I'm reading Amazing Spider-Man comics from where I left them in the very early eighties onward, and I'm enjoying them a lot, particularly now I'm into the Roger Stern/JRJR run and it's hitting its stride very nicely, particularly during/after the vulture story. I just wondered has anyone ever done a story about the way Peter Parker seems to be a magnet for super-villains and other odd things? Every professor at his university, every new student he meets, every neighbour he has or girl he fancies, turns out to be a super-villain! It's like Scooby Doo in some ways, I suppose. I just wondered if, in true, the-first-story-you-want-to-do-as-a-fan style, someone somewhere hadn't tackled this and 'explained' it?

Not explained, per se, but Erik once wrote a story that lampshaded the absurdity of it all:





He teams up with Wolvie to save the daughter of one of Wolvie's old friends (revealed to be an homage to Captain Marvel at the end)

Turns out one of the kidnappers is a former schoolmate and another one, his dentist:





No explaining, but it's one really neat story with a Twilight Zone feel to it, from Marvel Comics Presents #48-50

Interesting! Thanks Raf. One of the problems with such stories of course is that once done, they hinder any further stories that use the premise, or perhaps make them seem awkward. Like Nomad's tripping over the cape - which at the time I just thought was a great comic moment - which then undermined the heroes who DO wear capes*...not that Batman's or Superman's popularities suffered as a result....

I've never actually read that story, but though the point was more about Steve's lack of familiarity with the cape than an undermining of the whole concept (like, say, Watchmen or The Incredibles) Dick complained a couple of times about the cape when he wore Bruce's costume, and I think it fit the character.

I like Erik's story a lot because of its offbeat quality; It doesn't try to explain the illogical coincidences, he just have fun with the subject.

That was my first published writing at Marvel (as I recall) and I definitely had some fun with it.

The guy at the end of the story was Captain Marvel?

Yeah--it was a bit random. I think C.C. Beck had just passed away--it really had nothing to do with the other stuff.

I thought it was a nice touch, once I got it some time later.

I wouldn't have gotten that back then. Was the girl Mary Marvel?

I think in the story it's his daughter but I was intending her to look like Mary.