Even If I Live, I Die! (The Amazing Spider-Man #149) (1975)

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Author: Gerry Conway

Artist: Ross Andru

Embellisher: Mike Esposito



Drugged by the Jackal, Spider-Man awakens a prisoner in an abandoned tenement.



At this point, I’m wondering how Conway is going to justify Professor Warren’s ability to fight like this.



Well, we have to give the Jackal credit for insight, if nothing else.



Warren delivers his villain’s monologue, telling how he tricked a student into cloning human cell samples, then accidentally killed him when he protested.



He spends the next several months developing his Jackal gear and caring for his clones. Pretty flimsy motivation.



Later, Parker arrives at the offices of The Daily Bugle and learns that Ned Leeds is missing.



When Spider-Man keeps his appointment with the Jackal at Shea Stadium, he learns both what happened to Ned Leeds and why Professor Warren was speaking about clones in the plural earlier.



So this comes out of nowhere, the most unconvincing heel turn in the history of heel turns.



And in the aftermath of the bomb explosion that kills Professor Warren…



The Gwen clone walks out of Peter’s life, and Conway does a nice job of maintaining some doubt over which woman he would choose. That question is resolved with a nice touch at the end, though I’m a bit confused about why Mary Jane triggered Peter’s spider sense when the Jackal often didn’t.



I always get a certain amount of enjoyment from reading an old Spider-Man issue, but this was a pretty sloppy “epic” and I’m glad to see it coming to an end. It’s hard to buy the Jackal physically embarrassing Spider-Man (or the idea that ordinary training closes the gap) and the plot mechanics are too convenient.
 

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