Amazing Spider-Man #96 in 1971 featured the next Big Event. The Green Goblin returned as the drug crisis hit the Marvel universe. This issue was a milestone not only for the return of the Green Goblin, but for featuring the negative effects of drug abuse. Stan Lee famously defied the Comics Code Authority, which refused to put its stamp of approval on the cover for three issues. Spidey saves a dude from jumping to his death while high. Harry Osborne starts popping pills after freaking out over Mary Jane’s attraction to Peter. Norman Osborne flips out after seeing a Broadway musical alongside Peter and remembers their earlier encounters. By the end of this three part tale, Spider-Man once again uses the guilt that Osborne feels over Harry’s drug abuse to switch back his personality into “Normal Norman” mode.

Featuring anti-drug stories in these ASM issues but also later in Green Lantern / Green Arrow were huge milestones. With my father’s situation and several other family members affected by alcoholism, I could relate. I could only wish for the fast resolutions these stories provided, where addicts got rehabilitated over a few panels. There was no easy end to the problems in my family, it was an ongoing crisis.

Fast forward three years.

It is 1974 and I am the biggest Spider-Man fan ever, reading Amazing Spider-Man, Giant-Size Spider-Man, Marvel Tales, Marvel Team-Up, etc. I even had a mail subscription to ASM. It would arrive in our mailbox, in a brown wrapper, folded in half. Not the thing you'd put in mylar (my present copy was purchased later), but a comic you'd slide out of the wrapper and start reading as soon as you could.

I remember the time and place where I read ASM 121. I had gotten out of school early to go to the dentist. My father, very sober that day, brought me home on a sunny afternoon. After getting the mail, I read ASM 121 with great excitement while the novocaine was wearing off. The dramatic cover of ASM 121 declared it to be a “Turning Point," featuring the death of a supporting cast member. Gwen Stacy was the furthest likely candidate from my mind. She was Peter’s love -- the one he would marry. He made a promise to Captain Stacy as he died, for crying out loud! Gwen was sacred; Marvel wouldn’t touch her anymore than DC Comics would kill off Lois Lane. No way. That wasn’t going to happen. I was betting on Ned Leeds buying the farm.

This issue was exceedingly well executed by Gerry Conway and the art team of Gil Kane and John Romita. Romita inking Kane was a wonderful combination - you had the dynamism of Kane’s movement but the classic look of the characters due to Romita. The issue opens on a splash page of Harry Osborne writhing in bed after a drug relapse. The doctor says that Harry took LSD while severely depressed, resulting in a state of psychosis. Peter tries to lend moral support to his friend but is stopped in the hallway by Osborne, who is near his own nervous breakdown. Osborne forbids Peter, Mary Jane or Gwen from seeing his son. Soon afterward, Osborne is tormented by visions of Spider-Man and remembers all his past encounters. After running to yet another secret lab -- he apparently had dozens of them stashed around New York City -- Osborne becomes the Goblin, kidnaps Gwen Stacy and takes her to the George Washington Bridge.