First appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man #9 (February 1964), the original Electro was Maxwell Dillon, a former electrical lineman who gained electrokinetic powers after being stuck by lightning while working on a power line. He would go on to be one of Spider-Man's longest-running villains, having been one of the founding members of the supervillain team known as the Sinister Six. Over the years, he's battled not just Spidey, but also Daredevil, the Falcon (Look at my reviews of the Falcon mini-series), and even the Fantastic Four as part of a team of supervillains. Yeah, Electro's been a "team guy" a lot, even founding his own supervillain team: The Emissaries of Evil.
Recently, Max had gotten killed by a woman who would gain his powers and take up the mantle for Electro for herself: Francine Frye. But before his death, the original Electro would get to appear in media outside of comics. He appeared in the 1960s Spider-Man series, Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, the 1990s Spider-Man cartoon (who was the son of the Red Skull in that series), The New Adventures of Spider-Man, Ultimate Spider-Man (where he was voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes, who voiced Spider-Man in the 1990s cartoon), and a female African-American version of Electro appeared in the 2017 Spider-Man animated series. He would get to be one of the villains of the 2014 film The Amazing Spider-Man 2, portrayed by Jamie Foxx.
So, yeah. Electro has managed to have a long run as one of Spidey's most famous villains. And the comic we're going to look at here is one in which he gets the spotlight, as it were. He's long wanted to be seen as a big shot, and he's going to be seen as one...even if he has to lock New York City in eternal darkness. Let's look at Spider-Man #40!
The cover is pretty neat. A Klaus Janson piece, it depicts Electro on a building, his arms up in triumph. Electricity is crackling from his body, and it looks like he is emenating immense amounts of power. It's pretty cool.
"Light the Night! Part Three"
Writer: J.M. DeMatteis
Penciler: Klaus Janson
Inker: Klaus Janson
Colorists: Kevin Tinsley, Ericka Moran
Letterer: Richard Starkings
Editor: Danny Fingeroth
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco
The story begins with New York City have gotten dark. Real dark. Darker than a pile of black crayons in a windowless room with no overhead light. A narrator remarks that the city is theirs now. They just have to keep drinking in the power. With every additional gulp down of power, the narrator feels like they're becoming a star. Not the Hollywood kind of star, the big ball of gas kind of star. Who is the narrator here?
Max Dillon, aka Electro, longtime foe of the Wall-Crawler. The lightning-lobbing villain is enjoying himself. He demands the world notice him, and acknowledge that he is not a not an anonymous nobody anymore. Where is Spider-Man? Well, he's here.
He had been dealing with a wannabe-supervillain in a ballroom when the lights went out. The event causes a panic, and the ballgoers to try and flee. Spidey tries to calm things down, but he can't be heard over the din of fear. He's forced to get a bit creative.
The Spider-Signal is able to calm the people down, much to Spidey's relief. It's then that a bellboy runs in, yelling about something going on on the building's roof. It ends up throwing the ballroom attendants right into a panic. Thanks, pal.
Meanwhile, Charlie Burroughs, the wannabe supervillain who held up the ballroom before all this madness erupted, decides one thing. Maybe the best thing to do right now is to get out of here. And maybe make off with a few wallets on the way. However, J. Jonah Jameson is able to catch him, screaming that he's making a citizen's arrest. Charlie notices a pretty young lady with Jonah, and he's rather floored by her. The woman is Sarah Klein, the Daily Bugle's public relations manager. And evidently Jonah's niece.
She's worried that Jonah is worrying more about impressing her than the potential dangers to everyone in the building. Her fears aren't that unfounded in my opinion, Jameson has always struck me as sort of an overly-macho overcompensating type. I'm guessing it's that Spider-Man envy eating away at him again.
Spider-Man makes it to the roof, and he confronts Electro. The former lineman starts ranting and raving about how Spider-Man made him look like a fool many times in the past. Well, that's going to end today! He punctuates his point by blasting the Webhead off the roof. Inside, the panic rages on. Sarah disappears, possibly getting carried away by the fearful crowd. Jameson is scared himself. If anything happens to her, he'll never forgive himself. Maybe you shouldn't have tried to play cop, J.J...
Outside, Spider-Man tries to stop his fall by webbing up a gargoyle. However, his momentum is so great that he ends up ripping the gargoyle right off the building.
And the Parker Luck decides to troll our hero a bit more by giving him an embarrassing landing.
Heh heh. Poor Pete. It seems that life utterly hates him sometimes. The fire department arrives, and Electro is having the time of his life. He's drunk on his own power, and he just screaming about how much of a god he is right now. He then notices that his head feels like it's about to explode. His limbs are quivering. He realizes he's absorbed a lot of electrical power, and it's starting to affect his body. He tries to fire an electrical as a way to relieve himself and rid himself of the electrical force...only to discover he can't. The villain freaks out and tries to remove his harness. He succeeds, but finds that he still can't get rid of the massive electrical charge inside his body.
Spider-Man manages to return to the roof, acting all cool. Electro then pleads for Spidey to help him. Back in the ballroom, Sarah Klein is trying not to get trampled, but she's got an unlikely savior: Charlie Burroughs. He ditched his supervillain outfit and introduces himself to her as Charles Buchanan III. Jonah finds the two. Charlie starts to leave, thinking Sarah is Jonah's girlfriend, but she introduces him to Jonah, allowing him to learn they're actually relatives.
Jonah is impressed by Charlie's saving Sarah, and promises to make him a front-page story in the Daily Bugle. Say, how is Spidey doing with Electro? Not to well. The ex-lineman is freaking out. His current state is bringing him back to his childhood. He hints that his boyhood was not a fun one, constantly bullied and ignored. Spider-Man can't possibly understand that. His energy field is growing with his hysteria, and Spidey fears that he'll overload. And if he does, the damage he causes would be horrific.
The Wall-Crawler pleads with Dillon to hear him out. You see, they're more alike than the electrokinetic villain realizes. Like Dillon, Peter Parker has felt like a freak. Invisible. He was picked on and laughed at too. And like Dillon, Peter Parker used Spider-Man to feel important, like he mattered. But he came to realize something. It wasn't the mask or superpowers that made him important...it was just being him. Peter Parker already mattered, and so does Max Dillon. Dillon doesn't need to be Electro to be significant, because Max Dillon is already important.
The words seem to work and Electro's energy field shrinks. Spidey reconnects the harness and encourages Electro to send the power back into the city. The villain claims he can't do it, that there's too much power. But Spidey encourages him to. Dillon can do this. The two have fought each other a lot over the years, and the Webhead believes that he can do it. So, Electro decides to give it a try...
Max Dillon did it. He managed to relight New York City. And much to Spidey's surprise, the former electric line worker grabs him in a hug, thanking him. He even agrees to go to jail. And the Parker Luck strikes again.
The World Hates Peter Parker. Later, our hero returns to the ballroom, where he finds Jameson. Jameson is about to tear into him, but Peter simply counters by offering to take his photos of Spider-Man to the Daily Globe, a competing newspaper. These photos would be worth quite a bit of cash to them, Peter would even get a free lunch from them! Peter actually says that in the comic. Jameson starts to get furious...but then does something that shocks Peter.
He apologizes to him.
Yeah. J. Jonah Jameson apologizes to Peter Parker. You see, Jameson had evidently been acting rather jerkish towards Peter lately, and he explains why. Jameson had always looked up to his niece's father Ira. Ira was a god to him back in their college days. He was the Big Man on Campus: God great grades, fantastic athlete, and very popular with the ladies. Jameson was essentially his sidekick back then. In Jameson's own words: "The Tonto to his Lone Ranger".
Despite his admiration and respect for Ira, Jameson had always felt...well, small. Inadequate. Like he was nothing. Huh. Kind of like Electro. Even Ira's death couldn't erase those feelings in Jameson, and it's why he tried so hard to get Sarah to see him as awesome. Sarah nearly getting trampled made him see what a fool he was, and he hopes Peter will forgive him. Peter's all too happy to forgive the old skinflint. After all, in his own way, he can empathize with the man.
Things are looking up for Charlie as well. Jameson's offered him a job, which he's happy to start. There's also a seeming bit of romance between him and Sarah. The story ends with a happy Spider-Man swinging away.
I bought this comic for a couple of bucks at a fair, and I was very surprised how good it was. But then again, J.M. DeMatteis wrote it, so that's not surprising. My first exposure to his work on Spidey was from Kraven's Last Hunt. I get the impression from that as well as this that DeMatteis enjoyed exploring Spider-Man's villains. I also like the parallel with Electro and J. Jonah Jameson struggling to be seen as important. They both dealt with it by showing off in different ways: Electro by absorbing all the electricity in New York, and Jameson by constantly trying to impress his niece.
I also liked that the story ended in a rather unusual way than the usual superhero comic. Spider-Man managing to talk Electro down and get him to surrender was really nice. I think it fits Spidey in a way. He is, after all, the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and sometimes, acting like a friendly neighbor is the best way to solve the problem. JJ's apology to Peter and his giving Charlie a job was great as well. It's very easy to fall into the trap of portraying Jameson as a one-note egocentric jerk, so showing him having flashes of remorse, kindness, and humility is a good thing. My only real complaint about the story is that I did feel a bit confused about what was going on, but that's more because this is the last part of a three-part story that I did not read the previous parts.
Klaus Janson's art is...well, I enjoyed it on Batman: Gothic. Here, though...it feels a bit off to me. I think it's mainly his interpretation of Spidey. His Spidey sometimes looks a bit bulky, more like a linebacker than a gymnast. Spidey should not look like a bodybuilder. He does do good expressive faces, though.
I don't know if this has ever been reprinted in trade, so you may have to search the back issue bins to find this one. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourself, and each other. Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, and wash your hands often! Join me next time when we join the Green Lantern as he desires to go home...
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