Originally written May 15, 2017
So I’ve recently started reading the Amazing Spider-Man comic series, and I wanted to give my thoughts on the series as I’ve been reading it. I think the best way to do this will be to review the set of issues that came out each year. Following the success of Spider-Man’s first appearance in issue #15 of Amazing Fantasy (which featured the infamous origin story of Spider-Man, involving him getting his powers and his uncle Ben dying, that everyone knows by this point), Spider-Man was given his own solo series called The Amazing Spider-Man in 1963. Since the series was bi-monthly for a few issues before becoming a monthly series, there are only 7 issues of The Amazing Spider-Man that came out in 1963.
Basically, this review is easy, because these first 7 issues have one big strength and one big weakness. First, I’ll tackle the strength. This kind of thing is hard to fully put into perspective for a property that’s so old, but the early beginnings of The Amazing Spider-Man are filled with originality. The types of superheroes that were very common around this era were typically ones that were billionaires like Batman, or gods like Superman. However, Spider-Man is secretly a nerdy high school student named Peter Parker, and this kind of thing was unheard of at the time. However, it works very well, because it makes Peter extremely relateable, and so we can sympathize with his problems of trying to balance school, work, family, dating (even though he’s rarely lucky in that department), and being a superhero. The people in Peter’s life that surround him are archetypal characters to an extent: his overprotective Aunt May, his school bully Flash Thompson, and his loud-mouthed boss J. Jonah Jameson. However, these extremely typical characters surround a character whose life is anything but ordinary, and so it’s interesting to see Peter trying to balance a normal life on top of a secret and extraordinary other life. This kind of story has been done to death by this point, but in the early 60s it was pretty new and exciting for a comic book.
Also, the other big shout-out that needs to be given for originality is the villains. Spider-Man has one of the most well-known and interesting rogues gallery of villains, probably rivaled only by Batman’s. You would think that these villains would be introduced over a long period of time, but in fact a lot of them are there right from the beginning. Indeed, these first seven issues produced five of the most well-known villains in Spider-Man’s lineup: The Chameleon, The Vulture, Doctor Octopus, The Sandman, and The Lizard. Most people familiar with Spider-Man will recognize these characters, and it’s really interesting that they were all introduced so early in Spider-Man’s history. The only villain introduced in these seven issues that didn’t really stick was The Tinkerer, an old man that spies on people through objects that he “fixes” for them. Spider-Man even battles Doctor Doom, the most famous Fantastic Four villain, in one of these issues. It’s incredible to me that the creators of Spider-Man were able to think up such new and interesting villains every month, and that these villains stuck throughout time.
So now for the main complaint. This is to be expected, but basically in these first seven issues there are just some glaring signs that the comic was still trying to find itself. The first two issues featured two storylines instead of one big one, Steve Ditko didn’t always have the best art in some panels, and even Stan Lee seemed to have trouble figuring out what he wanted the comic to become. I’m certainly not going to knock these early issues for being too campy or having ridiculous dialogue, because one of the main appeals to Spider-Man is that he’s a character who doesn’t take himself too seriously. It’s supposed to be silly and fun, so I’m fine with that.
However, while the characters and premise were very original, the storylines at this time really weren’t. It’s very common nowadays for pretty much all comic book characters to have story arcs over the course of multiple issues, but these first seven issues are almost entirely self-contained stories. While there are some glimpses of over-arching storylines, we really don’t delve that deeply into Peter’s personal life and problems, not in the way that we do nowadays. A lot of the most famous Spider-Man supporting characters like Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn, and Mary-Jane Watson aren’t even introduced yet at this point, and so basically the biggest struggles we see Peter going through are getting bullied at school and trying to find excuses for his Aunt May as to where he’s going. In the early stages of this series, it’s basically a “fight the villain of the month” kind of comic, which can be entertaining in its own way, but I’ve definitely seen better takes on the character. Most of the villains are disappointingly just trying to rob banks or petty things of that nature, so while we are getting introduced to classic villains, they’re not really having any interesting motivations yet.
For the most part, though, these first seven issues are still really solid. I think it’s common for any series to need a little time to find itself, so I don’t want to judge it too harshly for that. I think that its unique characters and original ideas more than make up for its weaknesses. All in all, this is a pretty great start to a great character.
4/5
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