Once They Engage, They've Lost

I was reading some discussion of the Spider-Man vs. Juggernaut fight from Amazing Spider-Man #229-230. I think in regards to the differing opinion this story has compared to the Spider-Man vs. Firelord battle from Amazing Spider-Man #269-270.

One argument was that while in the latter story, Spidey ultimately just beats down the Firelord, which seemed improbable, here he tricks the Juggernaut into the wet cement. Setting aside this ignores the myriad number of things Spider-Man tried first against Firelord - stealing his staff, tricking him into flying into a building, tricking him into flying into a subway train, tricking him into a building set for demolition - Spidey is as surprised to find them sinking as Juggernaut. Exact quote: 'Huh? Well. . .How about that! Congratulations, Stumble-Foot! You slogged right into a recently poured foundation of wet cement!'

That said, in a sense, Spider-Man did trick the Juggernaut. One thing established very clearly in #229 is that, as the issue title says, Nothing Can Stop The Juggernaut. That includes Spider-Man. For everything he tries, Juggernaut basically never even slows down or changes course. Even when he walks through a building to scrape the webslinger off his back, it's still on his way to Madame Web.

This persists in issue #230. Again, nothing Spider-Man does actually hurts him. Not the steel girder he launches, not the wrecking ball he throws, not the brick wall that falls on them, not the loaded gasoline truck. All Cain Marko has to do is just keep walking to Black Tom's yacht and he's home free. Easy as that.

But he can't let it go. He lets himself be drawn into trying to crush Spider-Man personally, rather than just ignoring him. And every second he's going off-course to chase Spider-Man onto a demolition site or a construction site is a second he's not getting out of town. Which is another second Spider-Man has to either figure out a way to actually stop him, or just get lucky.

Which is what happens. Juggernaut didn't need to stop and pummel Spidey because he covered the eyeholes on his helmet. He was already walking straight at a brick wall to scrape Spidey off. Just keep going! But Juggernaut let Spider-Man irritate him enough to where he wanted to beat him to a pulp instead, and wound up doing it in a very bad place.

Same thing with Firelord. Once he recovered his staff and found Spider-Man gone, he could have just let it go. He hadn't been hurt, other than his honor (pride, really). Spidey high-tailed it out of there, which ought to have indicated he was sufficiently intimidated by Firelord. That could have been enough. Just leave the planet, or if he has to have pizza, don't act like a total Karen this time with the smashing of doors and melting ovens. But no, he had to keep flying around, looking for Spider-Man, determined to fight, and look where it got him.