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Off-White pgs; Universal holder; Unrestored
Steve Ditko cvr/art; origin & 1st app of the Scorpion (MacDonald "Mac" Gargan); COMIC BOOK IMPACT rating of 7 (CBI)
One can almost imagine the brainstorming sessions Stan Lee would have with Steve Ditko during the early days of the Amazing Spider-Man’s legendary run. Did they make a list of names of creatures that would be well suited to square off against the arachnid Spidey? Hmm, let’s see, Cockroach, Mosquito, Ladybug, Gecko, Salamander, wait, I got it! Scorpion! It could be surmised that the Vulture, Lizard, even Doctor Octopus could have been created through this scattershot method, and a great many of these throwaway concepts would prove to become classics in comic book history. As is the case with ASM #20, the Scorpion was not only a creation of the Lee/Ditko collaboration, but also of dastardly newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson, whose dogged pursuit of Peter Parker/Spider-Man inspires him to turn Private Dick Mac Gargan into the Scorpion with the help of a mad scientist. The newly minted villain runs rampant with his newfound powers and is eventually bought to heel by your Friendly Neighborhood Wallcrawler, but the game of cat and mouse with Jameson is only getting warmed up, as the rivalry between the publisher and reporter would go on to become the stuff of comic book lore.