Amazing Spider-Man vs Prodigy (1976)

[StrayLamb]

Amazing Spider-Man vs The Prodigy (1976)
Cover by Ross Andru
“Pull of the Prodigy” by Ann Robinson, Ross Andru, Mike Esposito, Jan Cohen & Joe Rosen

APPEARANCES:
Spider-Man (Peter Parker); Prodigy; his guards & technicians; unsuspecting teenagers.

SYNOPSIS:
On a balmy summer’s evening in New York, Spidey climbs the Pan Am Building to catch the breeze, where he finds a line of teenagers being ushered into a waiting helicopter, which is to take them to an estate in the mountains.

Guards at the estate talk of thousands of other kids the boss has recruited and robotized all over the country, using the magnetic power of his voice.

Prodigy, actually an alien from a planet he refers to as “Intellectia,” places a human life-mask over his green-skinned head. The alien intends to fool the American youth into believing they can’t get pregnant before you’re 15, or the first time you have sex, or if you only do it once in a while, so they will have lots of babies, which he will then abduct, and take back to Intellectia to use as child labor.

As the chopper lifts off, Spidey hits it with a web-line and tags along, dropping to the trees as it lands at the estate. Minutes later, Spidey watches from outside a classroom, where Prodigy is brainwashing the kids into believing that having sex is good for them, helping with hormones and clearing up acne.

As Spidey watches, he gets very indignant, and realizes the teacher wants the kids to get pregnant. Prodigy tells the kids not to worry as their babies will be brought up by experts, and that soon he’ll be going on national tv to tell young people about the glorious, carefree life they’re welcome to share in his utopian retreats all over the country.

Realizing he has to do something fast, Spidey webs up the guards. Prodigy enters his private tv studio, but as the broadcast begins, Spidey smashes in through a window, and telling the cameramen to keep rolling, he unmasks Prodigy, revealing him to be an alien, and gags him with webbing.

NOTE 1:
This issue bears the banner “Stan Lee Presents: A Special Planned Parenthood Issue of the Amazing Spider-Man”

NOTE 2: A footnote explains that Prodigy’s voice took on its magnetic powers when the rocket-ship coming from his native planet of Intellectia, in the Andromeda galaxy, passed through the Earth’s ionosphere. Because of weak deflector shields, his vocal chords were exposed to intense heat and radiation. On Earth, his voice draws people to him like a vacuum cleaner.

NOTE 3: The issue concludes with a fact-sheet on the problems associated with teenage sex and info on where to obtain more information.

A Note on Chronology: This story occurs on a balmy summer evening. It appears to occur on an evening with a full moon. Assuming this to be late Summer, that would place Spider-Man’s appearance here between M/TE 12, IF 8 (which is placed earlier in the MCP’s chronology, but occurs in early July, and the block of episodes which is contained in ASM 13-164, M/TU 52, and PPSSM 1-3..

SPIDER-MAN/PETER BENJAMIN PARKER
---
M/TE 12
IF 8 (10/76) [Early July] * MOVE TO HERE
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VS PRODIGY [Late Summer] * ADD HERE
ASM 163 (1 - 9)
PPSSM 1 [Early October]
M/TU 52
ASM 163 (10 - 17)
ASM 164
PPSSM 2 [Autumn]
PPSSM 3
---

[vanhornluke]

Sweet! I have been hoping for a long time for someone to analyze these 70s-90s giveaway comics, since many of them should fit just fine into 616 continuity. I have appearance lists and synopses for a number of these a couple years ago in this forum, but I wasn't able to place them into the chronologies.

[StrayLamb]

I clean forgot that you already posted an analysis for this one. Sorry about that! I had another read thru those Spider-Man analyses you posted a while back. Some of them are difficult to place due to lack of internal evidence, but i'll think on them..

Extra chronologies, courtesy of vanhornluke..

Chronologies:

PRODIGY
ASMVP

*PRODIGY (change to PRODIGY II)
AF 108

*PRODIGY II/PETER PARKER (change to PRODIGY III)

*PRODIGY III/RITCHIE GILMORE (change to PRODIGY IV)
FI:YIR 1-FB
SL 6-FB
SL:DUSK-FB
{SL 0-FB}

*PRODIGY IV/DAVID ALLEYNE (change to PRODIGY V)
NM2 4
NM2 5 (1 - 10)
NM2 11 (18:2)-FB
NM2 5 (11 - 24)

*PRODIGY V/TIMOTHY WILKERSON (change to PRODIGY VI)
WWH:GC 2-FB
WWH:GC 4-FB
{WWH:GC 1}
WWH:GC 2