Saturday

OMU: Doctor Strange -- Year Six

After a successful try-out run, Doctor Strange was granted a new solo series written by Steve Englehart with art by Frank Brunner on the first story arc and Gene Colan on the second. These early issues focus on Strange’s deepening relationship with the extradimensional pixie Clea and see them acting as full partners for the first time in mystical odysseys that resemble the psychedelic acid trips they were no doubt based on. Concurrently, Strange had more standard superhero adventures in The Defenders and the quarterly Giant-Size Defenders as well as both of Marvel’s team-up books, with writing chores shared between Len Wein and Steve Gerber. These overstuffed punch-ups drew the new Sorcerer Supreme out of his usual ambit but added little to his characterization. It was in his own book that Doctor Strange dealt with philosophical issues of identity, religion, life, death, and resurrection, leaving a legacy of landmark issues still celebrated decades later.

Note: The following timeline depicts the Original Marvel Universe (anchored to November 1961 as the first appearance of the Fantastic Four and proceeding forward from there. See previous posts for a detailed explanation of my rationale.) Some information presented on the timeline is speculative and some is based on historical accounts. See the Notes section at the end for clarifications.


We now continue... The True History of Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme!


January 1967 – Following their encounter with the 31st-century sorcerer Sise-Neg, Doctor Strange takes the utterly stupefied Baron Mordo back to the Sanctum Sanctorum in New York’s Greenwich Village. There, Strange’s disciple and lover, Clea, his faithful manservant, Wong, and his semi-permanent houseguest and Defenders teammate, the Valkyrie, are glad to see he has returned safely. In one of the mansion’s guest rooms, Strange tries to revive Mordo but is unable to bring him out of his catatonic state. Realizing the experience with Sise-Neg was too much for Mordo to bear, Strange decides to focus on just keeping his old rival alive until his mind can heal itself.

Doctor Strange’s studies are interrupted one night by Spider-Man, who appears to have gone mad. Catching the sorcerer off-guard, Spider-Man manages to knock him unconscious. When he comes to, Strange discovers that the web-slinger has stolen a magical artifact, the Crystal of Kadavus. Tracking the crystal’s mystical emanations to a dilapidated brownstone on the city’s west side, Strange finds Spider-Man there with the wizard Xandu, whom they battled together some three and a half years ago. Using the Wand of Watoomb, Xandu whisks them off to another dimension, where he demonstrates his might by turning his prisoners into living marionettes. However, when Xandu boasts of his spell that prevents the two heroes from using their powers against him while in that dimension, Strange sees an opportunity. He weaves a counter-spell that enables them to use each other’s powers instead. Thus, while Spider-Man, now back in his right mind, staggers Xandu with bolts of eldritch energy, Doctor Strange covers the villain in webbing and punches him in the face. Strange leaves the Wand of Watoomb adrift in that nameless dimension as he teleports everyone back to Earth, materializing in their foe’s shabby lair. Xandu is distraught over losing the Wand of Watoomb since he mainly wanted it to rouse his fiancée, Melinda, from a deathlike sleep he accidentally placed her in while practicing spells many years ago. Sympathetic, Strange offers to help, but his mystical analysis of Melinda reveals her to be truly dead—Xandu’s spell has merely preserved her body. When he learns that he actually killed his lover all those years ago, Xandu suffers a complete emotional breakdown. Having retrieved the Crystal of Kadavus, Doctor Strange and Spider-Man make a discreet exit.

Feeling playful, Clea proposes to report on her progress in the mystic arts one evening but merely conjures a white rabbit from a top hat while saying “abracadabra.” Doctor Strange is amused and suggests the Vishanti are notorious for their card tricks. After they’ve spent some time having sex, Strange decides to get some sleep and, leaving Clea to play with her rabbit, retires to his bedroom, where he levitates in the lotus position within the magical Mists of Morpheus. Suddenly, he is stabbed in the back with an enchanted dagger and collapses to the floor in agony. About an hour later, Wong enters and finds him barely conscious. Wong reports that the assassin kidnapped Clea and stole the Amulet of Agamotto. Distressed, Strange has Wong bring in his large crystal ball, the Orb of Agamotto, whereupon he is able to cast a spell that stops him from immediately bleeding to death, though he has still suffered a mortal wound. He then tries to locate Clea in the crystal ball and learns that she is chained up in a basement with the assassin demanding that she renounce sorcery. Realizing they are being observed, the assassin attacks Strange through the Orb of Agamotto. Tentacles erupt from the crystal and grab Strange, and he instantly recognizes the spell as a work of necromancy. Despite his efforts to resist, Strange is pulled through the crystal into another dimension.

Finding himself in a bizarre landscape, Strange comes upon a giant caterpillar smoking a hookah atop an oversized mushroom. The caterpillar informs Strange, in its own elliptical way, that the assassin, known as Silver Dagger, has trapped him within the Orb for all time. Strange refuses to accept this, declaring that he is the Sorcerer Supreme and nothing will stop him from rescuing Clea. Impressed by the sorcerer’s resolve, the caterpillar suggests he try to find his way to the center of the Orb, where there may be a means to return to Earth. However, the enigmatic being warns, he would then find himself right back where he started—moments away from an agonizing death. Undaunted, Strange soars off, carried by his Cloak of Levitation, only to quickly become hopelessly lost. Along the way, Strange encounters horrific monsters as well as twisted doppelgängers of his friends and associates, such as the Valkyrie, the Hulk, the Sub-Mariner, the Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, and others, and thereby learns that everything he is experiencing within the Orb is shaped by his own subconscious mind. The true foe he must face at the center of the Orb, he realizes, is Death itself. A duplicate of the Valkyrie’s winged horse, Aragorn, then takes him where he needs to go, allowing Strange to focus on overcoming Death’s attempts to demoralize him. When they finally encounter Death’s immense, skull-like visage, the pseudo-Aragorn is destroyed instantly. Strange, however, rejects the very notion that Death holds sway over the Sorcerer Supreme. Death shrugs off Strange’s magical attacks, saying he can’t fight a universal law—everything dies. Strange decides to retreat and soon comes across a void in the distinctive shape of Eternity. He takes refuge within the void, remembering that not every lifeform in the universe is mortal. Though Death tries again to dishearten Strange, the sorcerer declares that they’ve reached a stalemate so long as he remains within Eternity’s void. Soon, though, Strange realizes he’s running out of options—his strength is finite while Death can generate no end of perils. If he cannot attack or escape, he reasons, his only other choice would seem to be to surrender. Recalling everything the Ancient One taught him about death and dying, he works through his fear in the face of the inevitable, slowly filling the void as he does so. When he’s ready for the end, he emerges from the void and opens himself to Death’s touch. At that instant, Doctor Stephen Strange dies.

There is a sudden rushing sensation as the universe seems to fall away, leaving Strange floating in the resultant nothingness. The face of the Ancient One then materializes and congratulates him on passing the first of a series of trials that he must undergo as Sorcerer Supreme. By overcoming the deep-seated fear of death, Strange will be reborn on the physical plane in a form “touched by eternity”—manifested by a mystical ankh that will appear from time to time on his forehead. Though he may never die of natural causes, the Ancient One warns, Strange could still be killed in battle, and so he must remain ever vigilant. The Ancient One then tells Strange that, if he passes his remaining trials and lives well, he will eventually follow him in becoming one with all there is. Barely able to process what has just happened to him, Strange admits to feeling a bit different as it dawns on him that he will never get any older than his current age of 54. As the beatific image of the Ancient One fades away, Strange suddenly finds himself transported back to Earth.

Still attuned to the higher dimensions of the universe, Strange is disoriented as his astral form emerges from the Amulet of Agamotto in the abandoned subway station that Silver Dagger has made into his lair. He searches frantically for his physical body, but his distorted perceptions cause him to briefly animate a headless mannequin dressed in his sorcerer’s garb. The figure collapses into a heap, but Strange senses Clea’s presence and takes refuge within her mind, where he is able to reconstruct a coherent conception of reality. At the same time, he perceives how Silver Dagger invaded the Sanctum Sanctorum a few days ago by causing Clea’s rabbit to grow to gigantic proportions and crash through the window to escape the building. Taking Clea by surprise, Silver Dagger mesmerized her, beat up Wong, and then stabbed Strange in the back. He then kidnapped Clea and, revealing that he was formerly a cardinal at the Vatican, has been trying to “deprogram” her in order to save her soul from eternal damnation. When Silver Dagger enters the room, Clea uses Strange’s knowledge of sorcery to escape and, finding herself in Chelsea, runs the several blocks to the Sanctum Sanctorum in Greenwich Village. Once there, Wong leads her to Strange’s physical body, which emerged from the Orb of Agamotto healed of its mortal wound, and Strange then reunites his corporeal and noncorporeal selves.

Moments later, Silver Dagger again invades the building and tries to defeat Strange using the Amulet of Agamotto. Together, Strange and Clea cast a spell that turns the amulet’s power back upon Silver Dagger, forcing him to face the truth that his understanding of magic is too limited and his murderous crusade is therefore misguided. In despair, Silver Dagger is sucked into the Orb to take Strange’s place as companion to the hookah-smoking caterpillar. Strange assures Clea that Silver Dagger lacks the skill to escape such a predicament. Returning to his meditations, Strange contemplates his realization that the caterpillar was in fact a manifestation of Agamotto, one of the “holy trinity” of the eternal Vishanti.

February–April 1967 – Doctor Strange and Clea focus on building her mastery of the mystic arts, as they discover that her merger with his consciousness has made it easier for her to wield the magical energies of Earth’s dimension.

May 1967 – Nighthawk returns to the Sanctum Sanctorum, sporting a new-and-improved costume, and announces that he is at last ready to take his place among the Defenders. Doctor Strange and Valkyrie give him a tour of their residence, but they are interrupted by the astral form of Charles Xavier, whom Strange met four years ago at the wedding of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Girl. Strange uses the Amulet of Agamotto to make Xavier’s astral form visible to his teammates so they can join in the conversation. Xavier explains that he is seeking help against the mutant super-villain Magneto, as those who would normally aid him with such matters are off on a secret mission. The Defenders are happy to assist, so Strange sends out a psychic projection to locate the Hulk before transporting the team to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, where Xavier is waiting. Hulk arrives a few minutes later, whereupon they all enter the caverns. Within moments, they are ambushed by a seemingly invincible cyclops, but Xavier reveals the monster to be merely an illusion. However, they are all knocked unconscious by a blast of energy, and when they wake up, they find themselves trapped within a field of magnetic force. Flanked by his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants—the Blob, Mastermind, Unus the Untouchable, and Lorelei—Magneto rants and raves about a humanoid figure forming in a tank of chemicals behind him. He tells the Defenders a preposterous story of being trapped at the center of the earth by the Avengers until, several months later, a passing comet shifted the planet’s magnetic fields enough that he could make his way to Subterranea, where he translated books left behind by ancient aliens and thus learned the secret of genetically engineering a being powerful enough to enable him to conquer the world. When the villains return to their diabolical scheme, Xavier reveals himself to be a powerful telepath and harnesses the Defenders’ combined psychic energy to disrupt the field imprisoning them. They quickly defeat Magneto’s minions but are unable to prevent him from bringing his new creation to life. Gleefully, Magneto dubs the giant, brutish creature “Alpha, the Ultimate Mutant.”

Doctor Strange attempts to incapacitate Alpha with blasts of mystical energy, but Alpha erects a force field to protect himself, a field potent enough to repel the Hulk as well. Magneto then causes part of the cavern to collapse, trapping everyone underground, only to have Alpha teleport the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants away. Hulk and Valkyrie dig an escape tunnel, and the Defenders slowly make their way to the surface. Once there, Xavier does a telepathic scan to locate their foes, and after a few minutes of intense concentration, he finds them in New York City. Strange conjures up a portal through which the five heroes return to Manhattan. They are astonished to see the United Nations Building floating about half a mile above the city, presumably more of Alpha’s handiwork. Flying up to the building, the Defenders and Xavier fight their way past concrete automatons and confront Magneto and his minions in the general assembly chamber, where they are holding the assembled delegates prisoner. The heroes are surprised to see that Alpha has changed, having developed heightened intelligence and a less brutish appearance. He seems to visibly evolve every time he uses his powers and quickly surpasses mainstream humanity to take on a superior form. Noting Alpha’s reluctance to harm the Defenders, Xavier convinces him to judge for himself which of the two groups acts out of evil intent. Alpha does so, reading everyone’s innermost thoughts and motivations, and then condemns Magneto’s group as being little more than selfish children. The heroes are shocked when Alpha unleashes a beam of psychic energy that reduces Magneto, the Blob, Mastermind, Unus, and Lorelei to the equivalent of nine-month-old babies. Alpha then undoes the damage he caused to the United Nations Building and erases all memory of the traumatic event from the minds of the people affected by it. Continuing to evolve, Alpha bids farewell to the Defenders and Xavier before ascending into the sky, having decided to leave Earth to seek his destiny among the stars. Xavier takes charge of the babies, assuring the Defenders that they will be well cared for at the Mutant Research Centre in Scotland.

After the Hulk has gone off on his own, Doctor Strange, Valkyrie, and Nighthawk leave the United Nations Building and return to the Sanctum Sanctorum. A little while later, a hooded apparition appears and conjures up images of the Hulk in one of Strange’s crystal balls, revealing how the green behemoth was tricked by a demon posing as a little girl and led to an unearthly cavern deep beneath the city where he is being tormented with illusions of his alter-ego, Bruce Banner. Unless the Defenders agree to serve its evil master, the specter warns, the Hulk will be driven insane. Unwilling to surrender without a fight, the Defenders split up and search the city for their hapless teammate, without success. Back at the Sanctum Sanctorum, Strange decides to contact Daimon Hellstrom, a demonologist who has made a name for himself recently. With no time to lose, Strange sends his astral form to Hellstrom’s office at Gateway University, where he finds the occult expert working late. Knowing Doctor Strange by reputation, Hellstrom agrees to assist the Defenders and makes an arcane gesture that transforms him from a mild-mannered academic into the weirdly costumed “Son of Satan.” Strange immediately teleports Hellstrom to the Sanctum Sanctorum, where he reunites his astral form with his physical body. Hellstrom then uses his psycho-sensitive trident to track the Hulk to a vacant lot that Nighthawk had searched earlier. However, Strange and Hellstrom sense something is amiss and quickly disrupt a spell concealing a sinister-looking mansion. Entering the building, the heroes split up to follow four staircases down into the shadowy depths.

Descending the seemingly endless flight of stairs, Strange’s apprehension grows. He is suddenly accosted by hundreds of moldering corpses, specters of all the people whom he failed to save during his career as a surgeon. Though initially overwhelmed with guilt, Strange manages to overcome his self-loathing and free himself from this personal hell. He soon liberates the Valkyrie and Nighthawk from similar situations and leads them to a chamber where the Hulk and Hellstrom are battling the ersatz Banners. Seeing his friends, Hulk rallies and finally defeats his illusory foes. Without warning, the floor dissolves, sending everyone tumbling into an enormous throne room. Strange is shocked to recognize the figure on the throne as his former colleague Dr. Charles Benton, also known as Asmodeus of the Sons of Satannish, who died about three years ago. Asmodeus reveals that he struck a bargain with Satannish to be returned to life in exchange for their five souls. However, Hellstrom proves immune to Asmodeus’s eldritch power, protected by his golden trident, and saves the lives of the Defenders. Asmodeus panics as his time runs out, whereupon Satannish destroys him. The Defenders and Hellstrom then find themselves back in the vacant lot, which retains no trace of its former enchantment. Strange thanks Hellstrom on behalf of the entire team before they go their separate ways.

June 1967 – Strange spends a quiet month with Clea, Wong, the Valkyrie, and the Hulk at the Sanctum Sanctorum. Nighthawk drops by several times and annoys everyone talking about the big plans he has for the Defenders.

July 1967 – Doctor Strange, Valkyrie, and Hulk join Nighthawk at the Defenders’ new headquarters, a secluded former riding academy on Long Island that Nighthawk has purchased in his civilian identity as businessman Kyle Richmond. Knowing that Aragorn will be well looked after there, Valkyrie announces that she’s taking a leave of absence to try to find out more about the life of the woman named Barbara whose body she inhabits due to the Enchantress’s sorcery. To aid her, Strange casts a spell of concealment on the Valkyrie’s sword, Dragonfang, so it will be invisible when not in use. The spell also enables her to magically switch from civilian clothes to her Asgardian garb when the sword is drawn from its scabbard. Hulk becomes very upset by the Valkyrie’s departure, throws a temper tantrum, and leaps away in search of solitude. Nighthawk then shows Strange the state-of-the-art conference room he’s had installed, where he receives a phone call from Richmond Enterprises’ Chief Operations Officer J.C. Pennysworth informing him that the company’s newest skyscrapers in Manhattan are being demolished by a gang of costumed super-villains calling themselves the Wrecking Crew. With only one building left, still under construction at W. 29th St. and Broadway, Nighthawk speeds to the city to investigate, accompanied by Doctor Strange.

When they arrive, they find that Pennysworth has engaged the services of the superhero-for-hire known as Power Man, but he mistakes them for the saboteurs and is very aggressive. During the confrontation, Power Man punches Strange in the face and knocks him out. Coming to a few minutes later, Strange conjures the Shield of the Seraphim to break up the fight between Power Man and Nighthawk. Almost immediately, the skeletal structure of the building collapses, prompting Strange to expand his mystic force field to protect all three of them as they plunge 20 stories to the ground. Emerging from the rubble, the trio comes face to face with the Wrecking Crew—the Wrecker, Thunderball, Bulldozer, and Piledriver. Erecting a mystical barrier to prevent the villains from escaping, Strange senses that their super-powers derive from Asgardian magic. Unaccustomed to fighting such purely physical foes, though, Strange gets slammed into the debris during the brawl and is left a bit dazed. To make matters worse, Hulk shows up and starts pounding on the barrier, determined to join the battle. His blows create a kind of psychic feedback that disrupts Strange’s attempt to siphon away the villains’ powers. Both spells fail, giving the Wrecking Crew the chance to get away with their loot—an adamantium capsule roughly the size of a football that they’ve dug out of the wreckage. However, Thunderball is shocked to discover that the capsule is empty, revealing that it should contain a compact gamma bomb that he created when working as a research scientist for Richmond Enterprises. Strange is alarmed that such a destructive weapon has gone missing, but the crooks take the heroes by surprise, beat them into unconsciousness, and escape.

Following faint mystic emanations from the Wrecker’s enchanted crowbar, Doctor Strange, Hulk, Nighthawk, and Power Man make their way uptown to Harlem, where they eventually come across a frightened boy named Joey who reports that the Wrecking Crew has invaded the Harlem Boys Club. Ignoring Strange’s words of caution, Hulk immediately charges in and attacks the villains, followed by Nighthawk and Power Man. Fortunately, the fight moves out into the street before the building is destroyed. Grappling with the Wrecker, Strange is able to force the eldritch energies within the crowbar into the villain’s body with a devastating jolt that knocks him out. Then, finding he is unable to disintegrate the crowbar, Strange casts it into a limbo dimension where it will at least be out of the Wrecker’s reach. The rest of the Wrecking Crew is quickly defeated as well. Strange then asks the kids in the clubhouse about the bomb, and they realize it must be the metal sphere Joey was carrying in his baseball mitt. The Defenders quickly track Joey down, whereupon Strange uses the Eye of Agamotto to change the Hulk back into Bruce Banner so he can defuse the bomb. Banner is successful, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief. The Wrecking Crew is taken into police custody, but Power Man still worries that he won’t be paid for his night’s work since he failed to prevent the destruction of the skyscraper. Nighthawk returns the deactivated gamma bomb to Richmond Enterprises, since it is company property.

After an evening out at the theater, Doctor Strange and Clea have a weird encounter in a subway station on the Lower East Side. As another well-dressed couple looks on, two hooligans harass a girl playing the blues on her harmonica. One of the louts grabs the harmonica and shoves the girl onto the tracks just as the train pulls in. Strange lunges toward her, but she begs him to retrieve the harmonica instead. As he does so, the train slams into the girl, causing her to explode into a shower of multicolored sparks that drift onto all the startled bystanders. The hooligans flee the scene, and the young couple boards the train in a panic. The terrified driver of the train pulls out of the station as quickly as possible, leaving Strange and Clea on the platform. Noting that the harmonica is inscribed with the word “Celestia,” Strange hails a taxi to take him and Clea back to the Sanctum Sanctorum to consult the ancient tomes in his library. There, he uses the Eye of Agamotto to conjure up the face of the girl in a swirling miasma, and she reveals herself to be a manifestation of destiny that assumed human form to play the harmonica. She warns Strange that each person affected by the drifting sparks will find their destiny made manifest that very night in a most dramatic fashion. Concerned, Strange sets out to track them all down, leaving Clea and Wong to guard the harmonica.

Strange’s amulet leads him to the apartment of the young couple, Sheldon and Renee Goldenberg, in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, where he discretely convinces Sheldon to change his destiny by quitting his anonymous corporate job to pursue his dream of being a novelist. Strange then moves on to a tenement on Yancy Street, back on the Lower East Side, where he finds the two hooligans, Duff Coogan and Nick Cromer. To his surprise, Strange sees the Thing loitering outside the building and learns that they are in fact investigating the same phenomenon. Coogan, it turns out, is the grandson of a woman who was the Thing’s neighbor when he was growing up. Suddenly, a gigantic rat scrambles up the side of the building and drags Coogan out of his bedroom window. The Thing attacks the rat, but his most powerful blows have little effect on the creature. It is only when Strange convinces Coogan to stop thinking of himself as a victim of poverty that the rat is overcome. The Thing is ready to call it a night until Strange mentions there is one more person to be located: a drunken bum barely noticed in the shadows of the subway station. Unwilling to leave the sorcerer in the lurch, the Thing insists on accompanying him back to the Sanctum Sanctorum.

When they arrive, Clea reports that the Valkyrie just left with the harmonica, claiming that Strange had sent her to fetch it. Confused, Strange uses the Orb of Agamotto to locate the Valkyrie and finds her sleeping under a tree in Cobbler’s Roost, Vermont. He is further confounded when the Orb can find no trace of the drunken bum. The Thing agrees to meet up with the Valkyrie to ask her about the harmonica and sets off in his aero-car. A little while later, the Orb suddenly reveals the bum to be in a forest clearing upstate, next to the unconscious Thing. The renegade Asgardians known as the Enchantress and the Executioner are teleporting away, and Strange realizes they must have been shielding the bum from his mystic scans. Presumably, the Enchantress had once again disguised herself as the Valkyrie in order to steal the harmonica, and they then ambushed the Thing on his way to Vermont. When the Thing comes to a few minutes later, Strange sends out his astral form to advise the Thing to return to the city, thinking him no match for Asgardian sorcery. However, the Thing decides to take the bum, Alvin Denton, to Vermont to help him with a family crisis. Strange contacts the Thing again, only to be told to quit spying on them in his crystal ball. Concerned about how Denton’s destiny will manifest, Strange ignores the Thing’s objections and continues to monitor the situation. Strange’s hunch that Denton’s destiny is entwined with the Valkyrie’s is confirmed when they meet outside Cobbler’s Roost and Denton reveals that he is Barbara’s father. However, the Enchantress and the Executioner rematerialize, and the sorceress immediately banishes the Valkyrie from Barbara’s body, leaving her shrieking in insane terror. Denton is horrified, and obviously desperate to cure his daughter of her madness, he snatches the magic harmonica from the Enchantress’s grasp and blows into it. Unfortunately, it destroys the planet instead. Doctor Strange, Clea, and Wong are killed instantly.

A split-second later, the world is restored as if nothing had happened. Strange sees in the Orb that the Thing is now holding the harmonica and the Valkyrie is fighting the Executioner, indicating some time has passed for them. When the Thing punches out the Executioner, Valkyrie runs over to Denton, who has died, and breaks down crying. The Executioner tries to continue the fight, but the Enchantress decides to retreat, teleporting herself and her lackey away. Strange realizes that the end of the world was the manifestation of Denton’s destiny, since he’d lost everyone he’d ever loved. He sends out his astral form again to ask the Thing to remain in Cobbler’s Roost until he and Nighthawk can join them there. The Thing is annoyed but agrees to hang around. When Strange and Nighthawk arrive in Vermont a little while later, they find the Thing sleeping under a tree and wake him up. He reports that the Valkyrie has carried her father’s body into town, but Strange has detected a sinister presence in the area and wants to investigate. His amulet leads them to a grand house on the outskirts of town, where a trap door suddenly sends Nighthawk and the Thing tumbling into an underground chamber. Unable to penetrate the trap’s magic shields, Strange enters the house instead. He is startled to see a large oil painting above the mantle depicting a middle-aged woman who bears a striking resemblance to the Valkyrie. A nameplate on the frame identifies the woman as Celestia Denton—obviously Barbara’s mother. Before Strange can discover the connection between the woman in the painting and the harmonica that bears her name, he is knocked out by a sorcerous attack from behind.

When he regains consciousness, Strange finds himself and the Valkyrie at the site of some obscene ritual in the house’s basement, having just been rescued by the Thing. Nighthawk is brawling with a number of cultists in hooded robes, so Strange casts a spell that puts the cultists into a trance. He then marches them outside. Nighthawk and the Thing report that the cultists were trying to drain the life-force from both Strange and the Valkyrie to open a dimensional portal to their demonic master. There had also been a hideous old high priestess, they reveal, who disintegrated when the Thing crushed the harmonica. That also seemed to collapse the dimensional portal before the devil could cross over to Earth. From their description, Strange realizes the devil must have been the Nameless One, meaning they’re dealing with the same cult of which Barbara had been a member. The cult leader confirms this under hypnosis, explaining that the high priestess was, in fact, Celestia Denton. She had not died in a car crash years ago as was commonly believed, but she had been badly disfigured and served the Nameless One on the promise of having her youth and beauty restored after the Undying Ones conquered the world. These revelations send a chill down Strange’s spine due to his own history with that race of demons. The nature of the magical harmonica remains a mystery, but he hopes that their efforts have at least rebalanced the cosmic scales of destiny.

After the Thing has left for New York, Strange and Nighthawk join the Valkyrie inside the house, which turns out to be the Dentons’ old summer home. Uncharacteristically silent and withdrawn, she is looking through the family’s photo albums, learning what she can about the life of Barbara Denton. She is particularly upset to have discovered that Barbara was married and that her husband, Jack Norriss, is living there in Cobbler’s Roost. Nighthawk, who is clearly very attracted to the Valkyrie, takes the news badly and storms out, returning to New York on his own. Strange accompanies the Valkyrie to the boarding house where Norriss lives, but the landlady assumes that Barbara ran off to have an affair with Strange, whom she mistakes for an artist of some kind, and castigates her as a gold-digging slut. In tears, Valkyrie asks Strange to take her home immediately, so he teleports them both back to the Sanctum Sanctorum. There, Strange and Clea spend the afternoon trying to comfort the distraught Valkyrie, wondering why she’s being so unusually emotional. In the evening, Bruce Banner collapses on the doorstep, suffering from acute exhaustion, so the Valkyrie carries him to a guest room and puts him to bed. Shortly after midnight, though, Banner changes into the Hulk and goes on a rampage, under the same malefic influence that has caused most New Yorkers to run riot in the streets. Strange detects an odd sort of “static” in the air that prevents any of his spells from taking effect. Fortunately, the madness passes quickly, though Strange is frustrated to have no clue who was responsible. Nighthawk arrives and reports having fought with a looter who appeared to have the head of a man and the body of a gorilla, theorizing that the two bizarre events could be connected. Doctor Strange is baffled.

A couple days later, Nighthawk recruits Doctor Strange, the Hulk, the Valkyrie, the Sub-Mariner, and Daredevil to fight for the earth in another elaborate game set up by the Grandmaster, the enigmatic alien who originally gave him his super-powers. The seemingly omnipotent Grandmaster assures them that he has no interest in Earth, so if they win, the world will be left alone. However, if his mysterious opponent should win, the human race shall be enslaved and the planet stripped of its resources. The Grandmaster, whom Nighthawk describes as a “galactic gambling addict,” then splits them into teams of two and teleports them to distant planets to fight to the death against his own hand-picked mercenaries. Doctor Strange and the Hulk find themselves in a dilapidated, vaguely medieval city populated by a humanoid race, where they face off against a little yellow alien calling himself Grott the Man-Slayer and a cyborg from the 31st century named Korvac. While Grott attacks the Hulk with his psychokinetic powers, Korvac uses his technology to instantly analyze and counter Strange’s sorcery. Finding his spells useless, Strange defeats Korvac with an unexpected punch in the face. Hulk weathers Grott’s assault, then knocks him out with a flick of his mighty fingers. Having won the match, the two Defenders are teleported back to the Grandmaster’s space station, where he declares himself the game’s winner. However, he then announces that he’s changed his mind, having realized that Earth would be the ideal breeding ground for gladiators to amuse him for generations to come. Enraged, the Defenders attack him, only to be easily repulsed. However, Daredevil challenges the Grandmaster to decide Earth’s fate on a coin toss. When Daredevil wins the toss, the Grandmaster concedes defeat and teleports them all back to Nighthawk’s penthouse apartment in Manhattan. Strange expresses his gratitude to Daredevil, though he has some reservations about risking the future of the human race on the toss of a coin. Enigmatically, Daredevil insists the outcome was never in doubt. He then exits through a window, and the Sub-Mariner, not happy to be among the Defenders again, departs as well. Strange and the Valkyrie return to the Sanctum Sanctorum.

Doctor Strange takes Clea to the Central Park Zoo, having decided that her sorcerous ability is now up to the task of counteracting Silver Dagger’s spell that turned her pet rabbit into a giant. The enormous rabbit has been held in the zoo since being captured in Greenwich Village back in January. Clea succeeds in returning the rabbit to normal, though Strange is annoyed that she draws undue attention to herself in the process. They are then accosted by a panhandling heroin addict who takes exception to Strange’s condemnation of hard drugs. As the young man storms off, Clea wonders aloud if some magic spell could help him. Strange notes that such problems are beyond even the Sorcerer Supreme. When they arrive at the Sanctum Sanctorum about an hour later, though, they are ambushed by Umar, the sister of Dormammu, who laughingly informs them that the junkie is one of her disciples. Working together, Strange and Clea overcome Umar’s attacks and drive her back into the Dark Dimension. Strange worries that Umar’s reappearance heralds Dormammu’s return to corporeal form, recalling the Watcher’s warning after Dormammu’s disastrous alliance with Loki last year. He tries to spy on Umar using the Orb of Agamotto, but she senses the intrusion and blocks him. Frustrated, Strange decides he must physically enter the Dark Dimension to ascertain the situation there, though that may be just what Umar wants. Clea refuses to accompany him, growing highly agitated. Not wanting to press the point, Strange advises her to remain on guard while he’s away, kisses her goodbye, and ventures forth into her native realm alone.

Almost immediately, Strange is attacked by Umar, leading to a fierce magical battle that is cut short when Strange is struck down from behind by his foe’s minion Orini. When he regains consciousness sometime later, Strange finds himself bathed in the deadly light from the cyclopean eye of the G’uranthic Guardian and instinctively saves himself by unleashing the Eye of Agamotto from his amulet. When his mind clears, he attempts to cross the dimensional boundary back to Earth, only to suddenly realizes he has forgotten how. Orini reappears, accompanied by a horde of demons, and explains that the G’uranthic Guardian has drained all knowledge of sorcery from Strange’s mind, leaving him helpless. Luckily, Clea comes to the rescue at that moment but is unwilling to fight Orini, as he is her father. Instead, she causes the Cloak of Levitation to carry them away from Orini, and they soon take refuge in a place where she used to hide out as a child. There, Clea confirms Strange’s suspicion that Umar lured him into the Dark Dimension so he wouldn’t sense that Dormammu was reforming himself deep within the Earth. Finding an old toy, she finally opens up about her lonely childhood as the daughter of Dormammu’s chief disciple, effectively a princess among slaves. After suddenly receiving a vision of the Elder Goddess Gaea, Clea explains that it was Gaea who first warned her of Dormammu’s scheme. She then heads off to appeal to her father for help, leaving Strange to meditate.

When Clea returns, she reports that Orini refused to aid them against Dormammu, as expected. Thus, they decide to seek assistance from Gaea herself using basic earth magic that Clea has learned. She sets up a ritual that imbues Strange with enough power to penetrate the mystical barrier surrounding the rampaging Mindless Ones. He is then able to use the violent creatures as conduits to send the Gaean energy into the G’uranthic Guardian, inverting the properties of its eye-beams. As a result, when the Guardian tries to siphon off Clea’s sorcerous knowledge, it instead pours all of Strange’s stolen power into her. Strange races to her side, arriving just as Orini and his horde of demons descend upon her. Clea unleashes a devastating barrage of eldritch energy on their foes, surprised by the amount of raw power she is wielding. She nearly goes too far, though, when she realizes how deeply her father hates her. Strange talks his pupil down, then absorbs all his power and knowledge back into himself. Shielded by the Flames of the Faltine, the couple flees through the dimensional boundary back to the safety of the Sanctum Sanctorum.

No sooner have they materialized than Strange and Clea receive a vision of Gaea warning them that Dormammu is on the loose at the Grand Canyon. Wong brings in four mystics from around the world who have come to New York in answer to Clea’s summons—Lord Phyffe, Rama Kaliph, Turhan Barim, and Count Carezzi—but they lack the skill to go up against Dormammu. Thanking them for their show of support, Strange teleports himself and Clea to Arizona, where they find Umar instead, grown to 100 feet tall. She has brought Orini to Earth with her and orders him to attack the couple. Orini does so without hesitation but is unable to penetrate Strange’s defenses. He then crumbles under Strange’s counterattack, but Umar props him up with her own power, making him little more than a puppet. Following a daring strategy Clea has come up with, Strange traps Orini within the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, then transfers the bulk of his power back to Clea. While Strange distracts Umar, Clea phases into the ground and frees Gaea from imprisonment. Sensing what’s just happened, Umar focuses her attacks on Clea, but Clea forms a mind link with Strange that allows them to share the power equally between them. Umar is thus overcome and collapses to the ground, reverting to her normal size. However, Dormammu, standing several thousand feet tall, materializes in the canyon, having reclaimed the power his treacherous sister had stolen from him. Strange demands that Dormammu return to the Dark Dimension immediately, insisting that he’s indebted to them for saving him from Umar. Dormammu scoffs at Strange’s presumption, but Gaea intercedes and grants the two sorcerers the power to drive the arch-demon back to his own realm. Orini is allowed to take the unconscious Umar home as well, since Strange knows they lack the power to imprison her. Before disappearing, Gaea repairs the environmental damage the battle caused and acknowledges her champions, Doctor Strange and Clea, as her son and adopted daughter.

August–November 1967 – Doctor Strange is happy to have Lord Phyffe and Rama Kaliph stay at the Sanctum Sanctorum for the next several months, as they are eager to study under the new Sorcerer Supreme. Turhan Barim and Count Carezzi are content to enjoy his hospitality for a couple of weeks before returning home. The adepts are all fascinated by the Valkyrie, who also continues to live there, though she spends much of her time with Aragorn at Nighthawk’s facility on Long Island. For his part, Nighthawk is frustrated that none of his teammates are interested in having regular meetings, leaving him to act as a solo crime-fighter. Clea finds that her recent mind-melds with Strange have had a lasting benefit, allowing her to advance her studies at a much more rapid pace. As a couple, they also deepen their emotional bond in the light of their recent experiences. Throughout, Strange continues trying to bring Baron Mordo out of his catatonic state, to no avail.

December 1967 – For about 18 hours, Doctor Strange, Clea, and Valkyrie find themselves trapped within force-field bubbles that they recognize as Asgardian sorcery. Try as they might, they are unable to escape. Finally, the force fields vanish as mysteriously as they appeared. Strange quickly determines that while they were trapped, Loki led an invasion force of Asgardian warriors against Washington, D.C., only to be repelled by Thor and the U.S. Army.

On a snowy evening, Strange and Valkyrie rush to a midtown hospital after Kyle Richmond and his girlfriend, Trish Starr, are badly injured in a car-bomb explosion. In the lobby, Strange runs into an old friend, Dr. James Wynter, whom he hasn’t seen in 20 years. Wynter recruits Strange to serve as a surgical consultant as he operates on Richmond. Strange is reluctant, feeling his time would be better spent tracking down the bomber, but he nevertheless soon finds himself among the doctors and nurses in the operating room. The familiar sensations of the O.R. sweep over Strange, taking him back to his days as one of the city’s top surgeons, though his nostalgia is tinged with the new perspectives on the cosmos he has gained as Sorcerer Supreme. During the hours-long procedure, Strange makes numerous invaluable contributions, though his mind occasionally wanders to his other Defenders teammates. Finally, in the middle of the night, the surgical team completes its efforts and Richmond is taken to the recovery room. Wynter assures Strange that Richmond’s prognosis is excellent, marveling at the patient’s seemingly superhuman constitution. Changing the subject, Strange inquires about Trish Starr, but Wynter has no information on her condition. Their conversation is interrupted by the Hulk, who is causing a commotion in the corridor. Valkyrie is trying to deal with the green behemoth as he demands to see Richmond, and before the situation can get out of hand, Strange convinces the Hulk to accompany them back to the Sanctum Sanctorum. Although Strange wants to start investigating the bombing immediately, he realizes he is utterly exhausted and elects to get a few hours’ sleep first.

The following morning, Strange, Hulk, and Valkyrie return to the hospital for visiting hours, though the Hulk agrees to remain outside with Aragorn. Richmond has been moved to a private room, where he speculates that the car-bomb must have been set by his former associates, the Squadron Sinister, even though they are believed to have been killed during the battle with Nebulon last year. Strange is dubious but agrees to check out the villains’ former hideout at the Crayton Observatory. Collecting the Hulk and Aragorn, Strange and Valkyrie head to the remote upstate observatory, where they discover that Hyperion, Doctor Spectrum, and the Whizzer are indeed still alive. Despite having the element of surprise, the Defenders lose the battle and find themselves imprisoned in the observatory’s basement. Luckily, they are rescued by the former Avenger called Yellowjacket, who is also investigating the car-bombing as a friend of Trish Starr’s. Yellowjacket reveals that the Squadron Sinister had nothing to do with the bombing; it was carried out by his old arch-enemy Egghead, who happens to be Starr’s uncle. She was the target, he explains, not Richmond. Even so, Strange realizes the Squadron Sinister may take advantage of Richmond’s weakened state to get revenge on him. Thus, the Defenders race back to Manhattan, accompanied by Yellowjacket, and stop the Squadron Sinister from kidnapping Richmond from the hospital. When the hard-fought battle is won, Strange casts a spell that strips their foes of all memory of their powers and villainous identities, ensuring they will pose no further threat to Richmond.

Doctor Strange and Valkyrie convince the Hulk to spend some more time with them at the Sanctum Sanctorum. Clea and Wong are delighted to host their brutish friend again, though Lord Phyffe and Rama Kaliph need to be reassured that he won’t kill them. The two adepts become very curious about the Hulk once he accepts them as friends. Richmond makes a rapid recovery due to his super-powers and resumes his activities as Nighthawk, though he is depressed that Starr, whose left arm had to be amputated, has broken up with him. Stephen Strange, feeling a deep sense of harmony and joy, relishes the sense of camaraderie that fills his home throughout the holiday season.


Notes:

January 1967 – Doctor Strange and Spider-Man have their rematch with Xandu in Marvel Team-Up #21. Strange then appears in his new solo series, Doctor Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts #1 and following. For brevity’s sake, the 81-issue series is usually referred to here as Doctor Strange v.2. Baron Mordo remains behind the scenes throughout the year.

May 1967 – The Defenders take on the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants at the behest of Professor X in Defenders #15–16. Xavier seeks outside help because the X-Men are off on their mission to Krakoa, as seen in Giant-Size X-Men #1. Magneto’s odyssey through the bowels of the earth is a delusion; following his defeat at the hands of the Avengers (in Avengers #111), he was held in a telepathically induced coma in the basement of the X-Men’s headquarters. However, his deranged mind rejects this humiliating reality in favor of a nonsensical sci-fi fantasy. See my Magneto chronology for further discussion. The Defenders then team up with Daimon Hellstrom, the so-called “Son of Satan,” in Giant-Size Defenders #2.

July 1967 – The Defenders battle the Wrecking Crew in Defenders #17–19. They then join forces with the Thing to once again foil the sinister plans of the Undying Ones in Marvel Two-in-One #6–7 and Defenders #20–21. The temporary spell of madness and the apelike looter are indeed connected, as both are part of a scheme by the freakish small-time crooks known as the Headmen—Arthur Nagan, Jerry Morgan, and Chondu the Mystic. Daredevil helps the Defenders defeat the Grandmaster and his mystery opponent (Doctor Doom’s Prime Mover robot) in Giant-Size Defenders #3. While talking to the junkie—who, like his drug of choice, is nicknamed Horse—in Doctor Strange v.2 #6, Strange admits to using psychoactive drugs himself while studying under the Ancient One in Tibet—a detail omitted in most recountings of the sorcerer’s origin story. Dormammu’s scheme also involves the Scarlet Witch and Agatha Harkness, as seen in Giant-Size Avengers #4, but Doctor Strange seems unaware of this fact. While Gaea is held prisoner by Dormammu, the world’s weather patterns are severely disrupted. This brings us up to Doctor Strange v.2 #9.

December 1967 – Doctor Strange is among the various superheroes seen trapped within Loki’s magical spheres in Thor #233. The Defenders team up with Yellowjacket against the Squadron Sinister in Giant-Size Defenders #4. The criminal Whizzer of the Squadron Sinister should not be confused with the WWII-era hero of the same name.


Jump Back: Doctor Strange – Year Five

Next Issue: The Hulk – Year Six


Friday

OMU History: Avengers 1967

The Sixth Annual Avengers Christmas Charity Benefit, December 1967.
Hawkeye, Iron Man, Moondragon, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Vision, and the Grand Vizier of Asgard standing in front of an Avengers Mansion fireplace next to a Christmas tree.
L to R: Hawkeye, Iron Man, Moondragon, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Grand Vizier of Asgard

Thursday

OMU: Spider-Man -- Year Six

Spider-Man continues to recover from the sudden death of his girlfriend Gwen Stacy over the next twelve months of his life. He slowly comes to see Mary Jane Watson less as a friend offering comfort in his time of grief and more as a potential lover in her own right. In order to stave off the feelings of loneliness that seem inherent in his double life as a college student and a superhero, Peter Parker makes an effort to build friendships with fellow Midtown High alumni Flash Thompson and Liz Allan, new neighbor Glory Grant, and his colleagues at the Daily Bugle. Principal creators Gerry Conway and Ross Andru (with some help from Roy Thomas, Len Wein, and Jim Mooney) try to keep things fresh by maintaining a balance between familiar villains and new threats, even introducing legacy versions of classic foes Mysterio and the Green Goblin. All this puts Spider-Man on a firm footing going forward.

Note: The following timeline depicts the Original Marvel Universe (anchored to November 1961 as the first appearance of the Fantastic Four and proceeding forward from there. See previous posts for a detailed explanation of my rationale.) Some information presented on the timeline is speculative and some is based on historical accounts. See the Notes section at the end for clarifications.


Continuing on with... The True History of the Amazing Spider-Man!


January 1967 – Spider-Man intervenes to stop a mugging one night in New York City, only to discover that the intended victim is the wizard Xandu, whom he last encountered about three and a half years ago. Xandu instantly hypnotizes the wall-crawler, and the next thing he knows, Spidey finds himself alongside Doctor Strange in a mind-bending mystical dimension. Xandu has once again empowered himself with the magical Wand of Watoomb, which enables him to quickly defeat the two heroes by turning them into living marionettes. Xandu boasts of his spell that prevents either man from using his powers against him, but Doctor Strange casts a counter-spell that enables them to use each other’s powers instead. Thus, while Spider-Man staggers their foe with bolts of eldritch energy, Doctor Strange covers Xandu in webbing and punches him in the face. Doctor Strange then transports them all back to the villain’s dilapidated lair in Manhattan, where Xandu is distraught over losing the Wand of Watoomb since he mainly wanted it to rouse his fiancée, Melinda, from a deathlike sleep he accidentally placed her in while practicing spells many years ago. Doctor Strange examines Melinda with his magic amulet and discovers she is actually dead, though Xandu’s spell has preserved her body. With this news, Xandu suffers a complete emotional breakdown and weeps over his lost love. Still hurting from the death of Gwen Stacy last year, Spider-Man is sympathetic. Doctor Strange retrieves a magic crystal that Spider-Man stole from him earlier while under Xandu’s control, and the two heroes make a discreet exit.

Peter Parker starts his senior year at Empire State University, a full semester behind his cohort. Like Mary Jane Watson, Harry Osborn starts the second semester of his junior year. Peter and Harry are still sharing their Lexington Avenue apartment, but they are not on speaking terms and rarely see each other. Vietnam veteran Flash Thompson starts the second semester of his sophomore year. Peter and Mary Jane continue to see each other socially, and Peter is relieved that his elderly aunt, May Parker, has decided to continue staying with Mary Jane’s aunt, Anna Watson, in an apartment in Queens rather than living alone in the house where Peter grew up. Every so often, Peter forgoes web-swinging as Spider-Man to instead drive the Spider-Mobile around Manhattan or the outer boroughs to fulfill his contract with Corona Motors.

February 1967 – While web-swinging through the city one night, Spider-Man investigates a break-in at the American Museum of Natural History and discovers evidence that his old foe, the Molten Man, has stolen some meteorite fragments. After changing back into Peter Parker, he runs into his old high school crush, Liz Allan, outside his apartment building. Liz is distraught, so Peter takes her to Mary Jane’s nearby apartment, where she falls asleep on the couch, overcome with exhaustion. Mary Jane remembers meeting Liz a few years ago and agrees to look after her while Peter checks in at the offices of the Daily Bugle. Peter intends to dig up some information on the Molten Man, but while chatting with secretary Betty Brant, he is sent by city editor Joe “Robbie” Robertson to meet up with reporter Ned Leeds at a fleabag hotel on the lower west side. When he arrives, Spider-Man finds the building has been wrecked by an explosion and Ned has been bludgeoned. Suddenly, the Molten Man attacks him, and Spider-Man quickly realizes his webbing is no match for the intense heat his foe’s body is generating. Crashing into a fire hydrant, the Molten Man creates a thick cloud of steam to cover his escape. Spider-Man rushes Ned to the nearest emergency room, where, after changing back into Peter Parker, he learns that both he and Ned are suffering from radiation poisoning from the meteor fragments. The Molten Man then invades the hospital, intent on killing Ned, but despite feeling sick, Spidey manages to drive him off. Returning to Mary Jane’s apartment, Peter is shocked to learn that the Molten Man is Liz’s stepbrother and she’s been helping take care of him since he was confined to a hospital after being captured by Spider-Man three and a half years ago. The Molten Man’s condition has been slowly degenerating, Liz reveals, and he’s escaped from the hospital to try to find a way to cure himself.

The next day, despite fighting off waves of nausea, Peter follows some leads provided by his colleagues at the Daily Bugle and pieces together the Molten Man’s plans. This leads Spider-Man to the New York Hall of Science in Queens, where he catches the Molten Man trying to steal another meteorite, which confirms his suspicion that the Molten Man is trying to recreate the liquid metal alloy he originally developed with Professor Spencer Smythe. The clash does not go well for the web-slinger, and the Molten Man gets away. Undaunted, Spider-Man follows him onto a subway train, where they continue their battle until tumbling off the train as it crosses a bridge over the East River. The Molten Man is in a murderous rage since Spider-Man has repeatedly interfered with his attempts to stabilize his body chemistry. He grabs Spider-Man by the ankle, causing a severe burn, and slams him into a steel bridge support. Realizing he’s no match for the villain due to his radiation sickness, Spidey flings the bag containing all the stolen items off the bridge. Horrified, the Molten Man dives into the river after it, causing a huge burst of steam. When the Molten Man does not resurface, Spider-Man assumes he has drowned. Over the next week or so, Peter recovers from his illness and is relieved when Ned is finally released from the hospital.

March 1967 – Peter is troubled when Joe Robertson tells him about a string of strange, vampire-like homicides along the Eastern Seaboard that suggests the perpetrator is heading toward New York. Based on a photo taken by an amateur shutterbug in Jersey City, New Jersey, Robertson believes the serial killer to be Michael Morbius, the Nobel-winning chemist who disappeared at sea a couple years ago. Peter knows that Morbius has in fact become something akin to a vampire but is surprised to learn he is on the loose, since the X-Men said they were going to cure him. He realizes he’ll have to try to recapture Morbius if and when the monster reaches NYC. Suddenly, J. Jonah Jameson interrupts them to congratulate Peter on being nominated for photojournalist of the year. Being the first he’s heard of it, Peter is stunned by the news. The very next night, Peter spots Morbius, the Living Vampire running across the ESU campus alongside the Man-Wolf. He quickly changes into Spider-Man and goes after them, wondering how the Man-Wolf retrieved his moonstone pendant from the bottom of the Hudson River. Considering the werewolf to be the greater threat, Spider-Man goes after him first and manages to trap him in a web hastily spun in a wooded glade. Acting on a hunch, Spidey then swings over to the lab of Professor Harold Ward, the head of hematological research, who is developing an experimental blood-transfusion device. When Morbius doesn’t show up, Spider-Man goes to check on the Man-Wolf and finds he’s been cut free of the webbing. Realizing Morbius wants him chasing the Man-Wolf all over the city, Spider-Man makes the tough call to return to Professor Ward’s laboratory instead. There, he and Ward assemble a mockup of the blood-transfusion device in order to trick the vampire. Sure enough, Morbius arrives about an hour later and attacks Ward. Spider-Man fights with him, making sure that the mockup is completely destroyed. In despair, Morbius dives out the window and disappears into the darkness. Unable to locate his vampiric foe, Spidey heads over to J. Jonah Jameson’s apartment and says he has reason to believe that astronaut John Jameson has become the Man-Wolf again. The cantankerous publisher angrily insists that his son John has been with him all evening. Confused, Spider-Man offers both an apology and a warning, then spends the rest of the night on a fruitless search for the werewolf. He starts to wonder if someone other than John Jameson could have fished the moonstone pendant out of the river and become another Man-Wolf. In the days to follow, Spider-Man can find no sign of either of his monstrous foes. The following week, Peter learns from Robertson that he didn’t win the photojournalist-of-the-year award. Though disappointed, Peter tries to keep a sense of perspective about it.

April 1967 – Spider-Man teams up with Hawkeye to investigate a gang of robotic thieves that stole a truckload of electronic components and took it to an estate up in Westchester County. The wall-crawler realizes that Hawkeye has recruited him so as to not have to ask his former teammates in the Avengers for help. Shortly after arriving at the estate, the two superheroes are captured, whereupon they learn that the robots serve the “living computer” known as Quasimodo. The artificial intelligence has devised a mad plan to take control of humanity by linking together all the world’s computers, thus creating a sort of worldwide web of electronic networks. Knowing that such a thing could wreck civilization, Spider-Man and Hawkeye break free and short-circuit the entire complex. The robots are destroyed, and Quasimodo is left completely inert, his mind apparently disintegrated by feedback. After shutting off the main power, Spider-Man and Hawkeye depart, dismissing Quasimodo as a machine with delusions of grandeur.

May 1967 – While on his way to visit Aunt May, Spider-Man stops to investigate a burglary at Faversham’s, a jewelry store at E. 47th Street and Park Avenue. In the shadows, the burglar attacks Spidey and effortlessly shrugs off his webbing before escaping out a window. Spider-Man follows, only to slip on a large sheet of ice covering the ground despite the air temperature being above 60° F. Stymied, Spider-Man continues on to Anna Watson’s apartment. After changing into Peter Parker, he finds his family physician, Dr. Bromwell, is making a house call. Gravely, Bromwell informs Peter that Aunt May has contracted a new strain of the flu virus that is highly resistant to treatment. Given her frail constitution, Aunt May’s prognosis is poor. Horrified, Peter insists there must be something they can do. Bromwell notes ruefully that a new medication is being brought into the country by its creator, a Dr. A.J. Maxfield, but will likely arrive too late to save Aunt May since Maxfield refuses to fly and is crossing the Atlantic on an ocean liner, the S.S. Wendell. Desperately, Peter changes back into Spider-Man and swings over to the Baxter Building to borrow an aircraft from the Fantastic Four. He finds the Human Torch at home, who initially assumes the Spider-Mobile needs maintenance and acts like a jerk. After Spider-Man yells at him, the Torch agrees to help and escorts him to the team’s vehicle hangar. Grateful, the web-slinger tells the Torch about his strange encounter at the jewelry store and suggests he check it out. Within minutes, Spider-Man launches into the sky aboard a brand-new compact, high-speed aircraft and rockets out over the ocean.

Reaching the S.S. Wendell within fifteen minutes, Spider-Man leaves the aircraft in hover mode, concealed within an artificial cloud, and boards the ocean liner. After changing into Peter Parker, he accidentally bumps into some kind of European aristocrat wearing a black opera cape, whom he can barely see in the shadows. Peter apologizes and receives a curt reply in a thick accent. Minutes later, Peter discovers that a costume ball is in progress. Hearing a woman scream, he rushes over to investigate and finds her passed out on the deck with two small puncture wounds on her neck. Worried that Morbius may have struck again, Peter takes the woman to see the ship’s doctor. He is confronted by the captain, who suspects he may be a stowaway, but Peter is evasive. A good-looking couple enters the cabin—a man dressed as a Renaissance minstrel and a woman in a “sexy Viking” costume—one of whom is apparently Dr. Maxfield. However, they are accosted by Maggia gangsters who knock out the woman and kidnap the man while holding Peter and the captain at gunpoint. Peter then manages to slip away, changes back into Spider-Man, and captures the gangsters. The kidnapped man flees the scene, so Spider-Man starts searching the ship for him, assuming him to be A.J. Maxfield. Several minutes later, Spider-Man saves the man when he falls overboard and then knocks out one of the gangsters who’s gone insane and is raving about monsters. The man in the Italianate costume thanks Spider-Man for saving his life, whereupon the hero requests he turn over his new flu medicine. However, the man reveals that he is the ship’s doctor; the woman in the “sexy Viking” costume is Dr. Maxfield. Quickly, Spider-Man explains to Maxfield that an elderly woman on the mainland will likely die without the new medication. Ashamed that her aerophobia could lead to the death of a patient, Maxfield makes immediate preparations to fly the rest of the way to New York with the wall-crawler. About fifteen minutes later, Spider-Man drops Maxfield off at Anna Watson’s apartment, where Dr. Bromwell is waiting. He then takes the Fantastic Four’s aircraft back to the Baxter Building before returning as Peter Parker. To everyone’s great relief, Aunt May responds well to the treatment and makes a speedy recovery.

Peter joins Mary Jane, Flash, and Liz on a boat tour up the Hudson River only to have it immediately hijacked by a trio of Latin American terrorists. Their leader, dressed in a red-and-black costume, calls himself the Tarantula. Several members of the crew attack the terrorists, giving Peter the chance to change into Spider-Man amidst the chaos. However, while saving a crewmember who’s been knocked overboard, Spidey runs out of web-fluid and finds himself stranded on the George Washington Bridge as the boat continues heading upriver with his friends still in danger. Wishing he had the Spider-Mobile handy, Spider-Man races back to his apartment to replace his empty web-fluid cartridges. He then manages to return to the hijacked boat by hitching a ride on a police helicopter. While fighting with the Tarantula, Spidey discovers that the large spikes on the villain’s boots are coated with a debilitating poison. Things go from bad to worse when the Punisher suddenly turns up and assumes Spider-Man is in league with the hijackers. Taking advantage of the distraction, the Tarantula and his henchmen escape aboard their own helicopter with the loot they’ve stolen from the passengers. Realizing he was wrong about Spider-Man, the Punisher is furious and arranges to meet the web-slinger at midnight at the Cloisters museum in Fort Tryon Park in Washington Heights. He then dives into the river and swims away. As the passengers press in around him, Spider-Man also leaps into the water, circles around to the other side of the boat, climbs aboard, changes back into Peter Parker, jumps overboard again, and starts yelling for help. As crewmen haul him back on board, Peter hopes his elaborate ruse will safeguard his secret identity, though Flash seems especially skeptical of his story. The boat returns immediately to port, where Peter checks in with the Daily Bugle before heading home to take a much-needed shower. While waiting for his late-night meeting with the Punisher, Peter does some laundry and washes his costume.

At midnight, Spider-Man rendezvouses with the Punisher at the museum, where the vigilante has set up a temporary base of operations in a disused storage room. The Punisher informs Spider-Man that the Tarantula, whose real name is Anton Miguel Rodriquez, started out as a revolutionary in the South American nation of Delvadia until he switched sides to become a state-sanctioned fascist “superhero.” His lawless behavior eventually forced Rodriquez to flee the country, whereupon he entered the United States illegally and made contacts in the criminal underworld. Less than a month ago, Rodriquez hatched his plan to hold the tour boat for ransom. The Punisher has since discovered the Tarantula’s hideout near the northwest corner of Central Park and recruits the web-slinger to help bring him to justice. Arriving at the dilapidated building, Spider-Man is shocked when the Punisher storms inside and shoots up the place with a submachine gun, but he is kept too busy to intervene when the Tarantula flees into the park across the street. The ensuing fight between Spider-Man and the Tarantula carries them through the West 110th Street Playground to the banks of Harlem Meer, where the Tarantula is defeated. The Punisher then turns up with the two henchmen from the hijacking, who are unconscious. Relieved that the Punisher doesn’t seem to have killed anyone, Spider-Man lets him go. After webbing up the three crooks, the wall-crawler phones in a tip to the police and heads for home.

Peter finishes up the spring semester but is frustrated when he finds he has failed a couple of his classes, including advanced trigonometry. He knows his activities as Spider-Man are undermining his academic career but feels he has no choice but to continue trying to balance the two. He is depressed when most of the students who entered college with him graduate and move on with their lives. To cheer Peter up, Mary Jane, Flash, and Liz throw a party to celebrate his 22nd birthday.

June 1967 – Peter is saddened to learn that Captain America has retired, having idolized the star-spangled hero since he was a young boy. Soon after, when an alley fight with four muggers goes awry, Spider-Man is rescued by Brother Voodoo, a mysterious superhero based in New Orleans who has come north in pursuit of the leader of a murderous cult. They rush the muggers’ intended victim, an aspiring actress, to the hospital, as she was badly wounded during the fracas. There, she tells them about auditioning for an off-Broadway play about voodoo just before being attacked, so the two heroes head over to the theater to investigate. Brother Voodoo enters through the front door while Spider-Man looks for a skylight. By the time the web-slinger finds his way into the building, Brother Voodoo is already brawling with the cultists and their leader, a man called Moondog. Suddenly, the two heroes are overwhelmed by searing pain with no apparent cause, and when they regain their senses, they find themselves about to be burned at the stake on the theater stage. As Moondog sets the kindling on fire, Spider-Man and Brother Voodoo break free and renew their attack. Seeing the tide has turned, Moondog climbs up to a catwalk, intending to escape to the rooftops, but Brother Voodoo stops him. To Spider-Man’s horror, Brother Voodoo throws Moondog off the catwalk, clearly meaning to kill him. He quickly spins a web to catch the villain, hardly noticing a strange nimbus of light that briefly envelops Moondog as he falls. When he climbs out of the web, Moondog seems disoriented and claims to be an accountant named Wally Bevins. Spider-Man scoffs at this obvious ruse, but Brother Voodoo assures him that Bevins is telling the truth—Moondog is actually a “loa,” a voodoo spirit that had possessed Bevins down in New Orleans. Rather than allow itself to perish with its host, the loa fled Bevins’s body, as Brother Voodoo had hoped. Creeped out by all the voodoo stuff, Spider-Man heads home, leaving Brother Voodoo to deal with the defeated cultists.

A robbery at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum leads Spider-Man into a street battle with a gang of men in strange uniforms brandishing shuriken and nunchaku. Despite being unfamiliar with such weapons, Spider-Man still defeats them with relative ease. He intimidates one of the men into revealing that his employer, a master criminal called “Shang-Chi,” is planning to destroy the Ravenswood Generating Station in Queens while smaller teams of henchmen, like his, stage heists around the city to keep the police busy. Suddenly, the gang members are all electrocuted by their own uniforms. Sickened by their gruesome deaths, Spider-Man realizes that this Shang-Chi must be some kind of monster. After a quick stop at the Daily Bugle, where he learns that a Chinese man named Shang-Chi allegedly murdered a Doctor Petrie in London a couple months ago, Spider-Man makes his way to the power station. No sooner has the wall-crawler entered the generator room than Shang-Chi attacks him, accusing Spider-Man of being a murderer. The young martial-arts expert proves to be a surprisingly formidable opponent, and they eventually figure out they’ve both been played for suckers—their fight is just another diversionary tactic engineered by the actual criminal mastermind, Shang-Chi’s father. Agreeing to team up, Shang-Chi leads Spidey to a meeting with a secret agent who informs them that Shang-Chi’s father is hatching some diabolical plan atop the Empire State Building. The two heroes race over there, where they get into a fight with a sumo wrestler in a stairwell. Once the wrestler is defeated, they make their way to the roof, where they confront a gaunt man dressed as an old-time Chinese mandarin and his numerous henchmen. More of Shang-Chi’s associates arrive by helicopter, leading to a fierce gun battle. One of the commandos, a brawny, balding Englishman, confirms to Spider-Man that the man in the mandarin’s robes is Shang-Chi’s father, but he has slipped away in the confusion. Hoping to beat the express elevator to street level, Spider-Man and Shang-Chi leap off the building and land in a hastily spun net of webbing. However, when the elevator doors open in the lobby, the car is mysteriously empty. An elderly English gentleman with a bit of a limp arrives on the scene and, to Spider-Man’s surprise, identifies Shang-Chi’s father as Dr. Fu Manchu, whom the web-slinger had always thought was merely a fictional character. Hearing police sirens approaching, Spider-Man shakes hands with Shang-Chi and makes a hasty exit.

Spider-Man stops an apparent cat-burglar dressed as a cat from getting away with his loot by webbing up the large satchel he is carrying. Suddenly, though, Daredevil appears out of nowhere and kicks Spider-Man in the head while loudly announcing some bitter rivalry between them. Confused, Spider-Man defends himself forcefully, allowing the cat-burglar to escape. Daredevil then stops the fight, explaining that he was following the crook, Cat-Man, back to the hideout of his gang, which is known as the Unholy Three. The satchel contains the ransom money for a kidnapped girl named Gail Callan, daughter of a wealthy industrialist. Regretting his interference, Spidey retrieves the satchel and discovers a clump of dirt stuck to it. Daredevil somehow determines that the dirt came from Coney Island and invites the wall-crawler to join him in rescuing Gail. The two superheroes then make their way to Steeplechase Park, an amusement park that closed down a few years ago, where they find Cat-Man, Bird-Man, and Ape-Man holding Gail prisoner inside an old bait shack on a small pier. While Daredevil keeps the Unholy Three busy, Spider-Man sneaks through a back window and rescues Gail. However, Bird-Man comes after him, intent on retrieving his victim. Spidey easily evades Bird-Man’s clumsy attack and tears the mechanical wings off his costume. After webbing the crook to a lamppost, Spider-Man swings over to see if Daredevil needs help, leaving Gail on a nearby rooftop. He finds that Daredevil has defeated Cat-Man, but Ape-Man grabs Gail and carries her to the top of a roller coaster, threatening to kill her unless he is allowed to escape. While Daredevil keeps Ape-Man distracted by trying to negotiate with him, Spidey sends the roller coaster cars crashing into the villain from behind. Ape-Man drops the terrified Gail, but Daredevil catches her. Once Cat-Man and Ape-Man are securely webbed up next to Bird-Man, Spider-Man departs, trusting Daredevil to deal with the authorities.

July 1967 – While studying his advanced trigonometry textbook, Peter hears a news bulletin on the radio saying that Spider-Man just tried to break into the Manhattan House of Detention for Men, a.k.a. “the Tombs.” Realizing an impostor is at large in the city, he heads over to the prison, where he finds J. Jonah Jameson and Ned Leeds arriving for a press conference with the warden. Suddenly, the Hulk smashes through the wall and storms into a high-security cell block, ignoring the guards’ gunfire. Peter changes into Spider-Man but is unable to prevent the Hulk from freeing one of the convicts. A couple blocks away, Spider-Man finds the Hulk and the convict apparently talking to Rick Jones. However, “Rick” is wearing a Spider-Man costume under his trenchcoat, raising the web-slinger’s suspicions. With a thin strand of webbing, Spidey yanks off the Rick Jones facemask, revealing the impostor to be his old foe the Chameleon. Enraged, Hulk grabs the Chameleon and shakes him so violently that Spider-Man feels compelled to intervene. Just then, they are surrounded by police squad cars and armed prison guards. The Chameleon pushes the convict into his car and drives off, running over a policeman. Spider-Man stops the car by spinning a large web across the street, whereupon the Chameleon jumps out and shoots at the nearest cop. The officer shoots back, hitting the Chameleon in the shoulder. The convict then lunges at the cop, only to get shot in the chest. Spider-Man watches in horror as the convict dies in the grieving Chameleon’s arms. He tries in vain to explain concepts like friendship and self-sacrifice to the bewildered Hulk. However, when they overhear a radio bulletin reporting that Doctor Strange and Nighthawk are fighting the Wrecking Crew at a Midtown South construction site, the green behemoth leaps away to help his friends. Jameson demands that the police arrest the wall-crawler, but they have their hands full, so Spider-Man webs Jameson’s mouth shut and swings away.

Peter is baffled by a midsummer snowstorm in New York City but enjoys playing in the snow with Mary Jane. Reports of bizarre weather phenomena come in from all over, the cause remaining a mystery. Though Peter and Mary Jane frequently flirt with each other, he’s convinced their relationship is strictly platonic. Later, Peter is shocked to wake up and discover that everyone in New York City has been unconscious for two days. Reports of strange occurrences start coming in from around the globe, but then the Fantastic Four announce that it was all part of an alien invasion plot that they have foiled.

August 1967 – After spending a fun Sunday together, Peter and Mary Jane head back to his apartment to play some records on the stereo. Joking about being a “female chauvinist,” Mary Jane takes his key and starts to open the door. Reacting to his spider-sense, Peter shoves Mary Jane away just as a bomb goes off inside the apartment. Despite Peter’s lightning-fast reflexes, they are both knocked out by the blast. He comes to moments later, worried that he’s suffered a concussion, and stumbles into the apartment hoping to call for an ambulance. However, the place has been completely destroyed. Hearing sirens approaching, he quickly gathers up all his Spider-Man paraphernalia, webs it into a ball, and tosses it onto the roof of the building outside his window. As police arrive on the scene, Peter and the still unconscious Mary Jane are rushed to the nearest hospital, where he is questioned about the explosion. Anna Watson soon arrives and sits with Mary Jane for about half an hour before Peter is allowed to go into the room. Feeling woozy, Peter thinks he sees Gwen Stacy’s face superimposed on Mary Jane’s for a moment, as he fears anyone who gets too close to him may be doomed. He is relieved when Mary Jane wakes up briefly, though she soon lapses into unconsciousness again. Needing to get out and do something, Peter changes into Spider-Man and goes to check the warehouse in Chelsea where Norman Osborn stored his Green Goblin gear. Finding the place coated with a thick layer of fake dust, he decides to wait around until after nightfall. A few hours later, his suspicions are confirmed when a new Green Goblin flies into the warehouse on a goblin-glider. As they fight, Spider-Man determines that it must be Harry Osborn behind the grinning mask, intent on getting revenge for the death of his father last year. Harry has obviously been training for several months, though, and wields the Green Goblin’s various weapons like an expert. Eventually gaining the upper hand, Harry is forced to abandon the fight when his suit’s power reserves are depleted. Granting his victim a temporary reprieve, the Green Goblin leaps onto his glider and crashes through a skylight, vowing to reveal Peter’s secret identity to the world before finally killing him. He then flies off, laughing maniacally, but Spider-Man realizes he’s too woozy to give chase. Instead, he heads over to the offices of the Daily Bugle, where Jameson, who’s been unusually irascible lately, threatens to stop buying Peter’s photos altogether. Stressed out, Peter vents his frustrations on Betty Brant, then spends the rest of the night searching in vain for the Green Goblin.

The next evening, Peter visits the hospital again and becomes worried when he finds Flash, Liz, Jameson, and Robertson in the waiting room. He is relieved to learn that Mary Jane is doing much better, and when Aunt May arrives, they go in to visit her together. Despite suffering from tinnitus and other symptoms, Mary Jane is her usual upbeat self. She immediately switches on her bedside radio so Peter can hear a news report about the Green Goblin hijacking a truck on a New Jersey interstate. Claiming it may offer some newsworthy photos, Peter excuses himself to go check it out. On his way out, Peter gives Jameson the brush-off when the publisher tries to smooth things over from their spat yesterday. Hitching a ride on top of various passing cars, Spider-Man arrives at the scene of the hijacking about an hour later, where the New Jersey State Police are still investigating. Snooping around, the wall-crawler confirms that it was the Green Goblin who stole the truck’s cargo. He then makes his way to Norman Osborn’s old townhouse, which has sat vacant since its owner’s death, and finds the Green Goblin there. While ranting obsessively, Harry reveals that he witnessed his father’s final battle with Spider-Man, and that afterwards he quickly removed all evidence that Norman Osborn was the Green Goblin so the world wouldn’t learn of his criminal activities. Spider-Man realizes that that is why the police suspect him of Osborn’s murder—Harry essentially framed him for it. Angered, Spider-Man pounces on the Green Goblin and starts beating on him, but Harry reveals that he’s kidnapped Aunt May, Mary Jane, and Flash and imprisoned them in various sites around Manhattan. One of them is trapped with a small nuclear bomb stolen from the hijacked truck, which is set to go off in six minutes. Each victim is tagged with a spider-tracer that Harry stole from Peter’s room at some point, but, he gloats, Spider-Man will have to choose which one to rescue. If he chooses wrong, the villain cackles, the person most dear to him will die. With no time to lose, Spider-Man knocks the Green Goblin out with a haymaker, and guessing that Harry’s sense of “an eye for an eye” would mean killing Aunt May, he heads uptown. After a nerve-wracking detour to get fresh web-fluid cartridges, Spider-Man arrives at the General Grant National Memorial in Morningside Heights, smashes down the door of the mausoleum, and finds his unconscious aunt inside. Snagging the metal cylinder above her head with a web-line, Spider-Man flings it into the Hudson River. Seconds later, to his great relief, the bomb explodes harmlessly in the water.

After making sure Aunt May is okay, Spider-Man tracks down Mary Jane somewhere in Midtown and returns her to the hospital. He then heads downtown to locate Flash and frees him as well. Back at the Osborn townhouse, Spidey has a chance to catch his breath before Harry regains consciousness. Learning that his scheme has been foiled, the Green Goblin lunges at Spider-Man and tries to choke him to death. In self-defense, Spider-Man slams Harry into a bank of computers, causing a short-circuit that nearly electrocutes his revenge-crazed foe. When the police arrive to investigate complaints about a ruckus in the abandoned townhouse, Spider-Man quickly hides the Green Goblin’s gear and then changes back into Peter Parker. While Harry is being carried out on a stretcher, he comes to and announces that Peter is Spider-Man. The police are intrigued until Harry also claims to be the Green Goblin. Believing Harry is too young to be the notorious super-villain, the police dismiss his accusation as the product of an addled mind. Harry continues raving as he is loaded into an ambulance and driven away. Downhearted, Peter tells the cops that Harry is a friend in need of psychiatric care.

Peter and Harry are evicted from their apartment due to the extensive damage the explosion caused to the building. Knowing he couldn’t afford the rent in any case, Peter does not object. He packs up whatever items are salvageable and then starts phoning friends from college to see if anyone would be willing to put him up for a while. Since most of his cohort has already graduated, he has no luck until, surprisingly, Flash invites Peter to his apartment in Far Rockaway, a relatively isolated part of Queens south of JFK Airport. Peter takes a taxi out there, musing about how he and Flash used to be such bitter rivals in high school, and soon arrives at the unostentatious apartment building. He notes that a demolished neighborhood, where one lone ramshackle house still stands, has left Flash’s building with an unobstructed view of the Atlantic Ocean. Flash welcomes Peter to his humble abode, and they spend the next several hours talking and really getting to know each other for the first time. Peter starts to realize that he and Flash actually have quite a bit in common. Later, after Flash has fallen asleep, Peter decides to change into Spider-Man and check out the neighborhood. He quickly discovers that the lonely, dilapidated house contains a mutant who feeds on human emotions like a psychic parasite. Flash and his neighbors have been drawn toward the house in a trance, but Spider-Man pushes his way through the crowd and beats up the mutant. As a police riot squad shows up, Spider-Man changes back into Peter Parker and meets up with Flash. The mutant suffers an emotional breakdown, so the police take him into custody.

About two weeks later, Spider-Man is caught by surprise when a powerful earthquake suddenly strikes New York City. He saves a blond woman who tumbles out a window by snagging her with a web-line before she hits the ground and is instantly reminded of Gwen’s death. Baffled by the tremors, Spider-Man swings over to ESU, changes into Peter Parker, and joins a group of students questioning a noted seismologist on the faculty. Peter learns that there were actually two focal points for the earthquake, one at the northern end of the island and another at the southern tip. Since this is impossible, Peter suspects the involvement of a super-villain. He changes back into Spider-Man and goes to recruit some help as more tremors rock the city. Unfortunately, neither the Fantastic Four nor the Avengers are at home. Making his way north, Spider-Man comes across what appears to be a robot near Inwood Hill Park using a strange device to fire energy beams into the ground. He tries to put a stop to it, only to be knocked out. When he comes to, he finds himself chained up alongside Hercules in a cavern. Two robots are nearby, also firing energy beams into the ground. Hercules breaks free of his chains and attacks them but is blasted into unconsciousness. To stall for time, Spidey asks the robots what they’re trying to accomplish and discovers they intend to steal Manhattan Island by breaking it loose from its foundations and dragging it out into the Atlantic Ocean using a nuclear submarine, after which they will hold the population for ransom. Spider-Man knows that an island can’t be towed away like an illegally parked car and would not, in any case, fit through the narrow strait between Staten Island and Brooklyn—the robots’ scheme would merely result in the destruction of the city. Having heard enough, Spider-Man breaks free and attacks the robots. With help from Hercules, the robots are quickly overcome and their mad scheme is foiled. To the heroes’ surprise, the robots turn out not to be robots at all but old men inside armored exoskeletons. The men are terrified that they will be killed for failing their mysterious employers, but even so, the heroes turn them over to the authorities. Spider-Man is annoyed when Mayor John V. Lindsay blames him for the damage the quakes caused to Washington Heights and the Financial District in Lower Manhattan. For his part, Hercules is amused by the eternal irrationality of mortals.

The following week, Liz helps Peter find an apartment he can afford, in a somewhat run-down building at 410 Chelsea Street. They go together to look at the place and meet the building superintendent’s wife, Mamie Muggins. After a quick tour, Peter decides the price is right, signs the lease, and pays the deposit. Relieved to have his own place at last, he heads over to the offices of the Daily Bugle to tell Betty Brant and Joe Robertson that Mary Jane has been released from the hospital. Suddenly, a nine-foot-tall man in a bear costume calling himself the Grizzly smashes out of the elevator and starts tearing up the place. Peter ducks into a stairwell and changes into Spider-Man, but before he can confront the costumed menace, he first must save J. Jonah Jameson when the Grizzy throws him out a window. The Grizzly proves to be a very tough customer, so Spider-Man decides to tag him with a spider-tracer and let him go rather than endanger bystanders by prolonging the fight. Several hours later, Spider-Man tracks the signal from the tracer to a well-appointed townhouse near Washington Square in Greenwich Village. Confused, he changes back into Peter Parker and rings the doorbell. A moment later, he is ambushed by the Grizzly and the Jackal and knocked unconscious. Peter comes to in the lobby of the Daily Bugle Building early the next morning and soon discovers the Jackal has fastened a large metal cuff to his right forearm. A recording of the Jackal’s voice warns Peter that if he tampers with the cuff, it will explode and take his arm with it. The villain explains that the cuff contains a tracking device, by which he will follow Peter to his next photoshoot with Spider-Man.

Later that day, Flash drives Peter from Far Rockaway to Chelsea to help him move his few belongings into his new apartment. They meet Peter’s drop-dead gorgeous new neighbor, professional model Gloria “Glory” Grant. Learning that Peter is a professional photographer, Glory invites him over for tea sometime, making Flash envious. Flash then offers to drive Peter over to ESU so they can register for classes, but Peter declines, wanting to figure out what to do about the tracking device clamped to his arm. He knows that, so long as he wears it, he can’t go into action as Spider-Man without revealing his secret identity to the Jackal. After struggling with the problem for several hours, Peter finally sneaks into the ESU chemistry building a little before midnight and makes a close examination of the cuff. Discovering a circuit board behind a small panel, he takes an acetylene torch to it, then snips off the cuff with a pair of metal shears. Following an immense wave of relief, he makes a further examination of the cuff and realizes it wasn’t booby trapped after all. Changing into Spider-Man, he drops the cuff into the river on his way over to the Daily Bugle Building. Finding Jameson working late, the web-slinger badgers the publisher into admitting he was personally responsible for ending the Grizzly’s career as a professional wrestler back in the mid-1950s, when he was known simply as Maxwell Markham. Spider-Man then returns to the townhouse off Washington Square, only to discover it’s been scrubbed of all trace of the Jackal’s activities. Following his last lead, Spidey checks out a number of gyms until he finally comes upon the Grizzy beating up former colleagues who cooperated with the state wrestling commission investigation that Jameson instigated. Wasting no time, Spider-Man shreds his foe’s bear costume and breaks apart the strength-enhancing exoskeleton the Jackal had given him, reducing the Grizzly to just a flabby, middle-aged has-been. Leaving Markham for the police, the wall-crawler departs, realizing the Jackal poses a greater threat than he previously thought.

September 1967 – Peter starts the second semester of his senior year at Empire State University, but he knows he hasn’t earned enough credits to graduate and will probably need at least another year of classes. He re-takes a biochemistry course with Professor Miles Warren that he failed last year, though Professor Warren seems to be losing patience with Peter’s attitude toward his studies. Flash starts his junior year. On the advice of her doctor, Mary Jane does not register for any classes this semester, and Harry is also out on medical leave. Determined not to fail any more courses, Peter goes out as Spider-Man only infrequently and deals mostly with petty street crime.

October 1967 – Spider-Man is drawn into a bizarre conflict between two extradimensional aliens, one a blue-skinned, half-naked woman named DeSinna and the other an apparently monstrous creature called Tarros. At an Art Deco office building slated for demolition, DeSinna recruits Spider-Man’s help by showing him a holographic recreation of the exploits of Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze, and his five associates on the same site in 1934. As with Fu Manchu, Spider-Man had always thought Doc Savage was merely a fictional character but is suddenly not so sure. The presentation shows DeSinna teaming up with Doc Savage to trap the ghostly Tarros in the building’s cornerstone. However, an initial skirmish with Tarros convinces Spider-Man that DeSinna is lying, so he intentionally jackhammers the cornerstone, releasing Tarros’s astral form from its decades-long imprisonment. Expressing gratitude to the web-slinger, Tarros returns to his native dimension and, moments later, draws the duplicitous DeSinna back there as well to pay for her crimes. Still wondering whether Doc Savage was ever real, Spider-Man heads for home.

Rescuing Glory Grant from what appears to be a mugging, Spider-Man is surprised to learn the assailants are her cousin and his friends. As it turns out, the three young men were forcibly exposed to a drug that made them uncontrollably violent, administered by a man in a golden costume at a popular dance club, the Hot Spot. Glory tells the wall-crawler she’s heard rumors of a man in gold who wants to rid New York City of black people. Outraged, Spider-Man heads over to the Hot Spot to investigate. There, he runs into the Falcon, who’s been on the trail of the villain, who calls himself Midas, for weeks. While the heroes are brawling with some henchmen, Midas escapes, but they track him to the Connecticut estate of the club’s owner, liberal philanthropist Harrison J. Merriwell. Midas tries to trap the heroes in a walk-in freezer, but they break free and expose him as Harrison Merriwell’s ne’er-do-well brother Malcolm. Once Malcolm Merriwell is in police custody, Spider-Man and the Falcon return to New York, satisfied that the racist gangster will no longer be a menace to society.

Late one night, Spider-Man is driving around in the Spider-Mobile when several police cars start chasing him. He drives the dune buggy off a Hudson River pier, which he could have sworn was an alley. Confused, Spider-Man heads home to bed when the police decide to let the Harbor Patrol deal with the situation in the morning. After a busy day at school, he returns to the pier to figure out a way to salvage the Spider-Mobile so as to not lose his income from Corona Motors. Suddenly, the web-slinger is ambushed by Mysterio, who keeps him disoriented with a hallucinogenic gas while delivering kicks and punches. Believing he’s being attacked by nearly a dozen of his old foes simultaneously, Spider-Man quickly realizes he’s furiously pummeling a brick wall. Half out of his mind, he tries to tackle the unusually taciturn Mysterio, only to pass right through the villain and bang his head on a fire escape. When he finally regains his senses, Spider-Man finds his gloves shredded, his web-shooters damaged, and his hands bleeding, so he changes back into Peter Parker and gets his wounds treated at a nearby clinic. He then makes his way over to the offices of the Daily Bugle, where Betty and Ned are working late. Seeing his bandaged hands, they ask him what happened, but when Peter claims to have been caught up in a brawl between Spider-Man and Mysterio, Ned informs him that Mysterio died in prison nearly a year ago. Shocked by this revelation, Peter begins to question his own sanity.

The next day, Spidey locates the wreck of the Spider-Mobile at the bottom of the river, but when he climbs back onto the pier, he is again attacked by Mysterio. The fight does not go well due to the wall-crawler’s injured hands, and after taunting the hero for a few minutes, Mysterio vanishes into thin air. Baffled, Spider-Man returns home and changes back into Peter Parker. While Peter’s on the phone with Aunt May, Mary Jane comes over to hang out, but things take a dark turn when a ghostly Kingpin briefly menaces them. Not having seen the apparition, Mary Jane is disturbed by Peter’s erratic behavior. The two friends then pay a visit to the Daily Bugle Building, where Peter thinks he sees Gwen Stacy leaving the lobby. He chases after her, only to lose her in the crowded street outside. Shaken, Peter is forced to wonder if Mysterio has discovered his secret identity. However, while changing into Spider-Man, he discovers a tiny image projector attached to his chest and realizes Mysterio must have planted it there during their earlier fight. Tracking the signals being received by the projector, Spider-Man finds Mysterio’s hideout and catches his foe by surprise. Mysterio is quickly defeated and revealed to be an impostor, a down-on-his-luck stuntman and ex-con named Danny Berkhart who claims to have “inherited” the Mysterio identity when the original died. Spider-Man webs the super-villain wannabe to the floor and mocks him as he departs. Convinced that Berkhart does not know his true identity, Peter realizes that his sighting of Gwen remains unexplained.

November 1967 – Peter focuses almost exclusively on his schoolwork all month and rarely goes out as Spider-Man. Despite his hands healing quickly, he continues to bandage them so as not to arouse his friends’ suspicions. Aunt May and Anna Watson host a modest Thanksgiving dinner with Peter and Mary Jane. Though Peter finds Mary Jane attractive and fun to hang around with, he’s not sure any woman can replace Gwen in his heart.

December 1967 – For about 18 hours, Spider-Man finds himself trapped within a force-field bubble. Try as he might, he is unable to escape. Finally, the force field vanishes as mysteriously as it appeared. He then learns that while he was trapped, Loki led an invasion force of Asgardian warriors against Washington, D.C., only to be repelled by Thor and the U.S. Army.

While Spider-Man is foiling a kidnapping in Long Island City, one of the crooks pulls a gun and is immediately shot dead by an unseen sniper. When the police arrive on the scene, the web-slinger goes after the sniper and soon finds a TV-repair van filled with weapons. He slips inside as the driver approaches. It is, as he suspected, the Punisher. Upon arriving at his hideout inside an abandoned power station on the Upper East Side, the Punisher discovers his passenger and complains that Spider-Man’s interference ruined his plan to follow the kidnappers back to their employer. He explains that the kidnap victims are taken to a camp somewhere in South America, where they are made test subjects for deadly chemical weapons. After arguing about tactics, the Punisher convinces Spider-Man to join him on a mission to the company he suspects is behind the kidnappings—the Deterrence Research Corporation, led by a man named Moses Magnum. Spider-Man agrees to allow himself to be captured so the Punisher can follow him to the South American camp using a tracking device. The Punisher also provides some facial prosthetics to protect Spider-Man’s identity in the event he is unmasked. Their plan goes off without a hitch until they get into a shooting war with the guards at the camp. As the Punisher holds off the guards, Spider-Man finds Moses Magnum in his fortified command center and fights with him. Magnum grabs a cannister of his flesh-dissolving gas and threatens to release it, claiming to be willing to sacrifice himself to kill his enemies. However, the Punisher enters and, ignoring the wall-crawler’s hasty warning, shoots a hole in the cannister. Spider-Man launches himself across the room, knocks the Punisher into the corridor, and slams the command center’s vault-like door behind him, trapping Magnum inside with the gas. After calling in the local authorities and the United Nations to liberate the camp, the Punisher departs, leaving Spider-Man to be returned home with the other kidnap victims. Back in New York a few days later, Spider-Man storms into the Punisher’s hideout, but of course the vigilante has already moved his operations elsewhere.

Spider-Man is on his way to the Daily Bugle Building when he thinks he sees Gwen entering a subway station some distance away. Unable to get a good look at her, he wonders if he’s going crazy now that he can’t blame it on Mysterio’s illusions. He notes that he’s been thinking about Gwen a lot lately and wonders if the guilt he still feels is making him delusional. Shaking it off, he sneaks into J. Jonah Jameson’s office and snoops around, suspecting his long-time nemesis of being involved in Mysterio’s scheme. Not finding anything, he changes into Peter Parker and chats with Betty Brant, who informs him that Jameson left suddenly for Europe several weeks ago. Joe Robertson then takes Peter out to lunch and shows him a suspicious telegram he received from Jameson, asking him to bring a million dollars in negotiable bonds to Paris immediately. Concerned, Peter agrees to accompany Robertson to France. After spending the afternoon at ESU, Peter takes a taxi to John F. Kennedy International Airport, accompanied by Mary Jane, and meets up with Robertson at the departure gate. When the boarding call comes, Peter and Mary Jane kiss goodbye with a passion that surprises them both. Flushed with love, they say farewell, then the two newspapermen board the plane. As the Boeing 747 takes off into the snowy sky, Peter wonders what the heck just happened.

After a layover in London, the aircraft lands in Paris about 17 hours after leaving New York. Peter and Robertson check into their hotel on the Boulevard Saint-Germain and have dinner in the hotel restaurant. Back in their room afterwards, they receive a phone call. After a brief conversation in French, Robertson informs Peter that Jameson has been kidnapped, as they feared, and the bonds are his ransom. Robertson then heads out to meet with the kidnappers to receive further instructions. As soon as he’s gone, Peter changes into Spider-Man and follows him. After being driven around the city for an hour, Robertson finally meets with three costumed henchmen under a bridge on the Left Bank of the River Seine near the Eiffel Tower. When Robertson is knocked out, Spider-Man swings down and beats up the henchmen, only to be attacked by their boss, a French super-villain calling himself the Cyclone. Somehow, the Cyclone generates a tornado-like vortex around himself, with which he damages a nearby building, burying the web-slinger beneath half a ton of rubble. When he digs himself out of the debris, Spider-Man finds that Robertson has been kidnapped as well. Returning to the hotel, Peter is soon roughed up by two of the Cyclone’s henchmen and told to bring the ransom to the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris tomorrow evening.

Rising at dawn, Peter decides to set a trap for the Cyclone. Finding a hardware store with a clerk who speaks English, he buys a large industrial fan, a tarp large enough to cover it, and a trolly on which to transport it, as well as a remote-control tape recorder and a blank cassette. He then heads to the Île de la Cité in the Seine, where the cathedral is located, and makes his preparations. Changing into Spider-Man, he spends the rest of the day web-swinging around Paris and seeing the sights. At dusk, he returns to the cathedral and finds the Cyclone there with Jameson and Robertson and a couple of henchmen. The Cyclone is telling his bound hostages about his origins as a NATO engineer who designed exotic weaponry but couldn’t compete with American firms like Stark Industries. Spidey quickly takes out the henchmen and attacks the Cyclone, leading him towards the hidden fan. At the last second, the wall-crawler activates the fan, creating a vortex in opposition to the Cyclone’s own, sending the villain spinning out of control into a pillar. With the Cyclone and his men knocked unconscious, Spider-Man frees Jameson and Robertson, using the remote-control tape recorder to convince them that Peter Parker is in an upper level of the church taking photos. After retrieving his automatic camera, Peter meets Jameson and Robertson outside the cathedral with the ransom, and once the police have been summoned, they all head to the airport to catch the next plane home.

Arriving in New York early in the morning, Peter wonders why Mary Jane has not met them at the airport as planned. He takes a taxi with Jameson and Robertson into Manhattan, and they drop him off at his apartment in Chelsea, wondering why Anna Watson is waiting outside in the cold. Worried, Peter gets out of the cab, whereupon Mrs. Watson stammers out something about Aunt May being hospitalized. She directs Peter upstairs to his apartment. Dropping his bags, he charges up the stairs, his heart pounding. Bursting through his door, Peter is shocked to see Gwen Stacy standing by the window. His mind reeling, Peter backs out onto the landing, trying to make sense of what he’s seeing. He lashes out at Gwen in a rage, insisting she must be an impostor. She collapses to the floor, sobbing, as he storms off down the street. Boiling mad, Peter changes into Spider-Man and makes his way over to the hospital to visit his aunt. By the time he is allowed into Aunt May’s room, Peter has calmed down. When Aunt May wakes up, she is of course more concerned with Peter’s welfare than her own. Exhausted and overwrought, he spends the rest of the day with her in the hospital and sleeps on a sofa in the waiting room that night.

The following morning, Peter learns that the Scorpion has just robbed a bank near Wall Street and was last seen heading toward Midtown. Since Aunt May’s condition has stabilized, he decides to change into Spider-Man and go after his old foe. While searching for the Scorpion, Spider-Man lends Nighthawk a hand with tracking down the Looter, a third-rate super-villain the web-slinger apprehended four years ago. While Nighthawk questions the prison authorities about the Looter’s escape, Spider-Man checks out his old hideout, only to discover that a religious cult called the Innocents of God has taken over the property while the villain’s been in jail. Shortly after leaving, though, Spider-Man is ambushed by the Looter, who’s now calling himself the Meteor Man. Their brief fight ends when the crook’s getaway balloon carries him higher than Spider-Man can leap, but Nighthawk arrives in time to save the wall-crawler from a nasty fall. However, Nighthawk refuses to go after the Looter, arguing that being sent back to prison won’t address his mental health issues. Annoyed, Spider-Man points out that the Looter’s super-strength and larcenous tendencies make him dangerous, and he accuses Nighthawk of being a coward. In response, Nighthawk punches Spider-Man in the face and flies off. Ashamed of his outburst, the web-slinger decides to continue searching for the Scorpion.

Minutes later, the Scorpion gets the drop on Spider-Man, leading to a fight in a cement processing plant. The Scorpion manages to knock Spider-Man into a large mixing vat, which the villain then activates, flooding the vat with water. By the time the wall-crawler escapes from the trap, the Scorpion has gotten away. Tired and soggy, Spider-Man makes his way back to the hospital, where he changes into Peter Parker. He is enraged to find the Gwen impostor there with Mary Jane, Joe Robertson, Betty Brant, and Ned Leeds. Ned calms Peter down, revealing that when “Gwen” went to the Daily Bugle following her encounter with Peter, they naturally assumed she was an impostor as well. However, when they compared the woman’s fingerprints to those taken during Gwen’s autopsy, they were a match. Ned then arranged to have Gwen’s body exhumed, and sure enough, it was still in its grave. Thus, for some inexplicable reason, there appear to be two Gwen Stacys—one dead and the other very much alive. Wracked with confusion and fear, Gwen collapses into Peter’s arms, begging him for help. Peter can only glance helplessly at Mary Jane, who is clearly disturbed by this bizarre turn of events. Not knowing what else to do, Peter walks Gwen’s doppelgänger over to Betty’s Gramercy Park apartment, where she’s staying for the time being. During an awkward conversation, Gwen reveals that she has no memory of the last two years but takes comfort in the fact that she and Peter still love each other. She kisses him on the stoop but becomes embarrassed and upset when he does not return her affection. After she has gone inside the building, Peter walks away, frustrated and dejected. He can no longer deny to himself that he has fallen in love with Mary Jane.

Hoping some late-afternoon web-swinging will help him clear his head, Peter changes into Spider-Man and breaks into the office of the Scorpion’s parole officer to get the villain’s address. This leads him to a seedy hotel in Washington Heights where he discovers the money the Scorpion stole from the bank hidden in the closet. After tipping off the police, Spider-Man spends an hour searching for his foe before deciding to check on Aunt May again. At the hospital, Peter is concerned to find Aunt May talking about the “rumors” of Gwen’s death and realizes she’s created a safe fantasy for herself where Gwen never died rather than face the reality of her resurrection. Suddenly, the Scorpion leaps through the window, saying the Jackal told him he would find Spider-Man there. Shocked, Peter changes back into Spider-Man after the Scorpion stalks off down the corridor and drives the villain out of the hospital. While they’re fighting on the tower of the Chrysler Building, the Scorpion ends up clinging precariously to one of the decorative eagles and begs the wall-crawler not to kill him. Spider-Man agrees not to send the Scorpion plummeting to his death if he’ll apologize to the Parkers for frightening them. Thus, after being turned over to the police, the Scorpion is led up to Aunt May’s room in chains, where he offers a perfunctory apology. Peter, who has gotten there first, is satisfied, but Aunt May tells the Scorpion that he should be ashamed of himself.

Peter manages to pass all his classes and complete his senior year, though he still has a ways to go to fulfill all the requirements for graduation. He spends Christmas with Aunt May in the hospital, worried that the Jackal has somehow discovered his secret identity. Feeling very conflicted, Peter visits with Gwen a few times, as she is clearly on the verge of an emotional breakdown, but does not make time to see Mary Jane. Amid all this personal turmoil, Peter is somewhat gladdened by news reports that his hero, Captain America, is back in action, though he thinks something really should be done about the murderous Punisher. Looking ahead, Peter can’t even imagine what travails the new year will bring.


Notes:

January–February 1967 – Spider-Man’s adventures resume in Amazing Spider-Man #132 and Marvel Team-Up #21. The Molten Man does not drown in the river and will return to menace the web-slinger yet again.

March 1967 – Morbius and the Man-Wolf team up against Spider-Man in the one-shot Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1. John Jameson has indeed become the Man-Wolf again, but his father is covering for him.

May 1967 – Aunt May is saved from a flu epidemic in Giant-Size Spider-Man #1. The European aristocrat that Peter encounters briefly aboard the ocean liner is none other than Dracula, lord of vampires. This story interweaves with the Human Torch / Iceman tale in Marvel Team-Up #23, where we learn that the slippery burglar in the jewelry store was Equinox, the Thermodynamic Man. While Peter is taking his shower following the hijacking of the sightseeing cruise, Harry Osborn sneaks into his room and finds his Spider-Man costume, thus confirming his suspicions about his roommate’s dual identity. Suffering another mental breakdown, Harry fails all his spring semester classes.

June 1967 – The public becomes aware of Captain America’s retirement in Captain America #177. In Giant-Size Spider-Man #2, Spidey meets Shang-Chi, as well as his English associates Black Jack Tarr and Sir Denis Nayland Smith. Fu Manchu’s plan was to take advantage of the destruction of the television aerial atop the Empire State Building by the Mandrill’s Black Spectre terrorist group last month (as seen in Daredevil #111–112) by rigging the replacement aerial to broadcast a mind-control signal that would bring the Eastern Seaboard under his subjugation. Near the end of the month, Spider-Man makes a couple of brief cameo appearances web-swinging past the Daily Bugle Building in Creatures on the Loose #32 & 37.

July 1967 – The bizarre weather phenomena result from Dormammu imprisoning Gaea in Doctor Strange v.2 #8–9. The people of Manhattan are then rendered insensate for two days by alien invaders in Giant-Size Fantastic Four #3.

August 1967 – Amazing Spider-Man #136 incorrectly asserts that Peter is a college junior and that he and Mary Jane knew each other in high school. They didn’t actually meet until after he had started at ESU. The movie they saw together just before the story opens was most likely the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. Since the Green Goblin’s nuclear bomb is an experimental “clean fusion” device, there is no radioactive contamination when it explodes in the Hudson River. The mutant featured in Amazing Spider-Man #138 is William Turner, a.k.a. the Mindworm, but Spider-Man doesn’t learn his tragic backstory. The version of the “city-stealers” story presented in Marvel Team-Up #28 reflects Hercules’s later self-aggrandizing embellishments, as confirmed in Hulk #241. That issue also reveals the villains’ behind-the-scenes employers to be They Who Wield Power. The Fantastic Four and the Avengers are not at home because they’re already out rescuing people from quake-damaged buildings. In Amazing Spider-Man #140, the Jackal is just messing with Peter; he already knows that he’s Spider-Man.

October 1967 – Spider-Man meets DeSinna and Tarros in Giant-Size Spider-Man #3. Doc Savage and his associates—Ham, Johnny, Long Tom, Monk, and Renny—did not exist in the Original Marvel Universe. DeSinna thought seeing famous heroes of the 1930s battling her foe would convince Spider-Man that Tarros was a rampaging monster that deserved to be killed. She did not realize the heroes she chose were fictional. The death of the original Mysterio, Quentin Beck, was merely a hoax that he engineered so he could escape from jail. Beck is secretly using Berkhart as a patsy, as revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #198. Near the end of the month, as seen in Marvel Team-Up #31, Spider-Man and Iron Fist join forces against Drom, the Backwards Man, but neither hero is left with any memory of the incident afterwards.

December 1967 – Spider-Man is among the various superheroes seen trapped within Loki’s magical spheres in Thor #233. He and the Punisher then take on Moses Magnum in Giant-Size Spider-Man #4. Thanks to his protective suit, Magnum survives exposure to the flesh-eating gas and gets away. As revealed in Spectacular Spider-Man #149, Gwen’s doppelgänger was created when the Jackal injected a young woman named Joyce Delaney with a genetically altered virus derived from Gwen’s DNA. This brings us up to Amazing Spider-Man #146 and Marvel Team-Up #33. After about six months of calling himself Nomad, Steve Rogers becomes Captain America again in Captain America #183.


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