Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: June 5, 1962
Cover: August 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
11 pages
| Previous | #12 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| POSTLUDE | Ultimate Spider-Man #1 | |
| Incredible Hulk #2 | Reading order | Journey Into Mystery #83 |
In this world, with great power there must also come– great responsibility!
I’ll just go ahead and let you know up front that I think this is the single best story in the history of comics.
It suffers only from being too often imitated. It has been retold so many times over the years in comic books and other media that many feel they know the story too well before ever picking up this comic. It can lose something in the repetition. But imagine coming to this story fresh, having never heard of Spider-Man, having never heard the phrase, “With great power there must also come– great responsibility!”
The story is this. Peter Parker is a nerd, loved by Aunt and Uncle, but ostracized by his high school classmates. When a bite from a radioactive spider gives him super powers, he tests them by entering a wrestling contest. An agent spots him and helps make him a celebrity. Caught up in his interest in fame and money, the self-absorbed Spider-Man doesn’t try to help a police officer chasing a burglar. In a twist of fate, the burglar he allowed to escape kills his Uncle Ben. He learns a valuable lesson about responsibility.
This is the first story we’ve come across where Stan sounds like Stan to me. Check out the opening page. He’s speaking to you the reader as himself. This is what he’s known for, being able to talk to the reader as though they are close personal friends.
Notably, he calls Spider-Man a “costume hero”. I don’t think the word “superhero” has been mentioned yet in these comics. And it’s not yet clear we have many traditional superheroes. The Fantastic Four looked more and more like superheroes with each issue, as they got costumes and fought super-villains. Henry Pym was just a man who got trapped in an ant hill. Gorilla-Man was a villain. Hulk is basically a villain. And Spider-Man is basically a jerk. Another famous superhero would be introduced this very same day; but again, not necessarily a traditional superhero in the Superman mold–this one is an actual god.
Kids in school aren’t nice to Peter, but nor is he shown to be necessarily bullied. He gets mocked and not invited to things. Girls reject him in favor of “dreamboats like Flash Thompson”. The first two pages are about contrast. It intersplices different aspects of Peter’s life and relationships: rejection from peers; support from faculty, and the love from family. We will then see that even a scientist makes fun of him.
Ultimately, they create enough of a backdrop to make us sympathetic for the main character, even as he acts like a jerk. We understand when he later remarks, “The rest of the world can hang, for all I care.” It’s similar to many remarks we’ve heard before from the many rejected people we have come across. From Moleman, from Henry Pym, from Hulk. There is a spectrum here: some rants were more malicious than others, but they all convey a rejection of the world that has rejected them.
We get two pages focused on his transformation and discovery of his newfound powers. Storywise, nothing too special here; Ditko’s art is what stands out. The scene parallels the cosmic rays hitting the FF spaceship or the gamma blast hitting Bruce Banner. Here, a spider bites Peter Parker and the image of the bite is justifiably famous.
The next three pages tell the story of a celebrity. They also include some of what I’ll call the story quirks. Stan was pumping out a lot of stories in those days, and spent not nearly as much time thinking about them as others have in the decades since. Later writers revisiting this story or rebooting or otherwise retelling have been faced with what seem like plotholes that needed more explanation than Stan offered.
The first is that he designed his own costume. Professional cosplayers will tell you that designing such a costume is not for amateurs, and not cheap. Spider-Man’s costume is particularly difficult because of all the webbing. Even if it were simpler, to get it sized so well and to have the mask snap so tightly around his head– that’s the work of a professional. Stan thinks it’s worth about a panel to note Peter sewed it himself.
Then there is is the invention of the web-shooters. Stan and Steve dedicate two panels to explaining Peter made them. It seems clear they didn’t appreciate just what a remarkable invention Spider-Man’s webbing is: that no substance really works that way.
The next page is the first scene of the pivotal turning point. A burglar is running down the hall. The cop yells for help and Spider-Man steps out of the way. “Sorry, pal! That’s your job! I’m through being pushed around– by anyone! From now on I just look out for number one– that means– me!”
Later in the page, the bond between himself and his kindly aunt and uncle is reinforced. But Peter’s thoughts show a dichotomy; his love for them does not extend any further. Spider-Man has not gone full villain like Moleman or Hulk, but nor is he a hero. He’s a self-absorbed jerk.
The next page delivers the second scene in the turning point arc. Some time has passed–at least several days–and Peter comes home to find his Uncle Ben has been murdered.
There is one scene left, the final two pages. Finally, Spider-Man springs into action to battle the burglar and avenge his uncle. He defeats the burglar easily. But then is faced with the shocking revelation.
The coincidence on display has troubled later writers adapting this story over the years. When working on the 1999 reboot Ultimate Spider-Man, Marvel’s president Bill Jemas was bothered by the fact that a burglar in Manhattan would later show up in Queens. In the 2002 Spider-Man film, they try to remove some of the coincidence by having Uncle Ben drop him off downtown, so he is nearby. The burglar then kills Ben immediately after running past Spider-Man.
I think those writers are wrong; this original take is better than attempts to jusitfy the coincidence. I like the indirectness of what happens; the result is a clear consequence of his mistake, but not an inevitable–or even likely–one. I do believe that bad begets bad and that eventually comes back to people; that the little ways we make the world worse can ripple and ultimately affect us; conversely, that the little ways we make the world better ultimately make our lives better. In real life, I think these butterfly effects go unnoticed. This story simplified the chain reaction to something apparent and taught Spider-Man to be more responsible. To be good.
There was a Danish television ad recently that showed a small social experiment. Strangers were gathered together and are at first depicted in a room not talking because they don’t know each other. The researchers then explain the many connections between these apparent strangers: the people who lived in the same house at different times; internet friends; a woman’s midwife; a man who had called the emergency hotline to save a woman’s husband. It was a giant web of connections among a group of strangers.
Actions have consequences. They deform our reality. This comic makes it clear that inactions also have consequences. And that’s where morality starts to get very complicated.
Of course the best part of the story gets understood later. The last panel with its trite platitude is more complex than it may at first appear. It comes with more questions than answers, and the continuing adventures of Spider-Man will explore those questions.
We have encountered this series before. We read a story from the previous issue when it was known as Amazing Adult Fantasy. This is the last issue of Amazing Fantasy, though the comic doesn’t seem to know that. It dedicates a whole page to explaining the name change, the new format, and clarifies that the next issue will feature another Spider-Man story. It even advertises this note on the cover.
Other stories in this anthology are: “The Bell-Ringer!”; “Man in the Mummy Case!”; “There are Martians Among Us!”. The Bell-Ringer is also a story about responsibility, a simpler tale but one with thematic parallels to Spider-Man. An island is about to be destroyed by lava, but the bell-ringer will not abandon his post.
I want to consider this story in more depth by contrasting it with a modern retelling. So we’ll be pausing reading through the ’60s to look forward to 1999 and see what changes modern creators decided to make when retelling this story.
Rating: ★★★★★, 98/100
Significance: ★★★★★
I read this comic in the Amazing Fantasy Omnibus.
Characters:
- Peter Parker, Spider-Man
- Uncle Ben
- Aunt May
- Sally
- Flash Thompson
- Crusher Hogan
- Spider-Man’s agent
- The burglar
Story notes:
- Narrator refers to superheroes as costume heroes.
- Narrator sounds like Stan.
- Title and cover clearly include a hyphen in Spider-Man’s name, but the opening narration block omits the hyphen.
- Peter goes to Midtown High.
- Exhibit at Science Hall. Experiment in Radio-activity. Open to public. Room 30.
- We don’t see what became of the spider.
- Even the scientist mocks Peter. But he at least knows his name.
- Some power descriptions: Peter feels like body is charged with fantastic energy; scales a wall as easily as walking; scales building in seconds; crushes steel pipe as though it were paper; can walk along cable as effortlessly as spider along web; speed agility, strength of giant spider.
- $100 to man who can stay in ring 3 minutes with Crusher Hogan.
- “You’d be a smash on Ed Sullivan’s show” — Agent.
- Life offers Spider-man a picture spread.
- Daily Chronicle, The Viewer, Daily Voice… all publish articles on Spider-Man. Can’t read fourth newspaper title.
- Burglar makes stand at old ACME warehouse.
- Lots of discussion of next issue for a comic without a next issue.
- Spider-Man has pupils..
- At first Spider-Man wears the mask just out of fear of being a laughing stock; he keeps it because his agent likes the gimmick.
- Later comics will name some of the miscellaneous characters in this issue. And some will be identified as more significant characters later. Ditko was careful in his drawing, so would reuse faces from Peter’s high school friends in later issues when they become important. Some unnamed people identified as being in this issue include Liz Allan. Some unnamed characters who will later be named include the teacher Raymond Warren, the scientist Dr. Eric Schwinner, Spider-Man’s agent Maxie Schiffman and the burglar Carradine; Sally will be given the last name Avril. A background character will also be later fleshed out and identified as Jason Ionello.
- Context: Released same day as the introductions of Thor and Ant-Man.
| Previous | #12 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| POSTLUDE | Ultimate Spider-Man #1 | |
| Incredible Hulk #2 | Reading order | Journey Into Mystery #83 |
