Amazing Spider-Man 14 -- Peter Parker Goes Green -- Betty Gets Petty

Another masterpiece from Fred Hembeck

President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, abolishing racial segregation across the USA, casualty reports go over 1,000 in the Vietnam War and the Ranger Program sends back thousands of close up photographs of the moon.  Speaking of photographers and bad segues, it's another installment of Comics in the Classroom starring everyone's favorite tortured teen, the Amazing Spider-Man

This is an explosive Super Double Feature as it debuts the villain who will be torturing both Spider-Man and Peter Parker into the next century...................................The Green Goblin,

It also features a guest appearance by everyone's favorite emerald brute..............The Incredible Hulk

Before getting into the story I have a quick discussion with the students about the power of fanfare.  At the time of this publication, The Incredible Hulk comic book series was cancelled and poor Bruce Banner's alter ego was lingering in limbo.  Writers didn't know what to do with the character and many considered him a bad rip off of Dr Jekyl and Mr Hype or Frankenstein.  At that point Marvel tried to place the Hulk in the occasional cameo shot in other comics titles to see if a little boost could revive the angered soul.

Fans wrote in droves about how much they loved the Hulk's appearances in their favorite titles and soon enough, The Incredible Hulk was back on the shelves.  In a similar story relative to the student's modern entertainment, the popular animated show Family Guy was also canceled early in its run, leaving poor Seth McFarlane to wonder if he wasted all those hours in front of TV and Broadway musicals.  Fox didn't think the show had legs, until of course they looked at the DVD sales and read about 5 zillion message boards conveying their love and obsession for the show.  Once rejected and tossed by the networks, Seth McFarlane is now a billionaire who hosts the Oscars.  Yet another reason to love comics and the animation it inspires.

Our tale begins with a man in the shadows, plotting, scheming, and trying out an array of dangerous looking weapons before slipping on an outfit that makes him look like a leprechaun on steroids.  The Goblin jumps on his flying broomstick and makes off for a meeting at a sleazy hotel with................The Enforcers.

That's right, Marvel's version of the Keystone Kops make their return to comics as they have been recently let out of jail and instead of learning from their criminal ways and going straight, go right back into the life of sin. Headless since their leader, The Big Man, was caught and revealed to be mild mannered reporter Frederick Foswell, The Goblin takes advantage of this and convinces them t fall in with him, vowing to help them gain revenge on the man who put them behind bars, The Amazing Spider-Man

The Green Goblin's plan begins with him crashing the penthouse home of a Hollywood movie producer and coaxing him to finance a movie starring himself, the Enforcers and the real Spider-Man.  The producer agrees and I am left bitter and angry when I realize my years of trying to get a screenplay sold would've been shortened if I only had a flying broomstick, a Goblin costume and the balls to crash into a studio honcho's apartment.  Either way I let the anger go and finish my lesson.

Back on the other coast, Peter is starting to impress his fellow students with his smarts, as well as his improving physique, which is making Flash Thompson increasingly jealous.  Peter's joy is interrupted when a radio reports a flying Goblin across the New York skyline.  Peter jets off and changes into Spider-Man to investigate the situation.

In the story, Peter makes a reference to J Edgar Hoover and Khrushchev the Russian premier.  We do a quick side about world leaders in the 60's and I let the kids entertain the idea of both historical figures possible involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy.  After all this is a Comics class and conspiracy stories are always welcomed and encouraged, even if I am the one to poke the students into talking about it.

When Spidey meets The Goblin, he tells him Hollywood producer BJ Cosmos is looking to sign him for an exclusive action film and came to New York to finalize the project.  Spider-Man visits BJ at his hotel and the producer offers him 50 grand to star in an action flick.  Anxious to provide his Aunt May with a better life, Spidey signs on the dotted line and makes plans to head west.  Much to his satisfaction, Jameson also wants to send Peter Parker to Hollywood to get the exclusive pics on set.  Peter is basking in his good fortune when Betty Brant starts to show her possessiveness and jealousy over all the Hollywood beauties Peter may come into contact with, along with expressing her displeasure over the recent affections thrown to her boyfriend by Flash's ex, Liz Allen.  I have to calm the class down once our discussion veers off into the high school drama of relationships, cheating and petty jealousy.  That segue nearly takes up the entire class.

So while a naive Spidey thinks they hired incredible Enforcer look a likes, the movie crew heads to New Mexico to start shooting fight scenes.  Before the cameras are ready to roll, The Goblin and The Enforcers jump Spider-Man.  So The Goblin's plan all along was to get Spidey on camera in the middle of the desert and then go for the kill, even I couldn't sell this one to the students but we ride out The Goblin's plot for the duration, and especially because of the oncoming guest star.

Then it occurs to one of my students as a glowing light flashes across the classroom,

They wanted to get him out in the desert so Spider-Man is out of his element and doesn't have the advantage of sticking to walls or climbing over buildings.  A slow tear forms in my eye as I see my students deciphering clues on their own.  Not bad for special education :)

So once Spidey realizes he's been duped it's too late as Goblin and the Enforcers put the hurting to him gangland style.  Goblin is dropping pumpkin bombs all over the desert as The Enforcers take turns pummeling Spidey into exhaustion.  When they pile on him, Spidey uses all of his strength to knock them away before webbing up some tumbleweeds and using his strength to whip up an old fashioned dust storm so he could escape into a nearby cave underneath the cover of the smoke screen.

Hiding in the cave, things get intense when the fearsome foursome follow him inside and block off the escape with a large boulder.  Spider-Man uses his enhanced sight to stalk and take out the Enforcers one by one until it is down to him and The Goblin.  Goblin starts whipping multiple flash bombs all over the cave until Spidey ducks into a dank corner and runs head first into.................................

THE INCREDIBLE HULK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing like seeing everyone's favorite green monster hiding out from his latest path of wanton destruction.  Of course Spidey is caught off guard and The Hulk goes on a rampage, destroying the entire cave with his bare green hands while Spider-Man tries to elude his destructive rage and Earth crushing fists.

When Spider-Man decides to take it to The Hulk, he nearly cripples himself.  Instead he uses his intelligence and places himself in front of the boulder blocking the entrance to the cave.  The Hulk plow after Spidey and smashes through the boulder, freeing Spidey and The Green Goblin, who deserts the captured Enforcers.  When Spidey tries to catch the escaping Goblin, he is too worn out from his brawl with The Hulk and falls into a small lagoon.  The Goblin escapes and The Hulk wanders off into the unknown, more then likely to turn back into Bruce Banner in order to walk off to that piano music so familiar from the Bill Bixby TV series that my students would obviously not remember, making me feel very old :)

Spidey swings back to Hollywood, where his 50 grand is non existent due to no shooting on their movie.  Spidey learns just awful and frustrating the movie business can be.  All in all, a fantastic issue, probably the best we have read in class so far.  It always a blast during Comics in the Classroom.

Vocab Word Web

1- Grotesque

2- Legitimate

3- Publicity

4- Murky

5- Expansion

6- Glamorous

7- Sensitive

8- Lummox

9- Astonished

10- Studious

11- Articulate

12- Overestimate

13- Ember

14- Subtle

15- Disposal

16- Colossus

17- Baleful

18- Submerged

19- Dreaded

20- Undiminished

Amazing Spider-Man 13 -- Spidey Thinks He's Going Fight Club -- Man w Fish Bowl 4 a Head

In a violent month for the world, anti-Vietnam protests continue in America while martial law is declared in South Korea, Turkey and Greece argue over Cyprus and Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in Robben Island Prison.  Through this hazy smoke of violence and despair, Jim Bunning of the Philadelphia Phillies pitches the first perfect game in the National League since 1880.  As summer approaches, Spider-Man battles the latest addition to his glorious rogue's gallery, the fish bowl helmeted master of movie magic..........

MYSTERIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our tale begins with what looks like Spider-Man in the middle of a bank heist.  He steals a wad of cash, climbs the walls, webs up the night watchmen and leaps off the roof before parachuting to safety.  When the news of this hits the press, the city is in shock, so are the students at Midtown High, who all start turning on Spidey left and right, with the exception of his biggest fan, Flash Thompson.

When Peter gets wind of the news and considers the evidence and timing, he actually begins to believe he is becoming a split personality ala Tyler Durden, committing crimes at night as Spider-Man while he believes he is peacefully slumbering as Peter Parker.

When another crime is committed as Spider-Man, Peter turns anxious and desperate and decides to visit a shrink in his Spider-Man garb.  So now this episode goes from Fight Club to The Sopranos.  Even though both movies are violent and probably not appropriate scholastic material, you cannot deny either's impact on pop culture.  The students want to use references to the Sopranos or Fight Club in our script, or maybe the next one.  We have decided that we aren't going to tackle intergalactic aliens or major terrorist plots in our first script.  The Arach-Knight Begins is going to be your good old fashioned origin/revenge story.

I still get this great idea of doing a Spider-Man graphic novel with

The Kingpin as the main villain and having the model for the character the late, great James Gandolfini.  Bringing in Kingpin will be a great way to also bring in Marvel hero Daredevil, who I always considered a poor man's Batman but loved the title when Frank Miller was involved.  Either way, it's hard to talk sequel when we haven't started our first movie script yet.

While he wonders if he's a sleep walking criminal, Peter Parker has to be careful about where he goes as Spider-Man since he is now a wanted man.  This puts a damper in Peter's photography career, which is bad timing since Aunt May is low on funds and they have a mortgage payment due.  Once again we open discussion up to the floor about the ethics of having superpowers and what limits you would take to use them in order to take care of your family.  With the powers to go on a one man crime spree, why doesn't Peter just rough up some thugs and pull a Robin Hood act?  The students all agree that sometimes ethics and morals are thrown out the window when the bills are due.  What made Spider-Man stand out above the rest was the fact that he always managed to find a way out when that solution would become the only option.

As Jameson basks in the glow of Spidey's fugitive turn, the Daily Bugle is visited by a costumed crusader who claims he is the man for the job of taking out Spider-Man.  He calls himself Mysterio and wears a giant fish bowl on his head, looking like something out of a bad 50's monster movie.  I go over the vintage horror genre with the students as we continue to discuss whether Mysterio has the proper credibility to be a usable Spider-Man villain in a story.

With the Internet still just an idea in the mind of a infant Al Gore, the newspaper was still the king of all media.  Mysterio has Jameson put a post in the paper challenging Spider-Man to a confrontation on top of the Brooklyn Bridge.  When they face off, Spidey is amazed at Mysterio's bag of tricks.  Underneath the fish bowl helmet and flowing cape, Mysterio has magnetized boots and can throw clouds of smoke that seem to make him look like he's teleporting.  When Spider-Man tries to web him up, Mysterio shoots mist from his gloves that vaporizes webs

Locked in another large cloud of smoke, Mysterio is virtually invisible and gives Spider-Man a good enough beatdown where the wall crawler is forced to regroup and retreat by jumping off the bridge.  Webbing himself an air tight helmet, Spider-Man swims underwater to safety while police helicopters search for the fugitive at large.

So while Mysterio receives a small parade for defeating the criminal Spider-Man, Flash still defends his hero while Jameson sets up a deal for exclusive rights to Mysterio's secret identity.  When Peter is introduced to Mysterio by Jameson as his photogrpaher, Parker takes the opportunity to slip one of his custom spider tracer devices into his cloak.  

Following old Fish bowl, Spidey tracks Mysterio to a movie studio where they engage in combat once again.  Besting him for a second time, Mysterio then breaks the rules of the cliched villains handbook when he reveals everything to Spider-Man, figuring he's going to kill him in about 5 minutes anyway.  We learn that Mysterio was a former movie stunt who became a master of setting up special effects.  A mad genius in his own right, Mysterio was fascinated by Spider-Man and obsessively decided to study him for months to learn everything about his powers and abilities in an attempt to mimic him, as he had done for so many others on the silver screen.  Suddenly Mysterio's character becomes more interesting, even somewhat usable for a future story.  

One of the students brings up the movie Seven, a psychological thriller starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as detectives trying to take down a major league serial killer with a revolting literary theme.  The way the killer studies the detectives and puts together his intricate plan patiently and methodically is reminiscent of how Mysterio goes about becoming Spider-Man, using everything from suction gloves and boots to using nylon chord as fake webbing, acid spitting gloves, tinted helmets and smoke ejectors from under his cloak, doing just about everything Spider-Man does naturally, only artificially.  Mysterio put a lot of time into his plan but then became obsessed with getting above just imitating Spidey and creating a super hero persona of his own, being able to take credit for stopping the crime wave he started.

More angered then flattered over Mysterio's obsession, Spider-Man decides not to hold back any more and slugs the stunt man so hard he sends him through the wall and right into the middle of a live movie set.  While the directors and crew scatter and scramble, they miss out on filming some incredible live action as Spider-Man and Mysterio brawl all over the studio set until Spider-Man gets the upper hand and knocks Mysterio unconscious.  He delivers his body to the cops for a full confession, and delivers the pics and story to the Bugle to clear his name while playing one last jolly prank on Jameson for good measure.  Just like that the mortgage is paid and our hero gets his occasional happy ending.

So we see in today's lesson how looks can be deceiving as Mysterio started out as a joke villain and turned into a character that myself and the students are looking forward to seeing once again.  All in all, another fine day of Comics in the Classroom.

Vocab Word Web

1- Psychiatrist

2- Hastily

3- Subconscious

4- Controversial

5- Cautiously

6- Dissolving

7- Vaporizing

8- Invertebrate

9- Billowy

10- Conceited

11- Thwarted

12- Overwhelmed 

13- Plunge

14- Concealing

15- Vindicated

Amazing Spider-Man 12 -- Back in New York w Doc Ock -- Peter gets Unmasked

On the cover date of this adventurous issue, 1,000 students march in Times Square and 12 more burn their draft cards in public, risking their freedom as the first wave of anti-Vietnam demonstrations begin to spread across our divided country.  All the while Spider-Man is hot on the trail of Dr Octopus as our story comes back to the Big Apple after Spidey's brief sojourn to the City of Brotherly Love.

When our story begins, Spider-Man is still catching hell in the press, most especially from J Jonah Jameson, for letting Doc Ock escape after their battle on the Delaware River.  Spider-Man goes to give Jonah a good what for but is excited when he spots Betty Brant making her return to the Daily Bugle.  

Meanwhile, the Doc is on a cross country crime spree, going after armored trucks, helicopters and bank vaults, all in an attempt to draw Spider-Man back into battle.  The insane Doc Ock believes Spidey is the only thing standing in his way of complete domination of the criminal world and vows to finish him off for good in their next battle.

Meanwhile, Peter is back in New York worrying about mid terms and an oncoming cold.  When he goes to visit Betty at the Bugle, Dr Octopus crashes through the window and begins to wreak havoc in Jonah's office, taking Betty as a hostage in order to draw Spider-Man

into a public fight............at Coney Island.

So Spidey heads over to my father's hometown for a battle with the Doc, but his cold turns progressively worse in the winter air until he is as weak as us normal human folk.  Driven to save Betty at all costs, Spider-Man charges carelessly into battle, where Dr Octopus takes advantage of his weakened condition to give him a sound butt whipping before ripping off his mask and revealing his identity to the approaching police and J Jonah Jameson, who snuck down to Brooklyn to witness the fight and write the exclusive story.

While Betty, Jonah and the cops are all shocked to see that Spider-Man is nothing but an ordinary looking teenager, Dr Octopus is not convinced because of how easily he bested the wall crawler.  Tossing his unconscious body aside, even Jonah and Betty believe that Peter dressed up as Spider-Man just to get pictures for the paper.  Peter's sickened condition helps preserve his secret identity.  

While the Doc escapes into hiding in the city, Peter's spider strength allows him to recover quicker than normal, but he must face repercussions from his Spider-Man "stunt" at Coney Island.  When he goes to school he is surprised to see that many of the students are impressed with Peter's attempt at "impersonating" Spider-Man, especially Flash Thompson's girlfriend, Liz Allen.  

While Peter deals with Liz's new found affections, Doc Ock decides to bust into the Central Park Zoo and let loose all of the animals, keeping the police busy and New Yorkers on the run.  Spider-Man teams up with the police to help safely round up all of the escaped beasts.  

Spider-Man and Dr Octopus finally go head to head, brawling along rooftops and industrial chimneys.  Spider-Man gets the early licks in, but he eventually begins to tire from constantly avoiding six flailing limbs flying at him like rapid fire and looks to take the brawl out of the open and into close quarters.  Tackling the Doc like a linebacker, both combatants crash into a scaffold that snaps and swings both men across a building until they both crash into a sculptors abandoned studio.

The two of them beat the snot out of each other with oversized art until the place catches on fire and a large sculpture crashes on top of Dr Octopus.  Blinded by the growing fire, Spider-Man loses his view of the Doc in the smoke and is forced to abandon the building to save himself, leaving the unconscious Doc to be sprung by firefighters before being turned over to the police.  

Interesting ending to this one, Liz and Flash catch up to Peter as he goes through his collection of pics he took from his automatic camera during his brawl with the Doc.  When Liz invites Peter to a party at her place, Peter takes satisfaction in turning her down, telling her he has a date with Betty Brant and to go off and enjoy hanging out with her consolation prize, Flash Thompson.  Now if anyone remembers, Liz Allen was the girl Peter asked out way back in Amazing Fantasy 15, the first appearance of Spidey.  We see here how Peter's life has come full circle in that his life of adventure as Spider-Man is starting to carry over into his confidence as a teenage, a time in your life when confidence can make or break your social standing.  

For the first time, we don't pull anything incredibly important from this issue to use in our master script, but never fear, for we have nine more issues of the Amazing Spider-Man to go as well as an awesome 6 part crossover storyline from the 80s that will play an important role in our class script.  Once we finish our reading list, we will attempt to construct our original story of between 90-120 pages and take a crack at getting in on some of that Mickey Mouse money flowing through the Marvel Comics hallways.

Until then, we thank you for being a part of Comics in the Classroom.

Vocab Word Web

1- Epic

2- Psychiatrist

3- Elusive

4- Marauder

5- Perpetrated

6- Humiliation

7- Outskirts

8- Valiantly

9- Vicious

10- Virtually

11- Idle

12- Ineffectual

13- Combatants

14- Virtuoso

15- Recuperate

Amazing Spider-Man 11 -- Return of the OCK -- Betty Brant's Deadbeat Brother -- Warlords?

The historic Polo Grounds are torn down in New York City while Shea Stadium is constructed to house the Mets, New York's answer to the departure of the Giants to San Francisco and the Dodgers to Los Angeles.  With all the construction going on, Spider-Man finds the perfect time to get out of dodge and head south along the turnpike to Philadelphia as Comics in the Classroom goes on the road for the latest installment of The Arach-Knight.

Before we move into the lesson, one of the students comes up with the idea to make Kraven the Hunter, our chosen villain, an African Warlord.  Give his reboot more flavor and most importantly, more of a Ras al Ghul comparison.  Kraven will also be connected to The Chameleon and Richard Parker.  Peter can come into contact with Kraven during his time in Africa with the Peace Corps.  The secretary makes the necessary addition to our notes.

A year after their brawl for it all, Dr Octopus is being released from prison on good behavior.  While Spider-Man prepares for another brawl by building a new miniature spider shaped transistor, Doc Ock has been waiting patiently in his reinforced cell, slowly but surely mastering his extra limbs.

Spider-Man makes sure to be on hand during the Doc's release.  Much to his surprise he sees the Doc being picked up from prison by.................Betty Brant.  A shocked Spidey tosses his transistor on top of the car and tracks them all the way to the home of the cheese steak and perennial second place teams, Philadelphia.

Turns out Betty is caught up in a prison escape plot orchestrated by her brother Bennett, who is a lawyer down on his luck after a mountain of gambling debt lands him in deep with Philly gangster Blackie Gaxton, who has offered to erase his debt if he can get Dr Octopus to break him out of prison.  Betty's unfortunate circumstances may work well in our master script and give our love interest a bigger connection to our story.

With 100 grand on the line, Doc Ock busts Blackie out of prison and they head for a getaway boat in the harbor.  Meanwhile, Peter has an emotional reunion with Betty on the streets of Philly, where he vows to tell her his secret identity once he has taken out Doc Ock.

Once Doc Ock has his hands on the money, he goes insane comic book villain style and decides Blackie and his crew are expendable.  Spider-Man attacks and the melee is on.  Doc Ock is knocked into Blackie's goons and while Spidey tangles with an armed and shooting Blackie, a wayward bullet fires towards Betty and Bennett jumps in front of her to save her life, sacrificing his in the process.  While Betty screams in rage and frustration, Spidey goes after Blackie.

Doc Ock and Spidey take turns thrashing all of Blackie's men, showing off their strength and skill until it is only the two of them left standing.  They brawl all over the rusty tugboat while Blackie's remaining conscious goons try to grab the 100 grand and Betty as a hostage.  As a police ship arrives, the boat crashes and send Spidey and Doc Ock hurtling into the water.  While the police arrest Blackie and his crew, Doc Ock escapes under water and Spidey changes back into Peter Parker.

While Betty doesn't blame Spider-Man for her brother's death, she can't bear to see him or be reminded of the tragedy.  Once again, Peter Parker's life is thrown a curveball by his alter ego, as he will have to continue to keep his secret identity away from the woman he currently loves.

So we have an idea to connect Betty to our story and we have made Kraven, our main villain into an African warlord.  Not bad for another day's work in another fun installment of Comics in the Classroom

Vocab Word Web

1- Marvelous

2- Diabolical

3- Pondering

4- Notorious

5- Terse

6- Dexterity

7- Peculiar

8- Capricious

9- Dingy

10- Haste

11- Stowaway

12- Convince

13- Prolong

14- Momentum

15- Pension

16- Ineffectual

17- Artificial

18- Appendages

19- Investigate

20- Headstrong