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.