Amazing Spider Man 19-21

Amazing Spider Man 19-21. Dec 1964-Feb 1965. Stan Lee/Steve Ditko

   Spidey fights the Enforcers, Sandman, The Scorpion, and The Beetle. Once again, the term "pantywaste" is all over these books, which is bizarre. I guess people just threw it around a lot back then - more than I'd have assumed.
   Peter is still torn between Liz and Betty Brandt, and Aunt May keeps talking about blind dates with Mary Jane. I'm not sure when she's going to be introduced, but the build up is making it a pretty epic moment.
   I've also noticed asbestos being mentioned across several issues. I don't know if this is a credit to how prominent it must have been in the 60's, or the fact it seems like it has something to do with fire - since the Torch is in like every issue.

Either way, I'm still enjoying this title, even if it is a little 60's hokey. Mike Mine Marvel, Stan!

Amazing Spider Man 17-18

Oct/Nov 1964 - Still the Ditko/Lee show...

   #17 has Spidey squaring off with the Green Goblin again. More threats from Aunt May to set him up with this "Mary Jane Watson" girl she keeps talking about, heh heh. But one thing is for sure, Stan Lee sure had a good time with the Liz/Betty Brant appeal for Petey. And with Flash trying to start up the Spider-Man fan club, who knows how crazy things could get for the webslinger. Also, Human Torch is a dick - always showing off. It's no wonder they put the FF in so many books back then.
   #18 is the first issue, according to Stan, that doesn't actually feature SM fighting anyone. Instead, Flash, in his love for Spidey in direct correlation with his hatred of Peter Parker, goes out dressed as Spiderman an gets beat up. So it looks like he's over Spiderman, but it also looks like Betty Brant is over Peter. Something else though that jumped out at me, is HOW OLD IS AUNT MAY? She has to be like 90, describing her ailments and such. I don't know how long Spiderman stays a teenager, but Aunt May must really be doing some good living to have this longevity.

Amazing Spiderman #13-16

Amazing Spider Man #13-16. Stan Lee/Steve Ditko June-September 1964

I noticed Peter is starting to come into his own in the dating world. Finally Liz is starting to throw him some serious bones over her beau Flash Thompson, but Aunt May is persistent with trying to set him up on a blind date with this Mary Jane character. Oh, I'm sure she won't have much impact on his life. Either way, we've seen some of Spidey's biggest foes introduced in these issues. Mysterio, The Green Goblin, Kraven the Hunter, and finally The Ringmaster - who sucks. I don't seem to recall him very much in later issues. Still, I've noticed the quality of these getting incrementally better. Stan's writing is starting to develop a little more and Steve's pencils are getting sharper. Not sure if there was some revolution in printing/copy in mid 1964 but it's a welcome turn from where some of these were at.

Plus in the mix of these four issues, I found these gems:

Amazing Spiderman #8-12

Amazing Spider Man #8-12, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko/Jack Kirby. Jan - May, 1964.

   #8 - The greatest thing about this issue is this panel:

   "As you know, the answer is given in the form of mathematical code symbols..." - oh. Right. You mean 'numbers'. But something else that happens of importance in this issue is the fact Flash steps on Peter's glasses and breaks them. As I've noticed in concurrent issues, PP's eyesight must have been miraculously healed at this point, because he doesn't wear glasses from this point on.

   #9 - Spider Man battles Electro for the first time. HE managed to get his powers from being electrocuted while working on a telephone line. At this point, who needs mutants? People are becoming super heroes or super villains from random accidents at an alarming rate. Hey, J.Jonah - THERE'S A SCOOP!

  #10 - Nothing too interesting about SM's foes here - it's Big Man and the Enforcers. I did notice that Peter's romance with Betty Brandt seems to be taking a hit. She seems like she suffers from some sort of mental illness. I guess that's to be expected when you work for a sociopath like JJJ. On the last page, the issue promises a new villain in the next issue, which turns out to be...

#11 - The Return of Doctor Octopus. Plus the return of Betty Brandt. Unfortunately Ock escapes to fight another day, like..

#12 - The Re-Return of Doc Ock. Spidey gets unmasked in this one, but since he's failing so bad at fighting Octo, everyone thinks he's just dicking around. so they can't put two and two together. But oddly enough, now Liz is on Pete's jock for some reason. Plus, they manage to somehow namecheck Billy Graham...

   

Amazing Spider Man #4-7

Amazing Spider Man 4-7 , Stan Lee/Steve Ditko, Sept -Dec, 1963.

   #4 intros the Sandman, who amazingly finally gets caught by Spiderman while demanding a high school teacher allow him to sit in to earn a degree. If it were not for the fact that the term "panty waste" was used, maybe that would be the funniest thing. But alas.
   #5 brings Dr. Doom and the Fantastic Four into the foray again. I get the feeling that FF was pretty huge then. Similar to the way Marvel puts out ten million X-titles and crossovers to decimate you financially, I suppose Stan Lee figured out the basics long ago. Also, the kids in this school are the meanest sons of bitches I've ever seen. It's surprising Pete didn't pull a Columbine on these little bastards.. Shit!
   #6 introduces the Lizard, in addition to continuing to highlight J.Jonah's constant berating. Something else I noticed is that Aunt May has the ability to be keenly aware of breaking news in other regions. She may not know what all is going down in New York, but she sure as hell knows what's going on down in Florida.
   #7 is the return of a surprisingly so-called favorite, The Vulture. Oddly enough, I don't remember this guy too much from my early childhood and adventures on SpiderMandom, so obviously between the 60's and the early 90's, I guess Marvel somehow did away with him. Either way, he was defeated. The best panel in the comic is below.
 

   Overall, 1963 was a pretty good year for Peter Parker. He became Spider Man, he defeated various hoods, The Vulture twice, The Sandman, Dr. Octopus, Dr. Doom, and The Lizard. I also noted that several times in the book, Stan Lee pats himself on the back and tells the audience that because this is a huuuuuuge title for Marvel, and because the people demand it, that blah blah blah. Something that kind of sticks out at me is the way he wrote this title is a little infuriating. Like he just wrote it as he went along. One panel may have SM say "Blast! If only I had my camera, I could take pictures of this for the Bugle" and then the next panel, he pulls up his shirt and goes "Good thing I tucked away my super micro-emergency camera for these occasions..." or something like that. Look, I know - I can't nail the guy too hard. It was 50 years ago. But... you know what? Yes I can. Because if I didn't write about that, this blog will probably get shittier than it is already.

Amazing Spider Man #1-3

Amazing Spider Man #1-3. Stan Lee, Steve Ditko. March-July 1963

Ok, I'm not going to write a synopsis on EVERY issue, but I will kind of write them intermittently just so I can keep up with what the hell I'm looking at..

This is Spider Man at his core. Not a whole lot of explaining his origin, Peter Parker was obviously Spider Man before this series began being published, but oh what the hay. In the advent of Mavel's infancy back in the early 60's, this looks like a pretty decent starting point. Spider Man sees poor Aunt May pawning her jewelry, so he goes out and battles various criminals and makes a little money. Meanwhile, J. Jonah Jameson, the ruthless publisher of The Daily Bugle, claims SM is a menace. Peter figures out he can basically take pictures of himself fighting crime, and sell them to Jameson for cash. In the course of these three issues, he fights some bad guys, tries to join the Fantastic Four, fights the Vulture, gets beaten by Doc Ock, and then after a very odd speech the ailing Human Torch gives to the high school (for some reason), gets the renewed spirit to go defeat him.

We're on to a pretty good start. A little hokey, but I doubt Stan planned for an audience of 35 year olds in 2013 to be reading it. Ok, Spidey. I accept your challenge. 697 issues to go!

Ok, so here's what I'm gonna do...

So I just got a subscription to Marvel Unlimited. It's this incredible service that basically gives you acces to everything Marvel has ever published. The first thing I wanted to do... and I know this is a tremendous undertaking... is read the entire series of Amazing Spider Man, from issue 1 in 1963 to the last (for now) issue, #700. Challenging enough, yeah. But I want to do it a manageable amount of time. If I can read 3 or 4 issues a day, I can get it done in like 175 days. So what the hell am I doing? I'm wasting time. Here we go!