The Amazing Spiderman #11 and #12

May, 1964

Written by Stan Lee, Illustrated by Steve Dikto

Favorite Reference: Frank Buck

Spiderman helps to round up dangerous animals after they’ve escaped from the zoo and a police officer says, “That Spiderman is a poor man’s Frank Buck!” (#12, Page 13)
Wikipedia tells me that Frank Buck was a famous naturalist and movie man from the 1930s and 40s. He wrote a renowned book called “Bring’em Back Alive” about his trips around the world to capture exotic animals. So this reference makes perfect sense.

Unmasked by Dr. Octopus

This is a two-part series in which Dr. Octopus has escaped from prison and is hell-bent on fighting Spiderman. The subplot in the first issue deals with Betty Brant’s terrible secret and the next with Liz Allen finally turning her opinion of Peter Parker around.

The first thing that’s apparent is that Peter Parker has aged. This is one of the things I’ve been most looking forward to. Peter Parker starts out as a fifteen-year-old boy, but eventually attends college, gets married, and, I think, becomes a science teacher or something. So, if I were to guess, Parker has to age fifteen to twenty years from 1963 to 2009. That’s about forty-five years aging approximately four years a decade. The jump that I’ve noticed is most likely from 15 to 17 or 18.

In issue #6, Face-to-Face with the Lizard, Peter Parker wants to travel to Florida. Aunt May will not let him go because he’s too young and only concedes when she knows he’ll be chaperoned by J. Jonah Jameson. Aunt May is a terrible judge of character. In issue #11, Peter takes a train to Philadelphia by himself and Aunt May says, “How nice, Peter! That trip will do you good.” (Page 7) Now, I know a train ride to Phillie from New York is a little different than traveling all the way to Florida, but it’s not a journey you’d let a fifteen-year-old take by himself.

Peter Parker wants to go to Philadelphia because he witnessed a conversation between Betty Brant and Dr. Octopus indicating they were driving there together.

What!?!

Yeah. Betty Brant is driving a raving lunatic with four metal arms across state lines. Doc Ock has just been released from prison for “good behavior.” This is another indicator that some time has passed. He was originally arrested for kidnapping, probably, and it would take at least two or three years for him to be out on probation. He’s spent the whole time seething over his fight with Spiderman and he’s raring for a rematch. He’s also gotten very interested in organized crime, which is a pretty large detour from the mad scientist bit he was playing before.

We finally get the dirt on Betty upon reaching Philadelphia. It’s not that bad. Her brother is the lawyer for a Pennsylvanian gangster and has fallen into deep gambling debts that he can’t pay. Betty has been trying to pay off the debt for her brother and has somehow arranged for the newly released Dr. Octopus to break the crime boss out of a high security jail. This should release her brother from his obligations. But one should never trust generic crime bosses. They are destined to break promises.

The crime boss’s escape plan includes sailing away on a boat with Betty and her brother as hostages. Doc Ock announces to the boat load of gangsters that he is double crossing the crime boss and taking over the syndicate. A gun fight breaks out and Spiderman shows up to punch everyone in the face.

Spiderman fights a sloppy fight, often leaving Betty and her brother unprotected and even putting them in danger. At one point he is tussling with the crime boss as the leading gangster wildly fires his weapon. One of the stray bullets hits Betty’s brother and he dies shortly after. Betty says to him, “If you hadn’t interfered, if you hadn’t tried to be a hero, it might not have happened!” (Page 13) Thus begins what will most likely be a problem in the future, Betty Brant loves Peter Parker, but blames Spiderman for her brother’s death. There’s a long, violent fight on the boat and Dr. Octopus gets away, ending the first issue.

The next book opens with J. Jonah Jameson’s replacement secretary quitting. She says, “You don’t need a secretary, you need a psychiatrist. (#12, page 1) Read the blog on issue #10 and you’ll see that I completely agree with her. This resignation paves the way for Betty to return to the Daily Bugle, which she promptly does.

Meanwhile, Octopus is ravaging the country, going from city to city robbing banks and high jacking trucks in the hopes that Spiderman will come fight him again. When nothing seems to draw the web-slinger out, he returns to NYC and kidnaps Betty Brant. He challenges Spiderman to fight him in Coney Island and has Jameson run an ad for Spiderman in the paper. In a twist that could only happen to Peter Parker, our hero comes down with the twenty-four hour flu. He’s so sick he can barely walk. But he fights Octopus anyway, gets his ass handed to him, and has his secret identity shown to everybody watching. The trick is that he was so weak that Octopus, and everyone watching, assumes that Parker dressed up in a Spiderman outfit because he didn’t think the real thing would show up and he wanted to save his girlfriend. Peter gets healthy and then returns to defeat Octopus.

Things are going well for Peter Parker. Because Liz Allen thinks he risked his life to save Betty, she immediately goes about trying to steal Peter away from her. Flash jabs at Peter like he always does and Liz yells, “As far as I’m concerned, Peter Parker proved he has enough courage to match his brains.” (Page 10). She spends the rest of the issue shamelessly flirting with Peter.

Liz Allen is a complete drama case and I’m really glad Peter went for Betty instead. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Liz Allen eventually becomes Liz Osborn after marrying Harry Osborn, heir to the Green Goblin insanity. I remember there was a whole story-line in the Spectacular Spiderman series where the reader was made to feel bad for her. Whatever. She gets what she deserves. She asks Peter out on a date at the end of the issue and he turns her down saying, “I’m sure Flash will be happy to go instead of me. Although I know how boring it must be to use all those one-syllable words when you talk to him. Anyway, you two deserve each other.” (Page 22) Zing! Tell her, Peter.