"THE MADNESS OF MYSTERIO!"
Writer: Stan Lee/Breakdowns: John Romita Sr./Penciller: Don Heck/Inker: Mike Esposito/Letterer: Artie Simek/Cover Art: John Romita Sr.
Synopsis: Mysterio returns for his ultimate revenge against Spider-Man...
Review: The Mysterio two-parter that begins with this issue should be one of my favourite Spidey stories ever. It features one of my top Spider-Man villains, some gorgeous artwork by John Romita - particularly in the next issue - and also has plenty of developments in the book's ongoing subplots, but for some reason, I can only ever read these two issues and say, "Yeah, they're pretty good..." I'm not entirely sure what it is that stops me from loving them, and to be fair, I haven't re-read Issue #67 yet, but for whatever reason, these are never my go-to Mysterio issues. I much prefer his appearances during the Ditko run, and he has some fantastic storylines during the later Marv Wolfman and Roger Stern runs as well.
I will admit that it's really nice seeing Mysterio in his own story again, rather than a team-up like we get in the likes of ASM Annuals #1 and #4, and unlike his turn as Dr Ludwig Reinhart in ASM #24, he's actually wearing his signature costume this time around. Romita does his usual great job at rendering another classic Spidey villain, and both Heck and Esposito are more than worthy of building on Romita's layouts by this point, though I feel the artwork in the following issue - by Romita alone - is far stronger. I also feel that a big positive in this issue's favour above previous Mysterio encounters is that the fight between Spider-Man and Mysterio takes advantage of the potential that a villain like Mysterio has in such a situation: there's a greater emphasis on the mind-bending nature of his illusions, and I particularly like the moment where Spider-Man pounces, thinking he's tackled his enemy, but it quickly turns out to just be Mysterio's cloak, which wraps itself around the wall-crawler, ensnaring him. It's a brief fight scene, and largely features Spider-Man fruitlessly lashing about in some smoke, but it has some nice moments here and there.
What I can't compliment is the attention to continuity: Mysterio appears on the TV demanding that Spider-Man meet him at the site of their first battle, which Spider-Man takes to be the movie studio where he defeated Mysterio in Issue #13. The weird thing is, he's right, and Mysterio is there waiting for him, even though the actual site of their first battle was atop the Brooklyn Bridge. Stan wrote that first Mysterio issue and he can't even remember what happened in it? I suppose he did have a pretty major workload in the Silver Age, but you would have thought someone at Marvel could go back and check to make sure he was getting his facts straight.
As I said above, there are some nice subplot developments here, the most noteworthy of which being that Peter and Gwen finally reconcile and rekindle their relationship. Really, this is their relationship beginning properly, rather than the brief flirtations that we've seen before, and it's great to finally see the two of them together. I must confess that Gwen is not my favourite character, as I find her to be a bit dull at times, but I absolutely love Peter and Gwen as a couple; they're so emblematic of young love, and there's an innocence to their courtship that I really appreciate, especially in hindsight when you know how things end up. Seeing them here, unable to stop smiling and gazing into each other's eyes, is a real treat, and I bet John Romita was pleased that he could finally start drawing some real lovey-dovey moments.
Elsewhere in the issue, we have another snippet of Norman Osborn's memories of the Green Goblin returning to him, and this time, he's put on the old costume, sans mask, though he still can't remember that Peter is Spider-Man. This scene, whilst good on the face of it, does present a continuity error when you take the upcoming second issue of The Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine, where Norman fully becomes the Goblin again with all his memories intact; more on that when we get there, but suffice to say, unless this issue takes place in tandem with that one, we've got some fan theory-ing to do. There's also a nice moment of Robbie and Captain Stacy meeting for lunch to discuss starting a joint effort to investigate Spider-Man, which is a great scene taken on its own merits, and there will be many more such scenes over the course of the next couple of years until Issue #90, nothing ever really comes of this, save for a moment at the end of that aforementioned 90th issue, but more on that when we get to it. It's a great idea for a subplot, with potential for a lot of suspense, but sadly, this never really get realised, and the scenes between Robbie and Stacy end up being little more than filler to get each issue to 20 pages.
Mysterio's plan is revealed at the end of the issue in a great final splash page: he has used some high-tech laser beam to seemingly shrink Spider-Man down to six inches tall, and dropped the web-slinger in the middle of a scale model of an amusement park. As said, the splash page is great, but I think this may be where my somewhat mixed feelings about this two-parter come from: I have general apathy, if not an outright dislike, for shrinking stories. They're rather overused in sci-fi and superhero fiction in my opinion - or at least they were in this era - and the actual concept behind them is just a bit boring in all honesty: it's essentially just relying on the reader/viewer thinking how incredible it is that what was once small now seems huge. Sorry, I'm just not the kind of reader to find that incredible. With that said, this is still an enjoyable issue and well worth reading, even if it does pale in comparison to Mysterio stories of the past.
Rating: 3.5/5
Next time, Spider-Man is cornered at every turn as he tries to evade the traps and illusions waiting for him in Mysterio's carnival, and return himself to normal size...
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