Spectacular Spider-Man #2
This is the biggest Spider-Man month ever. Three comics are published with a total of 118 pages, namely Spectacular Spider-Man #2 (58 pages), Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5 (40 pages) and Amazing Spider-Man #66 (20 pages). All three of these comics were written by Stan Lee.
With three stories independent of one another being published at the same time, there are continuity problems. I'll engage in apologetics to put these three stories in the right order, even though I suspect that Stan Lee might have got mixed up because he was juggling too many plates at once. I assume that Amazing Spider-Man #66 was written and drawn in the normal monthly schedule, just in time to meet the deadline at the printers. It's possible that Spectacular Spider-Man #2 was written and drawn two to three months ago, before Stan knew what he would write in Amazing Spider-Man #64 to #66. As for Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5, it's so detached from the current storylines that it might have been written even earlier, maybe the beginning of the year.
However, the order in which I've put them is Spectacular Spider-Man #2, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5, then Amazing Spider-Man #66, despite the problems with Norman Osborn.
Spectacular Spider-Man #2 shows Norman Osborn regaining his memory, then losing it again. Amazing Spider-Man #66 shows that Norman Osborn has regained most of his memory, so it must happen some time after Spectacular Spider-Man #2. By "some time" I mean a significant amount of time, such as the time that Spider-Man would need to fly to Algeria and back. The problem with this is that in Amazing Spider-Man #66 Spider-Man retrieves his camera which he left on top of the Daily Bugle during his fight with the Vulture, which makes it seem like this is only a short time after he left the prison infirmary in Amazing Spider-Man #65. It's possible that Spider-Man forgot about his camera due to the stress of fighting the Green Goblin and travelling to Algeria. A bigger problem is that in Amazing Spider-Man #66 Gwen Stacy tells Peter Parker that she's forgiven him, but in Spectacular Spider-Man #2 they've already made up. Maybe I should abandon my attempt at apologetics and admit that Stan Lee just got things wrong by writing the stories in different orders.
Title: The Goblin Lives!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: John Romita
Villain: Green Goblin
Regulars: Aunt May, Mary Jane Watson, Captain Stacy, Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn, J. Jonah Jameson
After watching a presentation of film footage of Spider-Man fighting the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn's memory returns and he remembers who he is. He intends to unmask and defeat Spider-Man in front of his friends, so he invites Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson and his son Harry to a party. Peter gets rid of the others by setting off the fire alarm. The Green Goblin flies to Aunt May's house, but Spider-Man stops him before he gets there. Using one of the Goblin's own hallucinogenic pumpkins, Spider-Man takes away his memory again. It won't last long.
Captain Stacy is really cool. He's the only one who can see that J. Jonah Jameson needs psychiatric help.
This page is printed on the inside of the front cover. It's evidence that the magazine was being pitched at readers who didn't know Spider-Man.
The first issue of Spectacular Spider-Man was released in July 1968. It was scheduled to be a bi-monthly comic, but we had to wait four months for the second issue. This ad at the end of the comic promises a story called "The Mystery of the TV Terror" in the next issue, but the story never comes. Spectacular Spider-Man was cancelled after two issues. My suspicion is that it was because of distribution problems.
Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5
Title: The Parents of Peter Parker!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Larry Lieber
Villain: Red Skull
Regulars: Aunt May, Uncle Ben (flashback), Harry Osborn (cameo), Gwen Stacy (cameo)
Guests: Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm
I totally forgot that Peter Parker's parents had ever been mentioned in the comics. It's possible that I never read this comic before today. I was a regular reader of Marvel Comics from 1962 to 1968, but after the increase in the number of monthly titles in early 1968 I no longer bought everything I could lay my hands on. It wasn't until 1974 that I had more money and could buy (almost) everything again.
Peter Parker finds newspaper clippings about his parents, Richard and Mary Parker, so he begs his Aunt May to tell him about them. They were killed in Algeria when Peter was a small child, and they were considered to have been working for a foreign government. Peter becomes obsessed with this over the next few days, and he wants to find out the truth. He can't afford to fly to Algeria, so Reed Richards gives him a lift.
In Algeria Spider-Man meets the Red Skull. His father used to work for the Red Skull, but it turns out he was an undercover agent for America. The Red Skull killed him when he discovered he was working against him. This means that his father died a hero.
Amazing Spider-Man #66
Title: The Madness of Mysterio!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: John Romita
Villain: Mysterio, Green Goblin, Wizard (flashback)
Regulars: Aunt May, Captain Stacy, Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn, J. Jonah Jameson, Joe Robertson, Betty Brant, Ned Leeds
Mysterio returns, after last being seen in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4. He commits crimes to attract Spider-Man's attention. In a fight Mysterio surrounds Spider-Man with thick smoke, and when he can see again he's only six inches tall.
With a sad heart, Peter Parker sells the motorbike that he bought in Amazing Spider-Man #41. It's the end of an era.
The Crazy Credits tell us that Artie Simek lovingly lettered the comic and Irving Fearless Forbush supplied the special effects.
Fantastic Four #80
Title: Where treads the Living Totem?
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
Fantastic Four (Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm)
Villain: Tomazooma (robot)
Regulars: Crystal, Wyatt Wingfoot
The Fantastic Four receive a letter from Wyatt Wingfoot, telling them that he's gone back to his reservation to help them deal with evil spirits. Reed Richards, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm fly to the reservation while Crystal remains behind to look after Susan Richards.
At the reservation, the Indians are being terrorised by Tomazooma, a giant who is supposedly the tribe's protective spirit. The Fantastic Four discover that it's really a robot built by a Russian oil company that wants to drive them from the land.
This time the Thing needs two panels to deliver his battle cry: It's clobbering time.
I'm glad Wyatt Wingfoot is back. We last saw him in Fantastic Four #61. I thought Stan Lee had forgotten him.
Fantastic Four Annual #6
The Fantastic Four annuals are normally used to showcase major new events in the life of Marvel's first family, and this is no exception. It's the birth of Reed and Susan's first child.
Title: Let there be Life!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
Fantastic Four: (Reed Richards, Susan Richards, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm)
Villain: Annihilus
Regulars: Crystal, unnamed baby
Susan Richards is about to give birth, but there are irregularities in her blood stream that might kill both the baby and the mother. Reed Richards is certain that the only material that can keep her safe is an element only found in the Negative Zone. Together with the Thing and the Human Torch he enters the Negative Zone through the portal in his laboratory.
They encounter a tyrant called Annihilus who is conquering planet after planet in the Negative Zone. He carries a Cosmic Control Rod (TM) on his chest that increases his power and gives him eternal life. The Fantastic Three steal this rod and attempt to leave the Negative Zone, but Annihilus blocks the way. They reach an agreement. Reed can siphon off a small amount of the element if he returns the rod to Annihilus.
The Thing's battle cry is heard for the first time ever in the Negative Zone: It's clobbering time!
Back on Earth, the treatment is successful, and the baby is born whose name is... spoilers!
The Incredible Hulk #109
Title: The Monster and the Man-Beast!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Herb Trimpe
Villain: Chinese soldiers, Swamp Men
Regulars: General Ross, Major Talbot
Guests: Ka-Zar
The title of this story doesn't make sense. Who or what is the Man-Beast?
The Hulk is still wandering around in China. At a remote army base the soldiers try unsuccessfully to kill him. They launch a rocket into space carrying a missile with which they intend to threaten the USA. The Hulk thinks it's a way for him to escape the Earth, so he jumps onto it and hitches a ride, but the additional weight makes the rocket crash in the Antarctic. The Hulk tumbles through the ice into the underground kingdom of Ka-Zar.
The Hulk turns into Bruce Banner, and he's captured by the Swamp Men. Ka-Zar frees him. He shows Bruce a mysterious machine that someone has set up in a cave. Bruce analyses it, and he deduces that it will change the speed of the Earth's rotation, creating chaos and ultimately the Earth's destruction. He wants to disarm the machine, but the Swamp Men attack, and the stress makes him turn back into the Hulk. He easily repels the Swamp Men, but he's now forgotten what the machine does.
The Avengers #58
Title: Even an Android can cry
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: John Buscema
Avengers: Hawkeye, Goliath, Wasp, Black Panther, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Vision
Villain: Ultron-5
Cameos: Hercules, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Hulk, Spider-Man, Black Widow
Flashbacks: Zemo, Enchantress, Executioner, Wonder Man
In reader polls this issue has repeatedly been voted one of the best comics ever written.
The Avengers are summoned to vote on the Vision's application to become an Avenger. Captain America goads the Vision into a fight to prove that he's strong enough to be an Avenger. He passes this test, but they still want to know who he is. All the Vision can remember is that he woke up in Ultron's laboratory and was ordered to destroy the Avengers.
Goliath realises that he's also lost his memory about a recent experiment, so the Avengers travel to his out-of-town laboratory, a house that has now been boarded up. Here he remembers. He created a robot which he called Ultron. The robot called Hank Pym Daddy, but then threatened to kill him. Ultron made him lose his memory, saying he would come back to attack him in the future.
The laboratory has been left intact. Only the memory tapes of Simon Williams aka Wonder man are missing. Iron Man tells the others the story of Wonder Man from Avengers #9, but then adds that after his death his memories and his personality were stored on tape. They deduce that these tapes were used by Ultron to create the Vision.
Vision pretends to be cold and emotionless, but when nobody is watching him he cries.
Captain America #107
Title: If the past be not dead
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
Villain: Dr. Faustus
A psychiatrist called Dr. Faustus has prescribed Captain America medication that induces nightmares. He wants to drive him mad, so that he will be committed to a mental asylum.
Come on... what man in his right mind would trust a psychiatrist with a name like that?
Daredevil #46
Title: The Final Jest!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Gene Colan
Villain: Jester
Regulars: Foggy Nelson, Debbie Harris, Karen Page (vision)
This issue has two splash pages, This is page one...
... and this is page two. Gene Colan's art is brilliant and imaginative. The page layouts are far removed from Jack Kirby's static layouts. In this issue there's not a single page in which the panels are arranged at rectangles. This gives the whole story an element of chaos.
Daredevil wakes up before the trustee prisoner can unmask him. He escapes by disguising himself as a doctor.
Daredevil finally realises that the man he supposedly murdered on the bridge was the Jester. To lure him into the open he poses as the Jester and gives a n interview on live television. Luckily the Jester is a television junky, so he rushes to the studio to face the impostor. Daredevil, in his own costume, unmasks the Jester on live TV, and everyone sees that it's the man he's supposed to have killed.
Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #6
Title: Doom must fall!
Writer: Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin
Artist: Frank Springer
Villain: The Others
After debuting as a guest artist in Nick Fury #4, Frank Springer takes over as the regular artist in this issue. Once more he draws the splash page on page three. Maybe 3 is his lucky number?
It's noticeable in this issue that Frank Springer is doing his best to imitate Jim Steranko's style. It's a good imitation, but not as good as the original. There's only one Jim Steranko.
The SHIELD pilot Cliff Randall is acting strangely. It's revealed that he's a member of an alien race who call themselves the Others. They crash landed on the Earth 20 years ago, fleeing from an interplanetary war. Since then they've been building a new space ship to help them escape. They need the force of a giant asteroid striking the Earth to propel themselves back to their own planet. This will destroy the Earth, but they don't think that the Earth has any qualities that make it worth preserving.
At the last moment Cliff crashes the space ship into the approaching asteroid, destroying the Others but saving the Earth.
Doctor Strange #174
Title: The Power and the Pendulum
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Gene Colan
Villain: Lord Nekron
Regulars: Clea, Victoria Bentley, Wong
Doctor Strange might be the Master of the Mystic Arts, but he understands nothing of women. He openly displays his love for Clea while Victoria Bentley, who also loves him, looks on. Making things worse, when he answers the invitation of a certain Lord Nekron he takes Victoria with him to England.
Lord Nekron has made a deal with Satannish. He will be given eternal life and eternal fame if he can find someone to take is place as Satannish's slave within 12 months. The time is almost complete, and he casts spells to imprison Doctor Strange in his castle. Doctor Strange defeats him by making time run faster while they fight.
Iron Man #7
Title: The Maggia Strikes
Writer: Archie Goodwin
Artist: George Tuska
Villain: Gladiator, Whitney Frost, Masked Marauder (flashback)
Regulars: Jasper Sitwell, Janice Cord
Guests: Daredevil (flashback)
The Maggia, under the leadership of Whitney Frost (Big M) is preparing to steal equipment from Tony Stark's factory. They are now assisted by the Gladiator, who we last saw in Daredevil Annual #1. He recommends that they defeat Iron Man first, so they kidnap Tony Stark to lure him. Janice Cord and her lawyer are also with him when he's kidnapped.
Tony slips away and puts on his Iron Man suit. While he's fighting the Gladiator, Big M and her men go to Tony's factory.
Sub-Mariner #7
Title: For President, the Man called Destiny!
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: John Buscema
Villain: Tiger Shark, Destiny (Paul Destine)
Regulars: Dorma, Diane Arliss
Prince Namor's scientists are trying without success to cure the madness of Tiger Shark. Namor thinks they can succeed if he brings his sister, Diane Arliss, from New York. He wants to go alone, but Lady Dorma insists on accompanying him because she's jealous. Women!
In New York, Prince Namor finds that his enemy Destiny is campaigning to become President. The Helmet of Power is hypnotising everyone who listens to him. Namor battles Destiny at a television station, and Destiny falls to his death.
Captain Marvel #7
Title: Die, Town, Die!
Writer: Arnold Drake
Artist: Don Heck
Villain: Quasimodo
Regulars: Ronan the Accuser, Yon-Rogg, Una, Carol Danvers
Captain Mar-Vell has returned to the Kree Homeworld to be interrogated concerning his alleged betrayal of the Kree by not carrying out Yon Rogg's orders. He skilfully answers the questions in a way that fools the lie detector machine. Then he returns to Earth. He's ordered to test humanity's resistance to the Virus Z-3 by unleashing it in an American city.
He's interrupted by Quasimodo attacking Cape Canaveral to steal the computer energy. Their battle leads them to a theme park inhabited by robots modelled as 1890's townspeople. I would have said this is plagiarising "Westworld", but "Westworld" wasn't made until 1973. After Mar-Vell defeats Quasimodo he cuts off the power, making the robots collapse. Watching from space, Yon-Rogg thinks this is a result of the virus being unleashed.
The Crazy Credits have new nicknames for the comics creative team. Stan Lee is "Speed Of Light". Arnold Drake is "Super Nova". Don Heck is "4th Dimensional". John Tartaglione is "Solar Swinger". But what about Sam Rosen? He's merely "Down-To-Earth". As far as I'm concerned he should be up in the stars with the others.
Thor #158
Title: The way it was!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
Villains (flashbacks): Stone Men From Saturn, Loki, Executioner, Cobra, Ulik, Karnilla, Destroyer
Regulars (flashbacks): Odin, Heimdall, Sif, Balder, Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg, Loki, Jane Foster
Guests (flashbacks): Hercules
This comic reprints Thor's whole 13-page origin story from Journey Into Mystery #83, with a 3-page introduction and a 4-page summing up.
Donald Blake remembers the words written on the hammer that he found in the Norwegian cave: "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor". If this is true, he wonders where the real Thor is.
The Crazy Credits say that Irving Forbush provides the heraldry. I'm not sure what that means. Does it mean that he designed the Asgardian plaques?
X-Men #50
Like last month, the cover is once more drawn by Jim Steranko. This is one of the best X-Men covers ever. The story itself has also been drawn by him, but somehow it's not up to his usual standards. It's like he didn't have enough time. The fact that he didn't do the inking himself backs up my suspicion. The two-page splash page has a hole in the middle where details are omitted.
Title: City of Mutants
Writer: Arnold Drake
Artist: Jim Steranko
X-Men: Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Beast, Iceman
Villain: Mesmero, Demi-Men, Magneto
Regulars: Lorna Dane
Cyclops, Angel, Beast and Marvel Girl break into Mesmero's lair to free Iceman. Marvel Girl suggests that they let themselves be defeated so that they will be carried to Iceman.
Lorna Dane is put in a machine to unleash her latent mutant powers. It's revealed that she's Magneto's daughter. She turns against the Demi-Men rather than serve Mesmero.
Magneto appears, who evidently didn't die in Avengers #53.
Title: This Boy, this Bombshell!
Writer: Arnold Drake
Artist: Werner Roth
X-Men: Beast
Hank McCoy grows up as a mutant. His abilities make him an outstanding high school football player. He stops a gang trying to rob the box office. This is televised, which brings him to the attention of a criminal called the Conquistador (unnamed in this issue)
Marvel Super-Heroes #17
Title: The Black Knight Reborn
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Howard Purcell
Villain: Modred, Le Sabre (Paul Richarde)
Dane Whitman travels to England to look at a castle that he's inherited from his uncle, Nathan Garrett. He's impatient to sell it. He finds his way to a hidden dungeon, where he meets the ghost of his ancestor, Sir Percy of Scandia. He was the original Black Knight who served King Arthur. Merlin gave Sir Percy an ebony sword, made from the metal of a meteorite, which would make him invincible. He could only be killed by a weapon made of the same metal. Modred , King Arthur's nephew, killed first the king, then Sir Percy, using a dagger made from the meteorite.
Now Sir Percy calls Dane Whitman to take his place. He gives him the ebony sword to battle the forces of evil.
Modred summons a petty criminal, Paul Richarde, and tells him to fight the Black Knight. He gives him the same dagger that killed Sir Percy. The Black Knight defeats him in a short battle.
Dane Whitman says that it was difficult to get a winged horse through customs. In 1968 it was just as difficult to bring a normal horse into England because of the strict quarantine laws to combat rabies.
Howard Purcell only ever drew a few comics for Marvel. Most of his work was for DC. This picture shows why he should have drawn more comics for Marvel.
Last month Stan Lee promised he would write something about bigotry. This is so important that I felt tempted to put it at the beginning of my post, but them I remembered that by Marvel Years are about comics, not about politics. Here's what he wrote this month.
If you disagree with what Stan has so eloquently written, why do you read my blog at all. There's no place in this world for bigotry.
Other comics published this month:
Millie the Model #164 (Stan Lee, Stan Goldberg)
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #60 (Gary Friedrich, Dick Ayers)
Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders #8 (Gary Friedrich, Dick Ayers)
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