Terrified by his new appendages, Spider-Man still found even his extra hands full against both a classic villain and a new one in “The Six-Arms Saga.”
Spider-Man’s radioactive spider bite granted him all manner of amazing and spectacular powers. These range from super-strength, agility, the ability to crawl walls, a Spidey Sense and in some versions, organic webbing. However, of his strangest and most famous of his new “powers” came about in Stan Lee, Roy Thomas and Gil Kane’s Amazing Spider-Man #100-102. This horrifying new development was the appearance of four extra arms, turning him into a six-armed Spider-Man.
Terrified by his new appendages, Spider-Man had his (extra) hands full against both a classic villain and a new one. As part of an anniversary storyline, the arc not only introduced a soon-to-be-movie-star villain, but was also adapted in several Spider-Man cartoons. Here’s how the Webslinger managed to rid himself of his freakish extra limbs.
As many of this era’s Spider-Man tales do, this story begins with Peter Parker lamenting his current problems. These involved Harry Osborn becoming a drug addict, Captain George Stacy dying and Gwen Stacy blaming Spider-Man for his death. Initially, he believes that the solution is to give up being Spider-Man, taking a serum that will supposedly rid him of his powers. Falling into a deep sleep, a vision of Gwen in his dream convinces him to remain a hero. Unfortunately, when he awakens, he finds that the serum has backfired and that he’s suddenly developed four extra arms!
Peter begins working at one of Curt Connors’ labs to try to find a cure to his problem, but his enraged noises alert the nearby Morbius. This arc is actually the first appearance of the character, and the Living Vampire quickly attacks Spider-Man while under his own bloodlust rage. To make matters worse, Curt Connors, unable to control his emotions, either, has his own transformation into the Lizard.
Morbius and the Lizard fight over their mutual quarry of Spider-Man, but when Morbius bites the Lizard, an enzyme in the former’s blood allows Connors to mentally regain control. Helping Spider-Man, they track down Morbius in the hopes that his blood will somehow make Spider-Man’s extra arms go away. Morbius recounts his origin and how he became a scientific bloodsucker. Before he can escape into the river, Lizard acquires a blood sample from Morbius, which he uses to successfully cure Peter.