flunkies all quickly surrender when confronted with a squadron of armed men. Ock, betrayed, must reach for the nullifier as his sole defense but smoke grenades, fired into the room by the soldiers, blind him. He tries to dispel the smoke by whirling his tentacles but, before he can accomplish this, a group of soldiers wearing gas masks enter the scene. Desperate, Octopus tries to get the webster to fight on his side. "It's your neck, fool, as well as mine!" But Spidey hangs on the wall, uncertain, observing the action.

As Ock engages the soldiers, one of the group separates from the pack. It is John Jameson and he realizes that Doc Ock, not Spidey, is the real threat here. He sneaks over to the nullifier and trains it on Octavius. After all, "Ock's arms are operated mechanically and the nullifier will put anything mechanical out of action!"

Doc Ock's metal arms drop limply to his sides. "But you haven't beaten me yet", he cries, "The nullifier can't stop Spider-Man!" Ock tries to goad Spidey into fighting, telling him "You're a criminal like me" and "You can't let them kill you!". Spidey leaps down from the wall and marches up to Colonel Jameson. The web-slinger confronts John (with Otto urging him on, in the background), his fist raised, but at the last instant puts his hand up to his head. "I don't know what happened", he tells the Colonel, "How I got mixed-up in all this, but one thing I do know... I'm no partner of his."

The battle done, the soldiers remove Ock's metal arms and slap the cuffs on him. With Otto urging, "He's as guilty as I am! You've got to take him, too", John tells Spidey, he must come along as well. But the amnesiac panics. "Nobody's locking me up!", he declares and leaps out the window. John calls after him, "If you run off now, you'll be a fugitive forever!" but Spidey doesn't listen. He swings away. A soldier offers to "wing 'im" with a shot but John decides to let Spidey go. "I'll assume responsibility for his escape!", he says.

Back in Manhattan, Spidey removes his mask and looks at his reflection in a window. "It's like looking at a stranger", he discovers. Perched on a ledge, holding his mask in his hand, the wall-crawler broods. "All I know is I'm someone called Spider-Man! Someone with no yesterdays and with no tomorrow!"

Time to tie up some loose ends:

Spidey spends all of ASM #57 ("The Coming of Ka-Zar", February 1968) wandering the city, still without his memory. Harry Osborn finds a spider-tracer in Peter Parker's closet and decides that Spidey has kidnapped Pete. J. Jonah Jameson convinces Ka-Zar, Lord of the Jungle (accompanied by his sabretooth tiger, Zabu) to track down and attack the wall-crawler. Spidey himself meets with John Jameson, Capt. George Stacy and a very distraught Gwen and tells them he has amnesia. He ends up at the Daily Bugle, where JJJ almost gets him to unmask. Unfortunately for Jonah, his other plan interferes as Ka-Zar attacks. The battle travels through the city and ends up in Central Park where Zabu, protecting his master, leaps on Spidey and leaves him unconscious at the bottom of a pond. Ka-Zar retrieves him, but the web-spinner is apparently dead.

In ASM #58 ("To Kill a Spider-Man!", March 1968), Ka-Zar uses his "jungle knowledge of survival aid" to resuscitate Spidey, who is back to his old self. The shock of the attack and "of hitting the water" cures his amnesia. He spends most of the rest of the issue fighting Professor Smythe's latest Spider-Slayer.

In ASM #59 ("The Brand of the Brainwasher!", April 1968), our hero finally appears as Peter Parker again. He is interrogated at the police station, where he is forced to concoct a story of being kidnapped by Spider-Man. He tells the cops that he was following the web-head trying to get pictures for the Bugle when he was spotted. Since the wall-crawler had amnesia, and thought he was the criminal partner of Doctor Octopus, he abducted the young photographer. But, once his memory returned and he realized what he had done, he let Peter go. This story seems to satisfy everyone as to Peter's disappearance. It also seems to take Spidey off the most wanted list. For the time being, anyway.

By Al Sjoerdsma (E-Mail)