The Amazing Spider-Man #69 puts Spidey face to face with a few of his least formidable foes who prove to be far more competent than usual.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for The Amazing Spider-Man #69 by Nick Spencer, Ed Brisson, Zé Carlos, Carlos Gómez, Marcello Ferreira, Wayne Faucher, Andrew Crossley, Morry Hollowell and VC’s Joe Caramagna – on sale now!
There is no shortage of outlandish super-villains in the Marvel Universe. Since his creation in 1962 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Spider-Man has seen his fair share of ridiculous bad guys. Nick Spencer’s Amazing Spider-Man run has reintroduced a cavalcade of the web slinger’s goofiest adversaries to the Marvel Universe. In the newest issue, Spider-Man fights a team comprised of some of his least successful villains and gets his butt kicked.
In The Amazing Spider-Man #69, Peter Parker is trying to keep some incredibly powerful technology from falling into the wrong hands. Parker’s friend and lab partner, Jamie, owes Chance – the villainous casino owner – a great deal of money. Chance wants him to pay him back by building a larger version of the Clairvoyant, a device that can predict the future built by Jamie and Peter, in his casino. In order to power it, they need to steal a high-tech power source called the Catalyst from a heavily guarded laboratory. Chance assembles a team of ne’er-do-wells to assist them. Spider-Man interrupts the heist and finds himself fighting Chance, The Foreigner, Jack O’Lanterns and Slyde.
Chance, also known as Nicholas Powell, first appeared in 1986’s Web of Spider-Man #15 by David Michelinie, Miko Harris and Kyle Baker. He is a mercenary with a gambling addiction. Rather than accepting payment for his work, he bets his employers as to whether or not he can complete the tasks required of him. Armed with a jet-pack, wrist-blasters and a helmet that gives him a 360-degree vision – he poses a real threat, but rarely acts as more than a hench-man. His record against Spider-Man is notably poor. He has lost multiple bets as to whether or not he can kill the web-slinger.
One of Chance’s frequent employers and collaborators is known only as the Foreigner. The Foreigner made his comic book debut in Peter David, Mark Beachum and Bob McLeod’s 1986 Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #115 as a wealthy criminal who attempted to use Black Cat to recruit Spider-Man for his league of assassins called the 1400 club. Foreigner is good with a gun, but his real power is the ability to temporarily control people with his mind.
The Foreigner and Chance are joined by two villains who are downright silly. Slyde is a former chemical engineer who developed a substance that eliminates friction, which enables him to literally slide past most of his opponents. Since his first appearance in Tom Defalco, Sal Buscema, Ron Franz and Kyle Baker’s Amazing Spider-Man 272 in 1986, he has been slippery enough to evade capture and rob the occasional bank, but he’s failed to make much of a mark on the Marvel Universe. But the most flamboyant villains in The Amazing Spider-Man #69 are the numerous Jack O’lanterns. Though none of them have been particularly successful, many people have donned the pumpkin-headed Hobgoblinesque costume of Jack O’lantern. The original evil pumpkin man was Jason Macendale – a would-be CIA operative turned gun-for-hire – who first appeared in 1980’s Machine Man #18 by Tom Defalco and Steve Ditko. After Macendal took over as the Hobgoblin, numerous other villains carried on the legacy of Jack O’lantern.
It remains unclear whether the Jack O’lanterns working with Chance and the Foreigner are a collection of previous Halloween-themed hoodlums or an entirely new gang, but their costumes certainly don’t scare Spider-Man. In fact, none of the villains attempting to steal the catalyst seem to pose a threat to the hero. He is outnumbered but seems confident in his ability to handle the motley crew, until Jamie activates the catalyst and electrocutes Spider-Man. It seems all these villains needed to beat their nemesis was Peter Parker’s lab partner. Even with numbers in their favor- Chance, the Foreigner, multiple Jack O’lanterns and Slyde needed outside help to bring down the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. After a loss like that, Parker’s biggest wounds are probably to his pride.
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