Feb 1969
Mission: Crush the Kingpin!
By Stan Lee, John Romita Sr, Jim Mooney
Some this story feels familiar. I don't recall reading it before but I'm sure I have at least seen some of these panels here and there.
Spider-Man tracks down the Kingpin and his men. He handles the Kingpin's men fairly easily but their boss proves to be a lot tougher. In the end the Kingpin is felled by his own cane gun which backfires after Spidey jams it with a web.
Kingpin is taken into custody by the police but claims that Spider-Man is his accomplice. The police believe him and start shooting at Spidey who now has the Petrified Clay Tablet. He acts like he's fed up with the world and ready to be the public menace that so many (the police, J Jonah Jameson) think he is but I ain't buying it. Spider-Man is one of the good guys. What's up with the police just accepting the Kingpin's word about Spider-Man?
Earlier in the issue there are a few moments unrelated to the fight between Kingpin and Spider-Man. In the first of these scenes, Kingpin gets enraged when one of his men mentions his wife. I don't know if she was in the earlier Kingpin stories or not.
The other two scenes both take place at the police station where the protesters who were arrested are being held. One involves a verbal confrontation between Gwen Stacy and one of the protesters who wasn't arrested. She doesn't agree with their tactics which shouldn't be too surprising considering that her father is a police captain. She takes a passionate stand when the protester questions Peter's courage. I haven't read many comics in which Gwen Stacy appeared. This was a different Gwen than I was used to seeing but I suppose the atmosphere of this era and on the campus of ESU may have had something to do with her behavior and the way she was portrayed.
Inside the police station there is another confrontation. This one is between Robbie and Randy Robertson. Robbie doesn't care for the way Randy is expressing himself through the protest movement. He doesn't get it. Randy has to explain to his father why. As with the scene outside the police station this one was passionate and moving.
This issue builds off the last one and engaged me on a deeper level. Maybe if I had read ASM 67 I would have got more out of 68. All in all a great read. I'm pumped to see where the story goes next.
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