Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #82

Background

Those mutie-hating Friends of Humanity have invaded E.S.U., and their next target is ... Spider-Man

Story 'You've Got To Have Friends (Of Humanity?)'

The Friends of Humanity are having a rally at ESU. The mood is tense, and the talk is about...what else but Mutants? They accuse Spider-Man of being a mutant himself, and burn ol' webhead in effigy. In addition to that, none other than Paul Stacy has joined their ranks! The demonstrations continue until it bursts into mob violence. Peter changes into Spidey, but that helps matters very little. The campus security shows up, and tells Spidey to split.

Paul Stacy is shown the F.O.H. headquarters, and checks out their digs. Later, Paul harasses a girl named Robin. A girl, we find out later, is actually a mutant (gasp!) How unpredictable! Peter and MJ show up and tell Paul to get lost, but Robin runs away. Peter follows her, and finds her up on the rooftop. He discovers that she IS a mutant (double-gasp!!), and she plans to get her revenge, starting with Paul Stacy!

Spider-Man catches up with Paul and tried to warn him, to talk to him, but Paul doesn't hear a word of it. He's too busy blaming Spider-Man for the deaths in his family. Spidey is suddenly overcome with Vertigo again (from his Morbius bite), and Paul pushes him off the side of the building, and over the edge! The last we see of the webswinger is hanging onto the side of the building for dear life!

General Comments

I don't understand why a title like Spider-Man needs to be filled with this mutant-stuff. Sure, it's part of the Marvel Universe. Sure, it's a reflection of our human racism. Sure, it's been done a GAZILLION times. I remember the days where heroes had REAL origins, like Batman, and Spidey himself. Today, you make any character you want and slap the 'mutant' label on him.

I digress. This issue didn't sit well with me because we don't really get to see any Spidey in it. He seems to be more of a supporting, 'in-the-wings' type of character. I want stories ABOUT Spider-Man, not AROUND Spider-Man. John and Scott did their jobs wonderfully, as always, but the story just didn't sit well with me.

Overall Rating

I'm giving it a generous two webs. Seems like the quality of these stories is dropping, like the creative juices are dried up and Howard is going back to the archive of lame, recycled story lines. I want more Spider-Man stories, like in Spectacular and Amazing. Feels like I'm reading Marvel Team-Up or something.