Apparently Doctor Doom is jealous of Doctor Demonicus.
Spidey Super Stories #53
Marvel Comics/The Electric Company (July, 1981)
WRITER: Steven Grant PENCILER: Winslow Mortimer INKERS: Mike Esposito & Ricardo Villamonte COLORIST: George Roussos ART DIRECTOR: Bob Budiansky LETTERER: Raymond Holloway EDITORS: Anita Malnig & Caroline Barnes
“Doctor Doom Meets Prince Namor!” starts with Namor trying to get Atlantis into the United Nations. That seems out of character from what I’ve seen of him. Actually, Namor is pretty nice to Spidey–except when Doom captures him and uses a collar to force the Sub-Mariner to obey his commands. Going to Namor’s throne room, Doom sees a horn and decides to blow it for no reason, and is rewarded with a sea monster that Doom uses to attack New York. One of the Atlantians is able to break the collar while Doom is a way and Spidey keeps Doom occupied until Namor arrives and destroys the horn, which sends the monster back into the sea. Yes, that raises a question or two but it’s a fun story anyway.
By this point there are no Spidey segments to adapt I guess, but Spider-Man still has the team-up with the characters of The Electric Company. “The New Job” has Valerie bored with being a librarian. She tries a few other jobs like being an actress (speaking of out of character, Rita the Director seems a lot calmer than usual…maybe New York was having a relaxed week?) and Spidey tries to show her how to be a superhero. However, he knows Val really enjoys being a librarian and when the others can’t find the right book because they’re all messed up, she fixes the books and realizes (as Spidey hoped) this is where she belongs. It’s decent enough, and it’s here you realize this version of Spider-Man lived in a world where a mumbling gorilla in a library trying to find a book isn’t out of place.
“The Meteor Man!” has nothing to do with Robert Townsend, but is a second story featuring the Spider-cast and a guest appearance by The Cat. (Both The Cat and Namor have introductory pages.) Meteor Man is a criminal in the Marvel Universe who gets his powers from a special gas in a meteor he found. Now he goes around stealing meteors to get more gas because like the movie superhero his powers fade over time. When he steals some moon rocks The Cat stops by with a plan to trick and capture Meteor Man. It’s a pretty good story.
While still for kids this is still one of the better issues. It’s worth a look for the curious.
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