SPIDER-MAN COLLECTIBLE SERIES #7: This comic is fun. If you have a good memory that hasn't been addled by too many candy beans, you might 'member that a few weeks back I picked up one of the free Spider-Man half-a-comic-books inserted weekly into newspapers around the country (mine: The New York Daily News, the only newspaper that smells like Cindy Adams's perfume). This series has been reprinting, half an issue at a time, the first Lee/Ditko Spider-Man comics. Due to non-existent promotion on the covers of the papers, I've missed several issues, but serendipity (and someone leaving their paper on the F train) sent the second half of Amazing #3's Doc Ock debut. Incidentally, one of the questions I had in my original column was answered with this issue: yes, they are creating new covers for the second halves of these split issues. It still preserves that Silver Age bombastic charm, however, since the new cover completely reprints the caption and word balloons from the original cover that was reprinted last week. Golly, deja vu!
Of course if you think I'm gonna say anything other than the Lee/Ditko Spidey being fun, you've got another think comin', oh yes! These stories are simple but not simplistic, emotional but not maudlin. It features one of the first (not the first) crossovers between Marvel magazines, establishing the concept of the shared Marvel Universe (and thus inadvertently eventually giving birth to Civil War) when Johnny Storm makes a speech at Peter Parker's high school:
Yep, that's right, Johnny...blame a math mistake on former jet pilot and crack navigator Ben Grimm.
Long before Mister T, the Human Torch enforces the idea to be cool, stay in school.
In the best Stan Lee comeback tradition, this inspires Spidey to go off after Doc Ock again. (Apparently, The Thing has also been teaching spelling at Midtown High.)
Remember the days when a flying guy in the Marvel Universe was still beyond the belief of most normal people? Personally, I blame Thor for ruinin' that for everybody.
A gorgeous dynamic Ditko panel. Blow one of his panels like this up to wall size and it truly puts Lichtenstein to shame.
Another fantastic panel...seriously, there's no shading better than those early Ditko Spideys.
Here's something I'd forgotten about those first batch of Spider-Man stories. In this issue, as well the Vulture in #2, Spidey triumphs not by using brute force but by using his brain and his science skills. I kinda miss that quirky unique aspect of Peter Parker: Spider-Man: science hero.
"Shoot first and ask questions later?" Ah, so they work for Janet Reno.
Finally, everyone at the end has learned a lesson, except "2 + 2 = 3" Johnny Storm, who flames on in a hotel room next to the curtains.
They don't make 'em like that, anymore? Luckily for all of us, they reprint 'em. Not only is the price right, the comics are sublime.
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