Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: November 10, 1964
Cover: February 1965
12 cents
Deliciously written by: Stan Lee
Deliriously illustrated by: Steve Ditko
Delightfully lettered by: S. Rosen
20 pages
| Previous | #298 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Sgt. Fury #14 | Reading order | Strange Tales #129 |
| Amazing Spider-Man #20 | Amazing Spider-Man | Amazing Spider-Man #22 |
What a beautiful cover. One of my favorites yet. Definitely my favorite Spider-Man cover so far. I like the way Ditko contorts Spider-Man in the air. It’s never straightforward, and decades of artists have tried to imitate his many posings. It’s just such a nice rendering of Spider-Man, who’s always at his best when at least somewhat upside down.
Ditko’s got the Beetle lurking off in the corner, just to show there is a villain. He keeps the focus on the actually visually interesting characters.
And then the opening splash page is basically an alternative cover, this one showing Spider-Man directly in combat with the Beetle, again with Spidey’s body flying through the air in his inimitable style.
This is one of the most underrated Spider-Man stories of all time. You’ll easily notice my Best We’ve Read page has more than its share of Spider-Man stories, as they are simply head and shoulders above all the other Marvel comics of this era. The highest rated Spidey stories won’t surprise people who love Spider-Man stories. I’ve spent a lot of time reading people’s opinions on Spider-Man stories, looking at lists of the best Spider-Man stories. His origin and the Sinister Six story, those are everybody’s favorite. While you may hear less of it, for those in the know, the End of Spider-Man story is spoken of with sufficient reverence. As is his unmasking by Dr. Octopus and first battles against Doc Ock, Vulture, and Electro. I’ve heard people cite the Scorpion battle and even the Green Goblin battle as their favorite stories.
But I never hear anybody talk about how great Spider-Man’s first battle against the Beetle is. Let’s correct that.
In real life, I’m all about prison reform. But in the Marvel Universe, I am not convinced they punish anybody harshly enough. Beetle has been in jail a few months at most. Not only is he now a free man but they gave him back his armor. I don’t think the police have to return the weapon you used to commit your crimes.
Beetle’s motivation is revenge on the Human Torch. He’ll decide the best approach is to strike at Johnny through his girlfriend. This is why superheroes have secret identities.
Also, Human Torch decides to start hunting the Beetle before he’s committed any crimes. Much to the chagrin of Doris Evans, who prefers Johnny when he’s not off galavanting around as a superhero.
Spider-Man and Human Torch fly past the same crowd. They cower at Spider-Man’s passing but cheer on the Human Torch. That’s the power of the press for you.
Interestingly but unsurprisingly, we get stronger characterization for both Johnny and Dorrie here than we have in 30 issues of his own title. This is the single best Doris Evans story ever and the best Human Torch story to date. Since the Human Torch stories ostensibly have the exact same writer, you would think they could tell good Human Torch stories if they wanted to in his own title. But they don’t.
She gives him an ultimatum. Johnny must go 24 hours without using his flame power, or else they are through.
Dorrie meets Peter Parker for the first time and decides he’s the type of guy she’s looking for. She wishes Johnny could be more like him. A gentleman, quiet, devoted to his aunt and his studies, majoring in science.
Dorrie invites Peter in for a glass of Coke. Highly relevant to the title of this blog.
Peter and Betty still have probably the best-written relationship in any of these stories, but they’ve fallen back on the Betty-is-jealous plot point a few too many times now.
Otherwise, this is a pretty great scene. Johnny puts on his FF uniform to act like a bigshot and tell Parker to stay away from Dorrie. Betty overhears about Peter and some other girl and runs off crying, leading to Peter yelling at the Human Torch. Of course, only Peter knows that he and Johnny have met several times; Peter recently saved Johnny from the Sandman and Enforcers.
In a fun follow-up, Flash can’t let himself be outdone by Peter, so he starts taunting the Human Torch for no reason.
Betty’s jealousy is especially confusing to me, given that she has been dating both Peter and Ned.
Spider-Man decides he isn’t done with the Torch yet. Since his plans with Betty are ruined, he’s going to ruin Johnny’s day a bit more, by seeing if he can make Dorrie fall for Spider-Man as well.
I often think of it as lazy writing when a hero stumbles across the super-villain’s crime by accident, but this is so well set up and hysterical. Spider-Man stumbles across the Beetle because both were mad at Johnny and wanted to get at him through Dorrie. Spider-Man intended on light fun, a bit of flirting. Beetle intended on kidnapping. But they reach her yard at just the same time.
And then Dorrie calls Johnny to tell him she’s in danger, but he thinks she’s just trying to goad him into breaking their bet.
The misunderstandings compound. Johnny finds Dorrie missing and Spider-Man’s webbing, and draws the wrong conclusions. We get a pretty epic battle out of it. Ditko has spent most of the series holding strictly to a 3-row grid for most pages. So pages like this are uncommon. 3 panels across two rows. Bigger panels allow for bigger action and more detailed drawings of the characters.
They sort out what’s what and defeat the Beetle.
Johnny makes a sarcastic comment about how Dorrie’s in favor of him using his powers when it’s to save her. I would be way less coy, Mister. She’s only in danger at all because of you. And when she told you she was in danger, you laughed. It’s doubly your fault she was kidnapped by a super-villain.
The issue ends in classic Spider-Man style, with him moping. He thinks the Human Torch has everything, the girl, the love of the public. He thinks everything has come easy for Johnny while it’s a constant struggle for him.
The Spider-Man/Human Torch relationship is my favorite Marvel friendship and this is probably the centerpiece comic for their entire history. They’ve met several times at this point, often teaming up or deciding not to team up or getting angry with each other. This is the first time Johnny met Peter Parker, and their relationship is not off to a good start. They’re still just kids, though. Room to grow.
Here’s a pin-up.
Rating: ★★★★☆, 77/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
Scans are mostly taken from a reprint in Giant-Size Spider-Man #5 (1975). The reprint is 2 pages shorter. It deletes page 3 and condenses pages 16-17 into one.
J. Jonah Jameson is removed entirely from the reprint. He should sue.
You can find this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 3. Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Spider-Man/Peter Parker
- Beetle/Abner Jenkins
- Doris “Dorrie” Evans
- Human Torch/Johnny Storm
- Betty Brant
- Flash Thompson
- J. Jonah Jameson
- Aunt May
Story notes:
- J. Edgar Hoover reference.
- Peter and Dorrie live near each other.
- Spider-Man tracks the Beetle with his spider sense.
| Previous | #298 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Sgt. Fury #14 | Reading order | Strange Tales #129 |
| Amazing Spider-Man #20 | Amazing Spider-Man | Amazing Spider-Man #22 |
