Tuesday 21 April 2009

Amazing Spider-Man #70. The Kingpin

Amazing Spider-Man #70, John Romita
(A spider at bay. Cover from March 1969.)

"Spider-Man Wanted!"

Written by Stan Lee
Layouts by John Romita
Pencils by Jim Mooney
Inks by Jim Mooney
Lettering by Sam Rosen


A wise man - or maybe one completely ignorant about prisons - once said that stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage. It shows how much he knew because, at the start of this tale, the Kingpin's in a police cell, trapped behind bars.

Not for long he isn't.

After a quick bout of judicious bar twisting, he's free, stomping along the corridor, like a rhino and knocking out a couple of guards before setting off to get his tablet back from Spider-Man.

Amazing Spider-Man #70, john romita, jim mooney, using his massive strength, the kingpin escapes from his police cell

Right now, Spider-Man has problems of his own to worry about, as the police are still on his tail and he still has a priceless stone tablet to get rid of. Not only that but Gwen's in full-on nag mode and, once he's back in civvies, wants to know where he keeps disappearing to in times of trouble. He does his usual thing of completely failing to communicate with her (all he has to do is tell her he's off risking his life to get photos of Spider-Man) then she bursts into tears.

Amazing Spider-Man #70, john romita, jim mooney, gwen stacy wags her finger at peter parker as she complains about his latest misdeamour

Back in costume, he decides to put the heat on the Kingpin by roughing up a few of his men.

Then he decides to rough up a few more.

Then he comes across a hold-up. Being the fine, upstanding citizen he is, he soon sorts that out.

But it turns out it never was a hold-up. It was all a set-up by the Kingpin to lure our hero out into the open. Of course they promptly have a fight. With a two-footed kick to the head, Spidey drops the crime-lord.

Amazing Spider-Man #70, john romita, jim mooney, the kingpin and spider-man fight in the street

But, before he can move in to finish the deal, a car screeches to a halt between them.

It's driven by Ned Leeds, with J Jonah Jameson in the passenger seat. Jameson's out to thwart Spidey's plan. He doesn't know what Spidey's plan is but, whatever it is, he's going to thwart it. That's all the web-slinger needs, that blockhead getting in the way. As Spidey argues with Jameson, another car screeches to a halt. A door flies open and a woman's voice calls from within for the Kingpin to climb inside. He does, and the car shoots off.

Amazing Spider-Man #70, john romita, jim mooney, the fight between the kingpin and spider-man is interrupted when a car driven by an unseen mystery person screeches to a halt, could it be the kingpin's wife?

Meanwhile, Jameson's giving Spider-Man a heavy dose of ear ache. Our hero decides that's it. If Jameson wants to call him a menace, he'll act like one, and he grabs hold of the man to give him a scare.

But, sometimes, you can give a man too much of a scare and the publisher promptly blacks out. Leeds tells Spider-Man that he can't feel a pulse. The publisher's had a heart attack!

Amazing Spider-Man #70, john romita, jim mooney, spider-man grips j jonah jameson and threatens him but it all goes wrong when the publisher of the bugle suffers a potentially fatal heart attack

Could it be true? Could Spider-Man have proven Jameson right? Has he finally become what the publisher said he was all along?

Has Spider-man finally become...

...a killer?

1 comment:

Da Prophet said...

Personally, I don't think you give this issue enough credit. Of course, it's my all time favorite Spider-Man comic so there's that. But the soul searching Spidey does as he swings across New York rooftops, the fight with Gwen, the cops chasing him to the point of shooting at him, the rage Spidey feels as he goes on his "beat-the-punks" tirade, the brouhaha with the Kingpin, the showdown with JJJ and perhaps most of all, the art, defined Spider-Man to me for the rest of my life.

And "nag"? Bite your tongue. That Gwen could be that angry with Peter and still love him was an education for little five year old me. "Like I should have my head examined but maybe I'm just too dumb to write you off!" I knew then, in life, to find someone who loves you as much as Gwen loves Peter. (And luckily, I have.)