I: Feature Story: "The Reprehensible Riddle of...The Sorcerer!"

Pages: 20

Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Ross Andru
Inks: Bill Everett
Letters: Sam Rosen

First Appearance: The Sorcerer, Hollow Man

Villain: The Sorcerer, Hollow Man

Guest Appearance: Harry Osborn, Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, Doc Bromwell

Gadgets & Technology: Psycho-Intensifier

Setting: New Orleans

Synopsis: A strange and forbidding man sits in his lair, emitting from a distance mindwaves that target Spider-Man and cause him to grow dizzy and falter against a trio of petty thieves. He is able to fight them off, but the mental waves have taken its toll. As Spider-Man wanders back to his apartment, the stranger thinks back on his origin, as he ascended towards mastery of mental control, a journey which took him through India and Africa and magic rituals not often seen by civilized man. His ultimate plan is to use these plans to destroy Spider-Man!

The Sorcerer presses his finger on a voodoo doll in the shape of Spider-Man, which once again wracks Peter Parker in agony. When the Sorcerer stops applying pressure, Peter begins to feel better. The villainous Sorcerer decides to put the voodoo doll in a box and mail it so the police will "know who it was that defeated" Spider-Man. Peter consults with Doc Bromwell who assumes he's suffering from a 24-hour virus. As Harry heads out on a date with Gwen and Mary Jane, Peter stays behind to rest.

But soon, the Sorcerer puts into play his master plan. He sends out mental waves augmented with a Psycho-Intensifier that afflict Spider-Man with the feeling that he must travel immediately to New Orleans, Louisiana. Aware that he's possessed by emotions not his own, but unable physically to do anything about it, Peter boards a plane to New Orleans and checks into a hotel.

During a Mardi Gras celebration that is in full force, nobody notices Spider-Man in full costume as he wanders in a daze out of the hotel. He wanders towards an old warehouse where, from inside a crate, a giant monster comes bursting out. It is a giant, Frankenstein-like creature that the Sorcerer has called The Hollow Man. Spider-Man tries to fight back against the Hollow Man, but the giant is so strong and quick, with a laser blast that he can aim from a band on his forehead, that he is almost outclassed. The Hollow Man catches Spidey when he is off balance and dazed and hurls him out the window into the Mardi Gras celebration below.

But in an amazing coincidence, the post office is returning the package the Sorcerer mailed out because it was addressed improperly. The post officer rings the Sorcerer's door bell, the reverberating ring of which "changes the mystic pitch of the Sorcerer's Psycho-Intensifier!" A shockwave rips through the villain's brain and he is sent into a coma.

Freed from the Sorcerer's mental grip, the Hollow Man ceases his pursuit of Spider-Man and instead wanders towards the waterfront, where he walks out into the depths. Spider-Man is left without any way of knowing what strange events have unfolded in his life to bring him to New Orleans.

--synopsis by Gormuu

Issues Reprinted
Amazing Spider-Man #68-77, Marvel Super-Heroes #14

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