Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #4

[iamrman]

Spider-Menace Assaults Senior Citizen!

Comments

[jkcarrier]

One thing I really miss from those days -- the stories move at a million miles an hour! You'd get a couple pages of Peter Parker soap opera stuff, a teaser or two setting up future stories, a BIG fight scene, and a wicked cliffhanger. You got a lot for your 30 cents.

Hitman was pretty generic as far as "masked assassins" go. IIRC, they eventually retconned him into the Punisher's backstory.

[wizardru]

You ain't kidding! I don't hate the change of pace in some comics, but I do miss the sheer bullet train running out of control speed here. A lot of the 70s Spiderman stuff was jam-packed...and this highlights one element I loved: villains running over top of each other. Vulture's ready to do his things, when Hitman shows up. Rocket Racer is doing a heist, when suddenly Big Wheel rolls into the picture, etc.

That and the sense of sheer unbridled fun.

[angelophile]

I think it was the ethos of 'every comic is someone's first comic' that worked. Each issue flowed into the others, but were also self containted. You could pick up an issue and enjoy it for what it was. The bloat came later (and has now spread to the MCU).

< /oldmanshoutsatcloud >

[blues32]

Not a particularly creative name. "The Hitman"...who is a hitman.