...Where The Hero Doesn't Get The Girl

 

In the fifty+ years since the shock-value 100th issue of Amazing Spider-Man hit the stands, Marvel appears to have been content to avoid bringing back Peter Parker's extra four arms which resulted from an experiment gone wrong--seemingly a closed subject* in the House of Ideas following the three-part story which did away with them for good, barring some new twist that would make such a development feasible. The one exception to be found occurred in an imaginary story the 1992 What If tale profiled today, produced by writer Michael Gallagher and artists Kevin West and Ian Akin, which introduces a radical change to the web-spinner of 1971 that gives us an idea of how a true "Spider-Man" might have looked at the time--a six-armed character that, had the company decided to retain that change, would have taken Amazing Spider-Man, and Peter Parker, through the Bronze Age of comics and beyond.

*At least as far as we know--but I'd be surprised if at least one writer other than Gallagher hadn't floated the idea to his editor at one time or another. Technically, I suppose you could count the "doppelgänger" that appeared in Spider-Man #24.

The pivotal moment that separates the events of the former story from Gallagher's comes with the arrival of Michael Morbius, whose blood, it turned out, contained an enzyme that served as a catalyst which caused Spider-Man to return to normal. In this story, the "living vampire" that Morbius had become would again stow away on a freighter bound for New York, and murder its crew while it lay anchored about a mile offshore--and he would again choose to abandon the ship and swim his way to shore. Only this time, his fate would be sealed by others that lived to feast, well before reaching land--and without Morbius, Spider-Man was left without a solution to his dilemma.

Unfortunately, even with the assistance of research scientist Curt Connors, nothing panned out in their lab work--and as others tried and failed, Spider-Man would grow more depressed about and frustrated with his circumstances. Was his life as Peter Parker over? Would he have to come to grips with spending his entire life as a freak?

Despite Spider-Man's reticence on making his first appearance in public in full view of witnesses, public response to his physical change is unexpectedly supportive--to the consternation of J. Jonah Jameson, who must now face reality and recognize which way the wind is blowing in regard to his editorial crusade against the wall-crawler. And as Spider-Man begins to turn his life around, there are other benefits to be found in regard to both friends and loved ones, as well as his costumed career.

Yet the one casualty which Gallagher neither confirms nor denies appears to be Peter's relationship with Gwen Stacy, who is conspicuously absent in these scenes. And since special arm sheaths that conceal his extra appendages from sight aren't going to be of help to Peter in the romance department, we're left to draw our own conclusions as to what became of that relationship, particularly in this reality where Gwen didn't meet her death at the hand of the Green Goblin. The simple answer, I would speculate, is that such a dismal outlook on Peter's love life would throw a damper on the wave of positive developments which Gallagher wishes to present here for a man facing up to the challenge of making the most of what's happened to him--none more so than the story's closing scene, which has Spider-Man riding high in every other respect, in a life very much worth living.