"VAMPIRE AT LARGE!"
Writer: Roy Thomas/Penciller: Gil Kane/Inker: Frank Giacoia/Letterer: Artie Simek/Editor: Stan Lee/Cover Art: Gil Kane
Synopsis: Spider-Man forms an unlikely alliance with the Lizard to hunt down Morbius, who may hold the key to curing the web-slinger of his six-armed problem...
Review: I'm not sure why this issue was chosen to be slightly longer than normal. I can guess that the whole Six-Armed Saga was originally meant to carry on for three issues, but scheduling/editorial mandates meant that it had to be shortened to just two (I'm not including ASM #100), but with the allowance for a slightly beefed up second part. Whatever the reason, this makes ASM #102 the first regular issue, and not an annual, to have an extended page count. Was it (and the inflated cover price) justified?
One thing I have to congratulate Roy Thomas on is finding something new to do with the Lizard. All of the Lizard stories Stan was involved with were essentially the same plot recycled again and again: Curt Connors becomes the Lizard, Spider-Man has to find some way of stopping him. It all became increasingly tiresome and convoluted, especially in ASM #76-77, which was clearly the point when Stan completely ran out of ideas. Here, Roy Thomas had a really nifty idea: make the Lizard an unstable ally of Spider-Man, rather than an enemy. Explained away using vague technobabble, the Lizard in this issue has Curt Connors' brain, meaning he's essentially just Connors in the Lizard's body, and thus is willing to help Spider-Man find a cure for his condition. The only problem is that every now and then, the primitive Lizard part of the doc takes control again, leading to a slightly shaky working relationship with the web-head. It's great stuff, honestly, and possibly my favourite thing about the issue, adding some nice tension, and coming at the Lizard from a new perspective. Gil Kane also gives us the best looking Lizard so far: finally he has teeth! Eight years after his debut, and at long last, he's looking truly menacing.
We also get treated to Morbius' origin, which takes up the middle portion of the issue. It retains the dark, brooding, tragic element we saw in the character last time, and does a good job of making the reader feel some sympathy for him, despite the crimes he's committed. I especially enjoy the moment where, after his transformation, he considers slipping into his wife's bedroom and draining her of blood, savouring the thought of its warmth, before coming back to himself with disgust at what he almost did. As said in my review of the previous issue, this story gets pretty grim in places, with a much stronger emphasis on gothic horror than anything we've seen before in the pages of Spider-Man. I can't say that Morbius lends himself to exciting action scenes, due to his fairly limited powers, but his tragic background is enough to keep him an engaging presence throughout the story.
The plot itself is pretty contrived, with Spidey and the Connors-Lizard discovering that Morbius' cells contain an enzyme that could remove the web-slinger's extra appendages: rather convenient, if you ask me. What's baffling is that whilst looking for a way to remove Spider-Man's unwanted arms, the pair are also looking for a way to revert Connors back to his human form. Uh...didn't you find that formula in the previous Lizard stories? Did Connors not write it down somewhere, or make up a handy supply, just in case his reptilian alter ego makes a reappearance? I mentioned this in one of my previous reviews of a Lizard story, but it bears repeating here just because of how convoluted this story becomes. It's great to have this dynamic duo of Spider-Man and the Lizard, but the only way we get it is through incredibly contrived means that just ignores the continuity of previous issues. Oh well, at least we get an entertaining story off the back of it, which is more than I can say for the last time the Lizard showed up.
ASM #102 is a solid conclusion to the Six-Armed Saga. The plot may require the reader to swallow a few too many contrivances, but the experience of reading the issue is enjoyable enough to make things a little more palatable. It's nice to see something new being done with the Lizard for once, and the tragic story of Michael Morbius makes for an effective story, right the way through to his apparent demise at the issue's end. The thing that I perhaps like most of all about this story is how it centres its action on three characters who have all had monstrous transformations befall them through their own scientific meddling; it creates quite a nice sense of narrative cohesion. All in all, a strong two-parter from Thomas and Kane.
Rating: 4/5
Next time, Peter, Gwen, and Jameson travel to the Savage Land, where they meet a couple of old acquaintances...
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