Book: The Amazing Spider-Man
Issue No.: 184
Published: June 20, 1978
Title: “White Dragon! Red Death!”
Cover Price: 35¢
Format: Digital scan
Super-heroics are, of course, an important part of a Spider-Man book. But the soap opera shenanigans of Spidey’s alter ego, Peter Parker, are possibly equally important. And that’s where this issue of Amazing Spider-Man shines.
The book opens with Betty Brant, one of Peter’s exes, showing up at Peter’s apartment. She’s just back from Paris where she separated from her husband. And since Peter is recently single (Mary Jane Watson turned down his marriage proposal), Betty is hoping to rekindle their relationship.
Then we get a quick bit of melodrama with J. Jonah Jameson, Spider-Man’s nemesis and Peter’s boss at the Daily Bugle newspaper. Jameson’s son is in suspended animation because he can’t be cured (I'm guessing the thing he can’t be cured of is being Man-Wolf).
Eventually we get to the super-heroics, and they involve a new villain, White Dragon, and I’m sad to report his debut is underwhelming. He has a few things going against him — a goofy costume, and he runs some criminal gangs (which isn’t a terribly original raison d’être). But my big gripe with White Dragon is I don’t think he’d last two minutes in a fight with Spider-Man.
But White Dragon actually manages to win a fight with Spider-Man, and the book ends on a cliffhanger, with Dragon about to drop Spidey into a big pot of burning oil. Maybe we’ll learn more about White Dragon’s motivations next issue and he’ll become more interesting. In the meantime, I’ll remain skeptical.
Next time — Thor and the Eternals!