AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1
by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
Spider-Man tries to join the Fantastic Four, battles the Chameleon, and is the target of a media slander campaign by publisher J Jonah Jameson.
BEN: The first instance of his Spider-sense.
DUY: The recap of his origin at the beginning doesn't show that he could have stopped the burglar, which would eventually become the defining moment of his entire origin.
BEN: Also the first appearance of J. Jonah Jameson and John Jameson.
BEN: This one, only because Stan forgot the name of his own character halfway through the first issue of his own comic series.
DUY: This one, because there'd be letters just a couple of issues in just complaining about how they ended this. How dare you give Spider-Man a sad ending! What have you done? People complaining about putting protagonists through the wringer have existed since forever.
WHAT'S AGED THE BEST?
BEN: Unfortunately, a respected news source distorting facts for profit, and people readily believing it
DUY: Yeah, JJJ basically being a villain for both Peter and Spidey is a huge thing that's aged well. I'm always of two minds about how to treat JJJ. He's a criminal, he starts out as a criminal, but he's too lovable and too important to the mythos to really treat as a criminal.
BEN: We often like to put people in boxes, but I like to think of JJJ as an overall good person, it’s just this one thing that drives him crazy and to the extreme.
WHAT'S AGED THE WORST?
BEN: The booking agent trying to pay Spider-Man by check.
DUY: Worse, Spider-Man trying to cash it as Spider-Man.
DUY: Also, hey Ben, do you know where your nearest FBI office is?
BEN: Who doesn’t?
NITPICKS
BEN: It’s later revealed that Jonah attacks Spider-Man because he envies his selfless heroism, but he isn’t known to be a hero yet when he first starts attacking him here. Unless we take him at his word in this story, that kids should look up to real heroes like his son John
DUY: Spider-Man trying to stop a loose ship is so outside of his core that it's weird that it happens in the first issue. Also, the fight with the Chameleon isn't a fight at all. Think about all the fight scenes Ditko would choreograph later on.
BEN: At this point he’s really only a teenager with spider powers. He hasn’t done much heroing yet
WHO WON THE COMIC?
DUY: It has to be JJJ, right? The rest of the issue feels like a misfire in terms of core Spider-Man stuff — except for him having a sad ending. But JJJ is basically spot-on.
BEN: He was basically fully-formed from the beginning.
BEN: He’s still mostly self-absorbed in this first issue. He’s motivated to act for his own benefit in both stories. There’s really almost no lasting impact over the death of Uncle Ben in this comic, except the money problems. Like you said last time, the twist of the origin story was likely thematic to the Amazing Fantasy title, and they hadn’t yet realized how powerful the “great power, great responsibility” message would become.
BEN: Thank you, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko—
DUY: —for telling us we aren't the only ones.
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