Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This (Fourth) Wall Tuesday!

So, I'm checking out Amazing Spider-Man #186.  Peter has, by and large, finished his undergrad studies and we are promised a new chapter in his life.

This apparently includes a really bad costume idea for The Chameleon:

For someone whose claim to fame is the ability to blend in, that's an... interesting choice of outfits there.

Egad, that is awful.  Off to the Costume Hall of Shame! (tm!)

But what makes Amazing #186 an interesting read is this one-page detour where the Marvel Universe bleeds over into reality.  For instance:

The Amazing Spider-Man live-action tv show of the 1970's was actually on the air at the time (and the cover itself referred to Spidey as "Marvel's TV Sensation!"), but it wouldn't last long.  While it did pretty well in the ratings (it was actually a top 20 show!), CBS didn't want to have so many comic book-themed shows on its schedule and ditched it (and the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman series) in favor of the Bill Bixby / Lou Ferrigno The Incredible Hulk series.  

Oddly enough, neither series had any foes from the comics due to budget limitations, which is a shame.  Despite many fans (and Stan Lee himself) disliking the show, Nicholas Hammond was a great Peter Parker.  He was also the guy on The Brady Bunch who broke a date with Marsha when Peter broke her nose with a football. 

But there's more:

That is allegedly then DC Editor-in-Chief Jenette Kahn, making a pitch that was very similar to a Superman vs. Muhammad Ali one-shot that DC put out earlier.  Yes, someone actually did that.

Here's what Spidey had to say about it:

And she should have listened because that's exactly what happened in the Superman vs. Muhammad Ali project.  According to those who know better than I, Neal Adams ran long on the deadlines, so Ali had lost the title by the time the special hit the stands, making it about as awesome as a Punisher vs. Buster Douglas special (which actually sounds kind of awesome).

And, of course, Marvel had given the Children's Television Workshop free rights to Spidey for use in The Electric Company, giving the world the first actual live Spider-Man stories.

That's a lot of behind-the-scenes reality for a comic from those times.  Of course, most of it went right over my head at the time, but that's a fun "Easter Egg" to find all these years later.

See you tomorrow!