Boooorrrrring.

Unfortunately, this is Ditko’s last issue. What a way to go out… I wonder if he did a shitty issue on purpose because he knew he was quitting, or if Stan sabotaged it, or what. :(

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Decent issue about Norman Osborn and his ex-partner, Mendel Stromm. Looks like we’re finally leading up to the big Green Goblin reveal (in Amazing; the Goblin’s identity was already revealed in Untold Tales). It should be cool to have Spider-Man figure it out.

I don’t have much to say about this, other than that I enjoyed it. It was surprising to have Mendel Stromm die (of a heart attack, no less) in the issue. I’m pretty sure he comes back later, so I’m curious about how that’ll work.

Peter acting like a jerk (more sexism / “female”-”bitch” euphamisms!):

Spider-Man wearing an awesome hat for no reason whatsoever:

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The Looter has an amazing costume and a cool origin, but a shitty name and boring powers. This issue wasn’t terrible, but it certainly wasn’t anything special either.

Peter’s starting to crush on Gwen, though, and I she sorta feels the same way but still thinks Peter is a douchebag. I hope for my own sanity they can just go out for awhile without any drama. I’m getting sick of all of Peter’s girl problems and I’d like a small reprieve for a couple issues.

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Pretty standard fight with the Molten Man. Spider-Man even beats him in pretty much exactly the same was as last time.

Interesting things in this issue include some pretty decent art, and Peter learning that Betty’s fucked off. Oh, and the preview for the “swingin’ super-villain” in the next issue looks really cool.

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Man, Betty had this awesome dream sequence in this issue, where Peter admitted he was Spider-Man. It totally had me fooled! It was sweet.

Then there was a bunch of really boring stuff when Spider-Man fought Kraven.

But then, we find out that Betty Brant has quit! :O

This would have gotten 2.5 if it wasn’t for the Swahili and the computer spelling of ‘macintosh‘.

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Man on a Rampage!
Script by: Stan Lee
Plot + illustration by: Steve Ditko
Lettering by: Artie Simek
Originally published: January 1966

The Final Chapter!
Script: Stan Lee
Plot and illustration: Steve Ditko
Bordering and lettering: Artie Simek
Originally published: February 1966

The opening of that first issue was awesome, like damned James Bond movie or something. There were masked dudes in helicopters, electronics being jettisoned into the river (in water-proof cases, naturally), sleep gas – all sorts of tight shit! In fact, this whole 3-issue series was great.

The main plot centres around Aunt May succumbing to an illness caused by radiation in her blood – caused when Peter gave her a transfusion oh so many issues ago! Overcome with guilt, Peter (in the guise of Spider-Man) seeks the help of Dr. Curt Connors, who recommends the use of a special serum from the west coast. While being delivered, though, the serum is stolen by the Master Planner and his gang – a well-funded operation that has been stealing nuclear- and radiation-related stuff for awhile.

With Aunt May’s life in the balance, Spider-Man goes on an insane rampage to track down the Master Planner and get the serum back. He ends up beating up half the city before stumbling upon the Master Planner’s underwater lair. After battling his way through some henchmen, Spider-Man finally comes face to face with the Master Planner himself – Dr. Octopus! They have a brief but intense fight, where Spider-Man basically cleans Doc Ock’s clock. In the heat of battle, though, Spidey damages some support beams and a ton of steel comes crashing down. Spidey ends up being trapped beneath assloads of steel, out of arm’s reach of the serum, with Aunt May’s time getting shorter and shorter.

With an amazing feat of strength, in perhaps the three best pages ever, Spider-Man frees himself. Although he’s injured and completed exhausted, Spider-Man fights his way out through more henchmen, a flooded complex and back to Connors. In the end Aunt May is saved and all of the gang is rounded up. Unfortunately, Doc Ock gets away (or he may be dead, but I doubt that), but I think at that point Peter doesn’t really care.

These issues were friggin awesome. The plot was exciting as all hell, and there was assloads of great character development and personal stories. Peter has his first few days at ESU and completely alienates all the other students (including Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy!) because he was so distracted with worry about Aunt May. Peter also resolves his Betty Brant problem by convincing her he lives far too dangerous a life as a news photographer; she ends up realizing she can’t be with somebody like him and he ends up heartbroken. Finally, we get another fresh taste of what it’s like to see Spider-Man going all out to sacrifice himself for someone he loves, namely Aunt May. His dedication and sense of responsibility could have come across as trite and preachy, but instead seemed very honest and inspiring.

Finally, I just have to say that the art in these issues is definitely some of Ditko’s best. As I’ve said before, he really seems to be putting his heart into it now that he’s plotting the stories, and we’re treated to some really awesome sequences.

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The cover is really awesome, it reminds me of Batman. There’s not enough night-time Spidey stuff, or at least not enough good night-time Spidey stuff.

In this issue Ned proposes to Betty! Whoa! And, naturally, Peter blows up and is completely unreasonable about it. It’s pretty sad to see Betty and Peter split up…I liked them together. That B-story is far more interesting than the A-plot with the Cat Burglar, but overall the issue isn’t that bad.

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The Scorpion’s back from jail, and you know what that means – a 10-page fight! Seriously, this was boring shit. The only saving grace was that Peter had on the hippest vest ever:

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Spider-Man hooks up with Dr. Strange to fight some evil mystic arts dude named Xandu. Mostly it’s just a big long fight and kinda boring. However, the parts when Spidey’s in some other dimension look awesome, and the art elsewhere is pretty fantastic as well. This was a different kind of villain and different kind of fight for Spider-Man too, so that it made it slightly more interesting than the usual fare.

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This issue was pretty much split in two, with the first half centering around a new villain, the Molten Man, and the second half around Peter’s high school graduation. The Molten Man stuff was very villain-of-the-weeky and not very interesting. Peter’s graduation wasn’t actually too exciting either, except that it’s such an important milestone. Kind of like real graduation – it’s an important step and you feel like it should be exciting, but really it’s a complete bore.

Stan Lee screwed up big twice in this issue. First, he had Peter refer to Liz Allen as Liz Hilton. Second, he had Anna Watson refer to Mary-Jane as her daughter instead of her niece. These are not complicated things to keep straight, so what the hell is the problem? According to some shit I’ve read, Stan and Steve weren’t really even communicating by this point, so it doesn’t really surprise me that Stan seems to be phoning it in. I’m starting to think Stan Lee is kind of a douchebag, but maybe I’m reading too much into all of this.

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I read this in the wrong order, I should have read it immediately following FF Annual #3. I should have, though I wish I had never read it at all. This takes the already horrible story in that issue and makes it worse with a pointless, worthless update that is not only boring, but throws Phil Sheldon into the mix and makes me start to hate his character too. Yes, this is so bad that it actually started to ruin Marvels for me. My only hope is that enough time passes between now and when I read the next issue of Marvels that I forgot Heroes & Legends entirely.

And, after 30 years, has Stan Lee learned how to write for and about women yet? Has he become more sensitive to sexism and how women are portrayed in comics? You be the judge:

This issue gets the honour of being the first zero rating of this blog.

I refuse to waste my time tagging all the billions of heroes and villains that appeared in this trite shite.

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This issue was a pretty decent conclusion to the story started in ASM #26. We find out that the Crime Master is, in fact, Nick Lewis (when he gets blown away by the cops) and that Frederick Foswell has been posing as underworld informant Patch (though Spider-Man is still in the dark about this).

Unfortunately this issue wasn’t quite as good as the last couple, though it was still pretty strong. The pacing was a little weird, with all the action wrapping up really fast. After that it was just a bunch of wrapping up – Spider-Man retrieving his camera and ditching his shitty costume, etc. My biggest complaint with this issue, though, is something that Stan Lee screwed up. At the beginning of the issue, Lee has Spider-Man make a comment about the gas that knocked him out. It wasn’t gas at all, though, it was one of the Goblin’s pumpkin bombs! Come on, Stan! Would it really hurt to re-read the previous issue before printing this one, Stan?

It really seems like with Ditko in charge of plotting, he’s doing a much nicer job with the art. It’s often more detailed and more interesting than a lot of the earlier issues.

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This was a cool issue. There’s so much going on it’s hard to keep track of, especially with the addition of all the info I have from Untold Tales. From this issue it seems like former Big Man Frederick Foswell is the Crime Master, but I know from Untold Tales that the Crime Master is actually Nick Lewis. So what’s up with that? UT has also shown me that the Crime Master thinks the Green Goblin is J. Jonah Jameson, when we know he’s actually Norman Osborn. I guess Untold Tales is kinda ruining some of the suspense, but it’s giving me dramatic irony in spades, and I think I prefer that. This issue was super interesting to read, and I can’t wait for part 2 in the next issue.

Also, how awesome is it that Aunt May threw out Spider-Man’s costume, and he had to buy one from a costume store? (Answer: very awesome.) It was really sweet that it was a shitty costume, too, and that he kept having to use his webbing to make sure it didn’t fall off him. And, to have that come back and be an important plot point later – when the Goblin couldn’t unmask Spidey due to said webbing – was thrice brilliant.

Talk about a cliffhanger, too! You have Spider-Man unconscious and captured by the Green Goblin, the Goblin about to challenge the Crime Master, an entire warehouse full of criminals, cops on the way…super exciting!

This was a superb issue. Interestingly enough, both this book and the last one were plotted by Steve Ditko. Note that I gave them both 5 stars. I’m pretty sure Ditko continues to plot the rest of the series until he leaves (which is actually pretty soon), so I’m really looking forward to where this is going.

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I really dug this issue, too. Peter convinces J. Jonah Jameson to hear out an inventor (Spencer Smythe) who can stop Spider-Man. It turns out this dude has a robot that JJJ ends up controlling, and it’s actually super hard for Spidey to beat. (It’s not called a Spider-Slayer by name here, but I’m pretty sure it’s the first incarnation of the Spider-Slayer robots that show up periodically.) The story actually doesn’t sound all that special, but it was really well-written and there were a few panels where I loved Ditko’s art. I think this is one of his last issues; I’m curious to see how things go down when he leaves.

MJ finally makes an appearance in this issue (though she was already in Untold Tales) in a couple really funny panels where her face is hidden. Also, Aunt May finds Peter’s Spider-Man costume and confiscates it! Oh noes!

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Hey, what a great issue! That old so-and-so Mysterio poses as a psychiatrist a rigs up a bunch of gimmicks to make Spidey think he’s going bonkers! Pretty sweet! And he would have succeeded, too, if it wasn’t for that pesky Mr. Jameson – nice cake icing, there.

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In this issue, the Green Goblin continues his plan to take over the crime racket in New York. He hatches a pretty clever plan that ends up putting crime boss Lucky Lobo behind bars, with the help of former Big Man, Frederick Foswell. Unfortunately for the Goblin, his plan works too well and all of Lobo’s gang ends up in jail, leaving no goons for the Goblin to lead.

Spider-Man actually kind of takes a back seat in this issue. He mostly is just an observer and a pawn of the Goblin, who tricks him into helping round up Lucky and the gang. When Spider-Man clues in to the Goblin’s true scheme, the two end up having what turns out to be a pretty decent and un-boring fight.

I actually really dug this issue more than I expected to. I always think I’m going to hate these Amazing Spider-Mans, but they often turn out to be pleasant surprises!

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The big theme of this issue is being female, and we learn all about it with Princess Python. Her super-power is that she is a woman and, therefore, Spider-Man can’t hit her. Furthermore, we learn that, when cornered, Princess Python has another super-power: seduction. Finally, we learn that the word “female” can never be overused, and can even be a euphemism for “bitch”. (Seriously, has Stan never heard the word “woman”? Why is everyone always called “female”? It’s so weird.)

This is something that’s been bothering me for awhile, actually; I almost wrote something along these lines for Fantastic Four #36 as well. In that issue Madam Medusa’s superpower is having hair. Sue Storm often gets written/treated like shit too, as do Betty Brant and Liz. These old books could use a little Joss Whedon touch. I think Stan Lee might have been a total jerk, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it’s simply a reflection of the times and not necessarily him.

The writing for this issue was not particularly good to begin with, and it’s even worse considering all the sexist crap. I’m not normally the type to be offended, but even I was taken aback by the really atrocious way women are written and written about here. On a more positive note, I really liked some of the art in this issue. There were some awesome close-ups (and I always love Ditko close-ups), and the fight with the snake looked really good.

This rating is based on 1.5 for the writing and 3.5 for the art.

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Wow, that was truly awful. Spider-Man acts like a total dick – he goes to the Human Torch’s girlfriend’s house to hit on her, ends up crashing a party and starting a fight with the Torch, then starts a fight with the rest of the Fantastic Four and ends off hitting on the Invisible Girl, even though he’s got Betty and Liz (and possibly MJ) pining after him back him. This was 100% completely out of character for Spider-Man.

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I don’t have much to say about this. I pretty much hate when Spider-Man and the Human Torch interact. Stan Lee seems to fucking love it, though: the Torch is in just about every other issue he writes. Whatever.

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The character design on the Scorpion is super weird. His tail is coming out from the middle of his back and it looks pretty stupid. His costume’s also kinda lame, but in the book we find out it was designed by J. Jonah Jameson, which is actually really funny.

Besides the look of the Scorpion, though, I thought the art in this issue was better than Ditko’s average. All the night scenes, especially, had really cool lighting and were kind of film noirish. I guess having a Brother Seamus following Pete around really inspired Ditko.

The bombshell in this issue is that Jameson was having Peter tailed by this Private Dick, Mac Gargan. Man, what a douchebag. JJJ becomes an even bigger douchebag when he hires some crazy scientist to turn Gargan into the Scorpion, with the explicit desire “to give a man powers which are greater than Spider-Man’s”. This guy’s a nut! There aren’t enough supervillains running around, JJJ now feels the need to create new ones? Now who’s the menace?

This issue’s actually really cool and intense. Spider-Man gets the shit beat out of him, the scientist falls to his death off a building and Jameson at least has the good sense to be wracked with guilt (for a short time).

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Pretty typical Amazing from this era. Spider-Man’s back and fighting after being on hiatus, and he has a run-in with the Enforcers. They are working with the Sandman and…well there’s a bunch of fights and stuff. I couldn’t get into this.

I don’t really understand why the Enforcers are out of jail. Usually there’s an explanation for stuff like that, even if it’s a crummy one. Oh well, maybe there wasn’t enough evidence without Spider-Man’s testimony. Also, how does Spider-Man know the Sandman is in cahoots with the Enforcers? It’s just plot hole after plot hole…

I can say that this episode made me intrigued about the next (or next few) issues. There’s got to be another Green Goblin story soon (his identity still hasn’t been revealed…well at least not in ASM; it might have been in Untold Tales, I can’t remember), and in this issue we get J. Jonah Jameson vowing revenge and a mysterious stranger following Peter home! Has somebody figured out his secret identity? Oooh, exciting!

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I tell ya, I may not be the biggest Ditko fan, but there’s two things he does really well: close-ups and covers. I love the cover for this issue, I think it looks really fantastic.

This is the kinda shit I like, a completely character-driven issue. Spider-Man didn’t fight once! He just moped about feeling sorry for himself and making everything worse. My only complaint is that a lot of parts seemed pretty repetitive, like Lee was having trouble filling the space without a lot of action sequences.

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The Green Goblin strikes at a Spider-Man Fan Club meeting that Spidey’s appearing at. Things get even worse when Liz begins to get suspicious that Peter and Spider-Man are never at the same time, Betty becomes convinced Peter is having a fling with Liz and Aunt May has a heart attack and is sent to the hospital! When Spider-Man runs out to go check on her, he’s labeled a coward and the Green Goblin gets away. Things just can’t go right for Peter, and it makes for good reading.

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Before reading this I felt both excitement and trepidation. On one hand, it’s the first appearance of the Sinister Six, which is pretty cool and has the potential for some excitement. On the other hand, the cover advertises “Spidey’s biggest, longest, greatest battle”, which is definitely not my kind of thing. Thankfully, the writing is surprisingly good. Spider-Man (and even some extras) have some great one-liners, the story keeps up a pretty good pace, and the action doesn’t really seem stale (except when the Human Torch showed up; man, that guy makes everything boring).

My biggest complaint concerns how Spider-Man “loses” his powers for awhile at the beginning. Having this happen at such a critical moment could have been incredibly interesting and forced Peter to outthink his opponents, rather than simply out-superpower them. Unfortunately, the powers returned just as mysteriously as they disappeared, right at the moment they were needed. That’s balls, and to do it all without an adequate explanation is even bigger balls. (Please note: sadness-induced psychsomatic power loss is not an adequate explanation.)
My only other problem with this boook is the number of cameos from other Marvel characters – Thor, Dr. Strange, The Fantastic Four, Ant-Man, the Wasp, and the X-Men – for no reason whatsoever. It’s clearly just to advertise their respective comics, which Stan Lee/the editors don’t hesitate to do in a bunch of captions.

Despite these two drawbacks, the book is good overall. I even dug Ditko’s art more than usual – there were a couple of really awesome close-ups and really great full-page splashes of Spider-Man fighting each of the Sinister Six.

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Other than Daredevil being involved in this issue, it was pretty typical villain-of-the-week stuff. The Daredevil stuff was OK, but they really, really pounded home his blindness and abilities. It was really kind of annoying.

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