The Most Overlooked Period In Spider-Man Mythos
 

We all know of the Stan Lee scripts lasting 110 issues and Conway's killing off Gwen and the original Clone Saga. There is also the alien costume and switching back and forth from red and blue to black and white while dating Black Cat. There is the early married years with MJ then the clone saga 2.0. There is OMD, Doc Ock hijacking Peter's body too. Yet one period I almost hear anything about or read coverage about is his four year period as a graduate intern under Dr. Sloane alongside three others. It ends just as Hobgoblin arrives on the scene. Steve Hopskins and Phil Chan bring more diversity to the cast while Debra Whitman takes Betty Brant's place and Marcy Kane takes Liz Allen's place in similar will they/won't they fashion with one being a meek secretary full of anxiety who ends up with a jock and the other a better off blonde who Peter flirts with but never had a romantic relationship. Things get odd with Marcy suddenly changing her hair from blonde to brown with the in-story explanation that the blonde hair grew out as she got older and could not dye it. Yet she is said to be an alien and connected to Jack of Hearts?WHAT?! If I am not mistaken it was by the same writter, Bill Mantelo. While Debra Whitman is a lousy love interest it would have been interesting seeing him with Marcy if only they realize they are better off as friends because Mary Jane is Peter's one and only. After the Dr. Octopus/Owl feud Steve and Phil gets swept under the rug. They could have used some character development. Part of the problem with the MCU Spider-Man supporting cast is tweaking established characters in favor of diverstiy yet not much was ever done with the two. Why not show up at Horizon Labs? When Peter returned to his graduate studies shortly after Venom first reared his ugly head Dr. Sloane made a blink and you miss it cameo having Peter stand-in for him when Peter went to the paper work to resume his degree. Yet he is assigned to another professor Swann instead. I am not saying I absolutely love this character set, it just seems so forgotten and oddly written off as far as the characters and Peter's reason for leaving the program for a while. Peter can find time for undergraduate so he can find time for graduate studies. Having graduate studies I know a career and studies can be done, even if one isn't Spider-Man it would seem like more time instead. Anyway, an overlooked stretch cut too short and would have liked to seem more of the characters aside from Whitman.

Well, if you remember, Whitman was a supporting character in Spider-Man TAS, so the era helped inform that show for the time.

I have the issue where Marci got "dewigged", I quite enjoyed her sob story. The alien thing just has me echoing Bob Chipman: COMICS. ARE. WEEEEEIRRRRRD.

What inspired this was looking to find old Spider-Man stories I began rereading Spectacular vol.3 in the Essential line this past weekend. I have not looked at it since August 2013 according to the receipt from Ebay I found in it. I realized that Marcy had a series of character swerves while Steve and Phil filled minority roles and never had a chance to grow. I was wondering if the Marcy wearing a wig and turning into an alien while all seemingly under Bill Mantelo was editorial or what Mantelo was going for.