Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: March 10, 1964
Cover: June 1964
12 cents
Author: Stan Lee
Artist: Steve Ditko
Lettered by: Art Simek
22 pages
I love the web dissolving on the cover.
Spider-Man has turned to crime. He commits a robbery and then gets away by crawling a wall and using webbing. He must be guilty. Jameson was right all along.
Of course, there was the time the Skrulls convinced everybody the Fantastic Four had turned to crime. Or the time Thor was framed by Mr. Hyde. Or the two times Wizard impersonated Human Torch to frame him for crimes. Spider-Man himself has been framed for crimes now by Chameleon and the Fox. And Jameson accused Spidey of being Electro and of being in cahoots with almost every other villain. So maybe the public shouldn’t jump to any conclusions.
But they do; in one of the classic Ditko everybody-reading-and-commenting-on-news panels. Only Flash stands by Spider-Man’s innocence.
Even Peter finds the evidence pretty convincing. Webs? Nobody else could possibly have webbing like he does. Pretty sure of himself that something a teenager made in his bedroom is impossible to imitate. Spider-Man goes to see a psychiatrist to decide if he might be unconsciously committing crimes, but thinks better of it.
Crowds of random people are even ready to form a mob to take Spider-Man down themselves. This will become oddly common in Spider-Man’s life.
Jameson’s behavior in this issue confuses and bugs me. I get hating Spider-Man. I get it. But I feel like that should extend to hating all or most masked vigilantes. Yet, he’s ready to proclaim Mysterio a hero using an “enemy of my enemy” philosophy. And he’ll keep doing this: backing exactly the type of menaces he accuses Spider-Man of being. Not just Jameson. The whole town throws Mysterio a parade.
There exist people who don’t like Mysterio’s costume. We don’t associate with those people. This is an awesome design.
We get a cool outer space battle by virtue of their fight taking them onto the set of a sci/fi film.
We get a too-convenient ending where the villain confesses his entire plan and life story to the hero. It’s a trope often stereotypically associated with superhero stories, but not one that has been very common in our reading. I expect better from this series, but overall it’s a great issue.
We get tension in the Liz/Peter relationship. Liz has started to flirt with Peter, and Betty has noticed. The old arguments about Peter’s job being too dangerous flare up at a time Peter is short-tempered. All bad signs.
Hey, check out Mysterio on the big screen from Spider-Man: Far From Home, portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal.
Rating: ★★★★☆, 76/100
Significance: ★★★★☆
I read this story in Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection vol. 1: Great Power. You can also find it in Marvel Masterworks: Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2. Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Spider-Man/Peter Parker
- J. Jonah Jameson
- Betty Brant
- Liz Allan
- Flash Thompson
- Mysterio
Story notes:
- Mysterio frames Spider-Man for robberies.
- May’s savings almost gone; getting harder to pay the mortgage.
- Spider-Man visits psychiatrist.
- Mysterio has Jameson publish note for Spider-Man to meet him atop Brooklyn Bridge.
- Mysterio able to: jam spider-sense; disappear; leap high; balance on the side of a building; dissolve webbing; create smoke; see through smoke with sonar…
- Mysterio used to work in movies, as stuntman and special effects specialist.
#192 story in reading order
Next: Strange Tales #121
Previous: Sgt. Fury #7
