Amazing Spider-Man #29. The Scorpion returns

(Cover from October 1965.)

"Never Step On A Scorpion!"

Script by Stan Lee.

Plotted, drawn and inked by Steve Ditko.

Lettered by Sam Rosen.

Qualifications, they always reckon a man's nothing without them, which does make you wonder exactly what qualifications you need to work in New York's penal system.

Seemingly none whatsoever as the local prison authorities are at it again. The people who'd later let the Tarantula create a new pair of deadly shoes and the Shocker create his vibro-equipment in their workshops show their genius here by giving the captive Scorpion his costume and tail back, in order to cheer him up a bit. And what a surprise, upon being given them, he promptly uses them to escape.

On the face of it, while this might be bad news for the jewellers of New York city - not to mention Spider-Man and the Scorpion's creator J Jonah Jameson - this should be great news for the reader. On his last appearance Mac Gargan's alter-ego, more than any other super-villain, displayed the credentials to be Spider-Man's number one nemesis, twice defeating him with ease in one issue.

Trouble is, that was Ditko's stint at its peak and we're now on the downhill slide, where, all semblance of plotting and ingenuity are out the window and the tales have a wearyingly linear quality, so the Scorpion shows up, Spider-Man fights him, Spider-Man beats him and it's all over.

It's as simple as that, with no twists, no turns, no surprises and no rugs pulled out from beneath our hero's sticky feet. This time Spider-Man wraps it all up by squirting the Scorpion with webbing, just like he beat the Molten Man last issue by squirting him with webbing. The fact that it's previously been established that the Scorpion's pincers can cut through Spider-Man's webbing, making it useless against him, is completely ignored. The story's running out of pages and so Spider-Man (and Ditko) ends it.

There's some nice action sequences in this tale and it's pleasing to see the Daily Bugle's J Jonah Jameson get so much of the issue devoted to him and his cowardly, opportunistic scheming as he seeks to trick Spider-Man into fighting on his behalf and then, when the fighting's over, take all the credit for the villain's capture but you can't get away from the fact that it's another disappointing outing, with none of the Scorpion's original menace even being hinted at here. It's back to the increasingly used idea of Spider-Man being a fun romp rather than a life or death battle.

Meanwhile, on domestic matters, Ned Leeds is back and spending far too much time with Betty Brant for Peter Parker's liking and, ooh dear, Aunt May's back to having her turns again.

Amazing Spider-Man #20. The Scorpion makes his debut

(Cover from January 1965.)

"The Coming Of the Scorpion!"

Written by Stan Lee.

Drawn by Steve Ditko.

Inked by Steve Ditko.

Lettered by Sam Rosen.

A man has to learn from his mistakes and Spider-Man has to do it the hard way in this tale.

I'll say it openly, this is probably my favourite story of the whole Steve Ditko era, mostly because of the sheer nastiness of the Scorpion. He's not just bad, he's positively evil, his mind warped by the potions of Dr Farley Stillwell. It also helps that he was created especially to fight Spider-Man, meaning he has just the right tools in his armoury to give our hero a good hiding.

And he does exactly that. In fact, he knocks out Spidey and leaves him for dead not once but twice in this outing. Never has an issue of Spider-Man been so brutal in its treatment of our hero. And that's the whole point of the tale. Seemingly outclassed by his foe, and lucky to survive his first two encounters with him, still Spider-Man drags himself to his feet for another go and, having learned his lesson not to try and slug it out with a stronger opponent, eventually triumphs by being too clever for a powerful but inexperienced foe.

For me, Steve Ditko's art reaches its peak in this issue. His use of light and shade plus the quality of his figure drawing and panel composition are simply outstanding here.

On the domestic front, Ned Leeds didn't last long After a couple of issues he's already written out, despatched to Europe. All of which makes you wonder why he was introduced in the first place, when he didn't really do anything while he was here. Presumably he was introduced as a love rival for Peter Parker but his disappearance after two issues - one of which saw Peter seemingly not bothered about his presence - means he never had chance to really become that.

Good to see J Jonah Jameson get so much of the action. He really is a dunderhead. As with the earlier Kraven the Hunter tale, he's trying to get someone to beat Spider-Man for him. Again he gets it disastrously wrong. And, like Spider-Man before him, will he learn his lesson?

I think we can assume he doesn't.

Amazing Spider-Man #146. The Scorpion

(Cover from July 1975.)

"Scorpion... ...Where Is Thy Sting?"

Words by Gerry Conway.

Art by Ross Andru, John Romita and the Gang.

Lettering by Joe Rosen.

Colours by Don Warfield.

Looks like chief Wiggum's in charge again.

If stupidity's a disease, the Spideyverse has the plague. First up, we get the Scorpion. Having been told that, if he crashes into Aunt May's hospital room, he'll find Spider-Man there, he instead finds Peter Parker. Enraged that Spider-Man isn't present, he goes on a rampage around the curiously empty building. For some reason, it never seems to occur to him that Spider-Man might not spend twenty four hours a day welded into his spider-suit and might, gasp, be in his civvies.

For some reason, he also seems not to recognise Peter Parker - even though, when we first met Gargan, all those years back, he was tailing Peter for J Jonah Jameson who wanted to know how he was always where Spider-Man was. Hmn, let's see; Peter Parker, always seems to be where Spider-Man is and you've been told Spider-Man will be in that room. Why on Earth would you draw any link between those twin facts?

Second up, matching Scorpy in the brainless stakes, are the New York City Police Department. Get this; the Scorpion's robbed a bank. They're looking for him. Where have they not thought to look?

That's right.

His official address. The place where it transpires he's got the money stashed, in money bags, in his closet. It's hard to know who's the stupider here, the police or Gargan. Oh well, at least now Spider-Man's tipped them off, they might actually have a chance of be finding the loot - if they can only get their act together enough to buy a map to get them there.

How did the Jackal know the Scorpion was going to be outside Santonio's house? We're never told.

How did Santonio know that, at the very moment he switched his TV on, Spider-Man was going to be on it? We're never told.

Where's Gwen Stacy staying? We're never told.

Oh. No. Hold on. We are. She's staying at Betty Brant's. At last we've been told something.

We've also been told something else.

The Jackal knows Spider-Man's true identity.

And he's on a revenge schtick for Spidey's seeming involvement in murder.

I've come to the conclusion from this tale that normal rules of story-telling don't apply to comic books. This story's dumb. This story recycles bits of the recent Molten Man storyline. This story's full of plot holes and things happening for the sake of them happening. It's full of people doing implausible things and knowing unknowable facts. And yet, despite all this, there's something about it that grabs me. The only letdown is the comedy ending of the Scorpion being forced to apologise to Aunt May. I'm starting to think there's no hope for me.

There is, however, more than hope for Ross Andru who does another sterling job (with a noticeable assist from jazzy John Romita.) Highlight on the art front has to be the Scorpion climbing the side of the Chrysler building as Spidey watches from a distance. Why's he climbing the Chrysler building? Aw, who cares? Like I said, it's a comic. The normal rules of story-telling don't matter. All that matters is that's is how to use a vertical panel.

Amazing Spider-Man #145. Scorpion

(Cover from June 1975.)

"Gwen Stacy Is Alive ...And, Well?"

Words by Gerry Conway.

Pencils by Ross Andru.

Inks by Giacoia and Hunt.

Lettering by Artie Simek.

Colours by P Goldberg.

Bad decisions. We make them. We hate them. But, without them, would we ever have such a thing as drama?

Gwen Stacy's back and as cloying, clinging, wimpy and needy as ever. Still, I suppose if you don't have a clue what's going on and why your boyfriend's threatening to kill you for "pretending" to be yourself, you would be feeling somewhat vulnerable. So, maybe for once, we should cut the girl some slack in the wimp department.

And perhaps we should also cut Peter Parker some slack because, pretty much the first thing that strikes you this month is the affirmation of his tendency to do the exact opposite of what he should be doing. He wants to know why a dead girl's suddenly appeared at his apartment, so he abandons her, turns into Spider-Man and goes swinging off round town; when you would've thought the obvious thing to do would be to question this "imposter" and find out where she's from and who sent her. Oh well, like Gwendolyn, I suppose you can argue he's somewhat disoriented and can't be expected to act logically.

But yet again Gerry Conway's in the mood for comebacks because, not only does an ex-girlfriend reappear but so does an ex-foe.

The Scorpion.

Now, if Peter Parker's just made a bad decision, here's where the whole concept of "Bad Decision" goes into over-drive. When Mac Gargan checks out of jail, we see him being given a package and a suitcase. When he gets, "home," he opens the case to reveal it contains his Scorpion outfit.

That's right, upon releasing him, the authorities actually give a dangerous super-villain a costume whose only possible use is the committing of crimes! I've spoken before about the incompetence of prison officials in New York but this is ridiculous. Things are so bad that I'm starting to wonder if The Simpsons' Chief Wiggum's in charge of the place.

That aside, the Scorpion's always been one of my favourite villains, mostly because he nearly killed Spider-Man in their first meeting. It might not be much of a character recommendation but it's the sort of thing you want from a good villain. Frankly, his 2nd appearance, in Amazing Spider-Man #29, was a bit of an anti-climax but here he's back to giving Spidey a good bashing.

Conway gives our hero the excuse that he's tired from fighting Meteor Man in Marvel-Team-up #33, a tale that, somewhat clumsily, is supposed to have happened during a lull in the events of this issue. Such are the continuity nightmares of giving your hero more than one mag to fight in each month but I like to think Scorpy would've thrashed him anyway. The only disappointment with his return is that, in Andru's hands, he lacks the sheer sense of evil madness he had on his first appearance. But still, beggars can't be choosers.

The Scorpion's lack of madness aside, to me, Ross Andru's art in this issue's sensational. Probably the best he's produced yet. His layouts now have a total freedom, so the story practically leaps out of the pages at you and Spider-Man's protracted fight scene with the villain is so full of movement, you start to feel like you're watching the thing in real time. You actually have to make a conscious effort to remind yourself that you're still looking at stationary images and that nothing is actually moving.