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The Juggernaut’s most famous defeat was also one of the most unexpected at the time, as no one could have anticipated Spider-Man could outmatch Marko.
The Marvel Universe is filled with iconic characters who have been at the heart of equally iconic moments, and few if any have taken part in more memorable moments than Spider-Man himself. Throughout his nearly 60-year history, Peter Parker has done a lot of things, even achieving seemingly impossible tasks like stopping the Juggernaut in his tracks.
Spider-Man and the Juggernaut met in 1982’s Amazing Spider-Man #229 by Roger Stern and John Romita Jr., which saw the titular hero’s longtime ally Madame Web suffer from devastatingly ominous nightmares. In her dreams, an unstoppable beast was coming to end her life, and so she reached out to Spider-Man for help in staving off whatever threat had been prophesized. Neither of them could have expected Cain Marko, however, who had been tasked with kidnapping Madame Web by Black Tom Cassidy.
While the two had hoped the psychic would join them in their efforts to overcome the X-Men, though this couldn’t have been further from the case once the Juggernaut showed up at Madam Web’s apartment. After she fought back, the villain left her on the floor of her home completely disconnected from the chair which was keeping her alive. Even though Spider-Man wasn’t able to stop the Juggernaut in his pursuit of Web, he did manage to get to her in time to save his friend, and not long after he would make sure that the vicious attack on her was avenged.
Amazing Spider-Man #230 followed Spider-Man in his quest to bring the Juggernaut to justice, although that was something far easier said than done. Between being unable to fell his foe with his fists and running out of web fluid, there weren’t many options left for Spidey to turn to. Even driving a tanker truck directly into the Juggernaut proved completely ineffective, so Peter Parker was forced to get more creative than ever.
After climbing onto his opponent’s back and hanging on for dear life, Spidey was able to blind Juggernaut and corral him towards a 40-foot pool of freshly poured cement at a construction site. Through one back-breaking blow after another, Spider-Man never gave out, only letting himself be thrown free once the Juggernaut was already defeated. Try as he might have to escape, there was nothing for Cain Marko to do but sink into the depths as the cement set around him.
It’s been almost forty years since the Juggernaut was buried in cement by Spider-Man, but that defeat isn’t one that he has yet to live down. Even within the Marvel Universe itself, Cain Marko’s defeat at the hands of the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has become a famously embarrassing story to tell. This story is a testament to Spider-Man’s intelligence and ingenuity as a fighter, standing as the clearest, most famous example of how he can deal with threats that outclass him in every way. While Spider-Man couldn’t stop Juggernaut or his momentum-based powers, he was still able to stop him from building that momentum up in the first place by immobilizing him.
In the years since this fateful fight, Juggernaut has proven himself capable of being a more unstoppable hero than he was as a villain, but being buried alive is the one bit of history that he will never be able to shake.
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