Featuring: Avengers Release: November 5, 1963 Cover: February 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Jack Kirby Inked by: P. Reinman 25 pages
We see a new cover box. Acknowledges that Hank is now Giant-Man and that Wasp exists.
Welcome to a special Mothers Day post. What makes this a Mothers Day post? Well, today is Mothers Day. Also, my mother likes the Sub-Mariner, and this is the issue where the Avengers meet Sub-Mariner.
Sub-Mariner doesn’t show up until page 15, but still gets the issue titled after him. Good for him.
In the first issue, Loki tricked the Avengers into attacking the Hulk.
In the second issue, Space Phantom tricked the Avengers into attacking the Hulk.
This issue, the Avengers just decide to attack the Hulk.
Featuring: Spider-Man Release: October 8, 1964 Cover: January 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inked by: Steve Ditko 6 pages
This is Kirby’s third comic story featuring Spider-Man. All 3 have had Ditko on inks. Of course, he also drew the cover of Spider-Man’s first appearance. Also with Ditko on inks.
This is a pretty slight story. A piece of frivolity squeezed into the back of an issue. Spider-Man and Human Torch annoy each other.
Their antics lead to Spider-Man fighting with Mr. Fantastic and Thing as well. Fighting is what superheroes do when they meet.
Featuring: Spider-Man Release: October 8, 1964 Cover: January 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Steve Ditko 17 pages
The cover calls this a special “Tribute-to-Teen-Agers” issue. I don’t really appreciate the significance of that. There are teenagers in this issue, and most issues of Amazing Spider-Man, a series which stars a teenager.
Significant couple panels. Last time Peter will wear glasses. The implication is that his spider-powers fixed his eyesight, but he’s continued to wear them anyway.
Featuring: Human Torch Release: September 10, 1963 Cover: December 1963 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Dick Ayers 13 pages
Stan really doesn’t know what he has. Strange Tales #115 includes one of Marvel’s all-time greatest stories, yet the cover shows not a hint of that. It focuses entirely on a mediocre Human Torch tale.
We get another villain crossover. We haven’t seen too many yet. Dr. Doom has shown up in the pages of Spider-Man. That’s pretty much the only one unless you want to count Loki showing up in the Avengers.
But now, Spider-Man’s foe Sandman will menace the Human Torch. Spider-Man himself might pop in to say hello. (Actually, he’ll pop in to express that he’s upset Human Torch took on his villain.)
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.
Featuring: Avengers Release: September 29, 1999 Cover: October 1999 250 cents Written by: Roger Stern (filling in for Stan Lee) Art by: Bruce Timm (filling in for Jack Kirby) 24 pages
The cover promised us a mystery villain, but I feel like the opening page spoils the surprise a bit by putting his name in the title. Even if I missed that clue, the villain would be revealed by page 3. Spoiler: It’s Doctor Doom.
Sorry, Tom. Nobody can really replace Irving Forbush.
Roger Stern is a nerd who grew up reading and obsessing over these same comics we have been reading, so the comic of course slides perfectly neatly into our continuity. It references stories we’ve recently read, and has all the characters right where they should be in their various arcs.
Featuring: Spider-Man Release: July 9, 1963 Cover: October 1963 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Steve Ditko 21 pages
The opening page tells us the names of many characters, two named for the first time. We learned last issue that Peter’s blonde classmate was named Liz. We now get the full name: Liz Allan. Last issue, we met Jameson’s secretary Miss Brant. We learn on that first page her name is Betty.
We’ve now seen plenty of crossover amongst the heroes of the titles; now they’re starting to share villains. One week earlier, Thor brought his archfoe Loki along with him for Avengers #1. Now, the Fantastic Four will lend their favorite villain to Spider-Man. Of course, they’ll also be showing up to lend a hand.
Because they’re borrowing a villain, this is the first issue of Amazing Spider-Man where Ditko doesn’t create a timeless villain. He’ll get back to that practice next issue.
Perhaps for that reason or others, this is one of the weaker Spider-Man stories yet. Of course, a weak Spider-Man story is still on par with the best of the other titles.
They summarize Doom’s most recent appearance in Fantastic Four, showing tight continuity. Also taken from Doom’s previous appearance is his use of robot doubles.
Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: July 2, 1963 Cover: 1963 25 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inking: Steve Ditko 6 pages
This is a very odd story. Something of a remake. It takes pages 2-4 of the second story from Amazing Spider-Man #1 and redraws them, expanding the story to 6 pages. This time, drawn by Kirby and inked by Ditko.
I don’t know why. The opening editor’s note claims it’s because fans demanded it, but Stan Lee always claimed that fans demanded everything. In the original, each member takes one go at Spidey. This time, each gets two.
Sue has a different haircut and each artist renders her invisibility differently. Ditko makes her shape clearer. In contrast, it’s Kirby who more clearly renders Johnny’s outline when he’s aflame.
Rather than offer any commentary of possible general interest to a story we’ve already talked about, I’m going to focus on the academic, and just give a full comparison of the stories. Some dialogue is copied, some slightly changed, some original. Some panels are new, while others closely match original panels. All seem redrawn from scratch.
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.
See my initial post for the context. Suffice to say that I will be sharing my entries to the Classic Comics Forum tradition, “ Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas“. This is a cross-post of my eleventh entry, representing #2 on my list of favorite comic book Crossovers.
2. Spider-Man and Gargoyle “Time, run like a freight train…” from Marvel Team-Up #119 (Marvel, 1982)
by J.M. DeMatteis, Kerry Gammill, and Mike Esposito
The general consensus is that the high point of Marvel Team-Up is the work of Claremont and Byrne. A position I don’t disagree with. But it’s often overlooked that there is another great run, that of DeMatteis and Gammill.
They may not have the slickness of Byrne, but they make up for it with strong character work and stories that break out of the established Marvel Team-Up formula. Most of the series had allowed very little time for Spider-Man to be Peter Parker. As they have like 20 pages for him to meet up with some other hero, get up to speed on a threat and deal with that threat together. Throw in an initial misunderstanding or fight between the heroes and you see why you’re out of pages.
But DeMatteis wanted time to show Spidey out of uniform and to develop the supporting cast. Now, the “main” books were already developing most of the supporting cast, so DeMatteis took what he was allowed to play with: the people at Aunt May’s nursing home. He developed the character of Nathan Lubensky, Aunt May’s love interest and reflected on aging in our society.
The apex of this reflection came in two issues #119-120. Issue 120 teams Spider-Man with an aging Dominic Fortune. I wasn’t sure [the event moderator] would buy them together as a two-parter based on tenuous thematic links, so I decided to focus this entry on the best issue of the run.
This story spins out of Defenders #109 and focuses on the new friendship between Spider-Man and Gargoyle. Gargoyle is notable for being a rare old-man superhero, and Spider-Man is notable for being a particular young not-sidekick superhero. Now, Spider-Man has aged since his early teenage appearances, but he’s still only recently out of college, so probably about 23 or so.
An attempted mugging leads Spider-Man and Gargoyle down parallel tracks, which try to tackle the difficult question of when it’s time to fight to keep living and when to accept it’s time to go.
The title of the comic seems to reference an Eric Andersen song. I don’t really know Eric Andersen outside of looking up the title to this song.
“Time, run like a freight train, won’t you take me down the line; there’s so much I can never say of the ruins left behind.”
