Featuring: Spider-Man Release: September 10, 1963 Cover: December 1963 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Steve Ditko 21 pages
Spider-Man gets his first repeat villain. Stan claims readers demanded his return. But, well, Stan always says that.
Spider-Man is overconfident his same gadget will work, but Vulture had modified his wings to nullify Spider-Man’s gadget. Spider-Man is defeated in their first encounter and sprains his arm. He’ll have to fight Vulture again one-handed.
I’ll get that masked menace if it’s the last thing I do!
Six issues in, and we meet Spidey’s fifth iconic villain. We’re only short one because he fought Dr. Doom last issue.
We learn newspapers around the nation are printing stories about the Lizard menacing the Flordia Everglades. I imagine the headlines read something like: “Florida Man sees human lizard in swamp.” Of course, not the Daily Bugle headline. That focuses on Spider-Man.
Notice that Spider-Man is also lowering the payment with his web.
The Lizard is a great villain. His character has a lot in common with the Hulk, except it’s much better. They both draw from the Jekyll/Hyde trope. Unlike the Hulk, which never settled on anything in the comic, the Lizard as a character is very clear. Dr. Connors is a good guy. When he first transforms into the Lizard, he has his own mind, but feels it slipping fast. Soon, the Lizard personality is entirely in control. The Lizard has plans to lead an army of reptiles to conquer the earth and destroy all humans. Once cured, he is back to being a decent man.
You teen-agers are all alike– You think the world owes you a living! Now go out and get me some shots of Spider-Man, and don’t come back till you do!
The covers so far have mostly been single images. Here, the cover is itself a comic. It’s not a common artistic choice, perhaps because it forces the images to be smaller. But it effectively shows off the range of Sandman’s powers.
Lee and Ditko share the credits for this issue with a simple “By”, rather than breaking up who did the story and who did the art.
In 4 issues, this series has introduced:
Chameleon
Vulture
Tinkerer
Dr. Octopus
Sandman
That’s 5 enduring villains, and at least 3 iconic ones.
What do I do now? I’ve never been beaten before! But this time my spider powers were not enough! Is this the end of Spider-Man?
I read this story in Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection vol. 1: Great Power.
I’m going to go ahead and confess that I don’t know what the title of this comic is. I often don’t. Many times, the title is in quotes to make it clear. Even though what’s in quotes is often preceded by the name of the title hero with a “versus” or a “battles” after.
For example, Fantastic Four #15 had the opening text: “The Fantastic Four Battle… The Mad Thinker and His Awesome Android!” With the latter part in a much bigger font. Online sources vary.
This is even more confusing because the arrangement of the different pieces make the order unclear.
Possible titles:
Doctor Octopus
Spider-Man Versus Doctor Octopus
The Strangest Foe of All Time… Doctor Octopus
Spider-Man Versus the Stranges Foe of All Time… Doctor Octopus
The internet generally doesn’t agree on which of the above makes sense. For my part, I’m trusting the table of contents in the collection I’m reading this in.
The title page describes Doctor Octopus as “the only enemy ever to defeat Spider-Man!” Not sure that’s accurate. Vulture and Tinkerer both handed Spider-Man initial defeats last issue before Spider-Man was able to come back and win in round 2. Which is basically what’s going to happen in this issue.
He thinks I’m just a typical teen-age kid! Good! That’s the way I like it!
So I am going to try something new with this blog. I have mostly been stealing pictures I could find on the internet, but I now have a large nifty scanner working and want to try to make my own scans. Now, for various reasons related to my lack of independent wealth, I don’t own Amazing Spider-Man #2, but I have many reprints.
I’ve largely been reading comics in thick collections, which can be hard to scan with my flatbed scanner. But I have smaller reprints from this story. It was reprinted in Amazing Spider-Man Annual 7, but that is still a bit thick for optimal scanning, and the binding isn’t entirely perfect. I also have it reprinted in Marvel Tales #139. Let me try a few scans for comparison.
I say that Spider-Man must be outlawed! There is no place for such a dangerous creature in our fair city!
Spider-Man is back! He appeared briefly, set to be a recurring star in Amazing Fantasy, a comic which was cancelled immediately after he appeared. Sometime between making that decision and now, we learn the publisher received lots of letters and postcards, so now Spider-Man gets his own comic. Probably good they brought him back, as he’ll go on to become Marvel’s most enduringly popular character.
We are still on December 10, 1962. A day with four major Marvel superhero milestones. The first was the crossover between the Fantastic Four and the Hulk. The second was the debut of Iron Man. The third of these is Spider-Man getting his own series.
Milestone #1 of December 10, 1962: Fantastic Four meet the Hulk!
Milestone #2: Iron Man
Miletone #3: Amazing Spider-Man #1
The tale begins with a 2-panel recap of his origin from Amazing Fantasy #15. But, strangely, they leave out what most today would consider the most pivotal part, Peter’s culpability in Ben’s murder by letting the burglar run past him. True, it’s only two panels, but they seem to go out of their way to not mention it. He instead uses phrases like, “All because I was too late to save him!” and “…while I was busy showing off…”; so they keep Peter’s feelings of guilt but leave off the reason he feels so guilty. It seems like a rather intentional and conscious decision. But I don’t know why they made it.
Life Lessons Release: January 3, 2001 Cover: March 2001 $2.25 Story: Bill Jemas and Brian Michael Bendis Script: Brian Michael Bendis Pencils: Mark Bagley Inks: Art Thibert 21 pages
They have lowered the price by a quarter. Maybe that will sell the comic better than the awful cover.
This concludes our look at the first 5 issues of Ultimate Spider-Man. This final issue sticks pretty closely to the last 3 pages of the original Spider-Man story. Although it does open with 3 irrelevant pages about Green Goblin.
This really has nothing to do with anything.
We then get 4 pages at the crime scene, including a double-page spread.
With Great Power Release: December 6, 2000 Cover: February 2001 $2.50 Story: Bill Jemas and Brian Michael Bendis Script: Brian Michael Bendis Pencils: Mark Bagley Inks: Art Thibert and Dan Panosian 22 pages
Continuing to read the adaptation of the Spider-Man story from Amazing Fantasy #15 into Ultimate Spider-Man #1-5. This issue covers the events of page 8 and the first two panels of page 9 in the original story.
It dedicates 4 pages to Norman Osborn, finally becoming Green Goblin. His assistant, Justin, appears dead. Harry and Dr. Octavius look quite wounded.
This big scary monster has literally nothing to do with the story yet.
4 pages are dedicated to Spider-Man’s wrestling career, including its end. The analogue in the original was his television career, which didn’t explicitly end in the original story. Perhaps it will be addressed later on. The previous issue had explained the mask/anonymity thing in terms of him being a kid who wouldn’t be allowed to wrestle otherwise. But now that schtick has gotten him into trouble. Somebody has stolen the petty cash and he gets the blame.
Wannabe Release: November 1, 2000 Cover: January, 2001 $2.50 Story: Brian Michael Bendis and Bill Jemas Script: Brian Michael Bendis Pencils: Mark Bagley Inks: Art Thibert 22 pages
So we’re working our way through Ultimate Spider-Man #1-5 and contrasting with the origin of Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy #15, with particular emphasis on why one story is 12 times longer than the other. This issue covers the ground of pages 5-7 of the original story.
Part of the reason the story is longer is that other things happen. This issue dedicates 4 pages to the story of Norman Osborn on the path to becoming Green Goblin. And along the way is setting up Dr. Octopus. We had previously met Dr. Octavius, but first see his metal arms here.
Growing Pains Release: October 4, 2000 Cover: December 2000 $2.50 Story: Brian Michael Bendis and Bill Jemas Script: Brian Michael Bendis Pencils: Mark Bagley Inks: Art Thibert 22 pages
I’m reading Ultimate Spider-Man #1-5, a modern telling of the story of Spider-Man, originally told in Amazing Fantasy #15; a focus is figuring out why the same story takes 12x as many pages to tell. This issue in particular covers the same ground as about 4 panels on page 4 of the original, where Peter Parker starts to understand his powers.
Part of the answer for the page count lies in layout. This issue favors bigger panels, less per page, more varied layouts. The original adheres pretty rigidly to 3 rows of panels per page, with 2-3 panels per row. The only exceptions it make are for the first page splash page, and a larger panel to open chapter 2.
