Spider-Man: The Six Arms Saga

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The Six Arms Saga is a story arc from the popular Marvel Comic Spider-Man, written by Stan Lee and drawn by Gil Kane. It spans the issues Amazing Spider-Man #100–102 (1973).

The story arc is mostly remembered for Spider-Man's striking aesthetics, swinging through the city with four extra arms.

TAGLINE: no cop-out! Spidey is really awake! He HAS six arms!

[edit] Plot

Peter Parker has had enough of being Spider-Man. Peter feels miserable about all the anguish he's had to endure. His best friend Harry Osborn has become a junkie, and his close friend Captain George Stacy died in his arms. Stacy's daughter Gwen Stacy – Spidey's girlfriend – wrongly blamed Spider-Man for this. Peter has a fatal thought: for Peter Parker to live, Spider-Man must die!

So, Spidey brews up a chemical cocktail intended to terminate his spider powers. Peter takes the cocktail and falls into a troubled sleep in which he fights all his enemies, while enduring excruciating side pains. When he wakes up, he notices a ghastly thing: he has six arms! The potion increased his spider powers rather than nullifying them!

He then visits his only possible confidant, Dr. Curt Connors, alias the Lizard, and fights a vampiric villain called Morbius. Although the stress of confronting Morbius makes Connors transform into the Lizard, using an enzyme Morbius "infected" the Lizard with when he bit him – causing the Lizard to retain Connors' mind after the transformation – both brew an antidote that turns both Connors and Spidey back to normal.

[edit] Notes

• Harry Osborn was revealed as being addicted to drugs in ASM #96–98.
• George Stacy was killed in the bedlam when Spider-Man fought Doctor Octopus in ASM #90 Gwen Stacy was killed by the Green Goblin, not Doctor Octopus.
• This storyline was adapted as part of the "Neogenic Nightmare" arc of the 1990's animated cartoon series of Spider-Man. In this case, however, the mutation was caused by ingestion of a serum intended to reverse a continuing mutation, instead accelerating it to first produce the four extra limbs, then to transform Spider-Man into the animated version of Man-Spider, until the redeemed Kraven the Hunter, Calypso and the Punisher manage to work together to inject him with the cure.
• In The Ultimate Clone Saga, a Clone of Spider-Man with Six arms and a variant Black Costume surfaced. When unmasked, this clone also had more spider-like physical features, such as fangs around his mouth, additional eyes and brown spiky hair along his entire face. The Variant Cover for Ultimate Spider-Man 100 was based on that of Amazing Spider-Man 100, in which the Saga takes place.