“Flashback!”

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN — Issue no. 181, March 1978

Book: The Amazing Spider-Man

Issue No.: 181

Published: March 14, 1978

Title: “Flashback!”

Cover Price: 35¢

Television viewers of a certain age (my age, AKA old) might remember clip shows. A clip show is an episode of a TV show that is mostly comprised of scenes from previous episodes of the show, often tied together with some kind of framing story that includes a few minutes of new footage. It’s kind of the TV version of a greatest hits album. Clip shows, like summer reruns, seem to have fallen out of favor in modern times, when we generally have more shows on the air (or Netflix or whatever) with shorter seasons. And with most shows streaming or on DVD, viewers can skip around and watch their favorite scenes from their favorite episodes whenever they want.

This issue of Amazing Spider-Man is kind of like a clip show. Except it doesn’t literally reuse any artwork from old Spidey books. The framing device here has Spider-Man visiting the grave of his uncle, Ben Parker. If you know anything about Spidey, you are probably familiar with the importance of Ben. While visiting the grave, Spider-Man thinks back on how he became a hero and what his life has been like since he first donned the red and blue tights.

Since the previous issue wrapped up a pretty big story arc, using this issue as a jumping-on point before starting up the next big arc makes sense. Even for a Spidey nerd like me, this issue is a fun read and a nice refresher course on Spidey’s history up to this point. And it features several cool splash pages — you know I love those. Here’s a terrific double splash page that sums up a lot of Spider-Man’s origin...

And here’s a splash page about Spidey’s difficult (to say the least!) relationship with newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson...

I peeked ahead (sometimes I pretend like I’m still living in 1978 when I’m reading these comics, but sometimes I take advantage of the internet or just good old hindsight to better understand the books), and this is the last issue before our pal Marv Wolfman takes over as writer/editor of this title. I think this is technically a fill-in issue, but I am assuming it was planned (as opposed to a fill-in issue of the last-minute variety) because it provides a nice pause between the previous writer’s (Len Wein) run and Wolfman’s run. (For the record, Bill Mantlo wrote this issue.)

Next time — Captain America versus Abe Lincoln! OK, it’s not the actual Abe Lincoln, it’s a giant Lincoln statue. But still!