Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
Ruggedly written by: Stan Lee
Robustly drawn by: Steve Ditko
Recently lettered by: S. Rosen
22 pages
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|---|---|---|
| Sgt. Fury #11 | Reading order | Amazing Spider-Man #18 |
| Amazing Spider-Man #16 | Amazing Spider-Man | Amazing Spider-Man #18 |
The Green Goblin returns. I was not impressed with this villain in his first appearance. I am not that impressed with him 60 years later. But he is perhaps Spider-Man’s most popular villain, considered by many to be the definitive Spider-Man villain. Why?
I have a theory, a cynical one, mind you. Perhaps Team Goblin folks can correct me. My theory is this: Green Goblin is the villain in all the best Spider-Man stories, most of which would work just as well if you substituted in any villain. Case in point: this story.
A classmate of Peter’s refers to the James Bond novels. The character had already made his way into at least two films by this point as well. We’ll look back to the current place in pop culture of James Bond when SHIELD gets introduced, to see if we detect any influence.
This remains the only series to really handle the out-of-costume soap opera well. Almost every other title needs to keep its focus on the mission or the villain. Here, the villain shows up for the fight on page 13. Stan and Steve are confident they can fill 12 pages with character work, and they can.
Green Goblin has a new glider. Last time, he had a flying broomstick instead. This is definitely cooler, and he notes it’s faster and more maneuverable… but the old one he specifically noted was designed to make fatal error impossible. He neglects to mention if this new glider has been so designed.
The Green Goblin reveals his arsenal: pumpkin, ghost, frog, moon, bat. Of these weapons, the pumpkin will prove surprisingly enduring.
Ditko stages a panel nearly identical to a panel from the final page issue 14. The point of both panels is to make it clear to the reader that we are intentionally not being shown the face of the Green Goblin. If you’re going to steal, steal from the best.
Spider-Man mistakes a movie being filmed for a crime being committed and messes up. Jameson is thrilled. People on the street shakes their heads at Spider-Man. Ditko is very good at showing reactions from the person on the street.
This has a chilling effect on Spider-Man, and he later disregards his spider-sense out of uncertainty regarding a bystander.
The bystander turns out to be an armed criminal pursued by the police. Fortunately, the Human Torch is handy to nab the crook.
Betty notes Spider-Man has saved her 3 times. Jane has lost count of how often Thor has saved her. Karen has already been saved 2 times in only 4 issues of Daredevil.
We learned in Fantastic Four #14 that Mr. Fantastic has a fan club with multiple chapters. Giant-Man has an active fan club we see often, that he regularly obliges by letting them hang out at his laboratory. Flash Thompson, Spider-Man’s biggest fan (who hates Peter Parker), has started a Spider-Man Fan Club, and is heading the Forest Hills Chapter.
We meet Liz’s dad, who is lending a venue and some marketing help to the Fan Club. Flash refers to him as Mr. Brant. Since he is Liz Allan’s father and not Betty Brant’s, it’s most likely that Flash was incorrect. I am going to assume his name is Mr. Allan. (Though assumptions like this led me astray in watching Spider-Man: Homecoming…) And that Flash will be hearing from Liz about mixing her up with Betty (or perhaps Stan will be hearing from Steve about it).
One of Flash’s friends gets a name: Seymour. We met Liz Allan and Mr. Warren before we knew their names, but they were drawn distinctly enough in their early appearances as to leave no doubt who they were. It’s less true for Seymour. Flash has had a small group of friends with him since the beginning, and general wisdom seems to agree Seymour is among them. We only see a brief shot of him here, and it’s not obvious to me that I can positively identify the character from any previous issues, though I could believe he’s been around.
The Peter/Betty drama is somewhat a repeat of last issue, though this issue escalates it. Last issue, Spider-Man was “invited” to appear at a circus, this time at a fan club meeting. Betty wanted Peter to take her to both events. He didn’t invite her so he could appear as Spider-Man. But then she learned he went to both.
Liz makes the observation that Spider-Man and Peter never seem together at the same time. She had also noted Peter’s absence when Spider-Man appeared way back in issue 4.
To protect his secret, Spider-Man takes advantage of the arrival of Human Torch to change into Peter and let Betty see him before resuming the fight against the Green Goblin. This has the unfortunate effect that Betty sees him with Liz. Betty starts to cry.
To complicate matters further, for the third issue in a row, Aunt May tries to set Peter up with Mrs. Watson’s niece, Mary Jane. Peter tries to make the excuse that he is going to the Fan Club meeting, but that doesn’t work because Mary Jane turns out to be a big Spider-Man fan. Fortunately for him, Mary Jane gets sick and has to cancel.
It’s fortunate that Human Torch had been at the fan club meeting. He was there with his girlfriend Dorrie, who made him promise to not try to upstage Spider-Man. It was good Johnny was on hand to help out with the Green Goblin.
Especially when Spider-Man overhears that Aunt May had a heart attack and was hospitalized. He leaves the battle to go help her, letting Human Torch handle Green Goblin. But the crowd decides that Spider-Man is a coward; in the end, nobody wants to join the fan club, and Jonah is quite delighted by the events.
Dorrie’s presence in this issue is notable, because she hasn’t been around that much. She’s been dating Johnny a while, so you’d think an appearance in Fantastic Four would be natural, but she has never been seen or mentioned in that title. The makers of Fantastic Four generally seem embarrassed about the Thing/Human Torch adventures in Strange Tales and never refer to them or anything about them. However, this is her second appearance in Amazing Spider-Man. It makes some sense as this series is more likely to be interested in high school soap opera than Fantastic Four.
We are obviously well into August comics at this point, yet skipped over this July story because it flows so well into the next issue that it seemed important to read them together. Okay, so the ending isn’t really a cliffhanger. But I promise next issue continues the thematic arc, so you’ll be glad we’re reading it next.
The letters page features a letter from future comics scribe Doug Moench. Moench has written many comics for Marvel and other companies. His most renowned Marvel work is probably Master of Kung Fu. My first association is with Batman comics, as he was a key Batman writer when I was first getting into the character. Here’s what he had to say about Amazing Spider-Man #14, which introduced the Green Goblin. He liked it better than I did, at least based on his opinion aged 16. I’m in agreement the action on display was its strength; and we agree that Ditko is Marvel’s best artist.
Dear Stan and Steve,
I have no doubts that you will receive a countless number of rave letters dealing with SPIDER-MAN #14, this being one. Although the story did not have an intricate plot, it did present a very good idea which set the stage and started the ball rolling for action, an integral part of a comic book. B. J. Cosmos mentions getting a Beatle to play the roll [sic] of Spider-Man. I feel that a Beatle would have been better in the role of the Hulk. Examine the two mops which each contends to be hair and you’ll get the idea. Now, action: This of course is the bright spot of the story. My favorites in action panels are: p. 5, panel 1; p. 15, panel 3; panel 5 of the same page; and p. 17, panel 3. I also enjoyed p. 20, panel 6 but I always get a kick out of these sort of panels. Who the heck are the kooks who knock Mr. Ditko?? As far as I’m concerned, Steve’s the best pencil and ink pusher you’ve got. Character development: All I’ll say is “Great, as usual!” Those of us who do read the letters column have witnessed a fan by the name of Paul Gambaccini write a series of letters that were downright insulting in the earlier ishes and that slowly softened up (as your mags improved) until recently he said simply, “All right, you’ve got me”, meaning of course, over your “competitors”. This has been and is being echoed all over fandom. Many saw the light sooner than Paul, a few after him, and sadly, there are still some that haven’t seen the light of Marvel brilliance that clearly marks you from the rest.
Douglas Moench, Chicago, Ill.
For reference, let’s see the panels from Amazing Spider-Man #14 he was referring to:
If you’d like to learn a lot more about Doug Moench, this gentleman on the Classic Comics Forum has done a comprehensive review of his first 5 years of work and counting.
Rating: ★★★★☆, 75/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
I read this story in Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection vol. 1: Great Power. In fact, it’s the final issue in this collection. I have a giant stack of books on my bedroom dresser, and it’s so satisfying to put one back on the shelf. Makes me feel like I’m making progress.
You can also find it in Marvel Masterworks: Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2. Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Peter Parker/Spider-Man
- Flash Thompson
- Liz Allan
- Green Goblin
- J. Jonah Jameson
- Betty Brant
- Human Torch/Johnny Storm
- Aunt May
- Mr. Allan (Mr. Brant?)
- Dorrie Evans
- Seymour
Story notes:
- Flash forms Spider-Man Fan Club, Forest Hills Chapter.
- Liz and Betty squabble.
- Avenue Dinner Club site of first meeting of fan club. Liz’s father owns the club; he is also a Spider-Man fan.
- Battle with Ringmaster referred to as last month.
- Spider sense tingles because Green Goblin walks by in street clothes.
- Torch gives Peter autograph.
- Beatles reference.
- Jameson wants Peter at fan club meeting, brings Betty as well. Betty doesn’t get message to Peter on purpose, because she’s jealous of Liz.
- Aunt May attempts for a third time to set up a date between Peter and Mary Jane Watson.
- Flash refers to Liz’s dad as Mr. Brant. Presumably a mistake, either on Flash’s part or the scripter’s.
- Johnny and Dorrie attend fan club meeting.
- We learn the name of one of Flash’s friends: Seymour
- Goblin attacks with electrically charged toy frog; electrically-activated mechanical bat emits black smoke; pumpkin is a bomb; ghost forms cloud acting as airtight seal. We also saw something that looked like a moon among his weapons.
- Hertz reference.
| Previous | #258 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Sgt. Fury #11 | Reading order | Amazing Spider-Man #18 |
| Amazing Spider-Man #16 | Amazing Spider-Man | Amazing Spider-Man #18 |
Great, great, great issue.
In defense of the Goblin (and while generally agreeing that most SA Marvel villains fell into interchangable “mastermind” and “thug” archetypes) he had the most visually interesting fighting style (with a bunch of different gadgets as opposed to just electricity or sand or whatever) and he was the only baddie with his own unique sub-plot which gave him an air of mystery that Doc Oc or the Vulture didn’t have.
Wondering if the Paul Gambaccini whom Dough quotes if the famous BBC radio and tv presenter. I grew up listening to his chart show on British Forces Broadcasting System.