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Cover: Ron Frenz & Joe Rubinstein

The Amazing Spider-Man #272

Name: The Amazing Spider-Man #272
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Jan 1986 · Marvel · 0.65 USD; 0.30 GBP; 0.75 CAD

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“Make Way for Slyde!”

★ 1st appearance — Slyde

About this Issue

Amazing Spider-Man #272 is the sole origin and first appearance of Slyde (Jalome Beacher), one of the more conceptually inventive low-level villains introduced during Tom DeFalco's mid-1980s run on the title. The character's frictionless chemical suit — which renders Spider-Man's webbing completely useless — presented a genuinely novel tactical problem for the wall-crawler, distinguishing Slyde from the parade of brute-force antagonists of the era. The issue is also a deliberate callback to the self-contained, morally layered storytelling of the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko era: a wronged working-class scientist turns to crime with some ambiguity attached, and the ending withholds a tidy moral resolution in a way that was increasingly rare by 1986. It also advances the ongoing Thomas Fireheart/Puma subplot that would become central to the title's continuity through the Secret Wars II crossover.

In "Make Way for Slyde!", Spider-Man confronts a new foe whose slick tactics and surprising morals blur the line between hero and villain—especially when the criminal turns on his former boss and hands him over to D.A. Tower. With Sal Buscema’s dynamic art and Kyle Baker’s sharp inks bringing the action to life, this 1986 issue delivers a fresh twist in Spidey’s rogues’ gallery, all under Ron Frenz’s striking cover.

writer Tom DeFalco · artist Sal Buscema · inker Kyle Baker · colorist Nelson Yomtov · letterer Joe Rosen · cover Ron Frenz, Joe Rubinstein

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (VF) $6

CGC 9.8 · 360 in census $69

CGC 9.6 · 145 in census $33

CGC 9.4 · 59 in census $26

CGC 9.2 · 36 in census $26

CGC 9.0 · 26 in census $26

CGC 8.5 · 17 in census $20*

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CGC 8.0 · 6 in census $20*

CGC 7.5 · 5 in census $20

CGC 7.0 · 4 in census $20*

CGC 6.5 · 3 in census $20*

CGC 6.0 none in existence

CGC 5.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 5.0 none in existence

CGC 4.5 · 3 in census $20*

CGC 4.0 none in existence

CGC 3.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 3.0 · 1 in census $20*

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CGC 9.6 ▾ $59.99–$66 2 listings

CGC 9.6 · Newsstand $59.99 CGC 9.6 $66

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History

The issue was produced by the DeFalco/Buscema creative team during DeFalco's tenure as both writer of Amazing Spider-Man and Marvel's Editor-in-Chief, a dual role that gave him considerable editorial latitude. Sal Buscema handled interior pencils while Ron Frenz — DeFalco's primary collaborator on the title — contributed the cover alongside inker Joe Rubinstein. The story was written as a deliberately done-in-one issue, a format DeFalco and Frenz used periodically to give new readers an accessible entry point amid ongoing continuity-heavy storylines. The issue sits within the busy Secret Wars II crossover period, with a Puma/Beyonder subplot threading through adjacent issues.

Trivia · 8 facts

First and origin appearance of Slyde (Jalome Beacher), a chemical engineer who coats a bodysuit in his own frictionless polymer and turns to bank robbery after being laid off by Beemont Manufacturing.
Created by writer Tom DeFalco and penciler Sal Buscema; cover by Ron Frenz and inker Joe Rubinstein.
Cover-dated January 1986 (Copper Age); the Grand Comics Database records the first publication date as 1985, reflecting the standard newsstand ship-date vs. cover-date gap.
Story title: 'Make Way for Slyde!' — a self-contained done-in-one tale structured as a deliberate homage to the Lee/Ditko era of Amazing Spider-Man.
Slyde's frictionless suit is explicitly immune to Spider-Man's webbing, a power limitation that forces Spider-Man to rely on wits rather than his standard toolkit.
Thomas Fireheart (Puma) appears as a supporting character advancing a subplot tied to the Secret Wars II crossover; Joseph Threetrees (Fireheart's uncle and a member of the Kisani tribe) makes his first appearance in this issue alongside the Kisani Tribe.
The story was reprinted in Marvel Tales #282 (February 1994), reintroducing the character to a new generation of readers.
Slyde later received an animated adaptation in the Disney XD series Marvel's Spider-Man (2017–2020), voiced by Phil LaMarr in the episode 'The Road to Goblin War.'