Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Amazing Spiderman #2



May, 1963

Written by Stan Lee, Illustrated by Steve Ditko

The second Amazing Spiderman is broken up into two parts. But to call them ‘short stories’ is deceiving. It actually takes me longer to read one of these short stories from the 60s than it does to read a complete comic book from the 90s. There’s a lot more writing. There’s rarely a box without text in it and the text bubbles run down half the page. Even the advertisements expect you to read a lot. There’s a full-page ad offering to train people to repair refrigerators consisting of one picture and at least eight-hundred words. CTI’s home learning kit is expertly written, clearly illustrated, and easy to understand. It offers up-to-date knowledge and includes kits of tools and parts that you assemble into a working unit! And it goes on. If this offer was put into a comic book today it would read, “$ Fix Fridge!! $” with a picture of a naked girl holding a jug of milk in front of an open refrigerator.


$Fix Fridge!$


Attention spans aren’t what they used to be.

Part one is called “Duel to Death with the Vulture.” It’s the first appearance of the Vulture who will become one of Spiderman’s classic villains. The Vulture is a criminally insane mastermind who has created a device, that turns out to be electromagnets or something, so that he can fly soundlessly. He plans big heists and taunts the police like any good criminal should.
There are some interesting developments in Peter’s character during this issue. J. Jonah Jameson is brought back for a reprise and his magazine (Now Magazine, not yet The Daily Bugle) wants pictures of the Vulture but no one can get them. So Peter, thinking only about making some cash and not even considering that what the Vulture’s doing is criminal, sets out to get those photos. This will set off a long career as a photographer for Parker and I find it interesting that he goes after his first super-villain for a cash prize.
During their fight, Spiderman runs out of web fluid. This is the second time in two issues. Once he gets home he decides that he needs to make some adjustments so that this doesn’t happen again. He thinks, “Originally I designed my Spiderman costume to give me some color, so I could make money as an entertainer. But if I’m really going to be a secret adventurer, I’m going to have to make some changes.” (Page 6) I think it’s an interesting distinction that Parker doesn’t think of himself as a ‘hero’ yet. He was an entertainer, now he’s a secret adventurer. Both of these imply that he’s in it for fun and money, not because of the terrible lesson he learned with Uncle Ben’s death.
And speaking of ‘terrible,’ part two of the issue is titled “The Uncanny Threat of the Terrible Tinkerer.” I thought the Tinkerer might have been a one-shot flop, but after discussing the villain with some workmates, I found that he has survived through the forty some years since his creation and still plays a role in comics today. It’s hard to believe. This story is ridiculous.
The Tinkerer has a radio shop where he’s implanting vague, secret devices in the property of “important people.” It turns out he’s working with a bunch of green aliens and they want to take over the world. Spiderman comes in and beats them all up and they decide to leave Earth. Peter Parker has little to no reaction over his first witness of alien life form. The Tinkerer disappears in a fire at the end and will, unfortunately, be back. This little episode was a step back in the evolution of Spiderman. They can’t all be homeruns.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The Amazing Spiderman #1




March, 1963

Written by Stan Lee, Illustrated by Steve Ditko

This issue, like Amazing Fantasy #15 before it, is sectioned off into parts. Part One gives a brief recounting of Spiderman’s origin, highlights Aunt May’s fiscal troubles after the passing of Uncle Ben, and then sends Peter back into the world of entertainment, chasing a buck.
I find it odd that Peter is still hunting the almighty dollar. I thought, after the death of Ben, that he would emerge, morals intact, to become the super hero we all know and love. But he’s still very much the bratty fifteen-year-old who wants to exploit his powers for money. And I’m actually glad Lee decided to revisit the greed. It makes sense and it gives a chance to build the credo of Spiderman in a slower, more genuine way instead of transforming him overnight. It also reminds us that Peter Parker is a teenager. And a young teenager, at that. My favorite scene in this comic is when his entertainment agent tries to pay him with a check and runs into a problem because Peter will not give up his secret identity. So, in true juvenile fashion, he demands the agent make the check out to ‘Spiderman.’ Peter takes it to the bank and they turn him down because he’s a little kid in a costume trying to cash a check under a false name. It’s asinine, but completely probable.


Part One also introduces a sometimes-friend-most-times-foe main character, J. Jonah Jameson. Jameson is the publisher of a, at this point unnamed, magazine or newspaper. He has decided that vigilantism is a public menace and Spiderman should be stopped. He also has an inkling that Spiderman is in it for the wrong reasons, namely fame and money, and he’s basically right.
In Part Two, Jameson’s son, who is a famous test pilot, is being launched into space. Predictably, something goes wrong and Spiderman saves him. He believes this will put him in good favor with Jameson’s publication, but instead he’s blamed for the original malfunction of the rocket. This will prove to be a pattern with Jameson over the next five-hundred some issues.
Part Three brings a further quest to become wealthy when Spidey decides he should join the Fantastic Four. The FF was introduced by Stan Lee about two years before and were pretty successful. Having a known superhero or group of superheroes usher in the new kid would become quite common in the following years (Wolverine first appeared in The Incredible Hulk and the Punisher in The Amazing Spiderman. Leave more examples in the comment section if you have one).
So Spiderman breaks into FF headquarters and fights with the team a bit before finding out that they’re a non-profit organization and, even if they let him join, he wouldn’t make any money. The Human Torch actually says, “You came to the wrong place, pal. This isn’t General Motors.” Apparently General Motors was hiring back then.
Spiderman’s first super-villain appears in Part Three: The Chameleon. The Chameleon is a master of disguise and his true appearance is actually quite unsettling for a 1960s comic book. He wears normal clothes and has a blank, white face with only slits for eyes and a mouth, similar to an unfinished likeness. Later in The Chameleon’s career he will be given full eyes, snake-like nostrils, and a regular mouth with teeth. But I think he’s much spookier like this.
During the run-in with The Chameleon, we get the first taste of the ‘spider-sense.’ Spiderman can detect danger moments before anything happens and this is how he identifies the garbed villain. I find the spider sense of these early comics to be a bit different than the modern era. The spider sense in the 70s, 80s and 90s is similar to an alarm that goes off in Spiderman’s head when danger is near. But originally it was more like he could sense movement and intentions within a certain range. As if he had a psychic web around him and if anything moved within it he could sense the vibrations. I like the older version better because the danger alarm never seemed to me like a spider power. Spiders can’t sense danger. I’ve killed plenty of spiders with a wad of Kleenex and I don’t think any of them saw it coming.
The fact that the story is told in three parts gives Amazing Spiderman #1 the same pulpy feel that Amazing Fantasy had, and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The short stories feel more like an outline than an actual plot, but it works in the same way an old-time radio show works. Decisions happen fast, fates turn on a dime, and you’re either with Stan Lee or you should just put the book down and give up. But, so far, these comics definitely stand the test of time, reading more like rich Americana than outdated pulp. Lee has a corny sense of how the world works, but his simple, child-like style is deceivingly smart.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Amazing Fantasy #15



August, 1962

Written by Stan Lee, Illustrated by Steve Ditko

Spiderman

As anyone who’s anyone knows, Spiderman first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15. Amazing Fantasy is pretty much a pulp magazine of short stories that could easily substitute for an episode of The Twilight Zone. So, while many people know that Peter Parker walked onto the world stage in AF #15, few realize that he was one of four stories.
The second story in AF #15 is called the Bell Ringer. It takes place on an island village and focuses on a guy named Pedros who rings a giant bell, as the title would imply. It’s unclear why Pedros rings the bell. I immediately thought he rang it to ward ships away from rocky sailing, but it might be to keep time or because he likes bells. Either way, it turns out that the island is a volcano and when it starts smoking everyone packs up and leaves for the mainland. Except Pedros. He feels he has to stay and keep ringing the bell. The people sail away as the volcano is exploding and a beam of light shines down from heaven. Pedros is lifted away. The last line refers to the people watching the light as they sail away and reads, “But we prefer to think it was not their imagination. We prefer to think that old Pedros was right…someone heard!” (Page 10) So “someone” heard the bell. Whether that someone was God or an alien isn’t exactly addressed.
The third story is called Man in the Mummy Case. There’s a criminal who breaks into a museum while running from the police. A talking mummy accosts him and convinces the criminal to hide his casket thereby avoiding the police. But the mummy has tricked him. The criminal is transported back to ancient Egypt and made to build the pyramids in some kind of time-travel slavery scheme.
The last story is called There are Martians Among Us and it is nearly unreadable. A ship crashes from Mars, no one knows where the aliens are, we follow a husband and wife character who are concerned for each other’s well-being because of the incident and at the end we are surprised to find that this couple is actually the aliens. Very Twilight Zoney.
Spiderman is clearly the best story of the bunch. If you somehow have never read this comic or didn’t see the blockbuster movie, this is how it goes: Dorky Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider and becomes Spiderman. He sticks to walls and is super strong. He wears a mask and becomes a television star. At one point there is a thief that he could have stopped, but let go because he doesn’t think it’s his job to stop thieves. And, really, it isn’t. But, as fate would have it, this thief turns up later to shoot his Uncle Ben in a botched robbery. Spiderman hunts him down and learns the lesson that will drive the rest of his life, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
If Shakespeare would have written a super-hero legend it would have went like this. Man is outcast, man gains power, man abuses power due to outcast status, tragedy ensues, man learns lesson and develops strong moral codes as the outcome. It’s nearly perfect.
There are two things I think Stan Lee would change if he could. The first is that Uncle Ben doesn’t actually say the Power/Responsibility line. He’s attributed to it in flashbacks throughout the series, but Spidey’s mantra is actually given to us in a yellow narrative box.
The second is the way that Peter spins his web. He invents the webshooters and the web material. This demands a bigger suspension of disbelief than the radioactive spider. I just don’t think it would work. And I don’t think a fifteen-year old kid could invent it. But reality’s not really the point. The point is, why not just make him naturally able to spin webs? He’s supposed to have the abilities of a spider, so why not give him webs? It would have solved a lot of problems.
All in all, these nine pages are simple, crisp, and some of the best comic writing ever. You actually feel for Peter when Uncle Ben dies. You understand his emotion and, more importantly, you want to see what else he’s going to do. That’s a lot to accomplish in just a few pictures.

Monday, April 20, 2009

566 Issues of Spiderman?




My friend Brad and I had many similar hobbies growing up. In no specific order we liked playing release, listening to Weezer, Dungeons & Dragons, cheap food, whiskey, and comic books. Though we had all these tastes in common, there were small differences. When I play release, I run. Brad likes to strategize and hide. Brad likes the Blue Album, I’m more of a Pinkerton man. I preferred being a wizard in Dungeons & Dragons and Brad liked the fighters and thieves. I liked hot dogs but Brad couldn’t eat them because he has a fake esophagus and would choke. Brad liked to steal whiskey from my parent’s liquor cabinet and I liked to steal from his. And even our tastes in comics were different; he sought out the darker titles, Spawn and Preacher, where I was a classic Marvel man.

Brad and I don’t live near each other anymore and, aside from whisky, we’ve given up these pastimes. Weezer’s last three albums suck and I threw out my damn hip, so I can’t run no more. My childhood was fading away as I approached my 30s. I assumed that somewhere, across the country, Brad’s was too. I hadn’t seriously read comic books in about ten years when I received a curious package from California. It was from Amazon and had Brad’s return address on it. He sent me “The Amazing Spider-man, The Complete Collection” CD-Rom. It literally has everything. It begins with Amazing Fantasy #15 and continues through the next five decades of webslinger soap opera. It even has the annual issues, bringing the total count to five hundred and sixty-six issues of “The Amazing Spider-Man.” Brad has a plastic esophagus but a heart of gold.

So I’m going to be the guy who reads every Spider-man, ever. I’ll write a little blurb about each issue, keep up on the plot, point out some cool lines, and maybe even include a funny comic book advertisement or two. I’ll look for over-riding themes, cultural relevance, and try to figure out if great responsibility really does come with great power. ‘Cause I’m not so sure it does.

Feel free to leave comments and share your memories and experiences with Spider-man. Together, we’ll try to figure out how this modern American legend has stayed relevant for so long and what his story means to us. Um…Excelsior?