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The Six Arms Saga (aka Peter Parker Lends A Hand)

Every time I post an image from the Six Arms Saga, the result is hilarious, so I figure it’s time I explained the story, in which Peter Parker accidentally gives himself four extra arms. 

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The Six Arms Saga was written by Stan Lee and Roy Thomas, with art by Gil Kane; the story spans The Amazing Spider-man #100-102, in the fall of 1971. It also introduces “Morbius, the living vampire!” who is one of Marvel’s saddest, most useless creations. 

We begin with Peter suffering from spider-ennui.

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But it’s not just that his life lacks lustre. A few issues previous, Captain George Stacey, his girlfriend’s father and his own sometime-mentor, died in his arms after being caught in a building collapse partially caused by Spider-man. Gwen, Peter’s girlfriend, blames Spider-man for her father’s death, and Peter is devastated by the fact that the woman he loves hates half of what he is. 

He decides that he’s finally going to do away with Spider-man. 

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He drinks a serum he’s made that will supposedly remove his spider-abilities, and promptly has a massive drug trip in which he fights Green Goblin, muses about the futility of existence, complains about pains in his sides…

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…and has a religious vision of George Stacey as God.

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When Peter wakes, he finds that the potion has not made him normal. Not by a long shot. Not as far as he can throw you with six arms.

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As with every time Peter of the early seventies encounters an obstacle, he promptly freaks out…

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…calls his girlfriend….

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…and FAILS UTTERLY at communicating his feelings or actual intentions to those he loves. 

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Then he pulls himself together and decides that he needs to get out of the city and find a safe place to work on an antiserum. Though he also briefly flirts with becoming a supervillain. 

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Yes, Peter. Be careful with your members.

Anyway, Spider-man calls Curt Connors, his science pal and sometimes the supervillain known as The Lizard (they’re workshopping the problem) who loans him the use of a terrifying gothic shack straight out of HP Lovecraft.

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Peter sets to work creating an anti-serum to fix his extra arms, but he’s not alone in the house. MORBIUS – THE LIVING VAMPIRE! is there also. 

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Morbius is basically a tool. 

Dr. Connors, meanwhile, is curious about what Spider-man is up to, so he journeys up to his TERRIFYING SHACK just in time to walk in on what’s either a super-kinky private party or felony assault:

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Connors turns into The Lizard (as you do) and scares Morbius off. Before he can, however, Morbius bites him too, which tamps him down from “I am the ravening Lizard beast” to “I am Dr. Connors even though I look like The Lizard.”

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Great obsevationing there, doctor. 

The fact that the bite of Morbius allowed Connors to revert, at least mentally, suggests to them that Morbius may have the solution to Peter’s problem. There’s a long and very boring fight where Peter and Connors try to get enough of Morbius’s bodily fluids to synthesize a new antiserum, but in the process Morbius fakes his death and escapes. Peter and Connors, guilty (but not too guilty) over his “death”, manage to distill the serum and administer it to Peter, who has another, much shorter bad trip…

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And sheds or possibly reabsorbs his four extra arms. 

THE END! 

OR IS IT. 

There are two more important things to know about the Six Arms Saga. 

1. Marvel Comics later did a “what if” where Morbius was eaten by a shark before they could get the antiserum off him, so Peter kept his six arms. With four extra arms he becomes a wildly popular superhero, and Reed Richards gifts him with a Science Device that cloaks his four extra arms when he doesn’t want them to be seen. (Generally the What If stories involving Peter Parker end up being “What if Peter wasn’t the universe’s punching bag?”) 

2. According to Wikipedia, “The Six Arms Saga, as well as [others redacted for spoilers] will be used as the main inspiration for the 2014 film The Amazing Spider-Man 2.”

THIS SHOULD BE….

AMAZING. 

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