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Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #662

Jul 2011
on-sale: May 25, 2011
Christos Gage | Reilly Brown

Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #662 cover

Story Name:

The substitute, part 2

Synopsis

Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #662 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
Spider-Man took a job for a day as a substitute teacher at the Avengers Academy. He didn't do as well as he expected in the classroom so he took the students out on patrol where they ran into Psycho-Man. Who's now infected the kids with hate and turned them loose on their teacher in an alley. He'd also paralysed Peter Parker with doubt, but Spidey shook that off.

He dodges Striker's electric zap and Mettle's metal fist. But then he sees Hazmat starting to remove her helmet even though her radiation/toxicity might kill her teammates. So he webs it shut and throws her into a metal dumpster which he also closes. But this (and SM's lost (since #654) Spider-Sense) allows Mettle to hit him a couple of times. And then Reptil attacks in dinosaur form ... but uses his tail to knock Mettle into Psycho-Man on his flying platform. Changing to something between dino and human he tells our hero that his dino brain is harder for the villain to control. He also urges him to get the police and tell them to kill the kids before they hurt someone. And then he turns into a velociraptor type and tries to bite SM's head off.

But of course Spidey isn't going to give up on them. He webs Reptil's mouth shut and webs up Mettle's feet to suspend him from a fire escape. He gives Striker a foot in the face and dodges Finesse's baton before leaping up to attack PM. But Veil stops him with gas. Then Finesse throws a brick to break the webbing (you know, that super-strong webbing that villains can't escape from until it dissolves) holding up Mettle. And Psycho leads the 5 teens (except Hazmat in the dumpster) to leave the alley and kill civilians.

Passersby eagerly approach the now-famous Academy students until Reptil's velociraptor menaces them. Spidey can't let any of the kids kill because it would confirm their fears that Norman Osborn turned them into supervillains (behind the scenes in his Dark Reign). So he lays into them no matter how many blows he gets from Mettle's fists and Finesse's batons. He webs Striker to a wall and webs Mettle's hands together and Finesse's feet to the ground. But then veloci-Reptil is on him as he runs out of webbing. He tries to hold him off and get through to Humberto Lopez inside. But then he takes a chance and lets the dino's jaw get to his throat. And it works because 'Berto reverts to human and his senses.

But the other students are free (Finesse seemingly by leaving her webbed-up boots behind) and attacking him. Veil sees a bystander filming them on his phone and threatens to wreck the device and his face with hydrogen chloride gas. Lopez tries to talk her down by telling her that Psycho-Man's controlling them like Osborn did, and they swore they wouldn't let that happen again. Maddy Berry gasses *him* but then his words and her memories cause her to snap out of PM's hate. Spidey asks her to knock the others out with sleep gas but she does something else. Even as Hazmat melts her way out of the dumpster Veil floods her fellow students with scents that evoke the lab where Osborn tortured them. And those scents trigger their memories ...

... and they all turn on the villain. Spidey joins in as they all get their licks in. And then they discover what Peter already knew, that Psycho-Man is a robot body so they haven't actually harmed or killed anyone. Our hero explains that in this world the actual PM is microscopic and has to use a suit like this to do stuff. And now he will have escaped back to the Microverse he came from.

They return to the Academy in the Infinite Avengers Mansion in Underspace ('below' the Microverse) where the headmaster Giant-Man debriefs them. He's not surprised that Psycho-Man was here after the Microverse monster he and the FF (including Spidey) fought last issue. Hazmat complains about being thrown in a dumpster and Striker moans about the face-kick. Peter admits to Dr Pym that he failed as a teacher. But Mettle says it was the best school day ever and Veil says she's learnt how to reject mind control. Finesse says she added some of his moves to her repertoire. Hazmat and Striker grudgingly agree he wasn't all bad. And Humberto enthusiastically adds that he didn't treat them like dangerous kids but like heroes who take responsibility for their actions. He risked his own life to stop them hurting anyone when they were under PM's control. And his belief in them helped them escape from that control. He taught them what the mantra 'with great power comes great responsibility' really means. But when Henry Pym suggests Spidey has more teacher days, he and the students unanimously say "No!".


Characters
Good (or All)
FINESSE
GIANTMANHP
HAZMAT
METTLE
REPTIL
SPIDERMAN
STRIKER
VEIL

Enemies
PSYCHOMAN

Story #2

Infested stage 3: Great responsibility

Writer: Dan Slott.Penciler: Emma Rios. Inker: Javier Rodríguez. Colorist: Edgar Delgado. Letterer: Joe Caramagna.

Synopsis

By Rob Johnson
Rating: 3 stars
Walter Coleman has been infected with Spider-powers which he uses to save himself, his wife and daughter when their house catches fire. With a little help from our red & blue hero. The firemen thank him and comments that there are multiple fires tonight. And indeed the next door house has also gone up and its occupants are dead. But Walter puts aside all thoughts of becoming a superhero because he has a family to think of.


Characters
Good (or All)
SPIDERMAN


Story #3

The choice

Writer: Frank Tieri. Penciler/Inker: Javier Rodríguez. Colorist: Javier Rodríguez. Letterer: Joe Caramagna.

Synopsis

By Rob Johnson
Rating: 3.5 stars
A guy calling himself Magnetic Man is psyching himself up to rob a bank (in the middle of the night when it's closed). He remembers how he invented magnetic gloves and donned the villain costume and name for a bank robbing spree. Until Spider-Man stopped him and he went to jail for 6 years. He kept his head down and came out to find the world had changed almost unrecognisably. His daughter was now a Goth/punk and his wife is angry with him because no-one will employ an ex-con. So with bills piling up he's reverting to the only thing he was ever any good at.

But as he fires up the gloves he's interrupted by a passing young man (who is of course Peter Parker). He admits to the stranger that he doesn't really want to rob the bank but he doesn't know any other way to get the money his family desperately needs. Peter points out that the guy who built the gloves is obviously an inventor, but the 'villain' says no-one will give him a job.

Peter hands him a business card with his name and Horizon Labs on it and says he'll get him a job there. It'll take time for him to fully earn their trust so he'll have to start with more menial tasks, but he holds out the prospect of proper lab work. Magnetic Man thanks him and tells him how different he is from Spider-Man who just gets people thrown in jail and then forgets about them. But we see that Peter is carrying a Daily Bugle headlining his release from jail, thankful that he didn't have to put his costume on.


Characters
Good (or All)
SPIDERMAN




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


Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #662 cover

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Reilly Brown
Victor Olazaba
John Rauch
Ed McGuinness (Cover Penciler)
Ed McGuinness (Cover Inker)
Morry Hollowell (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Joe Caramagna.
Editor: Steve Wacker. Editor-in-chief: Axel Alonso.



Review / Commentaries

Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #662 Review by (April 12, 2025)
This issue is bannered as part of the Road To Spider-Island purely because the 2nd story is part of Infested, the lead-in to the SI event (where there's an infestation of Spider-Powers).

The splash page reminds me of the cover of the original Fantastic Four #54, with a large central image and a white surround with characters' heads in it.

For the Avengers Academy students and Giant-Man their next app is the Fear Itself event, specifically their own #15 or in Hazmat and Mettle's case FH: Homefront #1.

Spider-Man will fit in #663-664 before FI hits which involves Anti-Venom and a new Wraith pretending to be the ghost of Jean DeWolff.

Psycho-Man's next stop is in the FI: Fearsome Four mini-series.

The chars in the 2 backup stories (apart from SM) have no other apps.
The 2nd story is confusingly drawn.

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