Spider-Rama: Amazing Spider-Man #63

Welcome to Spider-Rama! Each Wednesday, Ben and Duy will look at a Spider-Man issue from the very beginning, in chronological order, and answer questions for various categories, inspired in large part by one of our favorite podcasts, The Rewatchables by The Ringer. Our goal is to make it to Amazing Spider-Man #200. Will we make it? Grab your Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus or crank up your tablet to Marvel Unlimited, and then tune in every Wednesday to find out!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #63
Spider-Rama
by Stan Lee and John Romita Sr. and Don Heck

Adrian Toomes, the original Vulture, returns, breaks Blackie Drago, the other Vulture, out of prison, and they get into a fight, and of course Spider-Man is caught in the middle.

POINTLESS TRIVIA

BEN: Villain appearance count:

• Doctor Octopus: 9
• Green Goblin: 7
• The Vulture: 6
• The Kingpin: 6
• Kraven the Hunter: 5
• Sandman: 4
• Mysterio: 4
• The Enforcers: 3
• The Rhino: 3
• The Lizard: 3
• Professor Smythe/Spider Slayer: 3
• The Chameleon: 2
• Electro: 2
• The Ringmaster: 2
• Scorpion: 2
• Molten Man: 2

BEN: The return of Adrian Toomes as the Vulture.

DUY: That did not take long at all. He supposedly died in #48, 15 issues ago. Is this one of the first blatant resurrections?

BEN: "Gwen Stacy cries" consecutive issue count: 4.

WHAT'S AGED THE BEST?

BEN: Harry predicting the Flash and Peter friendship.

DUY: Why did anyone ever think Drago was a good idea?

BEN: They probably had a few readers complain that Toomes was way too old to be a physical threat, on account of Ditko drawing him to look as old as Aunt May. Toomes is a far better Vulture than Drago. It was smart to “resurrect” him.

WHAT'S AGED THE WORST?

DUY: Coming off the Spectacular magazine, this feels particularly phoned in artwise.

BEN: Romita must have been stretched thin at this point.

DUY: Did Toomes really prevent his own death by sheer force of willpower?

BEN: I mean look at him, he’s clearly a human dynamo.

NITPICKS

BEN: I don’t know if he’s ever had trouble with his webbing in the rain before or since.

DUY: Are you telling me that Peter has never encountered rain in the previous 60+ issues?

BEN: Captain Stacy says Gwen is on a date and Peter doesn’t think a thing about it. Even I as a reader was thinking, “with who?”

DUY: And yeah, just how did dating work in the 60s? Gwen can just date and Peter's okay with it? I thought they were offical.

BEN: Why is his arm always injured against the Vulture?

DUY: Why is it that when "Spider-Man is injured" it's always his arm?

FAVORITE PANEL

BEN:  A splash, but whatever.

DUY: This is such an underwhelming stretch of issues and all the art looks rushed. The Osborn stuff should be high-suspense, and it's not. It's hard to pick a favorite panel, so I'll just pick an Osborn one anyway.

WHO WON THE COMIC?

DUY: Who wins this story, Ben? Who??

BEN: Ugh, I guess Toomes right? He did pull himself from deaths door by willpower.

DUY: That's it for Spider-Rama this week.

BEN: Thank you, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko—

DUY: —for telling us we aren't the only ones.

Leave us a comment below or on our Facebook page. See you next Wednesday!