Spider-Man's Vehicles: The Motorbike

[Kirk G]

Very early in John Romita, Sr.'s run on Amazing Spider-Man, circa issue #42, Petey buys himself a motorbike, which is first shaded blue.   Within a few issued, he decides to paint it red.  Of course, the chicks dig it, and his popularity soars for the first time in the series.

The question is, just how long did this fascination with Pete's motorbike last?

This is, from what issue to what issue did the motorbike appear, or can we assume that he has possession of it?  Even if not featured or pictured in a story, if it shows up in issues #45 & 48, we can assume that he had it in 46 and 47.

So, was it ever established what  manufacture or brand this bike was?  Honda?  Kawasaki? Yamaha?

What size bike was it?   125cc?   360cc?  Certainly it couldn't have been more than a 750cc.

We see this bike not only in ASM but also in Spider-Man: Blue including the decision to buy it, heavily influenced by "the gang" passing by.  So, when is the LAST appearance of the motorbike?

 

(And to what extent was it replaced by the Spider-mobile?)

[The Baron]

Awesome.

[Philip Portelli]

Supermanium is a metal created by, obviously, Superman. It was practically indestructible and could only be shaped by his super-strength, sort of DC's version of Adamantium. That it protected him from both red-sun and green kryptonite radiation gives us the reason why Kal built an aircraft with fists!

The Baron said:

"Supermanium"?  Is that from the same end of the periodic table as Dalekenium?

[The Baron]

And he named it after himself?

[Philip Portelli]

I believe Wizard or Toyfare proclaimed this the worst Spider-Man toy ever!

But if you give a super-hero a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for life! :-)

The Baron said:

The weirdest Spider-man toy I ever saw  was one of Spider-Man dressed up to go fishing!

 

 

 

 

[Philip Portelli]

Super-Ego, my friend, Super-Ego.

Plus he probably copy-righted and patented it. Gotta expand the Brand! :-)
The Baron said:

And he named it after himself?

[ClarkKent_DC]

Figserello said:

García-López, according to DC, like the man says.

 

García-López is a name I wasn't aware of until a few months ago, and now I keep seeing it pop up.  Like Rich Buckler's!

 

García-López actually did a limited edition cover for Flashpoint #5, so that's still pretty bigtime!

José Luis García-Lopez is a wonderful, and far underrated artist. He started his career with Charlton, working for Dick Giordano, who put him up in his home when García-López first came to America, and ever since, has been loyal to DC Comics. You should recognize his work because he's done a boatload of covers over the years; stints on Action Comics, Superman, DC Comics Presents, The New Teen Titans, and the occasional issue of Detective Comics, Batman, Jonah Hex, among others; the first 12 issues of Atari Force (which was his first regular series); the Cinder and Ashe miniseries; any number of specials, Elseworlds, and one-shots; and high-profile works like the Limited Collector's Edition tabloids Superman vs. Wonder Woman and Batman vs. The Hulk. He did the Metal Men strip in Wednesday Comics. He can do anything: superheroes, space opera, Westerns, war, romance.

 

But, most of all, you should know García-López because he set the standard for how DC heroes should look. Seriously; in the '80s, he drew all the model sheets for DC artists, and was the go-to guy for all DC merchandised things like calendars, posters, covers, ads, toys, etc. Take a gander at this gallery from Google: José Luis García-López.

 

And here's a neat little rundown of his career: "Reclaiming History: José Luis García-Lopez"

 

(If you can't tell, I'm a big fan of his!)

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Thanks for the link, CK! José Luis García-Lopez is one of my all-time favorites, and he's consistently underrated, IMO. When I imagine of the DCU in the 70s, it always looks like it was drawn by JLGL, Dick Dillin, Irv Novick, or Jim Aparo.

[Kirk G]

NO-NOT FLY FISHING....SPIDER FISHING! CHECK OUT THE END OF HIS LINE!

Luke Blanchard said:

The Baron said:

The weirdest Spider-man toy I ever saw  was one of Spider-Man dressed up to go fishing!

Must be fly fishing.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Well, hopefully he was using this.

[Figserello]

Thanks for the info Clark. Although I only matched the name to the art lately, I pored over Garcia Lopez work on DC Comics presents 1&2 as a kid when it was reprinted in a UK Superman annual. I wrote about it on my Adam Strange thread. I'm afraid I gave GL and the writer a hard time for DCCP #3. GL's strength was in bright and cheery heroes reacting emotively to events, and Adam should have been portrayed as the cool and cerebral character that appeared in Fox's work. That would have allowed a range of character types in the story. Similarily, Superman and the Flash were emotionally similar in the first 2 issues.

So my problem was that GL was drawing generic heroes rather than particular characters. I'm probably being to sore on him because of reading DCCP #3 as part of an Adam Strange project.

However, those 80's promotional images he did of the DC heroes are beautiful. I've noticed some of those exact ones and more like them on T-shirts etc over the last few years. Its a retro thing. I'd guessed they were Giordano images, but see now that most of them were probably GL. The funny thing is that probably more people paid to have a Garcia Lopez image on their chest in the last few years than paid to read any of the 'happening' superhero artists' comics work.

[Kirk G]

I have kept looking for the original scene of peter buying the motor bike, but had discovered that I don't own a reprint of the issue.  It MUST be in 41, 42 or 43....  as I have the Marvel Masterworks reprint books 1-40  and 51-100. As well as an Essential spider-man volume  which picks up with #44-68, and so shows the selling off of the bike.

 

So, horror of horrors, I'm finding that I have to go hunt on the resale market for a Marvel Masterworks volume viariant cover to complete my set, that reprints #41-50.  

 

Don't you hate discovering holes in your collection?  Don't you feel compelled to go out and fill those holes?  I know I do.

[Mr. Silver Age]

It was in #41; he asks JJJ to give him a recommendation for a loan, and Jonah agrees because he figures he can cut his photo payment to Peter in exchange.

I do hate discovering I have holes, especially when it's clearly a hole and I just never filled it. What's worse, though, is when I go to pull out a comic and it's not there, yet my index indicates that I have it. So did I get confused and write it down by mistake? Is it misfiled and will show up if I pull out a dozen issues around it? Is it in the wrong box? Will I ever find it--and if not, do I *really* have it?

Those are worse, especially if I'm pulling comics to write a column, only to find that one I assumed I had isn't there. That just happened to me this month, and it wasn't pretty. Fortunately, I discovered a reprint existed of the story I needed, and I had that issue, and then the actual issue showed up after all (it was filed in the 60s rather than the 80s). Comics collections are a complicated thing.

If you've got the other MWs, that middle one is a definite need. The first 100 issues of ASM are well worth having in those collections. I just hope you aren't missing any Avengers in the 30s, because Avengers MW #4 is unavailable. Trust me.

MSA