Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #91: If It Wasn't For Bad Luck...

Written and drawn by: Al Milgrom


Another fairly mundane tale, which is exactly what I like about the wall-crawler's "adventures" – I can relate to them.

Well, I can relate to his having to juggle his acquaintances' agendas, his dropping into work to tout for some, and his thrusting his camera into other people's hands to photograph him doing stuff with anyway.

However once Spidey starts to battle a huge immovable guy called "The Blob" whilst wearing an alien costume that responds to his every thought, well, then I have to admit that the comic starts to lose relevance for me.

But that's not a criticism either. This is good fun, despite the odd jammy pun. ("like the baker said to the instant bread: I don't knead this"?!)

There's one rather post-modern gag in here too...


Spider-Man: "'SPLUBP'? What kind of sound is that? Usually when I hit a baddie I hear 'POW' or 'BRAKT'... but 'SPLUBP'? Sheesh."

Best of all, there's no big resolution to this tale. The Blob simply runs out of motivation for his rampage, and stops, at which point Spider-Man and the Black Cat just turn around and go back home.

If that doesn't sound like a real-life conclusion, then I don't know what does.