Doc Ock returns! And messes up High Schooler Peter Parker’s relationship with the much older Betty Brant!
For some reason, Doctor Octopus is being released from prison. He’s done his time. But Spidey knows he’ll be up to no good in the near future so he puts his new device, a Spider-Tracer, on him.
One thing leads to another, Ock ends up kidnapping Betty Brant…
…Spidey goes to rescue her, gets caught himself, and we get one of the most famous scenes from the Lee/Ditko era.
It’s the first of many, many times that Peter’s secret identity is “discovered,” so I made a tag for it.
I know Stan Lee was the master of promotion, so when he said Spidey would be unmasked on the cover, you expected everyone to know Peter Parker was really the hero. But instead, nobody can possibly believe Peter is the hero.
To escape Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus sets some prisoners free…
There’s also a smokestack fight, and I really like how Ock gets free of Spider-Man’s webs…
But in the end, Spider-Man wins, and Ock is arrested.
The cover is a classic, and when this story was reprinted in Marvel Tales they redid it–but flipped it!
The issue also has a pin-up.
