Amazing Spider-Man #39

Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: May 10, 1966
Cover: August 1966
12 cents
Script: Smilin’ Stan Lee
Art: Jazzy Johnny Romita
Inks: Mighty Mickey Demeo
Lettering: Adorable Artie Simek
20 pages

Previous	#533	Next
Fantastic Four #53	Reading order	Amazing Spider-Man #40
Amazing Spider-Man #38	Amazing Spider-Man	Amazing Spider-Man #40

And so, at long last– The Green Goblin will introduce himself– Take a look, Parker– a good, long look– It’s the last face Spider-Man will ever see– It’s the real face of the Green Goblin– the face of [SPOILER REDACTED]

Steve Ditko has officially left Marvel, which won’t leave me with too many other excuses to bring up Steve Ditko. However, this is the first issue of Spider-Man to not be drawn by Steve Ditko. Which is a fine excuse for bringing up Steve Ditko.

Which is good, as Rolling Stone just put out this piece on the man’s life, based on interviews with relatives, and I’m happy to have an excuse to share it: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/steve-ditko-spider-man-life-legacy-1235047781/

Among those interviewed was Steve’s younger brother, Patrick Ditko, who passed away just last month.

I’ve made no secret how much I love Steve Ditko’s work on Amazing Spider-Man, and have spent this blog clumsily trying to explain why over 38 issues worth of posts. Perhaps this characterization of Spider-Man from the Rolling Stone article gets to the core of how I see myself reflected in the character.

He lacked social skills.

A more charitable interpretation of my own character is perhaps found in their characterization of Steve Ditko as a man…

…who never fit into social norms, yet cultivated thriving relationships.

They go on.

Similar to how Peter Parker never lets loved ones get too close for fear it would put them in danger, Ditko compartmentalized his life, keeping work and family distinct to retain some power in a world that overwhelmed him. And the same way Spider-Man’s neuroticism makes him amazing, the traits that people marginalized Ditko for are what transformed comics forever. 

…he had much more in common with his most popular co-creation, Spider-Man, especially his alter ego, Peter Parker. They had the same lanky build. Same comb-over. Same thick glasses. Same bumbling social skills. Ditko’s senior-yearbook photo could have been Parker’s. With their collared shirts and slacks, it looked as if they shopped at the same clothing store —

The late comics retailer Bob Beerbohm assembled this high school photo of Ditko next to high school Peter Parker. Perhaps there is a lot of Ditko in Peter.

So what then is Spider-Man without Steve Ditko? Is the series over?

In some sense, it is plainly not. We have here issue 39. Stan Lee continues to write the comic and has found a new artist to draw it (and probably soon to do most of the writing as well).

If issue 38 was the ending, it wasn’t a clean one. Lots unresolved. Betty is missing. Gwen and Peter are growing closer. Norman Osborn is up to some shady stuff. We never learned the secret of the Green Goblin.

Some say the reason Ditko left Spider-Man is because he and Stan disagreed over the secret of the Green Goblin. We’ll reflect on that at the end of the post.

For now, let’s see what life after Ditko looks like for the Amazing Spider-Man.

John Romita is on art. Unlike Ditko, he tends to draw good-looking people. His career in advertising taught him well to draw good-looking people.

The story

We open with the Daily Bugle reminding us Spider-Man’s identity is still is a mystery. Why remind us of that? Is it about not to be?

Green Goblin wants revenge on Spider-Man. I have no idea what he wants revenge for. Their entire relationship has involved Green Goblin attacking Spider-Man unprovoked. Green Goblin’s identity is also a mystery. This is emphasized when he takes off his mask in shadow, and then a door covers his face.

The two panels of Green Goblin unmasking seem to be a direct homage to Ditko and the Goblin’s first appearance.

Will we finally learn the true identity of the Green Goblin? Uh, at this point I should warn you that spoilers follow.

Spider-Man has a cold, or maybe an allergy. I can never differentiate either. He cleverly leaves his costume in a broom closet. Might not be smart to have it under his clothes at the doctor’s.

Peter will be all right, but May remains a concern. Peter is reminded she can’t handle any shocks or excitement in her condition. In particular, she can’t learn he is Spider-Man. Or have any of Spider-Man’s villains show up on her doorstep. (Well, maybe that pleasant Dr. Octopus would be okay.)

At this point, Flash, Harry, and Gwen are all friends. Peter has always appeared standoffish to them. Nonetheless, Gwen is developing a crush on Peter and wants to get to know him better. She suspects they’ve been unfair to him. Peter has never been intentionally standoffish. He’s just always consumed by his thoughts and worries, which makes him appear unfriendly.

The dynamic is a little different today. Peter is his usual self, too lost in thought to notice Gwen trying to be nice. But today Harry is just as lost in thought, after a rough encounter with his father Norman. We know Norman Osborn is a bad man who tried to murder his former partner Mendell Stromm (from a high window it’s not clear how he got up to). We also see his is not much of a father.

Peter and Harry are able to bond over their troubles. We learn Norman was not always so bad, that he somehow changed in the last few years. Peter opens up about being an orphan. Harry hadn’t known that. In fact, we’ve barely heard mention of Peter’s biological parents in this series. We just know he was raised by his Aunt and Uncle.

An apparent hostage situation is a trap. Spider-Man is still suffering from his cold. This is Romita’s chance to show off his ability to depict Spider-Man in action and in motion. Ditko always used creative posing for the action shots. Romita seems to be going for a similar style.

Green Goblin once again has an overly convoluted plan. He gets the criminal to hit Spider-Man with a gas that will dull his senses, including his spider-sense. We learn that Spider-Man uses his spider-sense to make sure he’s unobserved when changing into his civilian clothes. Green Goblin knew that, so knew he’d be able to watch Spider-Man change if his spider-sense was dulled. And he could thus unmask Spider-Man. He double-crossed his stooges, who didn’t know what the gas would do, and thought it would save them from Spider-Man.

But why invent such a fancy gas? Why not just use gas that would make Spider-Man unconscious. That must be easier to get ahold of. And then unmask him.

Spider-Man makes a joke about heroes changing in phone booths, implicitly referencing the 1940s animated Superman short where Supes did just that.

Green Goblin assumes Peter is 19 or 20. I say he’s 18.

Spider-Man recalls the recent scene where the gunman somehow vanished. He never learned who the gunman was, but we know it was Norman Osborn somehow up on that window. (We are dancing around that spoiler…)

So now Green Goblin has seen Spider-Man’s face, but doesn’t really know his name or identity. So he tries to follow him home, but Peter heads to the Bugle instead. There he meets Ned, who apologizes about their fight. He’d just been worried about Betty. Peter notes that’s two people he’s now made friends with today. Will Jonah be next?

Green Goblin is listening in and now knows Spider-Man’s name is Peter Parker.

Remember how it’s important May not handle any shocks. Well, that’s on Peter’s mind when Green Goblin confronts him in May’s front yard.

He isn’t wearing web-shooters, and his costume is under his clothes. It’s important that May not see the battle; it’s definitely important that neither May nor the neighbors see Peter fighting like Spider-Man. All this makes for an unusually stressful battle for Peter.

And all in all an excellent and tense confrontation. The highlight of the issue. An comic that very much needed to prove itself just has.

In particular, it captures the best of the Ditko stories, where Spider-Man’s two lives intersect, similar to what we saw in the Final Chapter. Despite Peter’s best attempts to compartmentalize his two lives, it’s all coming crashing down.

The fairly sensational cover is not a lie. The scene plays out just as the cover suggests, with Peter in his civilian clothes with the costume underneath, captured by the Goblin.

Fortunately the smoke obscures the battle from May, and she mistakes the smoke for fog!

Stan, always off with the narration about time passing. “Exactly 40 seconds later”, he says. He always specifies time lapses that can’t be correct. Last panel they were still outside. It takes more than 40 seconds to open a door and walk in, let alone do so with a hostage whom you then tie to a pole.

And now…. huge spoiler… we learn the true identity of the Green Goblin after 25 issues!

It’s Norman Osborn!

Peter recognizes him from his surname and features as Harry’s father. He doesn’t seem to recognize him as Stromm’s partner. Of course they didn’t meet during the Robot Master affair, and Spider-Man may have never known the whole story. Surely he noticed that was Norman Osborn’s lab he was battling in.

Well, this is quite the exciting cliffhanger. A villain has learned Spider-Man’s identity! Of course, at this point almost every hero has had a story where a villain has learned their secret identity. The villain has always then died or suffered from amnesia. We will see which of these two fates awaits the Green Goblin.

It’s interesting to contrast this with say the 2002 Spider-Man movie, in which Peter and Harry are friends, and drama comes from Peter’s friend’s father being his enemy. I guess Peter and Harry are friends now in the comics as well. But they just made friends this morning. They didn’t like each other yesterday and barely ever spoke. Not quite as much drama in your arch-enemy being the father of someone you barely know and don’t like.

I don’t want to dwell too much right now on differences between Romita’s style and Ditko’s. They exist, though for this first issue, Romita is aiming for some consistency with his predecessor. But he’ll make his mark soon enough. I think around issue 47, it will be good to pause, see where we are, and contrast the two styles.

Ditko and the Green Goblin’s identity

Let’s return to the supposed disagreement between Stan and Steve over the identity of the Green Goblin. I learned about it the way I learned about much of Marvel history. From a book called Marvel by Les Daniels I read around the age of 10. By read, I should say I devoured. I still have my original well-worn copy these decades later.

Daniels wrote:

The ultimate bone of contention was a recurring villain called the Green Goblin, whose identity had always long been hidden. When it became time for the long-awaited unmasking, Lee recalls that Ditko said, “It should be somebody they’ve never seen before, just some person.” Lee, on the other hand, felt that a startling revelation had been promised. “Every reader in America is going to think we’re crazy. They’ll be angry. It’s got to be somebody!” Lee said. Ditko left without drawing the story.

Roy Thomas, who saw Ditko quietly resign soon afterwards, feels that he understood both men’s positions. Ditko wanted to point up the arbitrariness of life and to show criminals as seedy nonentities; Lee wanted a dramatic climax that would leave readers reeling. The dispute broke up the team that had built Spider-Man into one of the greatest super heroes ever created. “It’s hard, partnership,” says Thomas.

I’ve had decades since to read much more about comic history, and Ditko himself has chimed in some on why he left. And I’m convinced that anecdote is at best partially true. I think Ditko’s reasons for leaving were far deeper, and rooted in questions of credit, compensation, and creative control.

Stan’s memories and testimonies unfortunately have generally proven to be unreliable history. He was always more interested in selling the idea of Marvel than getting facts straight. He also just mixed things up.

It’s possible Ditko did want to reveal Green Goblin to be a nobody. It’s also possible Stan was mixing up the Green Goblin reveal with the revealed identity of the Crime-Master, who did turn out to be some nobody.

The idea of unmasking a villain to be someone close to Peter had also been done, when the Big Man was revealed to be Peter’s Bugle colleague, Frederick Foswell.

Daniels’ story is also difficult to reconcile with his own assertion from just a few paragraphs earlier that Stan and Steve had stopped speaking months earlier. How could they be not speaking and arguing about Green Goblin’s identity?

I’ve come to treat this story as apocryphal in my head, though there may be some truths within it. The particular disagreement may have been real, but if so, it was an example of the type of creative differences that dissolved the partnership, rather than the crux of it.

What we know for sure is that after Ditko left, Stan’s very next story was to reveal Green Goblin to be Norman Osborn, friend of J. Jonah Jameson, father of Harry, and rival to the Robot Master.

Rating: ★★★★½, 83/100
Significance: ★★★★★

Overall, what do I think of the first issue of Spider-Man sans Ditko? Well, apparently I think it’s pretty good.

So good, it goes on the Best We’ve Read page, leaving no room for the final battle between SHIELD and Hydra in Strange Tales #141.

I read this story in Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection vol. 3: Spider-Man No More.

Characters:

• Green Goblin/Norman Osborn (Uhh.. spoiler)
• Spider-Man/Peter Parker
• Dr. Bromwell
• Gwen Stacy
• Flash Thompson
• Harry Osborn
• Ned Leeds
• J. Jonah Jameson
• Aunt May

Minor characters:

• Selwyn (young hostage)
• Selwyn’s mom

Story notes:

• Title a reference to “How Green Was My Valley”.
• Daily Bugle headline: “Spider-Man’s Identity Still a Mystery”.
• Goblin’s plan: learn Spider-Man’s identity and reveal it in order to humiliate him.
• Green Goblin reviews his arsenal: stun bombs and the flying broomstick. The broomstick is ridden more like a glider. He stands on the wings rather than sitting on the shaft.
• Spider-Man has a head cold, or possibly an allergy. He intends to visit Doc Bromwell for a check-up
• Bromwell confirms Pete had a bad cold and prescribes anti-histamine pills and a B-12 shot.
• Dr. Bromwell warns Pete Aunt May is weak and can’t handle any shocks or excitement. This renews Peter’s conviction to keep his other identity secret from her.
• Once again Peter is lost in thought when Gwen wants to be friendly, proving Flash’s point.
• Harry’s troubles with his father leave him as lost in thought as Peter.
• Peter is concerned that Harry is quiet and not insulting him.
• Spider-Man sees criminals with hostages, but it’s a trap.
• Spider-Man has cold during fight.
• Woody Allen reference.
• Spider-Man doesn’t dare risk injury to himself for fear of May’s heart.
• Thugs attack Spider-Man with an odorless gas. Gas will weaken all his senses, including his spider-sense. Criminals deceived into thinking gas would take out Spider-Man.
• Peter relies on spider-sense to ensure he’s not watched when changing.
• Green Goblin follows Peter to the Daily Bugle.
• Ned still looking for Betty. Ned apologizes to Peter for his recent behavior.
• Peter reminds Jameson not to ask questions about where he gets pictures.
• Jameson wants to send Peter a check next week, but Peter wants it now. He threatens to go to the Globe otherwise. Jameson agrees to pay now, but he pays half the value of the pictures.
• Green Goblin has overheard the Daily Bugle chatter and learned Spider-Man’s name is Peter Parker.
• Peter tied in steel alloy bonds.
• Goblin unmasks and Peter recognizes him as Harry Osborn’s father from his name and features.

Previous	#533	Next
Fantastic Four #53	Reading order	Amazing Spider-Man #40
Amazing Spider-Man #38	Amazing Spider-Man	Amazing Spider-Man #40