Spider-Man Night Fever

Book: Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man

Issue No.: 24

Published: August 22, 1978

Title: “Spider-Man Night Fever”

Cover Price: 35¢

Format: Original paper copy

Are you familiar with the late-1970s trope in fantastic fiction where evil rock musicians use their talents to hypnotize their audience? I haven’t done exhaustive research on the topic, but I know of at least three cases where this happened.

In the Wonder Woman TV episode “The Pied Piper,” a musician named Hamlin Rule (get it?) uses his music to hypnotize his female fans to rob the box office at his concerts. In the Buck Rogers TV episode “Space Rockers,” a band’s evil manager (played by Jerry Orbach!) alters the band’s music so the folks that hear it at concerts go crazy and riot.

This issue of Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man is the first time I remember seeing the evil rock musician trope in a comic book. The musician in this case is the Hypno-Hustler. He’s a disco guitar player, and he’s aided and abetted by a singing trio called the Mercy Killers. “Hypno-Hustler” is kind of a silly name for a guitarist, but “Mercy Killers” is an awesome name for a singing trio.

Spider-Man’s alter-ego Peter Parker gets involved when his friends drag him to the Beyond Forever disco. Peter was recently disappointed to find out he was short some credits he needed to graduate college, and his friends surprise him with a night out in an attempt to cheer him up. It’s a sweet gesture, even though Peter really isn’t a disco guy.

The Hypno-Hustler and the Mercy Killers use their music and their super-powers to hypnotize the disco crowd so they can rob them — this is apparently a well-to-do group of disco dancers. Peter figures out what is going on and plugs his ears with his webbing, an idea he got from Ulysses, the mythical character who plugged his crews’ ears with wax so they could resist the song of the sirens.

After he plugs his ears, Peter puts on his Spider-Man mask and makes quick work of the Hypno-Hustler, despite the Hustler having some gimmicky weapons built into his costume.

Next time — A Spider-Man holiday story!