Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1

Description

John Jameson fears the worst when he starts experiencing headaches after being cured of the Moon-Stone’s possession Featuring the return of two of Spider-Man’s greatest foes; Morbius the Living Vampire, and Man-Wolf!

At the start of this issue, Spider-Man swings past a restaurant where John Jameson is eating, which worries John, as seeing Spider-Man reminds him of when he was the Man-Wolf. As he and his fiancé leave the restaurant, John claims that the reason that he’s white and shaky is because he’s got the flu. He then wonders how many lies he’ll have to tell his fiancé to hide the fact that he is the Man-Wolf. John’s mind then flashes back to when he almost killed his fiancé as the Man-Wolf, until Spider-Man stopped him (in Amazing Spider-Man #125). Although Spider-Man managed to get rid of the stone which was turning him into the Man-Wolf, the memories still frighten John. He then calls a taxi for his fiancé, and walks away, trying to get rid of the memories. However, a sudden pain hit John, and he wonders whether he can turn into the Man-Wolf without the stone.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man is still swinging around when he sees a group of robbers. Although he manages to easily stop them, one of the robbers complains that they stand no chance against superhumans such as Spider-Man, and asks Spider-Man what’s in it for him. He then asks Spider-Man if it gives him some sort of thrill, taking out ordinary people. Although Spider-Man swings away, the words stick in his mind, and he wonders whether they have a grain of truth to them. Spider-Man then changes to Peter Parker and heads for the Daily Bugle, where he takes the pictures of Spider-Man defeating the thugs to Robbie Robertson. Robbie then shows Peter some pictures of mysterious homicides, which lead to New York. The photos all show people with two tiny puncture wounds on the neck, as well as one of Michael Morbius, who was seen leaving the scene of one of the murders.

Robbie then tells Peter that it will be a massive story if Morbius turns out to be alive after he seemingly died at sea years ago, when J. Jonah Jameson bursts into the room, and sees Peter. To Peter’s surprise, Jonah acts friendly towards Peter, unlike his usual self. Peter asks Robbie why Jonah is acting this way as the two of them leave, and Robbie says that Peter has been nominated for Photographer of the Year, and congratulates Peter. Meanwhile, John Jameson heads to a cafe, his head pounding with pain. Although he tries to resist it, he once more turns into the Man-Wolf, which is what he was fearing. The Man-Wolf then runs through the street, inexplicably drawn to a certain warehouse in Manhattan’s West Side. In the warehouse, the Man-Wolf finds Morbius, the Living Vampire.

The Man-Wolf instinctively attacks Morbius, who easily dodges and manages to attack the Man-Wolf from behind, temporarily knocking him out. Morbius then reattaches the Man-Wolf’s gemstone which causes the transformation in him, before the Man-Wolf recovers and attacks. Morbius realises that to completely control the Man-Wolf, there’s still one thing he has to do, and so bites Man-Wolf on the neck and drinks his blood. This causes the Man-Wolf to collapse, and Morbius laughs that when the Man-Wolf awakens, he’ll be under his control, which will allow Morbius to succeed with his plan. That day, Peter Parker heads to Empire State University, where he worries about the apparent return of Morbius, as well as what the robber said to him the other night about him fighting ordinary thugs for thrills. Peter continues to worry about this as the day goes by.

That night, the Man-Wolf has returned to being John Jameson, and asks Morbius how he knew that he was the Man-Wolf. Morbius then says that he deduced John’s condition, and John asks him where he got the moonstone from. Morbius says that having read a newspaper report of the Man-Wolf’s attack and deduced who John’s alter ego was, he headed back to New York, knowing that some outside source caused the transformation. He then found a drunk who had witnessed his battle with Spider-Man, and who had said that Spider-Man had torn the gem off of John’s neck and thrown it into the river. Morbius then found the gem in the river, and then subtly stalked John, causing the radiation from the moonstone to turn him back into the Man-Wolf. John asks why Morbius did this, and Morbius says that the Man-Wolf is part of a plan of his to cure himself and return to being a human. John then starts turning back into the Man-Wolf, and so Morbius and him head for Empire State University.

At Empire State University, the duo pass Peter Parker, who changes to Spider-Man. As he changes, he finally finds an answer to the thug’s question from the night before: he becomes a super hero to stop the villains that are too powerful and dangerous for an ordinary police officer to handle, not to attack ordinary thugs. Spider-Man then stats fighting the Man-Wolf, whilst Morbius flies off, thinking that this is happening exactly as he was expecting. Spider-Man and the Man-Wolf start brawling, but Spider-Man soon realises that he has to step up a notch if he wants to stop the Man-Wolf. Spider-Man then leads Man-Wolf into the trees near Empire State University campus, and goads him into attacking him. The Man-Wolf leaps right at Spider-Man, who quickly spins a web between two trees, stopping the Man-Wolf for the moment.

Spider-Man then goes after Morbius, having a hunch that Mobius will be in the blood research centre of Empire State University, which is where he was last time he and Spider-Man fought (in Marvel Team-Up #3-4). Spider-Man finds out from a researcher there that he is working on a cure for leukemia to replace a person’s blood. However, since Morbius isn’t there, Spider-Man leaves, only to find that the Man-Wolf has escaped from his webbing. Spider-Man suspects that the Man-Wolf is just a distraction of Morbius’s, and so decides not to follow through on the trap. An hour later, Morbius goes to the researcher whom Spider-Man talked to, and says that he’s going to take the man’s research by force in order to cure himself. Spider-Man then arrives, and tells the researcher to leave whilst he and Morbius fight. Before leaving, the researcher asks Spider-Man not to damage the equipment in the room, as it’s irreplacable.

Spider-Man and Morbius then fight, but in the process damage the equipment in the room. This means that Morbius’s entire plan has been futile, and so he leaves, since there’s nothing for him there. The researcher then re-enters the room, and it’s revealed that the damaged equipment was just spare parts for the real equipment, which was damaged by Spider-Man on purpose to get rid of Morbius. Spider-Man then leaves and goes to J. Jonah Jameson, and warns him that John has turned back into the Man-Wolf. However, Jonah dismisses Spider-Man’s claims as being made up. After Spider-Man leaves, Jonah goes to a locked room, where John has collapsed in.

One week later, Peter finds out that he didn’t win the Photographer of the Year award, but that he doesn’t mind, since he’s decided that his life is much better than other peoples as it is.