Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: March 11, 1965
Cover: June 1965
12 cents
Swingin’ script by: Stan Lee
Dazzlin’ drawings by: Steve Ditko
Loquacious lettering by: S. Rosen
20 pages
| Previous | #366 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales of Suspense #68, Story B | Reading order | Fantastic Four #39 |
| Amazing Spider-Man #24 | Amazing Spider-Man | Amazing Spider-Man #26 |
I appreciate that the splash page centers Spider-Man’s supporting cast. It really is what separates this comic from all the others we’re reading. And this issue is significant for an almost-addition to that cast!
In addition to the normal credits, there’s an extra note crediting Ditko with the plot. Ditko has been responsible for all the plots and most of the writing without credit for it. And his relationship with Stan is starting to deteriorate over this and other concerns. Pretty soon, we’ll be at the point where Ditko has made a condition of his continued employment that he never has to speak to Stan.
We get a fun scene where Spider-Man is retrieving his spider beam and stops a robbery the sensible way: by alerting a cop.
Jameson is talking to a friend from his Midtown Business Executives Club. We’d seen that same person briefly two issues earlier. Though he was merely in the background of the last scene, his distinctive haircut makes him easy to spot. He remains unnamed.
This is the second robot Spider-Man fights, after fighting the Living Brain in issue 8. Both are pretty unique robot designs, courtesy of Ditko.
Jameson pilots the robot remotely and you see his face on the robot.
This is actually eerily close to predicting the future. I’ve seen people use robots just like this to attend conventions virtually. Here’s a guy I met at Comic-Con San Diego about 9 years back.
They’re sometimes called “telepresence robots” and are now being marketed to enable remote working or learning.
They are not currently marketed to help you hunt down and destroy superheroes. I think that’s a niche market.
Spider-Man and the robot get into quite the fight. But we’ll turn to more interesting happenings. Betty blames Peter for goading Jameson into using the robot and goes to his house to convince him to fix things. Meanwhile, Liz heads to Peter’s house to warn him that Flash is still looking to fight him.
They find that Peter isn’t home, but they weren’t the only girls who were looking for Peter. Aunt May has been trying to set Peter up with the niece of her neighbor, Mrs. Watson for a while now. Peter’s always managed to dodge the dates so far. They were almost set to go to a Spider-Man fan club meeting together, Mary Jane being such a big Spider-Man fan, but she caught a cold.
So now we finally meet the elusive Mary Jane Watson.
Well, sort of. We don’t see her face, but Betty thinks she looks like a screen star.
We’ll turn back to see how Spider-Man is faring.
Jameson is singing about himself, how he “floats through the air with the greatest of ease”. For all their differences, Spidey and Jonah have the same taste in music. We saw Spider-Man singing the same song in issue 8.
Looks like Jameson has Spidey captured.
Jameson and Smythe make their way to the captured Spider-Man.
Unfortunately, old Spidey has them outsmarted. While captured, he rewired the robot’s circuitry to let him go. He then had a bit of a laugh with Jonah, leaving his costume inside as a puppet.
Meanwhile, Mary Jane takes her leave of May, since Peter doesn’t seem to be coming home. We still don’t see her face, but get a decent look at her figure. Not unimpressive.
Unfortunately, Peter lost a Spider-Man costume due to his Jameson gag, and Aunt May found the other. Peter convinced her it was just a gag costume, but she confiscated it anyway. And so he loses two costumes this issue.
Why doesn’t he just tell his aunt the truth? He is concerned the shock could kill her at her age.
In general, I’m not a big fan of Jameson as a straight villain. Creating a super-villain the Scorpion seemed out of character for his character up to that point. Even backing Mysterio was weird given that his crusade about Spider-Man really should have extended to vigilantes in general. As these things go, this makes a bit more sense with his character, as he’s controlling the robot directly himself. The robot just gives him the chance to have the slufgest with Spider-Man he’s clearly always wanted.
Flo Steinberg gets a letter published, taking responsibility for a mistake on the letters page 2 issues earlier. We haven’t had cause to mention Flo much, but she’s been Stan’s assistant for 2 years at this point and an integral part of keeping this whole crazy show together. In the letter, she describes herself as Stan’s “gal Friday”.
Rating: ★★★★☆, 71/100
Significance: ★★★★★
I read this story in Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus vol. 1.
Characters:
- J. Jonah Jameson
- Smythe’s robot
- Aunt May
- Betty Brant
- Liz Allan
- Spider-Man/Peter Parker
- Flash Thompson
- Smythe
- J. Jonah Jameson
- Seymour
- Mary Jane Watson
Story note:
- Peter helping Liz with studies; thought balloons make it clear she’s interested in him.
- Not sure the “spider beam” has been named before this.
- Aunt May watching Joan Crawford movie.
- Sucking up to Jameson, Peter trashes Spider-Man; this angers Betty.
- Spider-Man attacks robot with liquid webbing.
- Betty attempts to sabotage controls to save Spider-Man.
- Jameson thinks he’ll be invited to join the Avengers.
| Previous | #366 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales of Suspense #68, Story B | Reading order | Fantastic Four #39 |
| Amazing Spider-Man #24 | Amazing Spider-Man | Amazing Spider-Man #26 |
A comedy riot, up there with screwball classic Bringing Up Baby. Fascinating that our last comedy issue was #8, which included another, similar robot.
Ditko Spider-man does secret identity stuff better than any superhero comic I’ve ever read.