The Amazing Spider-Man #16

September, 1964

Written by Stan Lee, Illustrated by Steve Ditko

Duel with the Daredevil

This issue is pretty much an advertisement for Daredevil. Stan Lee is set on Daredevil riding Spider-man’s coattails to success. They even had Electro appear as the villain in the second issue of Daredevil’s comic. Now they have blind ole’ Matt Murdock showing up with his cane, hogging one of Spider-man’s issues. But more on that later.

There’s a bit in the past two issues that I really like. Aunt May and her neighbor have cooked up a scheme that their niece and nephew should date. Aunt May says, “She’s a niece of our neighbor, Mrs. Watson. And she’d just love to meet you, Peter” (Amazing Spider-man #15, page 11). This is, of course, Mary Jane Watson, the future Mary Jane Watson-Parker, the love of Peter’s life. I had no idea she showed up this early in the series. If I have my Spider-man time-line straight, there should still be a few years dedicated to beautiful, doomed Gwen Stacy.

But Mary Jane is on the scene, if not in person, in spirit. She actually hasn’t made an appearance yet. It's almost like a running gag. Peter nearly gets stuck dating Mrs. Watson's niece and it falls through at the last second.

Despite the excessive absences, Aunt May has been all up in Peter’s shit about dating her. And it’s not just nagging old-woman-nosiness. May gets aggressive. She knows that Peter is seriously dating Betty Brant and occasionally flirting with Liz Allen. She doesn’t care. She’s decided to get Mrs. Watson’s niece laid and she’ll pull out all stops to accomplish this. At first, she takes the matronly approach, saying “It’s time you began to think seriously about your future.” (Page 11). But she knows Peter already has a girlfriend so she adds, “You’ll want a girl who will make a good housewife- someone like Mrs. Watson’s niece!” This implies that Peter wouldn’t want to be with someone like Betty Brant. A woman who has secured her own job and supports herself. In other words, a hussy.

Peter blows May off and she tries again. Peter says, “I’ve got a girlfriend, Aunt May. I don’t want any blind dates” (Amazing Spider-man #16, page 1). She comes back at him, “But Mary Jane would love to meet you. And you’re not really engaged or anything.” (Page 1) Now, that's pretty forward. This isn’t a plea you hear from your nagging Aunt, this is something that’s said over a line of coke in a strip club bathroom.

And she won't give up. There's a scene where Peter's head is buried in a book and she continues pestering him. Peter’s just trying to study and May’s hanging over his shoulder talking about pussy. May is like a really annoying college roommate. When Peter concedes to meet her, Mary Jane calls off the date due to a headache. Sounds like a drama queen already.

This is really the only part of the issue I care to discuss. As I said before, the rest of the story is focused on ramming Daredevil down your throat. The Ringmaster’s there with a circus and his hypnotizing hat and he’s sorta stupid too. There have been four guest appearances in the series so far: The Fantastic Four, The Human Torch in a solo appearance, The Hulk, and Daredevil. They’ve all been bad in one way or another. The guest stars are either thrown into the story needlessly, as with the Hulk and Daredevil, or Spider-man acts completely out of character in the presence of his guests so that they can fight each other, as happened both times when members of the Fantastic Four barged in. I know Stan Lee needed to cross-pollinate his fan base, but I wish he would have put the story line above his need to advertise.

It's not like you're hittin' that anyway...