Noteworthy Issues: The Amazing Spider-Man #62 (July, 1968)

Alright, here I am with another issue of Old School Spider-Man.  And who did Stan the Man, Jazzy John Romita, and As-Far-As-I-Know Nicknameless Don Heck set up for Spidey for this issue?

Medusa?  Queen of the Inhumans?

Um, huh.

Issue:  The Amazing Spider-Man #62, July 1968

Writer:  Stan Lee

Artists:  Don Heck and John Romita Sr

The Plot:  Spider-Man gets in a fight with royalty.

Commentary:  Medusa?  Really?  Medusa?  I mean, I know the Inhumans will never be a Thing, but here I am.  Besides, the Inhumans were generally associated with the Fantastic Four.  Why the heck would the Queen of the Inhumans, a reclusive group at best, be messing with Spider-Man of all people?

Short answer:  Black Bolt sent her to see if humanity would welcome the Inhumans or not.  She’s haughty, and her first encounter with Spider-Man is to cut the web he’s swinging by on because he got in the way of her one-woman flier.   Did he know that?  No.

But then in comes Montgomery G Bliss, president of a hair spray company, the real bad guy.  He wants Medusa to model for his product.  She actually accepts at first because she wants to experience working like a human, but she doesn’t stick around long enough because she doesn’t like being held up very long.  She wrecks some equipment, storm off, and Bliss wants more photos, so he lies to Spidey about Medusa’s saying she wanted to destroy the city.

Yeah, it’s a misunderstanding.  Spidey spends most of the fight trying to figure out what’s what while Medusa basically doesn’t seem inclined to explain a goddam thing until Peter finally webs her up and promises to fix everything because, you know, neither likes that Bliss guy.  As such, Medusa leaves, and Spidey tells the press that Medusa was wild and uncontrollable, the sort of thing that would make no one want to buy hairspray and…wait, why would Medusa be satisfied by such a blatant lie?

Man, Spidey is gonna get it next issue.

Oh, she’s not in the next issue?

Good.  Inhumans aren’t cool.

Grade:  A-