Random Happenstance

I swear I just saw somebody on Twitter bitching about this; a stretch of Peter Parker with Frank Miller covers and somebody else drawing the issue. But I wasn't expecting--Jim Shooter?! From 1981, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #57, "These Wings Enslaved!" Written by Roger Stern, layouts by Jim Shooter, finishes by Jim Mooney.

The art isn't as exciting as Frank Miller's cover, but I wanted to see the scene from it where J.Jonah Jameson is about to throw down with Killer Shrike! Instead, Peter has to rent a tux to take pictures at a party JJJ was throwing for research scientist Marla Madison--who would later marry JJJ--on the occasion of her taking a new job with the Brand Corporation. Among the guests, one Roderick Kingsley--oh, he's a nobody, sure we won't see him again.

In typical Spider-Man tradition, Marla is kidnapped from her party, by Killer Shrike. An unwilling Killer Shrike: his battlesuit was possessed by occasional antagonist Will O'the Wisp, who takes them to a secret Brand lab and asks Marla for help pulling his molecules back together. Spidey trails them and helps out against Brand's security and later the freed Shrike. Once Will O'the Wisp reforms, he hypnotizes Marla a bit, then commences to wrecking the crap out of the building, knowing Spidey would have to get her and everyone else to safety.

Outside the burning facility, Marla can only recall Spider-Man was somehow involved, and that she sure as hell wouldn't be taking a job with Brand. Jameson, to his credit, backs her up immediately, suggesting maybe the Bugle should investigate the company a bit; which is met with a barely-veiled threat invoking Brand's corporate daddy, Roxxon. Spidey is left to wonder if Will O'the Wisp will be a threat in the future, and intermittently, yeah. He's pretty far down the list, though.