Amazing Spider-Man 19 -- The AracKnight Strikes Back -- Kills Jar Jar -- I Wish

Christmas time 1964 -- Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer premiers on TV as comedian Lenny Bruce is sentenced to 4 months in prison for obscenity while the Cleveland Browns defeat the Baltimore Colts for the pre-Super Bowl era NFL Championship.  More then enough reasons to celebrate another edition of Comics in the Classroom.

Aunt May is out of her wheelchair and back in good spirits, which means Peter Parker is off the bench and back in his Spider-Man suit to take back the streets and with that his reputation.  Leaping right into the middle of a bank robbery, Spidey feels like a man again as he takes out a group of thugs and nearly gives J Jonah Jameson a massive coronary when the news hits the streets that the man in red n blue is back on the attack.

Meanwhile, across town, The Human Torch is touring through town, exhausted from his last battle (which is mentioned as occurring in another title) when he is jumped by The Enforcers.  After fighting with the arrogant trio, The Torch is then attacked by a giant wave of sticky, sandy goo as the new leader of The Enforcers is revealed to be The Sandman, who takes out the blonde hero and drags his unconscious carcass back to their hideout to hold for ransom in a glass tube slowly losing oxygen.

Over in Midtown High, Flash Thompson is once again king of the crowd as he brags across the school about being right about Spider-Man.  Once recess hits, Peter is anxious for a swing around the city when he spots Fancy Dan of the Enforcers patrolling through town and up to no good.  Spidey follows Fancy Dan and ends up in a fun filled and wisecrack laced brawl with The Enforcers, as well as a bunch of goons from The Sandman's crime crew.  When the cops arrive on the scene, the criminals scatter in different directions, and a satisfied Spider-Man decides to save the hero act for later and get back to the affairs of one Peter Parker.

Peter shows up at The Bugle in time to see Jameson in a pissy mood and meets the paper's newest reporter, Ned Leeds, who also happens to be the new man in Betty Brant's love life.  When Peter shows understanding and is friendly towards Ned, Betty does her usual melodramatic worry that Peter isn't jealous and that he never loved her in the first place.  Betty Brant continues to be a source of ridicule and amusement among the class, even the female students can't stand her.  I am still determined to make her our "Bond Girl"

After slipping into his Spider-Man costume and giving Jameson a little verbal torture, our hero swings around the city and decides to jump a few stool pigeons in order to find the whereabouts of The Enforcers hideout, where he learns that they are working for The Sandman and that they have The Torch trapped as their weakened prisoner.

After taking out the lookouts posted all over the rooftop, Spidey leaps into The Sandman's living room and the brawl is on, with Spidey taking on both Sandman and The Enforcers.  Spidey is having the time of his life, dropping one liners and delivering the full force of his strength while battling his four opponents.  When The Sandman starts turning on the shape shifting, Spidey angles his body to have them throw him into the glass cage where they're trapping The Torch.  The cage shatters and the blonde burning man is freed from captivity.  What follows is your typically awesome battle royal as Spider-Man and The Human Torch tag team in a Texas Tornado of a brawl that ends with The Enforcers unconscious and The Sandman on the run. Torch and Spidey both go for the leader and end up tangled up in a large mess of webbing, while The Sandman runs grainy head first into a waiting police barricade.

With the criminals all wrapped up, Spidey and The Torch share some friendly wisecracks before splitting off their separate ways.  Peter heads off to The Bugle to sell photos of the brawl to Jameson, who lights up in pleasant spirits once the sales of his paper shoot up with the exclusive shots.  Once we feel like our hero has a happy ending, we find out that someone is having him followed.   All we know is it's a man in cheap suit reporting in to a man who's face is hidden in the shadows.  Who is the mystery man stalking Peter Parker?  You're just gonna have to wait for the next fun filled episode of Comics in the Classroom.

Vocab Word Web

1- Compelling

2- Pulverized

3- Expose

4- Asbestos

5- Composition

6- Extinguish

7- Fearsome

8- Unmitigated

9- Recite

10- Corralled

11- Incompetents

12- Suffocate

13- Amateurs

14- Sentry

15- Amoeba

16- Profound

17- Genuine

18- Traumas

19- Quarry

20- Surveillance