Spider-Man: The Six Arms Saga

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Cover of Amazing Spider-Man #101, by Gil Kane

The Six Arms Saga is a story arc of 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 the striking aesthetic of Spider-Man, swinging through the city with four extra arms.

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

[edit] Plot

Spider-Man has had enough of being Spider-Man. Peter feels miserable about all the anguish he had to endure. His best friend Harry Osborn has become a junkie, and his close friend Captain George Stacy died in his arms. His 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 which is intended to exterminate 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 to nullify them!

He then visits his only possible confidant, Dr. Curt Connors, alias the Lizard, and fight a vampiric villain called Morbius. Using Morbius' blood, both brew an antidote that turns Spidey back into normal.

[edit] Notes

Harry Osborn was revealed being addicted to drugs in ASM #96-98.
George Stacy had been killed in the bedlam when Spider-Man fought 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.
In The Ultimate Clone Saga, a Clone of Spider-man with Six arms and a variant Black Costume will surface. The Variant Cover for Ultimate Spider-Man 100 was based on that of Amazing Spider-man 100, in which the Saga takes place.