The Amazing Spider-Man (1986) # 283

 By Mark Rodriguez

I won this comic at an online auction held by Infinity Comics over on Hipcomic. In this issue it looks like Spider-Man is going up against The Absorbing Man and Titania, villains that would usually be fighting the Hulk and She-Hulk. What's going on? Let's check it out.

"With Foes like These" opens with Flash Thompson on the run, hiding behind a dumpster in an alley. He was arrested for the crimes of the Hobgoblin and now he was part of a jailbreak. He's hiding from both the police and the real Hobgoblin and thinks only Spider-Man can help him. He wonders if Spider-Men will believe the news and think he's the real Hobgoblin too.

Flash remembers his days playing football where his coach would tell him to face his fears and crush them before they crush you. Flash decides to step out from behind the dumpster, being sure that Spider-Man can capture the real Hobgoblin and clear his name. Just then a squad car passes by, having been called in for some sort of urgency several blocks away. Flash hears the siren and hides behind the dumpster again. unable to face the possibility of returning to prison.

Meanwhile, not too far away, Spider-Man is swinging through the city looking for Flash. Spider-Man is bummed out when he failed to save a kid's life the day before (in Spectacular Spider-Man #118), and thinks he should hang up the webs but can't while his friend Flash needs him. Spidey sees the police car and hops onto the roof, hitching a ride. He pulls out his camera just in case. He's been making good money taking pictures around the globe for Now Magazine, (during his Web of Spider-Man run) but there's isn't a guarantee that those assignments will continue. Just then he sees that there's a disturbance up ahead.

Titania is lifting a car, telling the police that she already got what she wanted from the jewelry store. She offers them a chance to back off and leave or else it's their funeral. Spider-Man sees Titania and admits he never wanted to run into her again. He remembers when she nearly beat She-Hulk to death with her bare hands. The last time he defeated her was sheer luck (which took place in the first Secret Wars limited series). Spider-Man doesn't want to fight her again and says it's not his fight and he has to find Flash. He then say he can't just leave.

Meanwhile Titania sees Spider-Man and has similar thoughts. She remembers that he's the only guy to ever flatten her and she doesn't want to fight him again. She figures she'd just lose and runs off.

Spider-Man swings after Titania. Titania tells herself that she should have listened to Crusher and kept out of trouble. Spidey asks her where he's big ugly pal she was hanging around with. Titania tells Spider-Man to leave Crusher Creel out of this and throws a van at him. Spider-Man dodge the van and it crashes into the 15th floor of a building. Spider-Man webs up the van so it won't fall onto the crowds below. He has no idea how they'll get that van back down again, but for now he has to catch Titania.

 

A few moments later, Spidey took some pictures of the van, which should earn him some decent cash. Titania vanished in the confusion but Spidey found a building with a large hole in it. A few blocks away in an alley, Titania slips into regular clothes. She says the cops will be too busy looking for a six and half foot tall blonde, but under her loose and baggy clothes she can pass as a man. She calls for a cab and leaves the scene. However, Spider-Man's spider-senses alert him of her disguise and he follows the cab. 

Titania arrives at a fancy hotel and Spidey says she's moved in the world. Titania goes to her room where Crusher was waiting for her. They share a kiss but Crusher wished she wouldn't take unnecessary risks. Crusher reaches into her bag to see what she brought this time. Since he can absorb the properties of whatever he comes into contact with, his body turns to diamond, which alerts him that she robbed another jewelry store. Titania assures him that the crime went without a hitch. Crusher reminds her that they are not on their own anymore and are working with the Masters of Evil, as seen in recent issues of the Avengers comics.

Spider-Man is outside of the hotel and his spider-sense alerts him as to which room Titania is in. Crusher tells Titania that her two-bit heist can run the big job they have at La Guardia Airport that night. Spider-Man sees that the Absorbing Man is with Titania and swings off to alert the Avengers. Crusher sees Spider-Man swinging away through the window and asks Titania what he's doing in their neighborhood. Titania looks down and says they have to talk.

Meanwhile across town at the police station of the 23rd precinct, the chief is angry that Flash Thompson escaped his jail and he wants him found no matter what. The cops head off and wonder if the chief has some sort of personal beef with Flash. The chief overhears them and tells himself that they'll never understand how important this case is.

Meanwhile, Peter Parker goes to a pay phone and calls the Avengers hotline, telling them about Absorbing Man and Titania. He says now the Avengers can take care of them while he focuses on finding Flash. Peter sends the pics to he took to his new editor at the Daily Bugle. She likes the pics but wants more detailed ones and she mentions a real pro can tell a whole story with a single picture. Peter walks off thinking he never thought he's miss Jameson. Jameson didn't care how a picture looked as long as it had action.

Peter almost walks past a co-worker named Betty Leeds who looks sad. As he tries to cheer her up, Ned Leeds shows up and tells Parker he's probably the only one that didn't know that she cheated on him with Flash. Peter is confused as to why Ned triggered his spider-sense. 

Ned says he hopes the cops find Flash and blow him away. Peter says to calm down since Flash is his friend. Ned says he should butt out since this is between him and Betty. Peter says it won't be until he calms down. Ned says Peter probably thinks there isn't a problem with a wife cheating on her husband. Peter disagrees but he won't let him hurt Betty either.

Robbie steps in to break it up between Peter and Ned. and tell them to act like adult. Peter apologizes and Ned says he hasn't seen the last of him. As Ned storms off, Peter's spider-sense goes off again and he wonders when Ned became such a hothead. I dunno Pete, a wife cheating you kinda does that, y'know? A co-worker named Bannon asks Robbie why he stopped them since the action was getting good. Robbie tells him to shut up.

Later on, the Wasp shows up at the Saint Lauren Summit asking about the tip she got regarding the Absorbing Man and Titania. The hotel owner says he noticed the couple staying there left in a hurry. The owner asks what she would have done if they were there since she showed up alone. Wasp explains the other Avengers are tied up in something (stuff happening in Avengers # 274). She leaves for now, turning into her insect form and flying off.

Elsewhere, Crusher and Titania are in a smaller crappier apartment. Titania says she didn't feel safe staying in the hotel if Spider-Man was swinging around. Crusher says she shouldn't let him rattle her. Titania says she wasn't always who she was now. Back then she was just regular Skettar McPherran who needed to gain weight to become a  97 pound weakling. But then she met Doctor Doom who gave her more power than she could ever believe. All her strength didn't help against Spider-Man's speed and agility. She couldn't lay a hand on him.

Crusher says everybody loses fights and there will always be someone stronger. He hugs her and says this is why they joined the Masters of Evil, since they push the odds in their favor. Titania says Crusher could beat up Spider-Man all by himself. He says probably and asks why she asks. Titania thinks to herself that someone is going to have to kill Spider-Man for her.

Meanwhile, Peter is visiting Mary Jane at her modeling job. One of the other women there tell him where to see her and says she's still at rehearsal. Peter says things have been tense between MJ and himself lately so he wanted to visit her. As he walks by a door, something triggers his Spider-Sense. Just then MJ arrives and they head off to lunch together. As they walk off, Peter wonders what was in the other office that would set off his Spider-Sense. MJ knows she's Spider-Man but she'd freak out if he did anything now.

In that office a man named Kingsley prepares another box of pumpkin grenades for the Hobgoblin. The villain knocks the box out of his hands, demanding a stronger weapon to take down Spider-Man. Kingsley thinks all the defeats against Spider-Man is making the Hobgoblin angrier and more violent. He needs to take special precautions so he doesn't direct his anger towards him.

Meanwhile, at lunch, MJ is surprised Peter called the Avengers regarding Crusher and Skettar. Peter says he is seriously considering hanging up the webs. He says he's done once he captures the real Hobgoblin and clears Flash's name. MJ says that's wonderful and Peter says he feels like a cop-out.  MJ says no one officially assigned him to be the city's guardian angel. Peter has shouldered the responsibility long enough and it's time he moved on to live his own life. Peter and MJ hold hands and MJ assures him he's doing the right thing.

Peter and MJ conclude their lunch as they both need to get back to work. As they pay, they hear local news regarding a major disturbance at the Avenger's mansion. Peter wondered if they managed to pick up Titania and the Absorbing Man.

Later on, Spider-Man swings through the city wonders why he feels so awkward around Mary Jane lately. He says he can't worry about that now with those two villains running around. He notes that he forgot to tell the Avengers about the job they had planned at La Guardia Airport. He decides to check that out himself.

At the airport, Crusher and Skettar are dressed as limo drivers. All they need to do is pick up this new guy and take him to join the Masters of Evil. Spider-Man swings by and decides to call the Avengers at the first sign of trouble. Titania sees Spider-Man and excuses herself to the bathroom for a moment.

Spider-Man figures he can't waste time since he should be looking for Flash. He figures he'll swing around the area until his Spider-Sense picks up something, when suddenly it does. Spider-Man dodges a flying car. He looks down to see Titania picking up another one. Spider-Man says she has quite the way of announcing herself and using a business card would be more convenient.

Crusher notices that Titania has gone wild and blown their cover. The person they were waiting for won't risk making contact now. Crusher grabs his ball and chain and runs off to help Titania. 

Spider-Man hits Titania in the face, making her drop a lamppost. Titania yells out that Spider-Man is killing her. The Absorbing Man smashes through a car and Spider-Man dodges him. He can't take them both on at the same time and swings into the airport terminal to buy himself some time for a plan. Crusher throws a truck through the airport's glass doors, saying he doesn't care how many people he will have to kill to get to Spider-Man. Spider-Man is horrified that he causes this and uses his webs to at least slow down the flying van before it can hurt anyone. Crusher wants to finish the fight and Spider-Man says he will choose the location, which will be away from innocent bystanders.

As the action continues, the plane arrives with the mystery man. The man wonders where the people that were supposed to pick him up went. He says they should hurry since now that the Masters of Evil smuggled him into the country, he has little use for them.

Back to the fight, which has now been moved to the runway, the Absorbing Man tries to hit Spider-Man with his ball and chain, but the Wall Crawler is just too fast and pretty much jumping and flipping all over the place. The villain, who has turned his body to the texture of the runaway, finally returns to his normal form and collapses. Titania sees this and freaks out feeling that nobody can defeat Spider-Man. She wants to run but she can't abandon her boyfriend.

Titania tosses a vehicle towards Spider-Man, which makes him flip away. Crusher gets up and realizes it might have cost him a few lumps but Titania finally got over her fear of Spider-Man. Spider-Man and Titania grapple, the Wall Crawler says he can barely stand after the fight with Crusher but he has to give it his all. The Absorbing Man picks up one of the airplanes and says the battle ends now. The villain says Spider-Man already ruined their plans so he can call the fight a draw, or he will drop the plane full of passengers. 

 

Spider-Man says the place will be crawling with cops any moment now. Crusher says he isn't afraid of the cops and jokes that the plane isn't getting lighter. He asks if they have a deal. Spider-Man looks down and then swings away. The crowd watches Spider-Man and watch as he runs from a fight. The mystery man also watches and says he never figured Spider-Man for a coward.

Crusher and Titania hug each other, relieved to see that they're both alright. Then they make a run for it before the cops arrive. Elsewhere, Spider-Man feels that Crusher played him for a fool and he never stood a chance against him. He thinks maybe he can't do the superhero thing anymore. Maybe it's time for him to quit. 

The next morning, a random guy is reading the newspaper with the headline reading that Spider-Man is a coward. The man's bus is coming so he runs off and drops the papers. Flash finds the papers and reads the headline. He says Spider-Man can't be a coward and he always faces up to his problems no matter how bad they were. Flash crumples up the papers and says Spider-Man would never run. He then heads off, saying he'll also stop running.

 

The next issue promises a Gang War featuring the Hobgoblin, Jack O' Lantern, Hammerhead, Silvermane and the Rose! 

My Thoughts-

Wow, this comic was action-packed and also full of several story lines. Flash Thompson is on the run being framed for being the Hobgoblin, while the real one is out to kill Spider-Man. Spider-Man himself is on the verge of quitting his superhero career based on recent loses. His last mission being to help out Flash and capture Hobgoblin. I'm assuming he's feeling awkward around MJ since she would be happier if Peter did live a normal life. 

We also have whatever is going on with Ned Leeds and his wife cheating on him with Flash, as well as that crazy police chief who is after Flash with something to prove.

I liked how Spider-Man and Titania were both scared of each other, without them knowing. Spider-Man faces his fear because someone has to stop her. Titania finally got her fear for the sake of defending Crusher. I also like how Crusher and Titania legit care about each other without one planning to double-cross the other the way several villains do.

Despite what the onlookers thought, Spider-Man did the right call. He couldn't risk the lives of a plane full of innocent people. Unfortunately it only made him feel even worse. 

One thing I noticed is that while Spider-Man mentioned having seen Titania fight against She-Hulk before, there wasn't any mention that the Absorbing Man is a Hulk villain. I guess the Hulk is too dangerous and unpredictable for Spider-Man to wish he was around to help but I'm surprised that among all the shout outs and whatnot (even Doctor Doom got a cameo), that the Hulk wasn't mentioned.

The comic also had a lot of callbacks, things tying back to Spectacular Spider-man and Web of Spider-Man as well as the upcoming issue of the Avengers at the time. I wish the modern day Spider-Man comics would reference each other more. I doubt the current Spider-Man comics make reference to how he hangs out with Miles ever Wednesday in the Spectacular Spider-Men series. 

I looked up Avengers # 274 and it looks like a bunch of villains are all attacking Hercules, including the likes of The Wrecker and Tigershark. I wonder how this affected the rest of the team and how Wasp was able to find the time to check up on Spider-Man's tip during all this. I guess there is an Avengers Hotline that is common knowledge.

As for the 80's ads, two stood out for this issue. The first one was for laser tag complete with a kit to build your own laser tag fun at home. Each kit comes with a laser gun, a laser sensor and a belt, so I assume you needed to buy at least two kits to play. There was also a Lazer Tag Academy cartoon that hit later that Fall, but I personally never seen or heard of it. The closest interactive laser tag type show I heard of was Captain Power. We're really going retro today.

The ad that really caught me was a two-page spread showcasing the NBC Saturday Morning Cartoon Lineup. Looks like back in 1986-1987, the line up consisted of Kissyfur, Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, the Smurfs, Punky Brewster, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Foofur, Kidd Video and One to Grow On. With One to Grow On being shown five times every Saturday, I'm assuming they were short segments during some of the ad breaks of the other shows. Of all of the show listed there, I don't remember a live-action segment show starring Micheal J Fox.

Man, what a blast from the past. I still remember waking up early to catch the Chipmunks and the Smurfs. I miss actual Saturday Morning Cartoons rather than just streaming an all-cartoon channel.