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Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #81

on-sale: Nov 19, 1969
Stan Lee | Jim Mooney

Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #81 cover

Story Name:

The Coming of the Kangaroo!


Synopsis

Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #81 synopsis by Anthony Silvestro
Rating: 2.5 stars

Spider-Man frantically makes his way across town to the train station, as Aunt May’s return train from her vacation is due any moment! He passes a typically irate J. Jonah Jameson and reaches the train station, ducking into the baggage room to change back to Peter Parker. Peter meets up with Aunt May who is immediately concerned that Peter looks flushed. Peter can’t tell her that he’s only overheated from swinging there top speed as Spider-Man and so decides to play along. Nearby, two agents are transporting a criminal called the Kangaroo, aiming to deport him, when suddenly he breaks loose, using his leaping abilities to quickly escape out of reach.

The Kangaroo reminisces on how he got to this point. He studied kangaroos back in Australia, quickly gaining their strength and leaping abilities. When he tried to cash in on these talents as a boxer, he nearly killed an opponent and was forced to flee the country, hitching a ride to America as a stowaway. However, he was soon caught without a passport, and was about to be deported, bringing us to the present. Meanwhile, Aunt May dotes on Peter at her place, and he decides to go along with it despite not really feeling sick if it brings her joy. Elsewhere, the Kangaroo aims to make some quick cash by stealing an important case being transported by some guards. Unbeknownst to him, the case contains a deadly, experimental bacteria that could infect the whole city! The Kangaroo thinks the vial just contains jewels and pockets it while he looks for another place to rob.

Back at Aunt May’s, Peter hears about the theft of the bacteria on the TV and realizes he’ll need to slip away from Aunt May to go into action as Spider-Man. Peter feigns being sick once more and sets up a web dummy in the bed, hoping she won’t take too close a look. Spidey heads out looking for the Kangaroo and eventually finds him attempting to rob a rooftop party. Spidey swings down and tries to explain how deadly the vial really is, but the Kangaroo refuses to listen. Spidey avoids the Kangaroo’s attacks while afraid to fight back, lest he jostle the vial in the Kangaroo’s pocket too much! Meanwhile, Aunt May goes to check on Peter and faints at the very sight of the web dummy he set up!

Still unable to explain, Spidey is eventually able to grab the Kangaroo and hold him upside down over the city. The vial falls from his pocket and Spidey catches it with his web, making sure it’s fastened nice and tight. The Kangaroo escapes while Spidey leaves the deadly vial for the authorities. Spidey heads back to Aunt May and discovers her fainted over the web dummy. He frantically checks to make sure she isn’t dead and changes back to Peter. When she awakens, he convinces her that she was just seeing things, while hating himself for making her think she’s going senile. Peter then stresses about how much longer it’ll be until his double life as Spider-Man destroys everything!


Characters
Good (or All)
JJJAMESON
AUNTMAY
SPIDERMAN

Enemies
Kangaroo (Frank Oliver).

> Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) comic book info and issue index



This comic is in the following collection:
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Collecting AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1963) #68-85 and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL (1964) #5.
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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Jim Mooney
Jim Mooney
?
John Romita (Cover Penciler)
John Romita (Cover Inker)
Additional Credits
Plot: . Layouts: John Buscema. Letterer: Sam Rosen.
Editor: Stan Lee.



Review / Commentaries


Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #81 Review by (April 16, 2025)

Review: We have another new villain with the debut of the Kangaroo, one of Spidey’s more infamously dumb villains! This is made pretty apparent right away by his origin. He was a guy who gained the strength and leaping abilities of kangaroos just by studying them and hanging around near them which is just…so stupid. Not content with merely being conceptually dumb, the Kangaroo is also literally quite dumb! He steals a deadly experimental bacteria thinking it’s jewels and refuses to listen when Spidey tries to explain the danger. It’s the worst case of the always aggravating “wait, let me explain!” trope, as Spidey of course never just comes out and says, “it’s a deadly virus, idiot!” and instead beats around the bush. This has the added affect of making the action not particularly dynamic, as Spidey is afraid to hit the Kangaroo, in case the vial containing the bacteria should break! This stupidity ends up being the Kangaroo’s downfall in his next appearance!

Adding to the frustrations this issue, Aunt May is noticeably more overbearing this issue. She immediately freaks out at seeing Peter slightly flushed (from web-swinging to meet her), and decides to coddle him in bed which sets up roadblocks when he needs to go look for the Kangaroo. I sure can’t wait until Aunt May has more to her than constantly worrying over every little thing concerning Peter. Her overbearingness is obviously for forced drama, as Peter sets up a web dummy of himself to put in the bed for when he leaves. She naturally sees it and faints at the sight of it (another thing that I will be happy to see less of when Aunt May gets some actual characterization). Peter’s brilliant plan when he gets back and finds her fainted is to literally gaslight her into thinking she was just seeing things! He does at least feel terrible for resorting to that but it still feels questionable. Overall, a pretty awkward issue on several fronts, introducing an especially laughable villain! The art is still pretty nice though, so that’s something.

Comments: First appearance of the Kangaroo.





Thor

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