Appearing in "A Method in His Madness!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Daily Bugle Staff
- Hammerhead (Vision or hallucination)
- Kangaroo (Vision or hallucination)
- Will O' the Wisp (Vision or hallucination)
Locations:
- New York City
- Daily Bugle Building
- Jonas Harrow's Lab
Items:
Synopsis for "A Method in His Madness!"
Jonas Harrow has been experimenting on the amnesiac J. Jonah Jameson and learned that his new invention an experimental ray-generator that causes those exposed to it to experience different emotions is a complete success after months of beaming it on Jonah from across the street of the Daily Bugle building. He has also been using it on Joe Robertson since he took over as editor of the Bugle. When Harrow's monitoring device shows him that Robertson and Marla Madison are meeting to see if either has heard from Jonah, he uses the device to make them begin a violent argument. When Peter Parker happens by the Daily Bugle for a visit, he tries to intervene and he too is affected by the device.
Fighting its effects, Peter finds that everyone in the Daily Bugle has begun fighting each other, and maintains control enough to pull the fire alarm making everyone instinctively flee the scene. Locating the source of the sudden mood shift with his spider-sense, Peter leaves the office, changes Spider-Man and crosses the street. There it takes all his willpower to fight off the fear beams being cast from the device to reveal its hiding place in a water-tower and destroy it.
Amused, Harrow reveals himself to Spider-Man and dares the wall-crawler to come and attack him at his secret hideout. There, Spider-Man is attacked by Harrow who has a new version of the device. Spidey's appearance prompts J. Jonah Jameson to regain his memory and try to escape. While Spider-Man discovers the ray projectors multiple breaker power source, he begins smashing them as Jameson tries to find his own way to stop the device. When Spider-Man trashes the last breaker, Jonah is simultaneously pulling a useless power cord, which leaves Jameson to believe that he himself beat Harrow and not Spider-Man.
Desperate to defeat Spider-Man, Harrow approaches the wall-crawler with a loaded gun but is easily knocked out by Spider-Man. Harrow does manage to squeeze off a shot however, it goes wild, almost hitting Jonah in the process. As usual, the curmudgeonly editor believes that Spider-Man made the bullet fly his way on purpose. Finding that Jonah is alive and back to relative normality, Spider-Man leaves the scene feeling oddly glad that his worst enemy is back to normal.
Notes
Continuity Notes[]
- Jonas Harrow gloats over creating Hammerhead (Amazing Spider-Man #114), Will O' the Wisp (Amazing Spider-Man #167) and enhancing the powers of the Kangaroo (Amazing Spider-Man #126).
- Harrow also recounts how his device led to Joe Robertson resigning (Amazing Spider-Man #196) and J. Jonah Jameson's subsequent nervous breakdown (Amazing Spider-Man #198), and Jameson's subsequent escape from the hospital in Amazing Spider-Man #201–202.
Chronology Notes[]
A flashback in this story affects the chronology of the following characters: