Spider-Man Fact — October 28, 2026

Today's Fact

Verified against multiple independent sources. Issues cited below.

SPIDER-MAN FOUGHT A VILLAIN WHOSE ENTIRE WEAPON WAS ONE GIANT WHEEL!

The Featured Fact

Jackson Weele was not a criminal mastermind. He was a businessman who had embezzled from his own company and hired the Rocket Racer to steal back the evidence — whereupon the Racer kept the most damning document, the Minerva Document, and blackmailed him with it. The Racer also mocked him with a nickname drawn from his surname: “Big Wheel.” In The Amazing Spider-Man #182 (1978), by Marv Wolfman and Ross Andru, Weele decided to take the insult literally.

Weele went to the Tinkerer, the underworld engineer who had built the Racer's jet-powered skateboard, and commissioned something bigger. The Tinkerer delivered a giant armoured monowheel — a rolling fortress with machine guns, rocket launchers and waldo arms, able to climb the side of a building while its driver sat motionless at the hub. In The Amazing Spider-Man #183, the Big Wheel rolled out to crush the man who had coined its name.

The machine was magnificent. The driver was not. Spider-Man webbed the Racer out of the wheel's path on a rooftop, and Weele — who had never once practised steering his fortress — could not stop it in time. The Big Wheel rolled straight off the building and plunged into the Hudson River, and Spider-Man's dive after it came up empty. Weele was presumed dead for years, until he resurfaced reformed, attending a support group for former supervillains and helping Spider-Man instead of hunting him.

Why It's Obscure

1978

Amazing Spider-Man #182 — the Rocket Racer blackmails embezzler Jackson Weele with the Minerva Document and saddles him with the “Big Wheel” nickname.

1978

Amazing Spider-Man #183 — the Tinkerer's monowheel debuts in full: guns, rockets, waldo arms, wall-climbing — and a driver with zero hours of practice.

The Fall

Straight into the Hudson — unable to brake on the rooftop, Weele and the wheel went over the edge; Spider-Man searched the river and found nothing.

Later

Reformed, eventually — Weele resurfaced years later in Spider-Man Unlimited #12, having joined a villains' support group and switched to helping the hero he once nearly flattened.

Gallery

Comic art — no AI imagery, nothing mislabeled.

Jackson Weele driving the giant yellow Big Wheel monowheel through a street — **The Wheel Itself**Weele at the controls of the Tinkerer's monowheel — one enormous armoured wheel with waldo arms, exactly the weapon the story describes.

Amazing Spider-Man number 183 cover with Big Wheel, Rocket Racer and Spider-Man — **Amazing Spider-Man #183**The cover of the Big Wheel's debut issue: the monowheel bearing down while the Rocket Racer and Spider-Man tangle in its path.

Rocket Racer in red and gold on his skateboard with Spider-Man swinging behind him — **The Rocket Racer**The Rocket Racer on his Tinkerer-built skateboard, Spider-Man swinging in behind him — the blackmailer whose taunt named the Big Wheel.

Sources

Every claim above is verified against at least two of these independent sources.

Bullpen Bulletins

Jackson Weele (Earth-616) — Marvel WikiVerifies: Weele hired the Rocket Racer, was blackmailed over the Minerva Document, commissioned the Tinkerer's giant armoured monowheel with machine guns and rocket launchers, and drove it off a building into the Hudson River.
Big Wheel: How Spider-Man's Most Well-Rounded Villain Kept on Rolling — CBRVerifies: Big Wheel debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #182, created by Marv Wolfman, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito; the inexperienced Weele sank into the Hudson, was believed dead, and later resurfaced reformed in Spider-Man Unlimited #12.
The Big Wheel — SpiderFan.orgVerifies: the issue-by-issue account of #182–#183: the blackmail, the Tinkerer taking the nickname as a design brief, the rooftop chase, and the plunge into the Hudson.