Is your spider sense tingling?

September 13, 2010 7:54 AM

Criminal Justice & Spider-man filter: According to the New York Times, the judge responsible for the invention of home-arrest monitoring bracelets was inspired by a Spider-man comic. Help me find that comic!

Here's what I know (based on this NYT article, and a few others with similar information).

Judge Jack Love got the idea for monitoring bracelets while reading Spider-man in 1979, in an storyline where a villain put a similar bracelet on Spidey. NYT implies it was the comic strip rather than book, but other than that, I don't have many leads.

Are there any mefites familiar enough with Spider-man story lines to give me a few more details? Perhaps the name of the villain?

I expect that I'll be going through some newspapers on microfilm to find this, as the earliest archives of Spider-man strips I can find online are from 2004. Any ideas for other places to look online or how to narrow down publication dates are much appreciated.

posted by activitystory to media & arts (5 answers total)

He read the comic in 1979, but could it have been an earlier issue? This is from 1975:

"They take Peter to a coffee shop to clear his head, but when he steps into the men's room, he discovers a metal harness on his right arm. When he touches it, he hears the Jackal's voice via remote control: "Don't act too hastily, my teenage tool! If you tamper with this device, if you try to force it open or jimmy it in any way at all, the harness will vibrate itself to powder -- destroying both itself and your arm!" The Jackal intends to use the harness to track down Spider-Man, not aware that Peter and Spider-Man are one and the same. "
posted by iconomy at 8:06 AM on September 13, 2010

Data about the strips, based on the date of 1979, they would be the John Romita ones, and would appear to be reprinted in The Daily Adventures of the Amazing Spider-Man: volume 1. Assuming the dates are right.
posted by artlung at 8:09 AM on September 13, 2010

Oh, yes-- it would have been at any point before 1979. I think this is the exact issue in question.

iconomy, you are a superhero!
posted by activitystory at 8:11 AM on September 13, 2010

I'll check into the daily story lines too-- would it possibly been a story that appeared in both places?
posted by activitystory at 8:13 AM on September 13, 2010

would it possibly been a story that appeared in both places

I don't know about this story in particular, but there have definitely been storylines that are repeated or paralleled between the monthly comic and the daily strip. Peter's marriage to MJ is the most obvious one, with the subsequent reversal of said marriage twenty years later being another.

The newspaper strip is alone in reversing the reversal, however. So far.
posted by flipper at 9:13 AM on September 13, 2010