Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #230

Background

After seeking to employ the services of Madame Web for his friend Black Tom Cassidy, the unstoppable Juggernaut has ripped Madame Web from her life support chair, leaving her near death. After this act of callous brutality, the Juggernaut simply walked away, toward the ship which brought him to New York, and from there to journey away from the city. Spider-Man, saddened and angered by his failiure to save his psychic arachnid-themed friend, swears to stop the Juggernaut or die trying!

Story 'To Fight the Unbeatable Foe!'

Spider-Man sets out to find the Juggernaut and avenge his friend, Madame Web, whom Juggernaut so callously ripped from her life support chair, and nearly killed. Spider-Man follows the destruction to find Juggernaut, which proves easy. Spider-Man thinks to himself that earlier he had zapped Juggy with thousands of volts of electricity without fazing him, and wonders how to beat him. Spidey decides to try to hit him with something heavy, and uses a nearby I beam to his advantage, creating a giant slingshot out of webbing and hurling the heavy I beam ag Juggernaut.

Juggernaut catches the I-beam and twists it into a ball. Enraged, Juggy rips off the corner of the building on which Spider- Man is perched with his bare hands. Spider-Man, in awe of Juggy's power, finds a near by several thousand pound wrecking ball and throws it at Juggernaut as hard as he can. Juggy simply back hands the ball into a building, which then collapses on both hero and villain. Spider-Man hides behind a bunch of metal tubes, and eventually climbs his way out of the rubble only to learn that the Juggernaut had already walked out of the rubble and continued toward his ship.

Meanwhile, from afar, Black Tom, on the ship, watches with his binoculars looking for the Juggernaut, wondering what could be taking him.

Juggernaut is almost to the docks on another construction site when Spidey catches up to him. Spidey realizes that he has run out of webbing, adding to his already towering disadvantage against he Juggernaut. As Spider-Man wonders what to do next, a passing gasoline truck driver gets out of his truck to attack Spider-Man, becuase he reads the bugle and thinks Spidey is a menace. Spider-Man, after scaring away the driver, gets an idea. He gets in the gasoline truck and drives it full throttle at the Juggernaut, bailing out of the truck at the last moment before impact.

Instead of moving, Juggernaut meets the truck head on, exclaiming that nothing can hurt him. The truck hits Juggy and explodes with devestating force, causing a huge, blazing inferno. Black Tom watches from afar, hoping that Juggy is alright, and Spider-Man asks himself "what have I done?" as he believes that the Juggernaut must have been killed by the explosion. But Juggernaut simply walks out of the fire, not injured in the least, and exclaims "Spider-Man, you're dead!"

Spider-Man realizes that Juggy may be right if he can't figure out Juggy's weakness. Spider-Man jumps on the Juggernaught's back and tries to pull off his helmet, but can't even budge it. Juggernaut pounds unmercifully on Spider-Man, but Spider-Man stays on top of Juggernaut, not letting go no matter how much pain he's in. Juggy continues to pound and pound on the web-slinger until he realizes that he is sinking. It is only then that Juggernaut realizes that he has wandered into a foundation of wet, but quickly drying, cement.

Spider-Man hops off of Juggernaut, and Juggernaut slowly sinks into the cement, exclaiming that this won't stop him, that he'll smash the cement. Juggernaut keeps on talking until he is completley submerged in the cement, which then dries with the Juggernaut inside, ending the threat of the Juggernaut... for now. Afterward Spidey switches to Peter Parker and drops off his photos at the Daily Bugle before visiting Madame Web at the hospital only to discover that the blind psychic is psychic no longer. Following her injuries she apparently lost her memory and her paranormal abilities. Peter leaves the hospital with a bitter taste in his mouth. The story ends with Black Tom Cassidy staring through his binoculars waiting for the Juggernaut to emerge from the cement. And he waits and waits...

General Comments

It's almost not fair for me to be the one rating this because I am such a huge Juggernaut fan that sometimes I don't see an issue for being good or bad as long as Juggy has a good showing, but as far as I am concerned, this is a classic issue. Spider-Man's power cannot help him against this powerful foe, but with his truly heroic spirit, he keeps fighting, and for once in his life, his luck is good, and he prevails, if only by chance. Great fight, great story telling, all around good issue.

Overall Rating

5 webs. I might even be giving this one too much credit due to the Juggernaut (I love the Juggernaut))