image

The Spectacular Spider-Man #17 (of 1000)

Whatever Happened To The Iceman?
April 30th, 1978

The Spectacular Spider-Man #17 (of 1000)

Whatever Happened To The Iceman?
April 30th, 1978

Publisher:
Number:
17 (of 1000)
Name:
Whatever Happened To The Iceman?
Aliases:
Cover date:
April 30th, 1978
Store date:
Unknown
cover

Peter travels to Los Angeles to investigate the collapse of the Champions, L.A.'s own super hero team. But will former member Angel be forthcoming with answers? Plus, Rampage on the streets!

Given a special assignment by the Daily Bugle, Peter Parker takes a plane over to Los Angeles, where he has been sent to take the photos of the breaking up of the Champions. As Peter walks past the building, lost in his thoughts, two windows suddenly fall off from the Champion's building, and he doesn't notice that they are about to kill him. Fortunately, Angel, the only remaining Champion, notices and manages to fly down to stop the panes of glass from killing Peter. Angel then explains to Peter that the Champions have already disbanded, and that he's the only one left. Peter is going to take some photos for the sake of it anyway, but then notices that he dropped and broke his camera in the confusion with the windows. Angel then says he'll buy Peter a new one, and a bit later does. Angel then apologises for the windows falling, before saying about how nothing in the Champion's building has worked- not even them.

Angel then goes over how the Champions broke up after being attacked by pseudo-Sentinels (in the final issue of their series). After the battle, Ghost Rider left because he felt that no one wanted him there, Darkstar left because she wanted to return to Russia, Iceman left because the team meant nothing to him without Darkstar, and Hercules left because he wanted to explore Earth whilst on it, and Black Widow had decided to accompany him. Angel says that he's only staying until he can sell the building. He then says where all the Champions have gone to, but is vague about the location of Iceman.

Suspicious about where Iceman is, Peter changes to Spider-Man after taking the pictures he needs. He then heads back to the Champion's building, also suspicious about the two falling windows, where he finds Angel arguing with a bandage-wrapped man in a wheelchair. Angel is annoyed with the man for almost killing Peter with the falling glass, but the man says that he can't do anything so long as their "mutual friend" is around, as he is completely in his power. When Angel starts threatening the man, it's revealed that the man is Stuart Clarke, the villain formerly known as Rampage. Upon Angel's threats, he presses a button on his wheelchair, causing the "mutual friend" to attack Angel, who is in a duplicate of Clarke's Rampage armour.

Spider-Man saves Angel from the man in the Rampage armour, but Angel refuses to let Spider-Man fight the man in the Rampage armour. Spider-Man tries attacking Clarke instead, but Clarke is protected by a force field around his wheelchair. Spider-Man then starts getting crushed to death by Rampage, and Angel reluctantly picks up and electrically charged rod from a nearby generator and throws it at Clarke, bypassing Clarke's forcefield and overloading the chair's control. However, whilst this gets rid of Clarke, the man in the Rampage armour's mental commands are still to kill Angel and Spider-Man. He then breaks free of the armour, and it's revealed to be Iceman, now preparing to kill two of his friends.

Characters in issue

Concepts in issue

Authors

Teams in issue

Teams disbanded in issue