human cannonball – Coke & Comics

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

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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.

Amazing Spider-Man #16

Duel with Daredevil

Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: June 9, 1964
Cover: September 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee, master of the spoken word
Illustrated by: Steve Ditko, dean of dramatic drawings
Lettered by: S. Rosen, sultan of sparkling spelling
22 pages

Let me start by wishing a happy birthday to Steve Ditko, who would have been 93 today had he not passed away in 2018.

Ditko has created a number of new villains for this series, while maintaining a generally pretty high quality (Green Goblin excepted). The team has only once borrowed a villain so far, when Spider-Man fought Dr. Doom in issue 5. This is the second time borrowing a villain, but they dig deeper, bringing back Ringmaster from Incredible Hulk #3 two years earlier. We’ve read over 200 comics since we last met Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime.

Aunt May still insists Peter accept a blind date with Mary Jane Watson. Peter makes the reasonable protestation that he has a girlfriend. May notes they are not engaged. Does May just not like Betty for some reason? On the other hand, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a date. Peter could just offer to hang out with Mrs. Watson’s niece as a favor to Aunt May. I feel like they could compromise here.

Incredible Hulk #3

Banished to Outer Space/The Origin of the Hulk!/The Ringmaster
Featuring: Hulk
Release: July 3, 1962
Cover: September 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inker: Dick Ayers
24 pages

I read this story in Incredible Hulk Omnibus vol. 1, which notes Dick Ayers is the inker. He is uncredited within the issue itself.

There are perhaps three distinct stories here, but we’ll treat them in one entry.

Banished to Outer Space

The first story concerns General Ross’ ‘Plan H’ to banish the Hulk into space in a rocket. This story perhaps inspired a modern story where Hulk was banished into space and landed on what became known as Planet Hulk, by Greg Pak and Carlos Pagulayan. Planet Hulk was adapted into an animated movie, and it partly formed the basis of the film Thor: Ragnarok.

This story picks up right where the previous one left off, the very same night. Hulk is trapped safely away in the underwater cell they built. The decision to let Hulk free requires some stupidity on Rick’s part. He is tricked by General Ross, but his actions are absurd and merely serve the plot.