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Flashback!
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This is a great example of Bill Mantlo's "Dreaded Deadline Doom" work - a series that he (and some other creators) worked on every month which was never meant to be published, at least not as itself. The series was commisioned by Marv Wolfman when he was editor-in-chief as a way of ensuring there was plenty of fill-in material available for when a comic was running late, so that at least fans would get new material rather than reprints. Thus Mantlo would often write stories featuring two or more heroes together, so that they could fit into several different titles if needed. However, this one is clearly meant for Spider-man, as it sees him visiting his Uncle Ben's grave and reminiscing about his crime-fighting career.
It's a very well done story, giving some emotional heft to what is basically a summary of everything that's happened so far. Doctor Doom thus appears very briefly during a section when Spider-man remembers his friend Flash Thompson, in this case looking back to the time he accidentally got kidnapped by Doom way back in Amazing Spider-man #5.
That's Doom's only appearance in the whole story, which makes it a little bit odd that he appears so prominently on the cover, alongside The Lizard, Doctor Octopus and The Kingpin - all much more regular villains in this series, though none as important as the unfeatured Green Goblin. I guess this is just another example of Doctor Doom being a big enough draw for readers to warrant putting on the cover, even when he's hardly in the actual comic itself!
link to information about this issue
posted 30/10/2019 by Mark Hibbett
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