Another wonderful done-in-one issue by the team of Mantlo and Hannigan.
Look at that cover, eye-catching isn't it. Some kid from long, long ago thought so too. I first saw this issue when I kid in a comic shop I was in attempted to shoplift this very issue. The store owner caught him in the act.
We have Peter Parker's apartment getting burglarised in this story. I know what it's like to have one's home broken into, it happened to me once. The feeling of violation, of anger. I could do nothing about it but Peter Parker is Spider-Man. I truly enjoyed the part when he went after those thieves.
The burglary is just a subplot. The main plot involves Ollie, a lonely kid who idolizes Doctor Octopus. Ollie has enough smarts to make his version of Doc Ock's metal arms and he goes off on a kid's rampage. At one point he enters this unreal toy store. It's depicted so grandly by Hannigan that no toy store could be this fantastic and still turn a profit. You've got to see that store - it's amazing.
Even more amazing is Mantlo's writing. He does not get a plot detail or a piece of dialogue wrong. Pacing and mood is spot on, from the low key start gently sliding us into the tale to the satisfying ending. I wonder if some other writer picked up on Ollie after this? That kid has potential.
Here is an art sample of Ed Hannigan's work from this issue :
Posted by Pete Albano - July 21, 2011
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Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) comic books
Other Spectacular SPIDER-MAN Stories
1-3 : Tarantula, Lightmaster, Kraven
7-8 : Morbius the Living Vampire
47-48 : Belladonna and the Prowler
80 : J. Jonah Jameson - Reporter
87 : Spider-Man unmasks before the Black Cat
113 : Thugs break into the Parker house
114 : The Spider-Man costume gets stolen