War of the Reptile-Men!

Book: The Amazing Spider-Man

Issue No.: 166

Published: December 7, 1976

Title: “War of the Reptile-Men!”

Cover Price: 30¢

Format: Digital scan

Over on Threads, cartoonist Jim Keefe noted that Amazing Spider-Man no. 166 was the best holiday story imaginable for a kid. Even though it is outside my current wheelhouse (Marvel Time Warp generally covers books from 1978, and this Spidey book came out in late 1976), I thought it’d be a nice change of pace to cover a Bronze Age holiday-themed book, since it is the holiday time of year.

It turns out that Mr. Keefe’s assessment of this book was right on the money — it’s super fun. As you might guess from the story’s title, Spider-Man has to tackle two reptilian villains — Stegron the Dinosaur Man and the Lizard. The latter has always been one of my favorite Spidey rogues — the Lizard is a scientist who turns into a monster sometimes because of experiments he did on himself. Something of a Jekyll-and-Hyde situation but scalier.

But the Lizard’s alter-ego, Dr. Curt Connors, is a good dude and also a friend of Spider-Man’s. So Spider-Man always has to go easy on the Lizard in a fight, and the Lizard doesn’t have that limitation.

On top of the two human-sized lizard guys, there are also some actual dinosaurs in the mix because of the machinations of Stegron. Plus Stegron has kidnapped Connors’ son. So it’s less a bad guy team-up and more of a Spider-Man vs. Stegron situation with the Lizard as a wild card.

This is all taking place on a snowy December day in New York — that’s why it’s a holiday story. Jurassic Park taught us that dinosaurs might have been warm blooded, but Stegron is not. The story ends with Stegron defeated but almost getting away. But the snow picks up, the temperature drops, and Stegron’s cold blood slows him down. Then he falls through a crack in an ice-covered frozen lake. The implication is that he then freezes and drowns, but comic book bad guys have survived worse, so I expect Stegron will return at some point.

Happy Holidays, y’all! I’m going to take some time off from Marvel Time Warp, but I’ll be back sometime in 2025 with some more comic books from 1978.