Random Happenstance

X-Men Gold tried to do for Mesmero what Alias did for the Purple Man: take a longtime third-string villain and turn him into a credible threat, when you realize his power is creepily effective. XM:G didn't go as hard as Alias did, though; and Mesmero may have had more in the loss column than Purple Man had, too. Like today's book! From 1980, Amazing Spider-Man #207, "Mesmero's Revenge!" Written by Denny O'Neil, pencils by Jim Mooney, inks by Pablo Marcos.

Mesmero appears to be making a legit, if mean-spirited, break this issue; as a stage hypnotist. (The captions say on Broadway, I would suspect at least one off- there.) Peter and his date Debby Whitman don't think making a volunteer cluck like a chicken is funny, and they have a point. When a fire breaks out, Peter stops it without being seen, but Mesmero realizes Spider-Man saved them, and sees an opportunity. He asks Spider-Man to meet him after the show, and Peter blows off Debby to do so, which is both rude, and stupid: someone might realize Peter and Spidey were both there, way to protect that secret identity.

Mesmero offers Spidey $400 a week for fifteen minutes in his show, and broke as usual, Spidey doesn't see a reason not to, if Mesmero wasn't currently up to any bad stuff. Still, the reviews for Mesmero's show have come in, and they weren't kind: in fact, rather than the usual pan, the Globe's review may have been a hatchet job to build up the reviewer at his expense. Peter was freelancing at the Globe at the time, so he's there when the hypnotized mesmerized reviewer leaves to go jump off a bridge. Although Spidey has the traditional Gwen Stacy-flashback, he saves the reviewer, who gives him tickets to "A Chorus Line" as thanks! (Again, secret identity; don't do that!)

Peter sets up a date with Debby, which he would end up breaking: he would get electrocuted by Mesmero, in a trap that seemed to know the rules of his spider-sense. Cash+money clip+electric generator: perfectly harmless, until he touches it and completes the circuit. Mesmero makes Spidey perform, while hypnotized critics throw rotten fruit at him, in a theatre doused in gasoline! It's not as dangerous as it sounds. I don't think Mesmero even tried his power on Spidey, either. And "Debby" was usually Debra; and I don't think there's a Debra Whitman story that turns out well for her, ever. Usually, the first time Peter broke a date to go be Spidey was the last time with a girl, yet he did it to her dozens of times. Her brutal lack of self-esteem enabled Peter to keep stringing her along, though; to the point that later writers even characterized her as mentally ill. She deserved better, but this was back in the day when a secret identity was concrete; and with her luck, if Peter had confided anything in Debra she would've been killed on the next page...