Random Happenstance

Amazing Spider-man 222, Bill Mantlo, Bob Hall, Jim Mooney
Originally uploaded by googum.

So, it turns out on the charges of computer tampering, the Youngest has been vindicated again. Apparently, they expect you to pay for the Internet now...

I had scanned this almost last year and forgotten about it. When I read this issue, I hadn't read a whole ton of Spider-Man comics; or else I would have realized this is kind of a standard plot. Facing off against Speed Demon (a much, much, much better name than the Whizzer), Spidey accidentally gets a photo of his own ass being kicked, which of course ends up on the front page of the Daily Bugle.

While mortified, Spidey seems to plot revenge against Speed Demon, but not so much to get even with him, as to put him in jail; with the added bonus of showing up J. Jonah Jameson. (I was going to say 'gaslighting,' there, but that's not quite right.) And of course, in the end Speed Demon and JJJ get their comeuppance. Not a groundbreaking, earth-shattering, life-changing, nothing-will-ever-be-the-same story; but that's ok. Without the little fun stories like this, those big events just run together...like they're doing.

From Amazing Spider-man #222, "Faster than the Eye!" Written by Bill Mantlo, pencils by Bob Hall, inks by Jim Mooney. Walt Simonson cover, too, which I don't think I ever realized until I looked it up.