It's a brand new year for Spider-Man, and as he settles into 1965 the crew at Marvel Comics celebrated by putting out a special Annual edition of The Amazing Spider-Man as a tribute to the web slinger's staying power. Since my goal was to cover the first 20 issues of Amazing before jumping ahead I will go over the Annual right after we get through this next edition of Comics in the Classroom, which has Spider-Man doing battle with a deadly new foe with an origin slightly similar to his...................................The Scorpion.
As we all know by now, and I hope you've been paying attention along with the rest of the class, Peter Parker became The Spider-Man when he was bitten by a spider that had been drenched in radioactive rays during a science experiment. Logically why wouldn't the scientific muckity mucks take that same wild approach and apply it to other insects and assorted creatures. Big light bulbs emerge across the craniums of my students as they introduce the idea that in our master script, Peter Parker's scientist father Richard, should be experimenting with the secret super soldier serum and test its effects by injecting several different test subjects, one of which will be the fateful spider that ends up biting his son and sending him off to the outstanding life of a costumed adventurer. What if besides testing his serum on a spider, maybe he tries it out on a monkey, or a fly, or a lizard, or or or or or or, a deadly scorpion. Let's begin today's lesson before I make you vomit from over praise of my class.
So when our tale opens Peter Parker is still being shadowed by a mysterious guy in a cheap suit. Mind you he isn't following Spider-Man, but his alter ego, so there is certainty something intriguing about to develop, well at least I hope so for the sake of our viewing enjoyment.
Peter slips into his Spidey digs to give the stalker the slip. We find out soon after that the stalker is working for J Jonah Jameson, who is obsessed with finding out how he manages to get the best photographs in the city. Jameson also continues his raging obsession with taking down Spider-Man, which still baffles me considering how any pictures of the wall crawler in action means massive sales for The Bugle. Either way, Jameson reads about a scientist named Farley Stillwell, who is doing controversial experiments involving artificial mutations with various species. When Peter stops over at the Bugle to take another crack at luring Betty Brant away from her new boyfriend Ned Leeds, he sees Jameson leaving his office with his stalker, who's name is revealed to be Mac Gargan. (Cue the dun dun dun music)
When Jameson and Gargan head over to Stillwell's lab, they are shocked to see he has successfully cross mutated a fish and a rat, with the former now crawling on a open branch and the latter swimming underwater with no difficulties. Putting up 20 grand of his own cash, with 10 going to Stillwell for his serum and research and the other 10 to Gargan for being the test subject, they all agree mutating Mac to have the powers of a scorpion will give him the ultimate advantage over the half man half spider that seems to torture the publisher so much. After hours of prep and warnings, Gargan is set up in a scientific suit as Stillwell obtains a scorpion and begins the cross mutation process. Of course nothing should go wrong when it comes to flaunting the rules of science, but as I say in my upcoming graphic novel (Screw you, this is my first shameless plug)
"Sometimes nature provides us with an anomaly,"
Fitted with a synthetic tail and a puke green outfit, the newly buffed up Mac Gargan tries out his new powers and astounds Jameson and Stillwell when he crushes a block of solid granite. Now let us remember the old Spider-Man proverb, "With great power must also come, great responsibility." Somehow, I don't think Mac Gargan is going to subscribe to the Parker motto.
Spidey swings off to The Bugle to confront Jameson about having Peter Parker stalked, and Jameson couldn't be any friendlier. Of course the sneaky publisher is stalling the web slinger in order to set up a battle between him and The Scorpion. When the green suited menace makes his appearance, the brawl is on and Scorpion overpowers Spider-Man, tearing through his webbing like it was made of paper and nearly crushing his skull with his pincer tipped synthetic tail. Jameson grins with delight at the thought of being the mastermind who dropped the Spider.
While The Scorpion gives Spidey a sound thrashing, Dr Stillwell is wracked with guilt over taking money to perform such a dangerous experiment. As he anxiously tries to find a cure, The Scorpion goes off on a crime spree, slowly but surely losing every last bit of humanity left in his soul as the mutation takes over his mind. Desperate that he will be blamed for the carnage, Jameson frantically tries to find Stillwell, who tracks down The Scorpion and tries to convince him to drink a serum that will turn him back to a normal human. The mad Scorpion attacks Stillwell, who then attempts to pursue him up a building to toss the serum at him before he slips and plummets to his death. With Stillwell out of the way, The Scorpion heads over to The Bugle to take out Jameson for good, eliminating anyone else who knows his true identity.
Spider-Man recovers and gives chase to The Bugle, where the two combatants trash Jameson's office. Filled with a fiery rage, Spidey shoots a thick web goo all over the floor and once he has Scorpion pinned down, he uses every last bit of strength he can muster to rip off his foe's tail. Spidey then proceeds to pound The Scorpion with a series of vicious uppercuts, knocking his opponent out of the game and sending Jameson into an endless rage of jealousy and confusion as he was forced to root for the guy against the guy he created to defeat him. All in all, an ironic and action packed installment of Comics in the Classroom.
1- Candidate
2- Overconfident
3- Pedestrian
4- Undisputed
5- Botanist
6- Influential
7- Patron
8- Dynamo
9- Indicates
10- Arrogant
11- Misgivings
12- Dormant
13- Chortles
14- Compulsion
15- Prophetic
16- Predatory
17- Embodiment
18- Wallop
19- Alibi
20- Cordial
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