MARC NOLETTI
Real Name: Marc Noletti
Identity/Class: Human technology user
Occupation: Locksmith; former cat burglar
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: NYPD (officer Andy Haid, captain
Polanski, officer Bobby Warren), Spider-Man (Peter Parker)
Enemies: The Barons streetgang
Known Relatives: Mr. Noletti (father)
Aliases: "Spider-Man"
Base of Operations: Little Italy, New York City,
New York
First Appearance: Spectacular Spider-Man II#114
(May, 1986)
Powers/Abilities: Marc Noletti possesses no known
superhuman abilities. Relatively in shape and acrobatic, he was able to
scale a skyscraper using Spider-Man's webbing without any artificial
support. He had a talent for fixing a wide variety of electronics and
was a skilled lockpick.
Height: 6'0" (by approximation)
Weight: 150 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Green
Hair: Red
History:
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#114 (fb) - BTS) - Teenage high school dropout
Marc Noletti worked in his father's failing locksmith shop in Little
Italy. Because business was so poor, Marc saw himself forced to become a
burglar, often returning to houses and apartments he'd previously
installed locks in.
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#114) - Marc was trying to break into an
apartment one night, having trouble with the new, tough to beat Fichet
brand locks when he was caught in the act by a custodian. Fleeing, he
made his way across an alley where local street gang the Barons were
harassing NYPD police captain Polanski. The confrontation would have
ended badly, if not for Spider-Man's timely arrival. The hero sent the
Barons packing, much to Polanski's annoyance who felt the wall crawler
was meddling. Seeing Spider-Man gave Noletti an idea however: he
remembered that photographer Peter Parker, famous for snapping shots of
Spidey for the Daily Bugle, had bought new locks for his place in
Chelsea. Marc decided to hit Parker's place and hurried to Chelsea.
After breaking into Peter's pad and finding it empty, Marc was initially
disappointed when he discovered very little of value. When he suddenly
heard noise coming from a different room (Spider-Man
returning home), he decided to grab a box from a closet that
looked like electronic equipment and rushed out.
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#114 - BTS) - Peter was understandably frustrated to find he'd been robbed while he was out preventing robberies. Annoyance turned to shock when he realized the one thing that was missing was a box containing his old Spider-Man costume, complete with equipment like webshooters and spider tracers.
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#114) - Returning home with his
loot, and passing his father who was quietly worrying over the unpaid
bills, Marc figured he could use the box of seemingly unremarkable
electronics to fix up an old TV so he could sell it. He was momentarily
stunned to find Spider-Man's costume and equipment inside, but soon he
thought of the perfect way to use it.
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#114 - BTS) - Marc put on the familiar red and
blue costume, but it took about half an hour before he had figured out
how to operate the webslingers. When he felt secure enough to use them,
he set out as Spider-Man to break into a skyscraper 30 blocks away.
(Spectacular Spider-Man I#114) - Marc used his webbing to
climb straight up one of Manhattan's many high rises, stopping at a 7th
floor, correctly figuring no one would bother to lock their windows. He
sneaked inside, but was discovered by the apartment's tenant who was
mortified at seeing "Spider-Man". She immediately told him where she
kept all her valuables. Amused, Marc even dared to ask for a sack to
carry his stolen treasure in. All in all, the robbery took over 30
minutes, Marc made his way down via the still dangling webline. He was
unaware the woman he'd just robbed immediately called the police, nor
did he know that Spider-Man's webbing dissolves within the hour. Just as
the cops were approaching the building, his webline gave out well before
he was on terra firma. Marc was unconscious as soon as he hit the
ground, making it easy for officers Bobby Warren and Andy Haid to arrest
him.
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#114) - Haid and Warren brought the still
unconscious "Spider-Man" to their precinct where captain Polanski swore
them to secrecy. He then unmasked Marc, had him finger printed and even
took a mugshot before allowing him to come to on the couch in his
office. Believing Noletti was the real Spider-Man, Polanski blackmailed
him into helping him take down the Barons. If he refused, Polanski
threatened to reveal "Spider-Man"'s identity to the Daily Bugle,
pictures and all. Afraid his father might find out, Marc decided to go
along with it and was brought to the Barons' hideout on the pier. He
tried to act like Spider-Man, even shooting his webslings at them but
the inexperienced youth was almost immediately overpowered. The Barons
locked him up in an empty part of their warehouse base, just as Polanski
came in to see what was taking "Spidey" so long. The Barons recognized
him from their previous encounter and took him prisoner. Meanwhile, Marc
came to and considered his options. He happened upon one of the spider
tracers that were part of his costume and deduced he could use them to
let the real Spider-Man know where he was. He even built a makeshift
signal amplifier from an old radio he found lying around to make sure
Spider-Man would pick up on it.
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#114 - BTS) - Marc's amplified
tracer signal hit Spider-Man like the proverbial sledgehammer, he traced
it back to the Baron's pierside warehouse where he quickly defeated the
thugs and freed Polanski who still wasn't happy to see him.
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#114) - Eager to kill the source of the
throbbing headache, Spider-Man grew even more furious when he spotted
Marc wearing his spare costume. Before he could belt him, Noletti begged
for forgiveness, explaining that he'd only stolen the equipment to help
his father because they needed the money. Feeling they had quite a few
things in common, Spider-Man took Marc aside as they had a talk about
how he himself started out as a hero to make a quick buck only to
realize there were always better ways if you only think hard enough.
Spider-Man also suggested that given Marc's gift for electronics, he
might consider getting into that field fulltime. At the same time,
Spidey convinced Marc that he'd asked Peter to hold on to the spare
equipment he'd stolen from his place. From a distance, officer Polanski
observed the meeting of the two Spider-Men which made him feel like a
fool for even thinking Noletti was the real wallcrawler. This forced the
hard nosed cop to reconsider a lot of things.
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#114 - BTS) - Shortly after his encounter with
Spider-Man, Marc started his own electronics repair business out of his
father's lock shop. It proved an immediate success, allowing the
Nolettis to pay their bills and even have money left over to save.
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#114) - Mr. Noletti sent Marc Uptown to help a
man who'd locked himself out of his apartment. When he arrived, he was
stunned to find it was the same apartment he'd tried to break into the
night he was caught by the building's custodian. He was even more
surprised when the owner turned out to be captain Polanski who was very
apologetic about what had happened a few weeks earlier. After Noletti
opened his door, Polanski invited Marc in to talk for a while.
Comments: Created by Len Kaminski (writer), Joe Brozowsky (pencils), Keith Williams & Del Barras (inks).
Keeping with the tradition of featuring appropriately
obscure characters for the big anniversary entries (hello Mr.
100 & 200)...
Here it is, profile 300: Marc Noletti. Why him? Well, he starred in one
of the first half a dozen Spider-Man stories I read as a kid in the late
80s. Seeing two Spider-Men in the same story was enough of a treat to
flip out over. It was also the first done-in-one story I remember
reading. Add to that Marvel's all too brief mid 80s tendency to close
out their story with a final, black panel that listed the credits. For
some reason, perhaps because it was so reminiscent of the way TV shows
ended, Noletti's one shot appearance stuck with me all these years.
Profile by Norvo.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Marc Noletti should not be confused with
Marc's father ran his own, small locksmith business in Little Italy. In recent times, the shop wasn't bringing in enough to support him and his teenage son Marc. He tried to keep this hidden from his only child, but Marc noticed his father worrying over the unpaid bills at night. Noletti wasn't aware Marc had turned to burgling to help ends meet. Following a near fatal incident posing as Spider-Man, Marc decided to turn his life around and used his electronics expertise to expand the lock shop's services. Mr. Noletti was proud of his son for bringing in extra income, keeping the family afloat and ahead.
--Spectacular Spider-Man II#114
images: (without ads)
Spectacular Spider-Man I#114, p11, pan1 (main image)
Spectacular Spider-Man I#114, p11, pans4-5 (robs as Spider-Man)
Spectacular Spider-Man I#114, p21, pan7 (has a heart-to-heart with Spider-Man)
Spectacular Spider-Man I#114, p22, pans1-2 (Mr. Noletti)
Appearances:
Spectacular Spider-Man II#114 (May, 1986) - Len
Kaminski (writer), Joe Brozowsky (pencils), Keith Williams & Del
Barras (inks), Jim Owsley (editor)
Last updated: 07/11/15
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