The Amazing Spider-Man #264
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThe Amazing Spider-Man #264 (May 1985) holds its place in Marvel history as the debut of Red 9 (Wallace Jackson), a tech-suited Texas teenager whose rocket boots and force-field armor made him a genuinely peculiar entry in the long line of Spider-Man antagonists. The issue is an oddity of the Copper Age — a self-contained, comedic one-off that deliberately broke from the title's ongoing soap-opera continuity at a time when that serialized structure was the norm for flagship Marvel books. It also illustrated, in real time, how the title's editorial direction had drifted after Roger Stern's departure, with its placement immediately before the debut of Silver Sable in #265 giving it an accidental historical framing: #264 is the issue that delayed one of the more enduring new characters of the era by a full month. Red 9 himself proved surprisingly durable in the Marvel Universe, eventually logging appearances in the post-Civil War Initiative program despite his clumsy debut.
In "Red 9 and Red Tape!", Spider-Man faces off against a wild, over-the-top Texas teen in a modified super suit eager to prove he’s the next big hero—while also navigating a bizarre bureaucratic maze that somehow promises to resurrect an old man, if only on paper. Written by Craig Anderson and illustrated by Paty, with colors by Bob Sharen and letters by Phil Felix, this 1985 classic blends high-octane action with a uniquely absurd twist, all wrapped in a cover by William Johnson and Joe Rubinstein.
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The story, titled 'Red 9 and Red Tape!', was written by Craig Anderson, who was primarily a Marvel editor and appears to have produced only a handful of scripts throughout his career — this being the first of them. Pencils and inks were both handled by Paty Cockrum, with colors by Bob Sharen, lettering by Phil Felix, and a cover by William Johnson and Joe Rubinstein; the book was edited by James Owsley (later known as Christopher Priest) under editor-in-chief Jim Shooter. Community reading records and fan commentary across multiple sites note that the issue appears to have been a deadline-driven fill-in, inserted after the preceding issue, #263, had teased Silver Sable's imminent debut — suggesting the DeFalco/Frenz story meant for this slot was not yet ready for publication.
Trivia · 7 facts
- First appearance of Red 9 (Wallace Jackson), a 16-year-old from Baytown, Texas, whose gravimetric battle-suit — featuring a force field, wrist-mounted energy blasters, and rocket-boot flight — was designed by his uncle, a NASA employee.
- First appearance of Philmont 'Pops' Magee, the cantankerous hospital patient at the center of the issue's red-tape subplot, who has been erroneously declared legally dead by a government computer mix-up.
- Written by Craig Anderson (primarily a Marvel editor), penciled and inked by Paty Cockrum, colored by Bob Sharen, lettered by Phil Felix; cover penciled by William Johnson and inked by Joe Rubinstein.
- Edited by James Owsley (Christopher Priest), with Jim Shooter serving as editor-in-chief.
- The story's dual plot runs Red 9's fight with Spider-Man alongside a bureaucratic farce: Pops Magee is being discharged from State Street Hospital because the state has mistakenly declared him dead, and Spider-Man must navigate the New York social-services system to restore his legal existence.
- Red 9 went on to accumulate roughly 20 total Earth-616 appearances, eventually being drafted into the Avengers Initiative following the Marvel Civil War event, appearing in Avengers: The Initiative.
- The issue directly precedes Amazing Spider-Man #265 (the first appearance of Silver Sable), and reader commentary across multiple sources consistently identifies #264 as a production fill-in that displaced the Silver Sable story by one month.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Strange #202 (1986), Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection #15 (2014), Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man #25 (2023), De spectaculaire Spider-Man [De spektakulaire Spiderman] #69, Die Spinne #123, El Hombre Araña / El Asombroso Hombre Araña #384, L'étonnant Spider-Man #169, Σπάιντερ Μαν [Spider-Man] #199
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