The Amazing Spiderman #5

October, 1963

Written by Stan Lee, Illustrated by Steve Ditko

My Favorite Random Reference: Geiger Counter

Doctor Doom: There! I’ve devised an instrument which will react to a spider’s impulses the way a Geiger Counter reacts to uranium!

Wikipedia tells me that a Geiger Counter is a device, invented by Hans Geiger in 1908, that detects levels of radiation. I find it interesting that this could be included in a comic book in 1963 with no explanation. It gives frightening insight on people’s mindsets at the time.

Marked for Destruction by Doctor Doom

In Amazing Spiderman #5, Spidey fights his second PhD in three issues, Doctor Doom. Unlike the last two villains, we don’t get much in the way of an introduction to Victor Von Doom because he’s already appeared a few times in The Fantastic Four. It’s a decent issue with some Peter Parker drama and a heavy dose of action.
The stress in Spiderman’s life has built to a crescendo. Jameson has stepped up his campaign against Spiderman and has gone so far as to buy time on television in order to alert the public to the menace which is vigilantism. The dichotomy in Peter’s life begins here when we find that Flash Thompson has a man-crush on Spiderman, but can’t stand Peter Parker. Just as Jameson loves Parker’s pictures but wants the webslinger behind bars. Just as Aunt May dotes on her young nephew but thinks Spiderman is as bad as Doctor Doom. (Page 7) There are very few people who like both identities.
One of the exceptions is Betty Brant, the sexy brunette who works as Jameson’s secretary. She sticks up for Spiderman in front of Peter and he immediately thinks, “Well, well! I never knew I had an ally in J.J.’s secretary. And I never realized how pretty Betty Brant was either… till now.” (Page 6) Again, Lee makes an ingenious stroke by molding Parker not as a super-hero, but as a run-of-the-mill fifteen-year-old, complete with egomaniacal vanity and quick crushes.
The razzing that Peter receives in school has been scaled up too. If, like I argued in the last blog, Peter was popular at one point, he no longer is. Flash Thompson has decided that he wants to kick the shit out of Peter Parker and he goes to great lengths to antagonize him into a fight.
This time, Spiderman doesn’t go after Doctor Doom in order to take pictures for Jameson. He is actually lured in by Doom in the villain’s attempt to form a team against the Fantastic Four. The scary part is that Spiderman actually considers it, thinking out loud, “Me team up with you, hm? Man, wouldn’t that be a gasser? Jameson would really have something to howl about then.” (Page 4) Again, he sits right on the line between hero and villain, a true prepubescent, not sure what the future holds or who he will be.
An even scarier scene occurs when Liz Allen calls Parker, desperate for help. Flash Thompson has decided to dress up like Spiderman in some bone-headed attempt to harass Peter. Thompson was mistaken by Doom for the real thing and captured. Liz, for some reason, thinks Peter Parker can help with this situation, not knowing that she’s unwittingly called Spiderman and done the best thing she could to save Flash. Peter says he can’t help and after he hangs up the phone we get one of the most disturbing panels that Ditko has drawn yet. Peter goes split face with the Spiderman mask, as Ditko loves to do, and forms a terrible grimace, looking much like the evil scientists he often fights. He thinks, “All I have to do is keep out of it and Flash Thompson will never bother Peter Parker again. Things are finally going my way!” (Page 8) He corrects these downright evil thoughts a moment later, remembering that he’s supposed to be a hero and must save the teenage Thompson from certain death. But there is a moment when he clearly crossed onto that bitter and dark road which is the super villain, where other’s misfortune is opportunity, where the death of an innocent can be a positive thing.
There’s a pretty spectacular fight in Doctor Doom’s secret lair. It goes back and forth for over half the comic book, showing off all types of different techniques with Spiderman’s powers that we hadn’t seen before. The surprising thing is that Spiderman actually lost this fight and the Fantastic Four show up just before Doom can deliver the killing blow, causing the good Doctor to flee. As in issue #4, the action was all right, but the social and psychological dramas of Peter Parker tend to be more interesting than the adventures of the friendly neighborhood Spiderman.