Amazing Spider-Man #125. Man-Wolf

(Cover from October 1973.)

"Wolfhunt!"

Words by Gerry Conway.
Pencils by Ross Andru.
Inks by John Romita and Tony Mortellaro.
Lettering by Artie Simek.
Colours by Dave Hunt.

Who could take against a man called Ross Andru?

No one could.

The man only has first names, and that means you just have to like him. Even if you were trying to address him contemptuously by his surname, you'd still be calling him by a first name.

Happily, in this issue, there's nothing to take against. If a replacement was needed for Gil Kane, Andru was the perfect choice. Not only had he already been drawing the web-spinner for his other mag Marvel Team-Up but his love of extreme angles and exaggerated perspective was similar enough to Kane's to make the break from one artist to another almost seamless, and, here, he gets into his stride straight away, revelling in Spider-Man's agility and three dimensionality of movement. In fact, for the first few panels, his pencilling disguised by Romita and Mortellaro, it could be possible for the casual observer to not even notice that Kane had gone.

That aside, it's a good solid issue, nicely melodramatic, with Mary Jane acting a little oddly but that can be put down to the fact that, after years of determined shallowness, she doesn't actually know how to handle people with serious issues. Such a thing doesn't come naturally. It has to be learned and she's still at a stage in her development where her lack of judgement means she'll tend to listen to people, without the sense to know if she should be listening to them.

As for John Jameson. It's odd that, if the gem that turns him into the Man-Wolf is grafted to his skin, he's not tried seeing a surgeon about removing it. There is, of course, the question of why, if its powers respond to the rays of the moon, he hasn't tried covering it up.