The Amazing Spider-Man [1963] #165 - Marvel Comics

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN No. 165, February 1977

Considering that Len Wein’s basic premise for this seventeen page periodical concerns a one-time assistant S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist’s desperate attempt to herald in “a new age… when dinosssaursss will once more rule the Earth”, an awful lot of character development and sub-plot progression takes place within “Stegron Stalks The City!” In fact, in many ways Issue One Hundred And Sixty-Five of “Amazing Spider-Man” is an excellent example of just how complicated Peter Parker’s printed life had become by the Late Seventies, with the title’s editor having to incorporate no less than three continuity notes within his book’s text in order to explain Web-head’s previous adventures with Nick Fury (“Marvel Team-Up” #13), the Tarantula and Kraven the Hunter (“Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man” #1 & #2), and Stegron (“Marvel Team-Up” #20).

Fortunately though, none of this exposition is necessarily needed in order to enjoy a first-class romp as Doctor Vincent Stegron wreaks havoc inside “a fully-equipped laboratory… hidden in a run-down apartment building,” abducts Curtis Connors’ son Billy just when the boy has bought his dad a Christmas present, and finally uses an electro-magnetic field with which to reanimate a quartet of “noble [dinosaur] ssskeletonsss…” Why, the Shazam Award-winner even manages to crowbar in an intriguing one-pager featuring John Jonah Jameson conspiring with Marla Madison in order to use his hatred of the wall-crawler to finally defeat Spider-Man; “Now that’s the cheeriest thing I’ve heard all day!”

However, undoubtedly this publication’s strongest asset is the Daily Bugle photographer’s altercation with the man who has formerly “ingested the Connors Formula with… Stegosaurus DNA”, and their subsequent smart-talking fist-fight on the steps of the Museum of Natural History. Wonderfully choreographed by Ross Andru, this scintillating scene first sees Peter Parker rushing to secretively cast off his ‘everyday clothing’ and then subsequently stand ‘open-mouthed’ as a few hundred tonnes of walking bone lumbers towards him in the shape of a Brontosaurus, Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Banter has always been a hallmark of a ‘classic’ Spider-Man showdown, and the vibrant jibes issued between the two combatants as they trade punches, is only overshadowed by the tremendous sound effects pencilled into each panel as Web-head kicks, wallops and hurls the “Dinosaur Man” all over the place. Indeed, Andruskevitch’s storyboarding is so frantically-paced and marvellously detailed, that this conflict shows precisely why “frequent collaborator” Gerry Conway once commented that the artist “could place a character anywhere he wanted. He had a terrific sense of spatial relations; he could track a battle easily across rooftops, from panel to panel.”

Writer/Editor: Len Wein, Illustrator: Ross Andru, and Embellisher: Mike Eposito