J. Jonah Jameson Was Right, Spider-Man Is a Menace After All

The Amazing Spider-Man is surprisingly better than ever, which is nice to say. The latest TASM relaunch has left behind a lot of the baggage that held the book back, and The Amazing Spider-Man #1 was a breath of fresh air. The Amazing Spider-Man #2 picks up right where the first issue left off, both with the story and the quality. The issue opens with Spider-Man under attack by his greatest foes, but readers can tell something is wrong right away. We soon learn why we felt that way — because it was all a trick and Spider-Man ended up destroying part of the city thinking he was fighting bad guys. This is the work of Hellgate, a new Spider-Man villain, and gives credence to one of the most well-known Spider-Man character’s opinions on the Wall-Crawler — Spider-Man is a menace.

J. Jonah Jameson and Spider-Man’s relationship has definitely changed over the years, but was defined by Jameson’s distrust of Spider-Man for a long time. While readers always thought that Jameson was wrong in his supposition, that’s honestly not the case. Spider-Man is a something of a menace, because this isn’t the first time he’s been mind-controlled into destruction. Spider-Man has several major villains who can cause him to become a whirling dervish of destruction.

Villains like Mysterio Are Able to Use Spider-Man’s Strengths against Him

Mind control is a common trope in superhero comics, and almost every major hero has a villain whose entire MO is mind control. Spider-Man has one of the most well-known, but he also battles several other villains who are able to use his strength against him. Mysterio is the heavy hitter of mind-controlling Spider-Man villains. Quentin Beck used his experience with special effects to create illusions that could fool anyone. Mysterio’s technology got better and better over the years, to the point that he could fool even characters like Wolverine and Daredevil, whose super senses are usually able to ferret out fake things. Mysterio is a major Spider-Man villain, working with the Sinister Six, and every time he attacks Spider-Man, he has the same plan — fool Spider-Man into doing his bidding for him. While Mysterio is the most well-known, there are several others who basically do the same thing.

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There’s Mister Fear, a villain who uses fear toxin to cause superheroes to lash out. There have been four Mister Fears over the years, and Spider-Man has fought most of them. Mister Fear has also gone up against Daredevil over the years, as well as other street level Marvel villains. Judas Traveler was able to manipulate Spider-Man and Ben Reilly back in the Clone Saga, using mind control on both of them at various times to keep the whole clone caper going. Marvel has its own Scarecrow, who has developed the ability to release pheromones that cause fear in those around him. Shriek has learned to use her sonic powers to hypnotize her foes, which came in handy during “Maximum Carnage”. Spider-Man has also battled Purple Man. Even Chameleon’s whole MO is manipulation, using his disguise abilities to fool his enemies. Spider-Man battles mind-controllers all the time, and has often been used as a wrecking ball by his enemies.

The Amazing Spider-Man #2 Revolves Around Peter Dealing with the Consequences of Being Mind-Controlled

The Amazing Spider-Man #2 kicks off with Spider-Man under the control of Hellgate, and he spends the rest of the issue fighting against the hallucinogen, dealing with its effects. This is a pretty common trope in Spider-Man comics, and it definitely gives credence to J. Jonah Jameson’s attitude towards Spider-Man. In The Amazing Spider-Man #2, Peter is still suffering the effects of the hallucinogen, but instead of slowing down and letting it burn out of his system, he just goes about his life like normal. His heroic instincts are so strong that he can’t really stop himself from working the case — figuring out why Rhino went insane in The Amazing Spider-Man #1 — and that leads him to make some pretty foolish mistakes.

Spider-Man is a great hero, and that’s also why he can be a menace. Instead of stopping and questioning why all of his greatest villains were in Rhino’s apartment, he jumps right into action and causes massive property damage. His instincts to protect are so strong, he jumps in without thinking. There’s a huge problem with that, but it’s also a feather in his cap. Spider-Man is all about using his power to help others, to the extent that it’s basically a reflex. This does mean that he’ll do some menace-y things at times, especially with all of the mind-controlling villains he has. Hobgoblin and Hellgate have the perfect weapon to use Spider-Man, and can make him look very bad in the process.

The Amazing Spider-Man #2 is on sale now.