By Stan Lee, John Romita Sr. & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-914-6
The rise and rise of the wondrous web-spinner continued and even increased pace as the decade progressed, and by the time of the tales in this fourth sumptuous hardcover (collecting Amazing Spider-Man #41-50 and Annual 3, spanning October 1966 to July 1967) Peter Parker and friends were on the way to being household names as well as the darlings of college campuses and the media intelligentsia.
By 1966 Stan Lee and Steve Ditko could no longer work together on their greatest creation. After increasingly fraught months the artist simply resigned, leaving Spider-Man without an illustrator. Meanwhile John Romita had been lured away from DC’s romance line and given odd assignments before assuming the artistic reins of Daredevil, the Man Without Fear.
Now he was co-piloting the company’s biggest property and expected to run with it.
With issue #41 and ‘The Horns of the Rhino!’ Romita took complete artistic control, inking his own pencils in a blockbusting rip-roarer as a super-strong spy tasked with abducting J. Jonah Jameson‘s astronaut son was stopped by the Astounding Arachnid, who found the victim a far harder proposition in the next issue. Amazing Spider-Man #42 ‘The Birth of a Super-Hero!’ saw John Jameson mutated by space-spores and go on a terrifying rampage in a explosive, entertaining yarn only really remembered for the last panel of the final page…
Mary Jane Watson had been a running gag for years; a prospective blind-date arranged by Aunt May whom Peter had narrowly avoided – and the creators had skilfully not depicted – for the duration of time that our hero had been involved with Betty Brant, Liz Allen, and latterly Gwen Stacy. In that last frame the gob-smacked young man finally realised that he been ducking the hottest chick in New York for two years!
‘Rhino on the Rampage!’ in #43 gave the horn-headed villain one more crack at Jameson and Spidey, but the emphasis was solidly on foreshadowing future foes and building Pete and MJ’s relationship.
The Marvel mayhem continued with the return of a tragedy-drenched old foe as Stan & John reintroduced biologist Curt Conners in #44′s ‘Where Crawls the Lizard!’. The deadly reptilian marauder threatened Humanity itself and it took all of the wall-crawler’s resourcefulness to stop him in the cataclysmic concluding chapter ‘Spidey Smashes Out!’
Issue #46 introduced another all-new menace in the form of seismic super-thief ‘The Sinister Shocker!’ who proved little match for the Web-spinner whilst ‘In the Hands of the Hunter!’ brought back a fighting-mad and extremely vengeful Kraven to menace the family of Peter Parker’s new best friend Harry Osborn.
Apparently the obsessive big-game hunter had entered into a contract with Harry’s father (the super-villainous Green Goblin until a psychotic break turned him into a traumatised amnesiac) and now the Russian rogue wanted paying off or payback…
Luckily Spider-Man was on hand to dissuade him, but it’s interesting to note that at this time the student life and soap-opera sub-plots became increasingly important to the mix, with glamour girls Mary Jane and Gwen Stacy (superbly delineated by the masterful Romita) as well as former bully Flash Thompson and the Osborns getting as much or more “page-time†as Aunt May or the Daily Bugle staff, who had previously monopolised the non-costumed portions of the ongoing saga.
Amazing Spider-Man #48 introduced Blackie Drago: a ruthless thug who shared a prison cell with one of the wall-crawler’s oldest foes. At death’s door the ailing super-villain revealed his technological secrets, enabling Drago to escape and master ‘The Wings of the Vulture!’
Younger, faster, tougher, the new Vulture defeated Spider-Man and in #49′s ‘From the Depths of Defeat!’ battled Kraven the Hunter until a restored and reinvigorated Wall-crawler stepped in to thrash them both.
Issue #50 introduced one of Marvel’s greatest villains in the first of a three part yarn that saw the beginnings of romance between Parker and Gwen Stacy and the death of a cast member, re-established Spidey’s war on cheap thugs and common criminals (a key component of the hero’s appeal was that no criminal was too small for him to bother with) and saw a crisis of conscience force him to quit in ‘Spider-Man No More!’ only to return and become entangled ‘In the Clutches of… the Kingpin!’ (inked by Mike Esposito, moonlighting from DC as Mickey Demeo).
The remaining two chapters of that groundbreaking, gang-busting triptych are reproduced in the next volume but there’s still one last treat in store…
This chronicle concludes with ‘…To Become an Avenger!’ (Amazing Spider-Man Annual # 3 and out of sequence – so if you’re that way inclined read this tale first) as the World’s Mightiest Heroes offered the Web-Spinner membership in the team and an end to most of his pecuniary and P.R. woes if he could capture the Hulk.
As usual all was not as it seemed but the action-drenched epic, courtesy of Lee, Romita (on layouts), Don Heck & Demeo/Esposito is the kind of guest-heavy package that made those summer specials a kid’s ultimate delight.
Topped off with a cover gallery and glorious pin-ups of the entire cast of Peter Parker’s life, one last Ditko action-page and a group shot of Spidey with all the heroes stronger than him, this classic compendium is the ideal way to introduce or reacquaint readers with the formative Spider-Man. The brilliant adventures are superb value and this series of books should be the first choice of any adult with a present to buy for an impressionable child.
…Or for their greedy, needy selves…
© 1966, 1967, 1997 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All rights reserved.