AMAZING SPIDER-MAN "Pull of the Prodigy" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

Spider-Man witnesses a load of young teens boarding a helicopter...late at night.

Webbing himself to the undercarriage, he's carried to an upstate mansion where the teens meet The Prodigy...who is actually an extraterrestrial alien with the ability to manipulate minds!

He's encouraging human teenagers to get pregnant and, since they are unprepared to raise and support the babies, allow him to take the children, ostensibly to have them adopted by foster families, but actually to kidnap them to his home planet, where they'll be raised as a slave labor force!

Using his vocal ability to manipulate the kids, he's providing them with mis-information about sex, and encourging them to...well...breed!

The comic ends with some useful suggestions as to where to get additional practical information...

Written by Ann Robinson of Planned Parenthood, and illustrated by the long-time team of penciler Ross Andru & inker Mike Esposito, this 1976 digest-sized giveaway was one of the first Public Service Announcement-type comics featuring Marvel or DC characters!

We've run a number of them on this blog!

Just enter the phrase "PSA" in the Google search box at the top of the post to find them!

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AMAZING SPIDER-MAN "Pull of the Prodigy" Part 1

You May Well Ask, "What Does This Scene Have to Do with Medicine?"

Well, the mention of Planned Parenthood in the opening caption is a pretty good clue!

Though we're pausing here before continuing next Friday, there's no reason for you to not see what's on page 16 right now...

After all, we wouldn't want you to do anything foolish between now and next Friday just because you didn't know!

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Marvel Comics, The American Cancer Society and the Story So Nice, They Told it Twice!

Actually, it wasn't a "nice" tale, but we wanted an alliterative title...

In 1982, Marvel and the American Cancer Society co-produced a giveaway comic against under-21 smoking starring Spider-Man, Storm of The X-Men and Luke Cage: Power Man vs the villain called...SmokeScreen!
In 1998, they reprinted the comic, but the response from medical offices was poor, with kids not interested in the "old-fashioned" artwork!
So it was decided to keep the script (almost verbatim) and redraw it, start to finish!

Here are both versions for you to "compare and contrast"!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 1

Part 2

Which do you prefer?

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NEW TEEN TITANS "Plague!" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

...The Teen Titans (minus Robin) assist The Protector in trying to shut down a drug dealing operation.

While interacting with tweens/teens, one of the heroes, Speedy, reveals he had been an addict, but managed, with great difficulty, to kick the habit.
But the kids' parents are still confused and disturbed...

It's not a pat ending, but it is a hopeful one!

Co-creators Marv Wolfman (writer) and George Perez (penciler) of the NEW Teen Titans ensemble* did a superb job creating a story that gets the point across without being overly "preachy", even going into establish DC canon about Speedy's drug addiction!
(*The Teen Titans were created in 1964, originally made up of adult superhero/heroines' sidekicks and had a couple of different runs ending in 1975,
In 1980, DC, following the example of Marvel's "All-New, All-Different X-Men" revamp, did a similar thing with Titans, combining already-existing characters with several new Wolfman-Perez creations, Cyborg, Raven, and Starfire)

NEW TEEN TITANS "Plague!" Part 1

If You're Any Sort of Comic Book Fan, You Know this Team...

...except for the guy in the middle yelling at us!
Don't worry, we'll clear that matter up as we go along...













To Be Continued...Next Friday

Unlike a number of other "revelations" about super-heroes in public-service comics, like Captain America revealing he had asthma as a kid, Speedy's confession about being a drug addict didn't come out of nowhere!
It was already part of official DC canon, first shown over a decade earlier in DC's Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85 (1971)...

...written by Denny O'Neil, penciled by Neal Adams, and inked by Dick Giordano (who also inked this story).
Note: when this Titans story was published in 1983, the GL/GA story was out of print, so that's why there's no footnote about it in the tale above.
The entire GL/GA storyline from the early 1970s was reprinted in a mini series the next year.
As to who The Protector is...
Because Robin was part of the Batman licensing program which was promoting Nabisco cookies at that point in time, he couldn't be used in the Keebler cookie-sponsored comic!
The Protector ended up as the Robin-replacement in all three public service drug issues, even the ones not sponsored by Keebler!
But, DC apparently made him an official part of DC continuity with an entry in Who's Who Update '87 #4...

...and even including him on the wraparound cover (in the center on the far-left of the back)...

He's cameoed in several stories over the years, always in the background.
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