I: Feature Story: "The Molten Man Regrets!"

Pages: 20

Script: Stan Lee
Plot: Stan Lee
Pencils: Steve Ditko
Inks: Steve Ditko
Letters: Artie Simek

Villain: The Molten Man

Guest Appearance: JJJ's post-Betty Brant secretary #1

Synopsis: Mark Raxton, the Molten Man, is brought before a judge for sentencing. Since he acquired his powers from an accident and it is his first offense, the judge decides he is free to go on a suspended sentence. He returns home to test his powers. Reflecting on the first time he used his powers, he realizes he was disoriented and confused and he went on a rampage. But now he has time to plan, and when he strikes next, he won't be beaten!

Days later, a middle-aged man with a goatee is shopping in a Madison Avenue jewelery store. He asks to see the store's most expensive gems and snatches them from the salesman's hands. The salesman pulls a gun and fires at the thief but the bullets bounce off the man's skin. The otherwise genteel-looking customer crushes the gun with his bare hands.

Spider-Man hears the shot from above and swings down to the store. The robber puts his hands up but punches Spidey in the jaw once his guard is down. He knocks Spider-Man to the ground and escapes as the salesman cries out for the police. Spider-Man gives chase but loses him in the alleys.

The robber returns home and unmasks, revealing himself to be the Molten Man in disguise. He is frustrated that he lost the gems in the struggle with Spider-Man. If he meets Spidey again, the Molten Man decides, he'll "finish him off - this time for good!"

Peter can't get over the way he was beaten by a seemingly normal person. The robber "sure packed a punch like iron!" He deduces that it could have been the Molten Man and, as Spider-Man, he stakes out Raxton's apartment. Once Raxton has gone to bed, Spider-Man slips in and leaves a spider tracer on Raxton's clothes.

For the next few days, Spider-Man keeps tabs on the Molten Man but he does nothing out of the ordinary. Then one night, he sees Raxton in disguise returning to the jeweler's store. Spider-Man takes photos of the Molten Man ripping out the burglar alarm, breaking the locks and feeling the vault's tumblers for the right combination. Spider-Man flashes his spider-signal and webs him up but Raxton tears out of the webbing and his clothes.

They engage in a brutal fistfight until the Molten Man traps Spidey in a bear hug. Spider-Man fires two weblines to the ceiling and shakes the Molten Man with an acrobatic flip. The Molten Man tosses a sign through the window and a desk at Spidey to keep him at bay. He dives through the broken window but Spider-Man knows how to head him off.

Raxton returns to his apartment to find Spider-Man in the shadows and on the wall. The Molten Man rushes him and seems to have Spider-Man on the ropes. But Spidey is prepared. He has made thick cable-like webbing and lassos the Molten Man's wrist. On Raxton's next punch, Spidey wraps the cable around his other wrist. When the Molten Man tries to flip him, it gives Spider-Man the opportunity to lash the cable around his ankle and hog-tie the Molten Man.

Raxton is left webbed up for the police and when he is brought in for questioning, Spider-man arrives with the incriminating photos. The Molten Man won't be set free this time.

Peter brings copies of the photos to the Bugle but finds a new girl at Betty's desk. According to Jameson's new secretary, Betty has quit the Bugle and Ned Leeds has left for the West Coast. Distraught, Peter leaves the photos with the new secretary. She gives him a picture of himself that he had given to Betty that was left behind on her desk, and Peter throws it in the trash.

--synopsis by Jonathan Clarke, aka doesitmatter, and Gormuu

Issues Reprinted
Amazing Spider-Man #31-40

Click on cover image to learn more about each issue.