Featuring: Spider-Man Release: November 10, 1966 Cover: February 1967 12 cents A Stan (The Man) Lee — John (Ring-a-ding) Romita adventure in agonizing action Lettering – Sam Rosen Web-untangling – Irv Forbush 20 pages
When your two arms were helpless against me before, what did you expect to accomplish now?
In this story, Spider-Man fights the Lizard again. With one arm tied in front of his back.
Romita gets the same credit Stan had been giving Ditko and Kirby. Rather then merely crediting him with illustration, Lee gives them each co-credit for creating the entire story, acknowledging that Romita is doing much of the writing.
Featuring: Spider-Man Release: October 11, 1966 Cover: January 1967 12 cents Story: Smilin’ Stan Lee Illustration: Jazzy John Romita Lettering: Swingin’ Sam Rosen Luggage: Honest Irving Forbush 20 pages
Ditko and Lee created a number of great villains for Spider-Man: Chameleon, Vulture, Tinkerer, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, Lizard, Living Brain, Electro, Big Man and the Enforcers, Mysterio, Green Goblin, Kraven the Hunter, Scorpion, the Spider Slayer, Molten Man, the Cat, Looter, Robot Master, a Guy Named Joe…
A temptation when writing a Spider-Man story is to have the premise: “Spider-Man fights _ again.”
Which is the worst idea for a Spider-Man story. In fact, two of Ditko’s weakest issues, written after he had basically given up on the series, involve Spider-Man fighting Kraven or Molten Man again.
That’s not to say these villains shouldn’t return. They should. But their return needs to tell a different story with them or move their own story forward.
That’s the big question. Is this story advancing the saga of this villain or bringing it in circles?
Dr. Octopus fought Spider-Man. When they fought again, it led to the death of Betty Brant’s brother and Spider-Man being unmasked. The villain returned but it was a new story. When they fought again, Dr. Octopus assembled six of Spider-Man’s most sinister foes to battle him. Again, a different story. Finally, they had their greatest battle with Dr. Octopus in the guise of the Master Planner. I heaped plenty of praise on that saga at the time. But suffice it to say, I think there was more of a premise to that story than “Spider-Man fights Dr. Octopus again.”
Spider-Man fought the Lizard, but then learned he was a good man Dr. Connors transformed by his own science experiments.
We saw that man again, cured of his Lizard ways, now acting as a scientific advisor to Spider-Man. We saw him again last issue in a similar capacity, advising against the Rhino. That time he idly wondered if the powers of the Lizard could be used against the Rhino. Spider-Man convinced him that thinking is dangerous.
So as we read stories where Spider-Man fights a classic villain again, I have a couple thought questions. Is the story moving the villain’s story forward? Is it telling a new story with the villain? Is there more to the premise than “Spider-Man fights _ again”?
I’m not objecting per se to Spider-Man fighting the Lizard again. Romita is an artist with a distinctive style from Ditko, so it’s fun to see his take on Ditko’s villains.
And the story will be good because Romita’s art is good and because he’ll do a good job with the side characters and soap opera. But will the story be good?
…To Become an Avenger! Featuring: Spider-Man Release: August 2, 1966 Cover: November 1966 25 cents Smilin’ Stan Lee Layouts by Jazzy Johnny Romita Pencilin’ by Dashin’ Donnie Heck Inking’ by Mirthful Mickey Demeo Letterin’ by Adorable Artie Simek 21 pages
I can’t fight it any longer! I’ve got to follow my own destiny– and let the chips fall where they may! I must have been given my spider-power for a reason! Thor was right! I do have an obligation– to mankind!
This is a “King-Size Special”. Which Marvel will sometimes be calling their Annual issues.
It boasts “72 Big Pages”. Let’s do math. The story is actually a pretty normal-sized 21 pages, but they reprint two old Spider-Man stories (issues 11 and 12), which brings the total to 64 pages. What are the other 8 pages? A table of contents, and some ads. When they advertise 72 pages, they are advertising 7 pages of ads.
The first stories I ever read with Spider-Man were Transformers #3 and Avengers #317. In the Avengers saga, Spider-Man was offered membership in the Avengers, but when Spider-Man struggled to keep up on their space adventure, Captain America and Spider-Man both agreed membership wasn’t for him. Avengers was one of the first series I regularly followed, so I read Avengers #329 a year later, in which Spider-Man does officially join the Avengers. No explanation was given for why Cap and Spider-Man changed their mind. Avengers #329 is the first time he officially became an Avenger, but the arc in #314-317 was not the first time he came close. That is here.
The Avengers are an interesting grouping. They began as Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Ant-Man, and the Wasp. All characters who had had solo (or duo) series. Left out of the Avengers were the Fantastic Four, already an established team, as well as Dr. Strange and Spider-Man. Behind the scenes, there seems a clear pattern that Kirby formed the Avengers from characters he had created, but left off the characters Ditko had created. They were soon joined by a revived old character of Kirby’s, Captain America.
When the original team disbanded, they needed replacements. Rather than turn to established loner superheroes like Daredevil, Dr. Strange, or Spider-Man, they sought out old enemies like Namor and Hulk, and accepted applications from reformed villains, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch.
The Avengers know Spider-Man, or at least of him. He teamed up with Giant-Man and Wasp in Tales to Astonish #57; Wasp hated him because wasps and spiders are natural enemies. Spider-Man briefly ran into the individual Avengers in Amazing Spider-Man Annual 1. They fought a Spider-Man robot created by Kang in Avengers #11. And they were all guests at the wedding of Reed and Sue.
For his part, Spider-Man has mostly been a loner, but at the start of his career, he tried to join the Fantastic Four, only to learn they don’t pay a salary. You sometimes find yourself asking if things might have been different. What if Spider-Man had joined the Fantastic Four?
But the Avengers are funded by Tony Stark. Maybe they can afford to pay Spider-Man?
I think this is a really good comic, if we forgive some nonsense in the premise. Which we’ll get to.
It even has great art. Heck is the credited artist, and Romita is just credited with layouts, but a lot of Romita shines through, perhaps due in part to Esposito’s finishes. Layouts have been Heck’s biggest weakness as an artist.
Where does this fit in in Spider-Man’s story. The most important thing to note to me is that Peter Parker has the motorcycle he acquired in Amazing Spider-Man #41, so it’s after that. I think Amazing Spider-Man #41-43 read well as a story, united by arcs for the Rhino, Mary Jane, and John Jameson. So I didn’t care to break that up. Hence we are reading it after #43. This is where a lot of collections place it, including the Essential, Omnibus and Epic Collection. The Masterworks weirdly places it after issue 50. But I think the thinking there was just to put it at the end of one of their volumes and not worry about where it “goes”. The MCP wants it before issue 42, and the CMRO agrees, but that seems unnecessary when there are so many unresolved plot threads from issue 41 to deal with first.
“We’ve studied that photo of Spider-Man long enough” says Cap. How much was there to study in one photo? Detail-oriented heroes, I guess.
In the funniest line of any of these comics we’ve read, Hawkeye describes Spider-Man as “a real swinger”.
Captain America, famous for his tact, notes Hawkeye identifies with Spider-Man because they’ve both been outlaws.
The question before them is: Should Spider-Man be offered membership in the Avengers.
Featuring: Marvels Release: January 25, 1994 Cover: March 1994 $5.95 Writer: Kurt Busiek Artist: Alex Ross Letterers: Starkings w/ John Gaushell Editor: Marcus McLaurin Assistant editor: Spencer Lamm Editor in chief: Tom DeFalco Cover design & logo: Joe Kaufman Interior Design: Comicraft 45 pages
And then it was quiet. No one around. They were all inside– or gone. Was this what it was going to be like? Silence and emptiness– forever?
We again jump back to 1994. As noted in this post, which serves as something of a vision statement, my goal here is to be able to reread my first comic, Avengers #309, but this time with full context, without feeling like I was missing anything or that I had read things out of order. More than that, it’s an attempt to try to see decades of disparate titles by a variety of creative voices as telling a larger single story.
I see Marvels, the masterpiece by Busiek and Ross, as an attempt to come to terms with that same story, and then to tell it in miniature. In general I try to take a contemporaneous viewpoint, looking at our 1966 stories from the perspective of 1966, and not spending too much thought on what later stories have to say. Marvels is the exception, as I’m using Marvels to frame our reading and my thinking about this reading.
For example, we jumped a little bit ahead in our X-Men reading lately. The rush through X-Men was to line up with this issue of Marvels. I was eager to read this comic right after the Galactus saga, but knew I had to hold back until after the X-Men battled Count Nefaria. And the choices in reading order we made with respect to the Avengers and Fantastic Four stories were inspired by how Marvels presented them.
There is no other later series I let impact my thinking on these stories. That’s born both out of a love of Marvels and its creators, and a trust in Kurt Busiek to have done his homework.
As this post is a bit long and picture-heavy, I’ve broken it into twoparts.
The series Marvels covers the Marvel Universe from 1939-1973. I don’t know how far this blog will go before I get bored or die, but I’m hoping to at least hit 1973 and finish Marvels. But that is several years away.
There’s also a bit of timing in the writing of this blog that has recontextualized Marvels and the stories it represents again. I started this blog in 2019 and reached Marvels #1 in 2020, and found new meaning in Phil’s desire for the world to return to normalcy. I write this blog post in 2024, with 2020 four years in the past, but the pandemic continuing to affect lives in big and small ways.
Marvels #1 starts with the dawn of Marvel in 1939 and takes us into the war in Europe, likely around 1943. We then jump forward 20 years and Marvels #2 covers the ground of part of our reading. It skips the introductions of most of the heroes and takes us to 1964 and Avengers #6 (May 1964), then ends in 1965 with Tales of Suspense #69 (around July 1965). Its focus was on the juxtaposition of two major events, the wedding of Reed and Sue in Fantastic Four Annual 3, and the introduction of the Sentinels in X-Men #14-16.
Thinking in terms of Fantastic Four, a title which has been a monthly constant in our reading, Marvels #2 covers the ground of approximately Fantastic Four #29-43.
Marvels #3 will cover a little less ground, Fantastic Four #44-50, bringing us to around February 1966. And most of the page count is dedicated to recapturing a single story, the battle between the Fantastic Four and Galactus in Fantastic Four #48-50. Due to its wonky arrangement with other stories, the original battle only covered about 48 pages of comics originally, so the retelling in miniature is not actually that much shorter, taking up almost 32 pages.
Of course, this retelling will not be from the perspective of the Fantastic Four, but our man Phil Sheldon.
The story has been about Phil, but also about his changing opinion of the Marvels. In the 1930s, he thought they were something to fear when he first saw Human Torch and Sub-Mariner, but came to conclude they were something to cheer on when he saw Captain America, and then all the heroes teaming up against Nazis. He continued to cheer them on into the 1960s, loving the Fantastic Four and the Avengers… but not the X-Men. Mutants, he hated. Though he grew a bit by the end.
Now he begins to wonder if he’d put a bit too much faith in all the Marvels, put them too much on a pedestal. As they become embroiled in controversy after controversy… had he overestimated them? He begins to have doubts.
