Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #79

Background

In the “Stan’s Soapbox” entry for ASM #77, October 1969, you may recall, Stan wrote “Starting as soon as possible, we’re abandoning our policy of continued stories!” which meant “we’ll have to shorten our plots…and tighten our pacing.” This explains why this issue begins with a hard transition from last issue’s confrontation between Peter and the Prowler to this issue’s beginning with Peter plunging out a window. Talk about shortening plots! Didn’t we need that scene that took place in between? Well, no, it turns out. Stan will fill in that gap pretty quickly on the splash page. And, this way, we get a nice, dramatic start to the issue.

Story 'To Prowl No More!'

That dramatic start begins on the cover which gives us the same moment as the splash page. This issue’s art is by John Buscema and Jim Mooney but the cover is by John Romita Sr. It gives us a “camera position” a bit below Peter’s falling body. Even though Pete is in the lower left quadrant of the cover, our eye goes to him (and the flying shards of glass around him) first. His knees are bent in what looks like a kicking position and this leads our eyes upwards. Peter’s left foot is next to the Prowler’s mask. Once we take in the Prowler, we also take in a distressed J. Jonah Jameson next to him; his cigar falling out of his mouth so that it is frozen here in mid-air. They are framed by the window with the glass shards flying about them. This gives the cover a 3-D effect with Peter appearing to stand out from them, along with the spider-signal symbol that fills up the lower right, with the title, “To Prowl No More!” in large letters on it. That title will be repeated on the splash page when we look at this same scene from a different angle. But before we go there, here’s a couple of questions: When was the last time we had a cover without Spidey on it? And when will be the next time? Answers (somewhere) below.

Okay, the splash page. It shows us Peter’s fall from a different angle. Here he is falling out towards us, more or less. Here, we are on Pete’s left side when we were on his right side on the cover. From this angle, we can’t see the Prowler or JJJ. The whole focus here is Peter’s fall, surrounded by those shards of glass. We can see cars, appearing small in the street below so we know he is high up.

If we hadn’t already figured it out, Stan tells us “This tale was originally planned as a 3-part epic…but since we promised to eliminate our continued stories, we’ve labored heroically to conclude it in this issue!” Gee, Stan, you shouldn’t have.

Peter’s thoughts fill the gap between issues. Although he looks wide-eyed and terrified, it’s just good acting. He’s thinking, “Someone in a costume…robbing Jonah Jameson in his office! But I can’t fight him as Peter Parker! I’ll have to pretend that the shock made me lose my balance…sent me toppling…through the window.” He uses his spider-powers to break his fall by repeatedly touching the building and considers it “lucky for me it’s nighttime when no one is apt to see what’s happening.” But is it nighttime? Let’s take a look at the last issue. Yep, it looks like it is. Soon, Pete is safely on the ground but, up in the Bugle offices, the Prowler holds his head in despair. “I never even touched him!” he says, “What made him go thru the window? I didn’t plan it this way! I didn’t plan to be a murderer!”

Just then, J. Jonah Jameson and Robbie Robertson burst into the room where the Prowler is. But, wait, wasn’t JJJ already there? He certainly is there on the cover. Another look at the last issue reveals that Jonah had already burst in without Robbie while Peter was still in the room. Jonah yells out, “You murdered the kid!” and replying, “I didn’t! I didn’t!” the Prowler flees out the window.

Jonah picks up the payroll bag which has changed color from brown to red since last issue. “At least the rotten killer didn’t get any of my money!” he says. Reminded of Peter by Robbie, JJJ looks down out the window and doesn’t see him. “I don’t even see the Prowler there!” he says and another look at the last issue reveals that he shouldn’t know the Prowler’s name.

The reason why Jonah can’t see the Prowler is that Hobie has climbed up to the roof. When he gets there, Spidey grabs him by the hand and dangles him over the ledge. “So, you’re the Prowler that Jolly Jonah was wondering about, huh?” So, he learns the Prowler’s name from Jameson.

The Prowler responds by kicking Spidey in the face; quite an athletic feat considering how he is dangling. Spidey lets go and the Prowler uses his steel-tipped gloves to scratch his way down the building to a ledge. But Spidey has recovered quickly, forcing the Prowler to attack with an air blast from his pellet gas bracelet. The blast (FZOPPP!) knocks a chunk off the roof ledge and gets Spidey to temporarily back off. “He sounds like he’s young,” thinks Spidey, “But he’s got a lot on the ball.” Then, dodging more air blasts, he swings down and grabs the Prowler in a scissor hold around his neck.

(Oh, hey, look! “Grow Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys!” “Only $1.00.”)

Spidey swings back to the roof and dumps the Prowler there. He notes, “Dangerous as he is, my spider-sense still isn’t tingling! Which could mean he’s not as bad a menace [as] I thought he was!” (Except that, last issue, Peter discovered the Prowler because his spider-sense was “tingling like mad!”)

The two face off on the roof. The Prowler takes a swipe at Spidey and misses, getting his claw “stuck in that thick roof tar” but he counters by shooting gas at Spidey from a pellet-holding anklet. “Ah-ha! The old gas-pellets-in-the-boot-trick, eh?” says Spidey, imitating the Maxwell Smart schtick from the TV series “Get Smart.” (There’s a whole bunch of them HERE.) But he admits to himself that the gas has made him groggy “and to make matters worse, I hear him getting his hand free!” The Prowler does that with a THWOK! And then runs off with Spidey “too woozy to stop him.” Spidey chastises himself with “he still isn’t really any match for me! I should have had him unmasked by now!” “At least he served one good purpose,” he thinks as he leaves the roof, “He made me forget about Gwen ditching me for Flash Thompson.” (That was also last issue but Gwen didn’t ditch Pete. She just went about things really badly.)

And now the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins, which has shrunk to a third of a page with most of its space taken up with the Mighty Marvel Checklist. Only two notices this time. One is an obituary. “With the most profound regret, we sorrowfully announce the untimely death of George Klein. George had been associated with the Bullpen for a period spanning more than two decades, as both penciller and inker. He was also a gifted painter, a valued friend, and a gentleman in the trust sense of the world. We deeply mourn his loss.” George did no inking for “Amazing” but he did ink three issues with Spidey appearances: Avengers #58, November 1968, Avengers #59, December 1968 and Daredevil #54, July 1969. He also inked “The Revengers” at Not Brand Echh #12 (Story 6), February 1969 with a couple of Spidey references. George was either born in 1915 or 1920, no one seems certain which and he died of cirrhosis of the liver six months after his marriage at either age 49 or 54. There is a nice tribute to him HERE.

The other item is “For those of you who’ve been wondering why Artful Archie Goodwin hasn’t been doing more stories of late, the answer is simple. Arch has a gruelling (sic) schedule to maintain due to a couple of newspaper strips which he’s been writing for years. But we’re still hoping to pry some more manuscripts from him – even if we have to resort to threats – like telling him that Irving Forbush just bought a new typewriter!” The strips that Archie (1937-1998) was writing were Secret Agent X-9 with art by Al Williamson and Captain Kate. He later wrote both the Star Wars and Star Hawks newspaper strips.

Back in the Daily Bugle offices, Jonah and Robbie are wondering what happened to Peter’s body when Peter walks in and tells them that “Spider-Man was nearby and he grabbed me, saving my life!” Jonah just wants to know if he got any pictures of the web-head but Robbie notices how “bushed” Peter looks and he tells him to “go home and get some rest.” Peter still can’t shake the effects of the gas. He finds his way home but still feels “like [he’s] been kicked by a mule.” He plops into bed, admitting, “It hurts lots more when I think of Gwen than the Prowler’s gas blast could ever hurt me!” and he asks, “what does a fella do when he learns that he gave his heart to the wrong girl?” So, Peter drifts off, still in his clothes (including his shoes) with visions of JJJ, Robbie, the Prowler, Aunt May and Gwen dancing in his head and “in another part of town,” Hobie Brown climbs up to his apartment, sick at heart because “I thought it would be a lark…I didn’t know I’d end up accused of murder!” He visualizes Peter falling and wonders, “What made him do it?...Was it because I scared him…because he panicked when he saw me? Did he think that I was really trying to kill him?” Then he visualizes his girlfriend Mindy, saying “I wanted to show her I wasn’t a nobody!” and finally he visualizes Spidey, saying, “what if I can catch him…beat him…deliver him to the fuzz? Maybe that’ll help me to clear myself…maybe it’ll make them realize I never meant to cause any harm!” Yeah, no, I don’t think that would work. But Hobie decides, “I’ll do it! The Prowler will strike again and then, when Spider-Man comes after me…I’ll still end up with the victory I wanted!”

Okay, hold it, we skipped past the reduced-to-one-page “Spider’s Web” to get to that one panel of Hobie so let’s jump back and look at some letters.

Brian Houlihan of Saginaw, Michigan writes, “I am a devoted follower of many of the peerless literary masterpieces that come off the Magazine Management Company’s press, and so, when I read the letters of some of the so-called fans in Spider-Man #75 (ASM #75, August 1969), my blood boiled at the thought that such people might cause you to change the best hero who has ever had a comic book to himself. If the people who wrote the before named letters want to read about ordinary thugs, then they should read the newspaper. Despite what I have just stated, I feel that you should try to keep the magazine fairly close to reality in the field of Spider-Man’s powers, please don’t make him more powerful as was asked by somebody who wrote you a letter. And as for the person who wanted the magazine to focus on the problems of Peter Parker, forget it!” Brian is referring to Eric Nash of New York, New York, who wrote, “In Amazing Fantasy #15, August 1962…Uncle Ben was killed by a real criminal, and that is how Spidey got involved in crime-fighting. Then why, if disaster was caused by a common hood, should Spidey fight only super-powered enemies?” Gordon Matthews of Union City, Pennsylvania who wrote, “It seems that ever since issue #39, Spider-Man has been getting weaker and weaker, not to mention much less agile…” and Steve Games of Portland, Oregon who wrote, “One thing that Spidey used to have that it now sorely lacks is more Peter Parker.” Stan tells Brian, “Much as we appreciate your loyalty…please don’t refer to the writers of those letters…as ‘so-called’ fans. They are fans, but definitely – if only because they took the time and trouble to tell us that they thought we were out of our skulls – and because they also suggested a way to crawl back into them. Excelsior!”

John O’Grady of Rye, New York writes, “I am not one to brag, but in the past, I have been pretty well able to deduce what will happen to Spidey from his previous mags. This ability, coupled with the letter of Bill Kerr in Spider-Man #73 (ASM #73, June 1969), has finally provoked my pen to move. I agree with Bill that Spidey has reached the point where he will reveal his much sought after secret identity to someone. However, I disagree with Bill’s choice for the secret. Personally, after the constant mention of Dr. Connors in your last few issues, and his sudden appearance in New York at the end of #73, my thought is that Spidey will reveal his identity to the good doctor.” In that issue, Bill Kerr offered three possible confidantes: “The first is Captain Stacy. He is the sharpest, most rational, and is in a good position to help Spidey in his troubles with the police. However, he is the father of Spidey’s girl, which could lead to complications without end. Secondly, there is Gwen herself. If Peter really loves her, she doesn’t deserve to not be allowed to help him. But naturally, she would always be fearful for him every time he swung into action. I doubt if Spidey could stand up to that. Lastly, there is Joe Robertson. If Jolly Jonah dies, he would be the logical one to help clear Spidey of first-degree charges. If he lives, he would be a natural to possibly help circumvent Jameson’s hate campaign.” Bill was all wrong but so was John. Four guesses and not a one of them mentions Mary Jane.

Don Dewsnop of New College in Sarasota, Florida thinks “over and above all, P.P. must grow. His increased life-span gives you some leeway – maybe half speed aging – but he must still grow. Someday, his son will take over (please don’t let him marry some superheroine or turn MJ or Gwen into one so he can). Until then, he must grow naturally. Having him stay in college eternally would defeat your whole purpose of reality.” Well, Don, Peter is finally out of college (I think) but…half speed aging? Heh. So much for the “whole purpose of reality,” although there is another reality where Peter’s daughter takes over. As for turning MJ or Gwen into a superheroine, well, Don, it looks like you didn’t win the Jackpot. But I agree with you, Don. It’s a terrible idea.

We now join Peter Parker the next day as he mopes his way to class. Gwen sees him and runs after him, telling him, “If something’s bugging you, I’ve a right to know what it is!” Peter replies that she’s got her rights, “and I hope you’ll enjoy sharing them with Flash Thompson. But it won’t be at my expense…any more!” Back at home, Peter mopes in front of the TV, where he hears a report that “our news desk has received a flood of reports concerning the Prowler…a mysterious masked criminal still at large in the city!” (So, where did the news learn the “masked criminal” is called the Prowler? From JJJ?) Peter decides to search for the Prowler. “It’s one way to get Gwendy off my mind!” This time, though, he brings his “miniaturized gas filter” and his camera, but once he is out web-slinging, he remembers that he is out of film. He goes to a drug store but decides he “can’t just walk into a store like this without causing some kind of a small scale riot” so he bends the bars back from an upstairs window and crawls in on the ceiling. “Business must be good,” Spidey thinks, “The druggist’s still working in there!” So, is the store closed and the druggist is working late? Then, what’s all this about causing a “small scale riot” if he walks into the store? Spidey sneaks past the druggist and grabs his film but he knocks over a display sign alerting the druggist who says, as if it could be anyone, “Who’s that crawling on the ceiling?” Then, a strand of webbing drops down with some bunched-up bills. The druggist takes the money, which has smoothed out very nicely and says, “it could only have been Spider-Man! But…I thought they call him…a menace?!!” This turns out to be a completely unnecessary scene. After getting his film, Spidey scopes out the banks for the Prowler without success then heads to the Diamond Center where he finds the Prowler robbing Smith Brothers who, rather than make cough drops, deal in diamonds.

Spidey sets up his camera outside the window, then proceeds to smash right through it. (The camera seems to have disappeared amidst the glass shards.) The Prowler, who has, somehow, learned that Peter is still alive, was considerate enough to open the window when he entered and he is waiting for Spidey. “You snapped at my bait!” he cries as he unleashes his gas attack. There’s no sign of Spidey’s gas filter under his mask but it turns out that he is wearing it. With the gas failure, the Prowler switches to his “power blasts” but Spidey easily evades them. With that, the Prowler decides he’s had enough. “If the gas won’t stop ‘im, nothing will,” he thinks and he leaps out of the broken window. “I only beat him by a fluke before,” he thinks as he lands by a drug store (but not the same drug store). “Compared to that cat, I’m strictly nowhere! I was a fool…not to listen to Mindy!”

The camera remains missing as the Prowler escapes but it reappears when Spidey perches outside the window and snags the Prowler by the ankle with his webbing. He pulls him up so he is dangling upside down. The Prowler aims a power blast but Spidey clogs his wrist and ankle nozzles with his web goo. “Don’t feel too bad, buddy,” he says, “this won’t be a total loss! If you’re lucky, you’ll get a few good photos out of it!” Is Spidey really planning to publish those photos as Peter Parker after telling Hobie he took them as Spidey? Is Hobie that “someone” who Spidey “will reveal his much sought after secret identity to?” No, because he never publishes those photos. Instead, he unmasks the Prowler and sees that “he’s just a frightened kid no older than I am.”

“Maybe it’s just as well you caught me before I got into more trouble,” Hobie says and Spidey asks him to “tell me about it.” It appears that he does because, when Hobie wraps up, Spidey knows his name and knows Mindy’s name. “All I wanted was a chance to use my talent,” Hobie says, “to help people, but no one listened, no one cared…so go ahead, lock me up! What difference does it make?” But Spidey thinks it makes a lot of difference. “So far, you’ve hurt no one, you’ve stolen nothing,” he says. (The Daily Bugle watchman may dispute that “hurt no one” business but, on the plus side, it was not Hobie but Peter/Spidey who broke two windows.)

Spidey tells Hobie to “go back to Mindy, man…that’s where it’s really at” and he lets him go. As he web-swings away, he says, “I mean maybe we were both in the same boat…both of us riding a rocket to nowhere…only you were the lucky one because you just got off!”

And our “Next” blurb is “The Return of the Mysterious Chameleon!” We haven't seen him in a while!

General Comments

Milestones (Landmark events that take place in this story.)

1. Second appearance of Hobie Brown and the Prowler. He’s back in ASM #87, August 1970 as Hobie (with one panel of the Prowler in Hobie’s thoughts) and ASM #93, February 1971 as the Prowler in the flesh.
2. Sort of second appearance of Mindy McPherson in Hobie’s thoughts only.
3. Only appearances of the druggist (“Who’s that…crawling on the ceiling?”) and the TV news guy.
4. Peter/Spidey breaks two different windows. He pays the druggist for his film. Does he pay the Bugle and Smith Brothers for the windows?
5. Peter blows Gwen off by telling her to go back to Flash Thompson, then he spends the evening moping in front of the TV. Gwen doesn’t bother to call.
6. Gwen, JJJ, and Robbie show up this issue. Aunt May shows up in Peter’s thoughts only.
7. Spidey notes that the Prowler can’t be that dangerous because he doesn’t set off his spider-sense even though the Prowler set it off last issue.
8. JJJ knows the Prowler’s costumed name without being told.
9. Spidey learns it from JJJ.
10. The TV news guy knows it too.
11. Spidey wears a protruding gas filter that does not show up behind his mask.
12. Spidey is afraid he will start a riot if he enters a drug store that is, by all appearances, closed for the night.
13. Spidey’s camera disappears and appears again.
14. Spidey tells the Prowler that he has taken pictures of him so it’s a good thing he decides to not publish them in the Bugle.

The Spider-Man checklist entry for this issue:

J. Buscema-Mooney/Lee/Rosen
“To Prowl No More” – The Prowler thinks he unintentionally killed Peter – then Spidey steps in.

The answers to our cover questions:
Last time Spidey wasn’t on the cover was ASM #72, May 1969, so not all that long ago.
The next time is a ways off: ASM #177, February 1978.

Overall Rating

If this is the Prowler story in two issues, you have to wonder what a three-issue story would have been. There’s no point in having another super-hero battle. Once Spidey counters the gas, the Prowler is no match for him and he’s not likely to fall for it twice. And if there was another issue’s worth of things to say, why spend two pages here on the pointless episode with the druggist? Well, my guess is that we would have had much more with Hobie and his civilian life, particularly with the theme that makes ASM #78, November 1969 stand out: Hobie’s struggle to overcome the racism and classism that keeps him down in his life. Without that, we have a fairly basic tale. Peter flings himself out the window, Spidey and the Prowler fight, Prowler’s gas knocks Spidey for a loop, Hobie feels like a murderer even though he didn’t touch Peter, Peter mopes about Gwen, Spidey and Prowler fight again, Spidey defeats him easily and then lets him go. We don’t even get a scene where Hobie finds out that Peter didn’t die. We only get Hobie thinking, “It was a groove reading that Parker’s still alive.” (Where did he read this? Did the Bugle put out an edition? Couldn’t we have seen this moment instead of the scene with the druggist?) And, let’s face it, Peter’s Gwen-moping is getting tired.

Two webs.

Footnote

We have, at last, completed Spidey’s 1969 run except…there’s still a few odd year-end appearances. Let’s start with Marvelmania Catalog #1.