Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #206

Background

Dr. Jonas Harrow recalled how he had finally learned mind control by experimenting on Jonah Jameson. He had created a device to shoot a beam into Jameson’s office at the Bugle, influencing his hatred of Spider-Man. His hatred became even more irrational and aggravated, making Joe Robertson resign. Joe’s leaving made Jameson even more paranoid, and Marla was unable to reason with him. The Daily Bugle’s board of directors vote to remove Jameson was the last straw and he had a psychotic collapse.

The experiment continued even after he was in the hospital when Harrow trained his device into his window from the street. The steady influence of the machine drove Jameson to violence and he escaped from the hospital. He hid at the Bugle but was soon on the run again. He ran into an alleyway and tripped, causing him to hit his head and suffer amnesia. Harrow found him there and took him back to his lab. The amnesia made lying to Jameson much easier.

Story 'A Method in his Madness'

Dr. Harrow was pleased with the device's effectiveness on Jonah and checked to see how well it was working on Joe Robertson. The machine was still transmitting it's insanity rays into the office at the Bugle, which Joe now occupied.

In the office, Joe welcomed Marla, who was worried about Jonah's disappearance. Harrow applied the device and watched as the friendly conversation turned into an argument, with Marla saying Joe never cared about Jonah and Joe saying she only wanted Jonah's money.

Peter arrived at the Bugle, despite working for the Daily Globe, and chatted with Glory Grant. He sensed danger in the office and a trophy came flying through the glass window. Peter found Marla threatening Joe with a letter opener and he tried to get between them. Harrow turned up the machine and Peter furiously shoved both of them away, then immediately wondered what came over him. He had been lucky to not shove them through the walls. Peter turned around and saw that the violence had spread to the rest of the work floor. He pulled the fire alarm and everyone instinctively fled, and he tried to focus after the room was empty. Despite being alone, he still felt like someone was out to get him. He went back to Jonah's office and thought the sick feeling came from a water tower across the street.

Harrow was thrilled with his device's success, he even though that "one young fool was going to throw himself out the window for an instant!" He stopped gloating after an alarm went off and a monitor showed Spider-Man arriving. He calmed himself and focused the beam at Spider-Man, who fled in a panic. He recovered almost immediately and knew he could handle whatever was happening. He went after the water tower again and smashed into it, but the device's ability to create paranoia made Spidey think he was facing alien technology and fled. He succeeded in destroying the machine after swinging around behind it, then was congratulated by a radio message from Harrow. Spider-Man had never met the good doctor, since he battled Spidey from behind closed doors.

Harrow issued a challenge to Spider-Man and he confronted the mad scientist at his laboratory. Harrow stayed in an isolation booth as he aimed a stronger version of the paranoia machine at the webhead. Spidey dodged the rays and found Jonah Jameson restrained on a table and promised to free him. Jonah was confused that the hated webhead would help him at all, and his hate brought his memories back. Now focused, Jonah found a way to undo the straps that restrained him.

Harrow flooded the room with the beam, even if doing so made it less concentrated. Spider-Man forced himself to tolerate the paranoia and threw tables at a wall of voltage regulators. The progress was slow and Jonah decided to take matters into his own hands. He tried to run from the building and found a room with an electrical plug. In his confusion, he believed that the plug powered the machine. He yanked the plug...and cut power to an answering machine. At the same time, Spider-Man defeated Harrow's machine and power went out in the building. Jonah congratulated himself for defeating Harrow without a so-called superhero.

Harrow confronted Spider-Man with a revolver, which scared Spidey as much as it should. He punched Harrow, making the gun go off and the bullet narrowly missed Jonah. Spidey taunted Harrow for rewiring the Kangaroo, Hammerhead and Will-O'-the-Wisp but losing after getting directly involved. Jonah accused Spider-Man of intentionally deflecting the bullet towards him and promised to expose him once he got back to the Daily Bugle. As Spidey swung off he thoight that Jonah was as inevitable as death and taxes.

General Comments

There isn't much to say about this. It's a simple paint by numbers Jonah/Spider-Man story. I recently reviewed Amazing Spider-Man #169 and Marla Madison also appeared in that story, and I was surprised to see her twice. I started reading Spidey books in 1996 and I can think of Marla showing up in two stories between 1997 (Spectacular Spider-Man #247) including her death in Amazing Spider-Man #654, in 2011. (She was cloned and died in The Clone Conspiracy in 2016.) It's funny how characters come and go in terms of relevance.

Overall Rating

Again, the cover is the most interestig part of the book.