Daredevil #10

While the City Sleeps!

Featuring: Daredevil
Release: August 3, 1965
Cover: October 1965
12 cents
Exquisite editing by: Stan Lee
Lustrous layouts by: Bob Powell
Stunning script and art by: Wally Wood
Lots of lettering by: Artie Simek
20 pages

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Wally Wood has always wanted to try his hand at writing a story as well as drawing it, and big-hearted Stan (who wanted a rest anyway) said okay! So, what follows next is anybody’s guess! You may like it or not, but, you can be sure of this… it’s gonna be different!

This comic’s cool because if you look closely you can see all the behind-the-scenes drama playing out on the page.

The hype box is unusually important. Stan notes Wally had always wanted to try writing a story as well as drawing it, so Stan’s giving him a shot. Really, Wally claims he’s already been writing these comics, but not being paid for doing so.

The precise way in which this issue was constructed is unclear to me, in part because the people who could describe it to history weren’t in agreement, and nobody involved is still living. My best guess is the process here is something like this. Wally came up with the story and gave it to Bob Powell to lay out. Wood filled in the final art and supplied the script. Lee made his final edits.

The other important part of that narration box is that this is a mystery with clues. We’ll see that the mystery isn’t resolved in this issue, but we’ll also see that Wood doesn’t write the next issue and instead leaves the company.

Having his one writing gig be the setup to a mystery he doesn’t tell anybody the ending of may have been an intentional parting shot from Mr. Wood.

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Strange Tales #101

The Human Torch/The Flaming Fury Strikes Back!!
Release: July 10, 1962
Cover: October 1962
12 cents
Writers: Stan Lee and Larry Lieber
Penciler: Jack Kirby
Inker: Dick Ayers
13 pages

I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Human Torch vol. 1. I don’t see any credits within the issue. The collection’s table of contents gives the credits I list above.

In his first solo outing, Human Torch must battle the Destroyer in Glenville, while preserving his secret identity…

Wait? What?

He wasn’t that concerned about his secret identity when he flamed on in front of his mechanic friend… Or talked to his friends about his Fantastic Four problems… Or went to Congress to get awards and his photo taken… Or when he decided his costume didn’t need a mask. (Yes, I realize Superman thinks the same)

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Amazing Fantasy #15

Spider-Man!

Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: June 5, 1962
Cover: August 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
11 pages

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In this world, with great power there must also come– great responsibility!

I’ll just go ahead and let you know up front that I think this is the single best story in the history of comics.

It suffers only from being too often imitated. It has been retold so many times over the years in comic books and other media that many feel they know the story too well before ever picking up this comic. It can lose something in the repetition. But imagine coming to this story fresh, having never heard of Spider-Man, having never heard the phrase, “With great power there must also come– great responsibility!”

The story is this. Peter Parker is a nerd, loved by Aunt and Uncle, but ostracized by his high school classmates. When a bite from a radioactive spider gives him super powers, he tests them by entering a wrestling contest. An agent spots him and helps make him a celebrity. Caught up in his interest in fame and money, the self-absorbed Spider-Man doesn’t try to help a police officer chasing a burglar. In a twist of fate, the burglar he allowed to escape kills his Uncle Ben. He learns a valuable lesson about responsibility.

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