Spider-Man: Threat, Menace or Myth?

[Captain Comics]

I'm up to issue #50 of Amazing Spider-Man, as research for my thesis, paying particular attention to Daily Bugle scenes and newspaper headlines. And yet, I have to find the fabled "Spider-Man: Threat or Menace?" headline.

Does it only exist in the popular imagination? Did I just miss it? Anybody have a hard example of "Spider-Man: Threat or Menace"? 

[Commander Benson]

Take a gander at the splash page of Amazing Spider-Man Annual # 15 (1981), Cap. That should be what you're looking for.

[ClarkKent_DC]

I know Frank Miller used it in an Amazing Spider-Man issue, probably an annual. The thrust of the story was that it was a slow news day, so J. Jonah Jameson had the "Spider-Man: Threat or Menace?" headline ready to go (complete with a cartoony image of Spider-Man as a monstrous, toothy giant looming over the city). Various things happen, which make for a much more newsy cover ... but for some reason (I forget why), the Bugle can't publish anything about any of them, so by the end of the day, they go with "Spider-Man: Threat or Menace?"

The final page of the issue has Jameson walking past a newsstand, and the vendor says to him, "Hey, Mr. Jameson, what's with this 'Threat or Menace' bushwah? I can't give the Bugle away today."

Try looking in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15 (1981). If it's not that one, try Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14 (1980). As for an earlier example, someone else will have to provide one.

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...This isn't relevant to this question , but didja ever notice how Marvel's design/editorial folks can never decide whether the Bugle is , in size , a broadsheet or a tabloid ?

  A tabloid would appear more " appropriate " , but a broadsheet allows for more space to put a headline within the story...........

[ClarkKent_DC]

They have the same problem over at DC with the Daily Planet.

[Mr. Silver Age]

Most comics writers, I find, don't have much idea how a headline is written for a newspaper or how to write a news story. It could be that they don't really know how it works, or it could be that actually writing headlines is harder work than they realized.

Frankly, most "broadsheets" aren't all that broad any more. They keep chopping an inch or two off the side every few years. It's especially apparent this time of year, when some of the FSIs they stick inside weren't redesigned and were printed to older width and stick out.

-- MSA