Re: The Q&A thread

The government commissioned such a story in this world too, and Lee needed even less provocation to write it. It was a more nuanced story than you'd expect from him, because at this point he was socializing with recreational drug users on campuses. He was canny enough to write it so that "the squares" saw a simple message against all illegal drug use, but his true base recognized that his real target was immoderate drug use, as there were subtle signs that Gwen, Robbie Jr. and even Peter Parker had partaken at some point in their lives without doing serious damage to themselves. On the other hand, what happened to poor Harry Osborne was as bad as in our world.
When the Comics Code Authority started giving grief about this, a well-placed call to the White House effectively ended Code interference in Spider-Man stories from there on out. Despite Nixon's reservations about Lee, his course of action was pretty clear when Marvel was directly following instruction from the government.
Richard Nixon, anti-censorship crusader.
When the Comics Code Authority started giving grief about this, a well-placed call to the White House effectively ended Code interference in Spider-Man stories from there on out. Despite Nixon's reservations about Lee, his course of action was pretty clear when Marvel was directly following instruction from the government.
Richard Nixon, anti-censorship crusader.