Harry gets political in this little arc from late 1972. Now interestingly, this story is an adapted version of the one which appears in Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #1 which came out in 1968. Plenty of things were edited to make it fit in with the 1972 Spider-Man continuity, such as taking out George Stacy (him being dead and all.)

Here’s a Harry scene from ASM #116 compared to one from the original. (Harry’s mention of Aunt May refers to events that happened in ASM #115, where May decided to remain in the home of Otto Octavius.)

And here’s a snippet of Harry from the Spectacular magazine that didn’t make it into Amazing.

But let’s start at the beginning, Harry fans!

After a fight with a massive man called the Smasher, who is smashing up billboards for mayoral candidate Raleigh, Peter meets up with Harry and MJ who have been driving around looking for him. Yep, that’s where we came in!

MJ and Harry are big Raleigh fans.

What’s attracting all this people to Raleigh? (Betty Brant and Gwen are into him too.) He doesn’t seem like much, and his platform is standard “restore law and order”. MJ says later “I may not buy some of his views, but one thing’s for sure, Raleigh’s sincere.” Which views doesn’t she buy? We never find out.

(Are you reminded of the last time a Spider-Man love interest threw herself behind a politician? Sorry for bringing that painful episode up, Gwen fans.)

Later, Peter attends a Raleigh rally with Gwen and MJ. (He had to go make up with Gwen first, convinced again that she was more interested in Flash than him.) But just as he’s sitting down with Gwen, the ceiling starts to crack! Peter makes an excuse and dashes off to try and stop it, but he can’t! Oh no!

Not yet, Peter.

Now for issue ASM #117. Peter can’t stop the ceiling crashing down, but everyone gets out of the way in time. Outside, Raleigh blames the Smasher and Spider-Man for the attempts against his life and vows to continue his fight against organized crime. (You can see where this is going, can’t you?)

Peter muses on what caused the attack. “Raleigh isn’t the sort of man who antagonizes extremist groups. In many ways, his attitudes are pretty liberal, as well as being conservative enough to stay in the mainstream, so why all these attempts to ruin him?” But we don’t know what his exact policies are, and which ones attracted Harry, Gwen and MJ.

We then meet someone called the Disruptor, the person seemingly behind the creation of the Smasher. Him and his scientist crony did it by way of “altering the genes of a common thug”. And now they’re sending their creation after Spider-Man!

Norman, JJJ and Robbie discuss politics among themselves. Norman isn’t voting for Raleigh, and Robbie is outright suspicious of him and plans to research his background. (Can you blame him?)

Peter prevents a stick-up at a Raleigh fundraising event and then returns home to call Aunt May. She’s not budging from her new home at Otto’s.

Here’s our first Harry appearance this issue! He invites Peter to a Raleigh youth rally. The whole Coffee Bean Gang (minus Flash) are really wild over him, aren’t they?

Harry and Peter meet Gwen and MJ at the rally.

Harry states that he admires Raleigh for his sincerity. I wonder if he and Norman ever had conversations about who to vote for, since Norman has already said he’s not a Raleigh fan.

“Your a sick boy!” is a mistake that always makes me giggle.

Peter’s spider-sense tingles and guess who it is? The Disruptor, in an ACID CAR!

The Disruptor demands Raleigh and so Peter swings into action. He gets in a few punches, but then the Disruptor is off again, leaving his mooks to fight Spidey. What’s his deal? From the safety of his ACID CAR, the Disruptor swears to Spider-Man, “When the moment comes and you’re at your weakest, then will the Disruptor strike, and the Smasher with him!”

After the fight, Jameson drops by Raleigh’s place to inform him Robbie Robertson is digging up background info on him. Hmmm, I wonder who the next target could be?

On to ASM #118. The Smasher comes for Robbie, but Spider-Man is able to intercept him. Then, on to another Raleigh campaign! Harry and the girls dig the guy so much that they’ve got a whole campaign van.

Parksborn shippers love those two panels! But seriously, Harry’s constant desire for Peter’s attention is part of his characterization by this point. He is a man who craves friendship so very much.

Harry fills Peter in on the Disruptor attack, but then…

The Smasher attacks!

But he’s after Raleigh, not Spider-Man. He smashes up the van and wanders off talking about how the Disruptor told him to do it. Peter is just glad he’s forgotten about Robbie.

He runs away from Gwen and the others, not at all suspiciously, and then follows the Smasher back to where he came from. The Disruptor is there and he sets Smasher on Spidey, but the Smasher’s brain ends up so overloaded that it breaks the Disruptor’s control on him. A big battle takes place as the election results come in.

Eventually the Disruptor and the Smasher lie unconscious (the Disruptor’s scientist minion on the other hand might be actually dead) and Spider-Man unmasks the Disruptor. You get absolutely no prizes for guessing that it was Raleigh All Along!

Peter will do this exact same thing – hide the costume and keep the deceased’s secret from the wider world – with Norman later. I personally think it would have been more satisfying for Peter to expose Raleigh as a villain, but maybe he’s thinking of the heartbreak Raleigh fans – like Harry – would suffer.

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Want to read this story? It’s collected in Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Vol. 12.