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Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #114

Nov 1972 on-sale: Aug 8, 1972

Gerry Conway
writer
 |  John Romita
penciler

Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #114 cover

Story Name:

Gang War, Shmang War! What I Want to Know Is...Who the Heck Is Hammerhead?


Synopsis

Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #114 synopsis by reviewer Anthony Silvestro
Rating: 4.5 stars

Right after his battle with Doctor Octopus last issue, Spider-Man is surprised by the arrival of Hammerhead! Hammerhead’s guys shoot at Spidey and he dives off the roof to evade them before circling around the building to tackle them from a new angle. Spidey takes out the two mooks, before finding out why he’s called Hammerhead, the hard way, after he nearly shatters his hand on the gangster’s head! Just then, Doctor Octopus reawakens and attacks Hammerhead, spoiling his aim so that his shot at Spider-Man only grazes his head! Doc Ock escapes, barreling through some of Hammerhead’s arriving men in the process. Meanwhile, Hammerhead decides that Spider-Man could be of use in his war against Doc Ock, and elects to take the unconscious Spidey back to this lair.

As usual, Spidey has fitful dreams about failing Aunt May, and awakens to find himself in Hammerhead’s lair, face to face with the man himself. Hammerhead offers for Spider-Man to join up with him and then demonstrates why he’s not someone to mess with when he has one of his guys shatter a gun against his head! Hammerhead reminisces about how he came to be, when a disgraced former doctor found him injured and nameless in an alley. The doctor, Jonas Harrow, performed unconventional procedures on him, replacing sections of his skull with an unbreakable steel alloy until he was reborn as Hammerhead! Spidey tries to stall for time, when Hammerhead receives a call from two of his men who had been tailing Doc Ock. They tell Hammerhead that Ock is holed up in a house with an old woman. Spider-Man hears this and thinks that it could possibly be Aunt May. He pretends to consider Hammerhead’s offer, while subtly placing a spider-tracer on him. Hammerhead leaves, heading out to Doc Ock’s lair while leaving two of his men to watch over the still weakened Spidey.

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Meanwhile, at ESU, Professor Warren catches up with Gwen, expressing his concern that Peter has missed so many classes lately. Gwen explains about Aunt May’s disappearance and expresses her guilt about it. Not long after, she runs into Flash and chews him out after Flash makes a joke about Peter’s ulcer, after he promised he wouldn’t make fun of him anymore. Back at Hammerhead’s lair, Spidey regains enough of his strength and blinds his two captors with his webs before taking them out. He escapes the hideout and quickly tracks down Hammerhead’s car thanks to his tracer. He hitches a ride to Doc Ock’s hideout and jumps off before being noticed. Spidey takes out a couple of Hammerhead’s guys he sent in to surveil the place and sneaks his way inside. Spider-Man makes his way through the lair, when he's suddenly hit over the head with a vase! As Spidey passes out, wondering why his spider-sense didn’t alert him to the danger, we see that he was attacked by none other than Aunt May, who shouts to Doc Ock that she just killed Spider-Man! To be continued!

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Characters
Good (or All)
AUNTMAY  
May Parker
(Aunt May)
SPIDERMAN  
Spider-Man
(Peter Parker)
Plus: Miles Warren.

Enemies
DROCTOPUS  
Doctor Octopus
(Dr Octopus)
Flashbacks

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



This comic is in the following collection:
ad
Collecting Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #105-123.

Main/1st Story Full Credits

John Romita
John Romita
Unknown
John Romita (Cover Penciler)
John Romita (Cover Inker)
Unknown (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Layouts: Jim Starlin. Letterer: Art Simek.



Review / Commentaries


reviewer
Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #114 Review by (December 10, 2025)

Review: And the award for “Most Unique Title” goes to...! Seriously though, what a mouthful! This was a fun issue that continues the last one well and gives us our first real look at Hammerhead. We learn his simple backstory (injured guy’s skull replaced with plated steel) and his whole shtick as the epitome of an Edward G. Robinson style gangster. That’s really all there is to him; he’s very simple but I think that works in his favor. He never becomes a really big villain, but he makes for a solid B or C tier organized crime type guy (when Kingpin or someone else isn’t available). He doesn’t do a whole lot this issue, mostly just barking orders but he’ll get his chance to be a more physical threat soon. We also finally learn where Aunt May’s been, shacking up with Doc Ock (that’ll become oddly more literal a bit later)! It makes for quite the surprise ending when Aunt May of all people knocks out Spider-Man, though we won’t get more context on what’s been going on until next issue. There’s also an odd scene where Professor Warren expresses an unusual amount of concern for Gwen and Peter. Subtle foreshadowing, or a coincidence? It’s hard to tell how much of his future villainous persona was thought out yet. Overall, a great continuation from last issue, with a bombastic finale next time!

Comments: Hammerhead’s backstory is revealed. First appearance of Jonas Harrow. Hilariously, the two Hammerhead goons tailing Doc Ock this issue are named Bert and Ernie. Spidey mentions that hitting Hammerhead hurt even with the added strength from the harness, even though it was a plot point that it ran out of power last issue. Issue co-plotted by Conway and Romita. Tony Mortellaro provides background inking.





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