hero happens to be where villain strikes

Amazing Spider-Man #22

Preeeeeesenting… The Clown, and his Masters of Menace!

Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: December 10, 1964
Cover: March 1965
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Steve Ditko
Lettered by: Artie Simek
20 pages

Previous	#306	Next
Sgt. Fury #15	Reading order	Strange Tales #130
Amazing Spider-Man #21	Amazing Spider-Man	Amazing Spider-Man #23

Yes, I counted the ‘e’s closely in the title. We strive for accuracy here at Coke & Comics.

I appreciate that Spider-Man doesn’t really appear on the cover. Just the spider signal and his shadow, as the bad guys stand in awe.

I assume you all have the same confusion about the first page as I do. As usual, I blame Stan. Ditko’s drawings are eerily consistent across issues. The two trapeze artists and human cannonball are just as depicted the last time Spider-Man fought the Circus of Crime in Amazing Spider-Man #16.

But Stan had the human cannonball refer to himself as the Great Gambino. When we first met the Circus of Crime in Incredible Hulk #3, the human cannonball was named, sensibly, the Human Cannonball. Lee is basically back to that, referring to him as “the man called Cannonball”. He refers to the two trapeze artists as the Great Gambinos, which I suspect was Ditko’s intention all along. I’m going to claim Cannonball to be the same character we’ve met three times now, and just call his name in issue 16 a typo. He is not the Great Gambino; the trapeze artists are.

Ditko’s Clown is clearly modeled off the clown Kirby drew in Incredible Hulk #3, and doesn’t look particularly like any of the clowns in issue 16. He looks so much like Kirby’s clown that I’m going to declare them the same character. CMRO agrees, though also thinks he was one of the clowns in issue 16. There are a lot of clowns in that issue; one could be him, just with different make-up.

Princess Python is clearly new, and will be the most popular of these villains, making a name for herself entirely separate from the Circus of Crime, for example finding a home with the Serpent Society. She is notably Spider-Man’s first female super-villain and one of very few female super-villains we’ve met at all.

Tales to Astonish #64

When Attuma Strikes!

Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: November 3, 1964
Cover: February 1965
12 cents
Edited by smilin’ Stan Lee
Written by laughin’ Leon Lazarus
Pencilled by capricious Carl Burgos
Inked by peerless Paul Reinman
Lettered by sparkling Sam Rosen
12 pages

Previous	#296	Next
X-Men #9	Reading order	Sgt. Fury #14
Tales to Astonish #63, Story B	Tales to Astonish	Tales to Astonish #64, Story B

You’re correct, reader, that we have not finished Tales to Astonish #63 yet. We will get there. Hulk is involved in one big story, while Giant-Man and Wasp have shorter adventures which take place weaved around their Avengers adventures. It’s a tricky thing to negotiate. We’re not going to finish this comic right now either. We’ll come back to the Hulk story another day.

We get something new here. Leon Lazarus is not a name we’ve seen before. It honestly sounds a little made up. An alliterative name like that often turns out to be an alias in these stories. Especially with a biblical last name like Lazarus, a word common in superhero stories to describe effects that raise the dead (e.g. the Lazarus Pit used by Batman’s foe Ra’s Al Ghul).

And Stan Lee claims no writing credit. He’s been the sole credited writer on everything for the last year or so. And even when there were other credited scripters, Stan Lee claimed credit for the “story” or “plot” or such. This is the very first time in any Marvel Age story that Stan did not claim story credit.

Of course, Stan’s name still goes first in the credits, as the editor.

So who is Leon Lazarus? What is his real name? Why did he decide to start writing for Marvel now?

Strange Tales #120

The Torch Meets the Iceman!

Featuring: Human Torch
Release: February 11, 1964
Cover: May 1964
12 cents
Deftly written by: Stan Lee
Dazzlingly drawn by: Jack Kirby
Dramatically inked by: Dick Ayers
Distinctively lettered by: S. Rosen
14 pages

Been a little while since Kirby has deigned to draw a Human Torch story. I assume we owe his presence to the guest appearance of Iceman, just like a Captain America crossover motivated his last visit.

Mr. Fantastic notes the X-Men are hard to contact because nobody knows their identities. Iron Man was able to contact them just fine, and they all have access to a government-provided superhero communications network.

Amazing Spider-Man #6

Face-to-face with the Lizard!

Featuring: Spider-man
Release: August 8, 1963
Cover: November 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Steve Ditko
21 pages

Previous	#106	Next
Fantastic Four #20	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #47
Amazing Spider-Man #5	Amazing Spider-Man	Amazing Spider-Man #7

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.

Tales to Astonish #48

Ant-Man and the Wasp Defy the Porcupine!

Featuring: Ant-Man and the Wasp
Release: July 2, 1963
Cover: October 1963
12 cents
Story plot: Stan Lee
Script: H.E. Huntley
Art: Don Heck
13 pages

Something of an odd cover. It makes no attempt to showcase the Porcupine’s powers. Instead, it just has Porcupine standing in his own panel while the main cover focuses on Ant-Man drowning in a bath tub. Drowning in a bathtub is indeed a scene from this issue. Were it not, I would wonder if they just took any old Ant-Man cover they had and inserted that image of the Porcupine. Either way, spectacularly unimpressive work by Jack Kirby.

This issue has two “weird tale” backups. Grayson’s Gorilla by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber. And “The Little Green Man” by Lee and Ditko. The era of these little sci/fi shorts is fast coming to an end.

In her very first issue, they tried to motivate Wasp’s character around her father’s death and a passion for justice. We’ve seen no real hints of that since. Her character has since been dominated entirely by swooning over random men, when not trying to convince Hank Pym to settle down with her.

I think she’s just trying to make him jealous. It doesn’t appear to be working.

As a side note, she does call Ant-Man “Hank” in both this issue and the last one. I think she’s the only one to call him that. He’d always been “Henry” before.

Strange Tales #104

The Human Torch Meets Paste-Pot Pete!
Featuring: Human Torch
Release: October 9, 1962
Cover: January 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: Larry Lieber
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
13 pages

I think it goes without saying that Paste-Pot Pete is one of the greatest super-villains of all time. And that he has one of the greatest names. And therefore– I will say no more.