Kingpin Defeats Spiderman

ASM. 163 & 164. This is the first time, I believe, when Spiderman fights a villain and loses, outright. I mean, he's lost an encounter here and there, but then manages to come back and defeat the person. Here, he loses the fight with Kingpin (which is done poorly), gets hooked up to some machine that permanently damages and threatens his very life. He's then thrown on a street curb by Kingpin's men, who have, on their own terms, disposed of him. They ended the battle. They were done with him. He should have simply died hours later. However, thanks to Dr. Connors, he delays his death and manages to reverse the effects of the machine in the next encounter with Kingpin. But the point still remains the same: he didn't escape, he didn't subvert the enemy's will, etc., during the first encounter -- he simply lost, flat out. The only reason why he didn't die sooner was because the Kingpin chose simply to be done with him, and returned him to his familiar streets, dumping him out of a car. Major butt kicking.

The interesting point here is how the post-Stan Lee writers continue to imagine Spiderman's powers differently from the way Lee did it. He sometimes isn't as fast or strong, and his spider sense often doesn't operate the same way. This isn't due to anything in the plot, it's just the writers really don't know well, or haven't accepted, the way Lee did things In the Romitta Sr. period.