Amazing Spider-Man #1-12
Originally released in 1963
Written by Stan Lee
Art by Steve Ditko
I've read all of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's run on Spider-Man, but that was a while ago, and I've read plenty of comics since then. I recalled really liking the early issues, but do they still hold up?
In a word: yes. I've seen plenty of comics where things are in flux early on - characterization hasn't quite clicked yet, or some major details feel off compared to later comics, and it takes a while for the series to find itself. That isn't the case here - the first year of Spider-Man (the first ten issues - a few issues were bimonthly before the series switched to monthly releases) was like lightning in a bottle, delivering iconic villain after iconic villain while capturing what would make the character appealing for generations to come.
Peter seems like a character with a potential to be much darker early on. After the death of Uncle Ben (which was covered in Amazing Fantasy #15, which introduced the character), May is hurting for money, and Peter is frustrated because it doesn't seem like he can do anything. He tries to return to the entertainment business, but getting paid is a problem.
Out of frustration that he has these great powers but can't help someone who's like a mother to him, Peter is tempted to use his Spider-Man identity to steal money in order to help May; only the thought of May's broken heart if she ever found out keeps him from actually following through with it. Between his inability to benefit from his powers in any way and the public's growing distrust of him, it's a concern throughout his first issue that he could snap and turn against society - I'm not sure if that's been explored in a What-If story, but I'd be surprised if it hadn't been covered in one.
A hero is only good as their villains, and Spider-Man has one of the best rogues galleries out there. In his first year alone, he faces off against the Chameleon, the Vulture, Doctor Octopus, Sandman, Doctor Doom (who initially wants to ally with Spider-Man against the Fantastic Four), and Electro. Lee and Ditko were on fire when it came to creating supervillains, and it's not like they slowed down after that; the Green Goblin, Mysterio, Kraven, and the Scorpion all made their debut in the next year alone.
Coming back to these books helped me to notice parallels between Peter and his foes. Peter's tempted to use his superhero identity to commit crimes, while the Chameleon does just that. Peter's desperate to make money, but he's not willing to steal and kill like the Vulture.
Peter seems like he'd be a really refreshing change during the time that his comics first came out. He's not a millionaire with servants at his beck and call like Batman, and he doesn't live in an arctic Fortress of Solitude like Superman - he's living with his elderly aunt, who he has to hide his superheroics from, in the middle of New York City, and they're barely scraping by. He's a teenager who has far too much on his plate at once, burning the candle at both ends, and he often lashes out in an adolescent attempt to prove himself or rushes off out of frustration.
While his battles with supervillains and the trouble that his double life causes are obviously fantasy, many of the problems that he faces are ones that many people could relate to at some point or another - trouble with rent, unpopularity at school, trying to find work, being looked down upon due to your age or interests, struggling to support relatives... The details about his life that were established in these first few issues helped to set him up as a new kind of superhero, different from DC's well-established roster or Marvel's super-scientists like the Fantastic Four or Ant-Man.
The Chameleon and the Vulture may be twists on old comic standbys for villains (enemy spies and thieves, respectively), but their gimmicks help to make them memorable. However, issue 3 introduces a supervillain with a good claim to being Spider-Man's arch-enemy - Doctor Otto Octavius, also known as Doctor Octopus. After a rather unfortunately-timed wish by Spider-Man...
...an explosion at a nuclear research lab turns Otto Octavius from a brilliant but arrogant nuclear physicist into a megalomaniacal supervillain. (naturally, nuclear radiation is involved, as it fuses his mechanical arms to his body and alters his brain chemistry)
Peter goes to take photos of the injured scientist for J. Jonah Jameson, but quickly finds far more than he bargained for when he's forced to fight Doctor Octopus. These early issues had their fair share of typos (such as calling Peter Parker "Peter Palmer" or referring to Bruce Banner as "Bob Banner" - alliteration helped Stan Lee with remembering character names, but it didn't always work), but this is a particularly amusing one:
I'm not sure if it was an actual typo or if it was meant to show how Doc Ock cared so little about Spider-Man that he doesn't even bother to remember his name. (while also referencing the Distinguished Competition) Peter's lacking confidence in these early days, to the point where he almost gives up being Spider-Man when his superhuman abilities aren't enough to stop the mad scientist. (though he ultimately triumphs in a rematch through a mix of brains and brawn)
A lot of Spider-Man's foes suffer similar defeats - while many of them represent the dangerous side of science and how scientific advancements can be misused, Peter ultimately uses his own considerable scientific knowledge (or, in the case of his victory over Sandman, a vacuum cleaner) to overcome their abilities.
Peter's supporting cast isn't quite as developed as it would eventually become - this early on, his only supporting characters (aside from Aunt May and J. Jonah Jameson) are his high school bully Flash Thompson (who's ironically a big fan of Spider-Man) and his crush Liz Allen. Neither of those two are particularly interesting compared to who would come later, though they help to set the tone for what Peter's high school life is like.
Admittedly, Peter brings some of Flash's bullying on himself, like when he decides to bad-mouth Spider-Man because if he praises Spider-Man (like most of the other kids are doing), then they might start to think that he is Spider-Man! Peter may be intelligent, but he's lacking in wisdom or common sense.
As a side-note, it's funny that Doctor Doom of all people calls Spider-Man out on making unnecessarily dramatic entrances. (then again, knowing Doom, he probably figures that every single dramatic entrance that he does is absolutely necessary)
After Spider-Man refuses Doom's offer to team up, Doom lets Spider-Man escape so he has time to come up with a tracker to find Spider-Man. It's not the most accurate, so when Flash Thompson dresses up as Spider-Man to try and scare Peter, Doom captures Flash instead, using "Spider-Man" as a hostage to force the Fantastic Four to come to his rescue. Peter's first thoughts upon hearing about this are chilling, though he quickly changes his mind and goes to save Flash.
The Lizard is a modern take on Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, with the kind scientist Curt Connors taking a serum to regenerate his missing arm, only for the serum to turn him into a psychotic lizard-man. The Lizard side of Doctor Connors is more sympathetic here than what I'm used to, as he's still got some of his humanity despite being transformed into a lizard and declaring the Florida Everglades to be his domain. His intelligence and humanity are diminishing every moment, though, and his ultimate plan (to feed the serum that gave him lizard-like attributes to other lizards in the swamp) makes no sense whatsoever, since the serum makes living beings more lizard-like.
After issue 7 brings back the Vulture (this time in an interesting scenario where both of them are at a disadvantage - Peter's arm is injured, while most of the final battle takes place indoors where Vulture can't maneuver easily) and issue 8 has Peter battling a computer called the Living Brain, issue 9 introduces Electro, whose origin is hilariously nonsensical.
J. Jonah Jameson blindly accuses Spider-Man of committing just about every type of crime out there, and at one point, he comes to the baffling conclusion that Spider-Man is secretly Electro.
Meanwhile, as Aunt May's health fails and she requires an operation, a romance starts to bloom between Peter and Betty Brant, Jameson's secretary. Peter tends to keep to himself, but Betty still finds out about May's trip to the hospital and shows up to support him in a sweet moment.
As this first year goes on, the Daily Bugle gets more focus, between Jameson's antics, Peter's growing love for Betty, and a criminal known as the Big Man turning out to be Bugle reporter Fredrick Foswell. The Big Man is accompanied by the Enforcers, a trio of low level thugs who consist of Ox (the big dumb one), Montana (who's a cowboy for some reason), and Fancy Dan. (Look at how fancy he is!)
Betty has a mysterious secret that she refuses to disclose, to the point where she took out money from a loan shark - an interesting reversal from the usual dynamic that Thor, Iron Man, and Bruce Banner have in this era where the men are the ones keeping a secret while the women in their lives can only suspect what it could be. Issue 11 brings Doctor Octopus back, and it's here that we find out what it is when Betty is forced to drive Doc Ock to Philadelphia.
Her brother is a lawyer who's in deep debt to an infamous mobster. Once Betty confides this to Peter, he makes plans to reveal to her that he's Spider-Man once this is over and they're back in New York. This is a sign that things are going to go horribly wrong.
While Spider-Man is struggling with the mobster in question, the mobster's gun goes off, killing Betty's brother. She blames Spider-Man at first, but while she realizes that he was trying to help and it was just an accident, she can't see him any more without thinking of her brother's death, putting the kibosh on Peter's plan to reveal his identity to her.
Once Peter, Betty, and (eventually) Doc Ock make it back to New York, Otto decides that since Spider-Man tried to save Betty before, he'll likely do it again, kidnapping her from the Daily Bugle's offices. Peter, as Spider-Man, goes to fight Doc Ock, but he's came down with a cold which drains him of his powers; he struggled to beat Doctor Octopus before, so now he stands no chance whatsoever.
With Betty and Jameson present, the mad doctor unmasks Spider-Man to reveal that he's none other than teenage freelance photographer Peter Parker! ...though absolutely nobody believes that Peter is Spider-Man for a second, thinking that he dressed up as Spider-Man to save Betty. (which is something that Jameson and Otto will be kicking themselves over years down the line, I'm sure)
Embarrassed that he was apparently fooled by a teenager, Doctor Octopus decides on the most natural course of action: break into the zoo and free the animals!
Once Spider-Man recaptures the animals, he has a fight with Doc Ock that culminates in the two of them being trapped in a burning building. While these issues tend to be pretty fight-heavy (which is almost expected), it never feels repetitive, even in cases where villains are re-used; Lee and Ditko do enough to change up the circumstances and keep the action entertaining, while showing how both Spider-Man and his opponents learned from previous encounters.
Some of the edges seem to be sanded off of the characters by this point, which is a nice bit of development - by the time that the series has reached issue 12, Peter doesn't seem quite so angry and bitter all the time, and after hearing about Peter supposedly dressing up as Spider-Man and risking his life to save Betty Brant, Liz starts to notice Peter's more positive traits and begins to fall for him.
I could go on and on and on about these issues (I've probably gone on for way too long as it is!), but these early issues of the Amazing Spider-Man are a delight to read. Sure, they can be a little old-fashioned (I don't always get the references that Spider-Man throws out there; I just roll with some of them), but Spider-Man's troubles in both identities are engaging, his supporting cast is fleshed out, and
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