Noteworthy Issues: The Amazing Spider-Man #148 (September, 1975)

Wait, this is a three-part storyline?  Well, I suppose.  The next issue is a big one that became far bigger than it should have.

I blame society.

Issue:  The Amazing Spider-Man #148, September 1975

Writer:  Gerry Conway

Artist:  Ross Andru

Clone Master Supreme:  Jimmy Impossible

The Plot:  The Jackal–finally revealed!

Commentary:  I’ve had plenty to say about the Jackal, a supremely unimpressive supervillain if ever I saw one.  And I have seen more than a few.  But this issue, after a bait-and-switch that suggested it was a more or less anonymous lab assistant, turns out to be Professor Miles Warren, an old man with an unfortunate haircut-and-mustache combo.

Say, I read an issue of Daredevil recently from a couple years ago where the Kingpin tried to weaponize Bullseye as a more reliable agent, and some people decided that meant “clone him.”  Naturally, that led to a bunch of Bullseye clones getting loose, but the cloning expert that they brought in, unidentified if I remember right, was clearly Miles Warren.  And one of the clones snapped his neck.

Couldn’t happen to a better idiot.

I have been hard on the Jackal because, for all his chortling about how powerful a crime lord he was, he hasn’t really done much but bother Spider-Man.  He’s not the Kingpin or the Green Goblin.  He’s a guy who managed to clone Peter’s dead girlfriend, and that’s mostly making Peter ignore MJ, his current girlfriend.  Will Peter and MJ make up?  I think the next issue is Conway’s last befroe Archie Goodwin takes over, so…I have no idea!  I’m a Peter-MJ fan myself.  Gwen was long dead when I first started reading, and even now, having read the issues, she’s basically just a two-dimensional good girl.  Black Cat?  Um, no.  Peter is too good a good guy to date a thief.  He’s not Batman.  MJ?  She’s fun, and she gets Peter on levels other don’t.

But that’s neither here nor there.  Marvel won’t let Peter and MJ be a couple because of Gwen, and yeah, whatever.  It’s why I think people love the current Ultimate Spider-Man.  I mean, that universe’s Gwen married Harry Osborn, making them a power couple.

But here, the issue opens with Tarantula and the Jackal capturing Peter and tossing him off a bridge, and it ends with Tarantula and Jackal capturing Spider-Man again.

I thought Spider-Man was better than that…

Grade:  B