Spider-Oracle Petitions (01-Jun-2001)

In: Letters > Spider-Oracle > 2001

Posted: 2001

Staff: The Spider-Oracle (E-Mail)

The wise one answers all your Spider-Questions.

From Bryan

You seem to take special interest in Phil Urich when he shows up, so I figured you'd be a good person to ask what he's been up to since GREEN GOBLIN ended. I saw that he appeared in a half-dozen issues of ASMv1, and I heard that he was in some Spidey issues after the relaunch... Can you help me out? Did he really go back to school, or is he still at the Bugle?

The site features a recently updated appearance list for Phil Urich. Phil returns to school after the Green Goblin thing is over. Mary Jane meets him in Amazing #425 - you may recall that she also went back to college for a while.

The last appearance that I am aware of was Amazing #433, where Phil attends Robbie's farewell party bash. Peter borrows Phil's hooded sweat to fight Mr Hyde, since there's a bounty on Spidey's head.

From Ted

Hi. You guys have been suggested as a great source for Spidey historical esoterica. My questions are going to sound trivial, but (really... seriously) it's important... at least in my universe:

From the time Mary Jane Watson was visually introduced in the comics (on the last panel of the last page "Hey, Tiger! Looks like you hit the jackpot!"), was there a sequence of events (presumably through a sereis of issues) where she was going steady with Flash Thompson?
[I seem to remember a rivalry between Peter and Flash over Liz Allen, in the earliest books-- and possible a reprise of that sort of triangle in the Gwen Stacy era (and it is this time, I believe, that MJ is introduced as a character, rather than a dialogue reference from Aunt May.] But MJ as the prize at stake between Flash and Peter? Hmmm... help.
Like above-- was there a sequence (ie., continuing story arc over several issues) in which MJ and Harry Osborn were lovers? Maybe there was, but I'm trying to picture MJ with Harry and it's just not coming.
Who was Peter's squeeze (if any; you know his love life sucks) when the Doc Ock character was introduced into the comics? (Liz Allen? Gwen Stacy? Surely not MJ...!)
What it the purpose of Doc Ock's original experiment that goes wrong and combines him with the waldos? Or is the experiment meant to do just that (which would sound like a typically wacky Stan Lee plot twist.) [and here I refer to the 1960's original origin-- as opposed to the subsequent "Spider Man Year One" revisionary history.)
What is the purpose of Ock's experimentation in that "Year One" series, by the way? Is there a scientific goal in these experiments (which result in the creation of the irradiated spider that bites Peter as well as the transformation of Octavius.)

Here are your answers:

Steady? No. They did, however, occasionally go somewhere together. For example, PPTSM #1.
MJ has never been interested in Flash romantically.
Harry got fairly serious with MJ in the few issues leading up to ASM #100, but MJ broke poor Harry's heart when he suggested that she was "his girl". You can see the breakup reprinted in MARVEL TALES #191 or in the DEATH OF GWEN STACY TPB.
Doc Ock was introduced in ASM #3, before Peter was involved in anyone. Betty Brant would be introduced next issue, and they would start dating around #7.
(and 6). In both cases, the goal was the same. The arms were invented to safely handle radioactive materials from behind proper shielding.

From speedblaze

Sorry for asking an old question but remember the old spider hunt and goblin gate thingie. My question is that who was the fake green goblin osborn was using when he kidnapped his own grandson i never knew who he was but got a slight idea though.

As revealed in PETER PARKER: SPIDER-MAN # 18, it was some sort of genetic construct. And, anticipating your follow-up question, yes that is quite lame. The original plan, around the time of Spider-Hunt, though, was to have the "new" Green Goblin be Phil Urich.

From Dan

Hi, first i just wanna say that you have a great web page here. With that said, I was flipping though an old Wizard and in it they said that in Amazing Spider-Man #87, Pete told Gwen he was Spidey. To my understand, she never knew this, so was Wizard wrong or am I?

Wizard is perfectly correct. Peter has a bad fever in Amazing #87, and things aren't going well for him in any case. In front of Gwen, Gwen's Dad, Harry and Mary Jane, he confesses to being Spidey.

His friends aren't totally convinced, and when Peter recovers from his fever and regrets his actions, it isn't to hard to persuade them he wasn't telling the truth. He asks the Prowler (who owes him a favour) to dress up as Spidey and show that Peter and Spidey are two separate people.