Last week, we saw a character return to “Amazing Spider-Man” that hadn’t been seen in almost forty years. Who was this character and how was their triumphant return?
Writers and fans are always talking about the glory of the Lee/Romita era. They long for the love triangle of Mary Jane and Gwen Stacy, Peter and Harry being roommates and the classic ESU gang. There is a member of the gang that is largely forgotten. His name is Josh.
You’re probably asking who Josh is.
Josh was part of the ESU gang. Truth be told, he was actually seen on ESU’s campus more than Mary Jane was (until Gerry Conway’s run). He was frequently seen with Randy and usually spouting political talk about “whitey”. He was never given a last name, although this website calls him “Josh Kittling” but there is no source for that. The app
earance list it gives for him is also incomplete.
I’m not accepting that last name as canon until I see a source as some Spider-Man Marvel indexes have also neglected to give Josh a last name. There is some question over if Greg Weisman (the writer of this story) intended it to be Josh. He is colored white but that may be because Rob Schwager, the colorist, wasn’t aware that Josh was anyone special and assumed he was another bit character like the army buddies who appeared later in the story.
Judging by Greg Weisman’s knowledge of Spidey history, and the other obscure characters he threw in the story, I 
am going to assume this is Josh.
Josh wasn’t the only obscure character Weisman remembered. Consider this part one in a series of four forgotten characters. Stay tuned.
Check out this slideshow to brush up on your Josh history!
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I thought the character who “returned” that hadnt been see in some time was supposed to be silvermane…
WTH! He looks like Eminem in 8 Mile!
This is not the first time Mr. Wiseman has proved just how immersed he is in spider-man continuity. His spectacular Spider-man show is a marvelous showcase for his immense knowledge of spidey and he hasn’t used any new characters for that show. God I am praying to God Almighty day and night for the 3rd season.
It would be cool if greg were on the title for a year, I thoght the story was great.
That’s not Morbius! The Morbius I know is balding…right, Kevin?
Love Spectacular Spidey, I can’t believe that iron man has another 26 on order and other marvel characters have continuing deals, when the flagship character with by far the best show, is in limbo. Disney XD running the Avengers but not as yet Spider-Man! Laughable.
I havent read a Morbius story since 1997….
…And I still havent. I just read Greg’s story ^_^
A crisp, perfect set-up for this Flash/Lizard story, and brought back the Thompson roster. If you get called back Greg, I’d like a serving of six issues of this (arent we due for another six-parter this year?)
From the cover I thought the returning character was Morbuis. I knew it had been a while since he was in Amazing but I didn’t think it had been 40 years. I bet Kevin is thrilled that he is making an appearance.
Neat, Greg.
I was actually assuming Eddie’s roommate in Spec was his roommate from Ultimate Spidey, who was African-American. I think he only appeared once though, right after the first Venom arc.
FYI – Josh was Eddie’s ESU college roommate in The Spectacular Spider-Man (before Eddie became Venom).
Josh was a bit player in order to establish the type of character Randy would prove to have, but it did sort of give way to a very cool scene between him and Robbie on race in America which to this day is a testament to how nuanced Stan Lee could really be at his peak back in the day.
We can always assume it’s some twisted irony given his hatred of the white man. Thanks for including him! I had a continuity-gasm!
That was meant to be Josh. I’m less than thrilled, as you can imagine, that he was colored white. Very less than thrilled.