Marvel Swipe #1

Marvel didn't do as much recycling of old stories and plots as DC did, for several reasons:

1. Marvel had a much shorter back history than DC did when it came to superheroes, and it was in the process of reprinting a much greater portion of that history than DC did.

2. Marvel stories were more difficult to recycle as the supporting cast of characters was constantly changing.

But they did do one major swipe in the course of only a few years and it involves this magazine:

Marvel made several efforts at establishing a magazine like Creepy or Eerie, which would be oversized, sell for a premium over comics, and feature black and white interiors. They finally succeeded, of course, with the Savage Sword of Conan, but before that there were the short-lived efforts of Savage Tales (1971) and The Spectacular Spiderman (1968). It appears likely that neither magazine sold well enough to justify continuing, probably because the kids who bought ASM and Conan just weren't used to flipping through the magazine racks, which were often separate from the comics.

Marvel dusted off the story from Spectacular Spiderman #1 in ASM 116-118, early 1973. Large portions of the story were used with virtually no changes, as you can see here:


Aside from the update on recent events in the latter, those two splashes are word for word, as are the next eight pages or so. But, as I noted, Marvel's supporting cast changed often, and some surgery was required in order to make the story work.

For instance, consider this scene:

Fine in 1968, but in 1973, Captain Stacy had been dead for over two years. This creates a major problem, as a significant subplot of the earlier story is that the Captain is one of the few people not swept up in the enthusiasm for Raleigh's candidacy, which sets the stage for one of the story's major subplots. As a result, the skeptic role must be switched over to Joe Robertson, although that still creates an uncomfortable moment. In the original, the dialogue here makes sense:

Here's the update:

Would Jameson talk to Robbie, his editor, about "my" newspaper? Wouldn't he be more likely to refer to it as "the" newspaper, or if he was being magnanimous, "our" newspaper? Note as well that the reference to Peyton Place (which was canceled in 1969) was deleted, and the comparison to Goldwater now uses Humphrey instead (which isn't as funny, because Goldwater lost in a landslide, while Humphrey was only narrowly defeated). This reveals another problem with Marvel recycling; Stan's constant use of then-current pop culture references.

There's one other major change to the story. In the original we learn pretty quickly that Raleigh's faking it:

But in the revised version that scene is rewritten:

Overall, that particular change makes a lot of sense, as it adds some drama to the story. However, it is still pretty obvious from the start that Raleigh is not all he's cracked up to be. There's something about the nature of fiction that tells us that the lone skeptic is always right. And Raleigh's biggest supporter is J. Jonah Jameson, the worst judge of character around.

In both stories, the Raleigh campaign is being attacked by a gigantic thug. In the original, the thug is controlled by Raleigh himself, while in the reprise, it's a shadowy figure known as the Disruptor, who turns out to be Raleigh in disguise. In both stories, in classic Marvel fashion, the thug turns on his master in the end, killing him. In both stories, Jameson stays clueless to the end:

In the sequel, Spiderman hides the Disruptor's costume, letting Raleigh be considered a hero, because: