Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man

Remember when Spidey only appeared in a couple of books every month? What is he, in double figures now?
Anyway, at the time, the idea that our friendly neighbourhood wall crawler would appear in TWO regular books of his own, as well as hosting Marvel Team-Up, was cause for much celebration round Rec. Road way.
You had the best Spidey scribe at the time, Gerry Conway, at the helm along with Our Pal Sal on art duties, and although it never reached the heights of the main book, it was a solid series by itself.
I'm still puzzling, all these years later, why a couple of pro's like Sal & Mike Esposito managed to produce art that looks slightly... unfinished when put together, but again, Spec Spidey ( as we inevitably called it ) really was an event at the time.
And in the first issue we get Tarantula, one the best silliest villains with one of the best costumes. Plus, keeping with tradition, Spidey has to call him by the cumbersome nickname 'Taranty', which is always fun.
These days, sure, It's 'simply' a good Spider-Man story, and I'm aware both Sal & Mike have their detractors, but believe me, we ran to our local newsagents to get this one.

The Defenders: The Sons Of The Serpent Strike!

Something now from Steve Gerber's wonderful, ground-breaking run on Defenders, and an issue where my fave member of the non-team, Valkyrie, takes centre stage.
There is a fight scene here, but Steve's only interested in it because he has to be, and because talking isn't achieving anything.
I love pretty much everything about this issue, but I especially like Val's brutal awakening into the modern world, and Doc's inability to sugar coat it for her.
But this one's full of so many great moments like that, I don't want to spoil them.
Go ahead, tread those dirty streets with Val yourself.

Razorback

In it's never-ending quest to Marvelize every damn thing that came down the pop culture pyke of the '70's, there was even a CB radio superhero back in the Bronze Age, and his handle was Razorback.
In Spidey's B comic, the web-slinger was helping Flash reconcile with his Vietnamese squeeze Sha Shan, who, since the last time we saw her, had become one half of creepy cult supervillain duo Brother Power & Sister Sun.
She didn't just leave you, Flash, she actually joined a cult to get away from you. Buy a clue, willya?
Meanwhile, trucker Buford Hollis had discovered his darlin' l'il sister Bobby Sue had also joined up with the Legion Of Light and, rather than just investigate the cult, decided to stick an electrified boar's head on his noggin in order to rescue her. Maybe it's a texan thing.
Still, I kind of liked the big galoot, even if he never got the shot at the big time he was clearly aiming for. They could've at least teamed him up with Ghost Rider for a bit, that'd've been ok.
Here's the Porcine Powerhouse's debut, halfway through the story, natch, but don't worry, you'll pick it up. And anyway, I always like to give the feeling of the crappy UK distribution we had back then. You're welcome, good buddies.