From Hero

I was wondering if anyone could tell me of a good issue where Spider-Man and the Black Cat end up together at the end of the issue? What series and number would that be?

From Goldneto

Who is the woman in the picture at the second row of MJ's database?, and, could you recomend me any site where I can check ou some of the Parker's house pics (I mean the Forrest Hills house or the SoHo department or any other one)?

From Steve Mills

You probably thought I was some sort of nutter, claiming that I'd be speaking at a convention for actuaries about what they could learn from Spider-Man. Well, it's happened, at the Younger Members' Convention on 5 December 2007. As you'll see, I decided not to go with your ideas in the end.

I started with Amazing Fantasy #15. The lesson here was a bit of a no brainer: With Great Power There Must Also Come Great Responsibility. Very relevant to actuaries but, to be fair, I could have come up with the same lesson at conventions for parents, chefs, pilots, superheroes,...

We then went on to Amazing Spider-Man. I picked out one issue with a lesson from each band of 100 issues and, to pander to my artistic side, my favourite cover from each of those bands.

From issues 1-100, I picked out #90, the death of Captain Stacy. A classic case of someone coming up with a good idea (the special webbing) but not thinking through the possible unintended consequences (in this case the resulting danger to the public). People expect actuaries not to get caught in the same trap, but to think things through all the way to the end. Best cover from this period was #50, by the way (as if you didn't know).

Best cover from 101-200 was #121 - I liked having a big supporting cast and it was great to have them all on the cover. Coincidentally, this was also the issue with a lesson. The lesson was all about time bombs. Not the sort of time bombs like that hostess trolley in Goldfinger with the convenient display on top, counting down to the big bang, but time bombs that you know will explode but you don't know when. I'm sure every business has time bombs lying around and it's important to be aware off them and to be prepared for the inevitable explosion. Think of what happened at Barings Bank (nothing to do with actuaries, by the way) where the lack of controls was a time bomb. In #121, it was Norman's memory. When would it return? Was Spider-Man prepared for the resulting explosion? I think not.

Then it was on to less well trodden territory with #215. The Wizard transfers Spidey's spider-sense to the Sub Mariner. Spidey's nowhere near as effective without it, and appreciates it a lot more when he gets it back. Oh, except that he ignores it when it's buzzing like mad and almost cops it as a result. Actuaries have a spider-sense too. You notice it when it warns you that something's wrong but doesn't tell you what the problem is. This issue told me (i) that you'd really miss that spider-sense if you lost it, and (ii) not to ignore it when it's screaming at you. The covers from this period aren't great (IMHO) but I went for #245, which was a (false alarm) Hobgoblin unmasking.

This was a long talk. Next up was the teeth & tongues era of 301-400. Best cover was #337, with its rogue galley of villains. The lesson came from #347, which is the one with Venom on the desert island. Spider-Man has the idea of putting a halt to Venom's repeated pestering was to give him what he wanted, which he did by fabricating his own death, rather than doing what he really wanted, which was to defeat him once again. I've been known to respond to questions by giving people the answers to the questions that I should have been asked rather and finding that I my time is wasted with the inevitable follow ups. The thing to do is to think like and ask myself what the customer really wants and give it to them. If I do this and the customer, like Venom, will go away happy and not bother me again, leaving me to prepare my presentation for the next convention.

Speaking of which, I've finally reached issues 401-500. Best cover was #491 (or Volume 2 #50 if you insist). For the "lesson" I picked out just a couple of pages from #472 (Volume 2 #31). There's a boardroom scene where Ezekiel asks his accountant for a coffee table figure: "If I took all the money we have and dumped it on the coffee table over there, what would it be?" Rather than being a lesson for young actuaries, I put this in as a discussion point. With all the different accounting conventions going on in the actuarial world, ten actuaries could easily give you ten different answers, all correct in their own way. But which answer would be most correct?

While people were thinking about that, we had a vote over which of my five chosen covers was the best. #491 won quite convincingly. I'd have gone for #50 myself. Both #50 and #491 have lots of warm reds, oranges and yellows but I prefer covers that give some indication of what's inside.

I had great fun with it - I'm now keeping my fingers crossed for some decent feedback.

From Brian

I have been told that spiderman sees a therapist. I am a therapist so my interest is obvious. Do you by any chance know this and the name and no of the comic that it appears in.

From Liam

Hope you can help. I'm writing a piece on Spiderman in Edinburgh to coincide with the new comic book, and trying to track down details of Spidey's previous visit to Edinburgh which I believe was a few years ago.

Can you help? Just need a year and brief story synopsis.

From FreeBrettH

I have a question related to the Clone Saga. I've been collecting and re-reading a lot of the issues from that time period, but I'm still missing some of the important ones, so I'm just curious if this question was ever satisfactorily resolved.

In "Time Bomb," the Jackal programmed the clone (Peter) to attack MJ. Well, since we all now know Peter wasn't the clone, how was the Jackal able to do this?