main imageSPIDER-MAN (imposter)

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Normal human

Occupation: Criminal

Group Membership: His gang of thugs

Affiliations: His gang; indirectly the Daily Bugle (J. Jonah Jameson, others)

Enemies: Harry (a police officer), Spider-Man (Peter Parker)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Presumably New York City, USA

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man in Seeing Double coloring book (Whitman, 1976)

Powers/Abilities: The Spider-Man imposter possessed no superhuman powers but was a skilled con-artist, managing to convince nearly an entire town that Spider-Man was a criminal just by posing as him and committing crimes.

History: 

(The Amazing Spider-Man in Seeing Double) - Planning to rob a local museum, a group of criminals realized that they would need to take Spider-Man out of the picture. When one thug suggested they let the police handle Spider-Man, another thug asked what the plan was. The second thug soon learned the plan first-hand when he was tasked with disguising himself as Spider-Man and setting a fire on Main Street. Sent to get photos of the fire for the Daily Bugle, Peter Parker was shocked to see Spider-Man escaping the scene as a third thug reported to the fire chief that he saw Spider-Man start the fire. Not missing a chance to discredit Spider-Man, J. Jonah Jameson quickly had the Daily Bugle print up a front page headline blaming Spider-Man for the fire. Shortly thereafter, when Peter Parker visited the museum during an exhibit, his spider-sense warned him of the same thug he had seen earlier at the scene of the fire. Changing into his Spider-Man costume and hiding in the air ducts in hopes of catching the thug committing a crime, Peter watched as the thug, together with the imposter Spider-Man and another crook, waited until everyone had left the museum. The Spider-Man imposter then surprised the security guard while the other thugs began pilfering the artifacts from the museum. Spider-Man soon surprised the criminals, facing his double in hand-to-hand combat and easily defeating the crook. Thinking he had knocked out all of the criminals, Spider-Man prepared to call the police, unaware that a fourth thug was sneaking up behind him. After using a gas gun to knock out the real Spider-Man, the criminals escaped with many of the artifacts, leaving the real Spider-Man to get arrested by the museum’s security guard for the crimes committed by the imposter. Waking up in jail, Spider-Man escaped and began a search for the criminals in order to clear his name. When the police discovered Spider-Man’s escape, they alerted all cars to be on the lookout for the wall-crawler. Upon eluding the police, Spider-Man found the crooks loading more museum artifacts into their truck. Waiting until the Spider-Man imposter had his mask off, Spider-Man confronted the crooks, webbing them up just as police officer Harry and his partner arrived on the scene. Spider-Man then pointed out the maskless imposter and revealed to the police the crooks’ loot from the museum. He also explained to the police that the crooks had started the Main St. fire as well by pointing out their gas can. Convinced that the true Spider-Man was innocent, Harry and his partner commended Spider-Man on a job well done just as J. Jonah Jameson and a Daily Bugle note-taker arrived on the scene wondering what had happened.

Comments: Created by uncredited writer & artist.

The Spider-Man imposter and his gang were never given actual names in the story.

The coloring book, while being published by Whitman, carried a copyright 1976 Marvel Comics Group, indicating that all characters contained therein were the property of Marvel and not Whitman.

Interestingly enough, the police officer Harry appeared in a few Marvel Whitman coloring books. He was identified by name in Amazing Spider-Man in "Seeing Double" and Amazing Spider-Man Sticker Fun (1976) but an officer identical to Harry also appeared in Amazing Spider-Man: The Oyster Mystery. Seems too much of a coincidence to not be Harry, especially since the Spidey coloring books of this era were all done by Whitman. Makes me wonder if Harry was based on someone that worked at Whitman...

Profile by Proto-Man.

CLARIFICATIONS:
This Spider-Man imposter has no known connections to:

Harry

Harry was a police officer who, along with his partner, was informed of the true Spider-Man's escape from jail, unaware that the true Spider-Man was not guilty of the crimes committed by the imposter Spider-Man. When they found the real Spider-Man web-swinging through town, Harry and his partner followed the wall-crawler in their squad car until Spider-Man eluded them by ducking into an alley. Eventually tracking Spider-Man down, Harry and his partner arrived just as the real Spider-Man had caught the criminals. Spider-Man then revealed to Harry and his partner the imposter Spider-Man and explained that they had committed the crimes attributed to Spider-Man. Convinced, Harry and his partner commended Spider-Man on a job well done and arrested the crooks. When a mind-controlled star athlete was enlarged to twenty feet tall and sent to destroy the Daily Bugle building, Harry and his partner noticed the giant athlete and Harry ran to arrest the athlete but the athlete escaped apprehension while battling Spider-Man. Spider-Man later captured the Professor and Harry and his partner arrested the criminal.

Some time later, after a large oyster filled with valuable pearls showed up and fisherman camped  near the dock, hoping to catch another oyster, Harry heard screaming and investigated, soon learning that a fisherman named Ned had went missing. When Spider-Man captured Spike and another crook who were hoping to capture some of the oysters for profit, Harry and another officer appeared to arrest the webbed-up crooks. Harry and the other officer then found one of the large oysters nearby and opened it, finding the captured Ned inside. Once Ned was freed, Harry and the other officer gathered up the pearls inside the oyster, unaware that Peter Parker was nearby, happy to see Ned rescued.

--The Amazing Spider-Man in Seeing Double (The Amazing Spider-Man Sticker Fun, The Amazing Spider-Man: The Oyster Mystery, 

The gangSpider-Man imposter's gang

The Spider-Man imposter's gang was a group of criminals who enjoyed robbing museums of their artifacts. After plotting to get rid of Spider-Man, they decided to have one of their own dress up as Spider-Man when they committed the crimes, thereby incriminating the wall-crawler. They first started a fire on Main Street, blaming Spider-Man for it, and later began robbing museums to further incriminate the wall-crawler. When Spider-Man confronted them at the museum, one of the thugs used a gas gun to knock out the hero, who was then arrested by museum security. The thugs continued robbing museums until Spider-Man escaped jail and confronted them once more. Defeating them just as the police arrived, Spider-Man explained the criminals' deception and the crooks were quickly arrested.

 

 

--The Amazing Spider-Man in Seeing Double

images: (without ads)
The Amazing Spider-Man in Seeing Double coloring book, back cover (Spider-Man imposter, main image)
The Amazing Spider-Man in Seeing Double coloring book, p34, splash page (Spider-Man imposter, maskless headshot image)
The Amazing Spider-Man Sticker Fun, sticker sheets (Harry)
The Amazing Spider-Man in Seeing Double coloring book, p59, splash page (Spider-Man imposter’s gang)

Appearances:
The Amazing Spider-Man in Seeing Double  coloring book (Whitman, 1976) – uncredited writer & artist

Originally posted: 12/25/2012
Last updated: 06/30/2020

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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