Spider-Man comes across his most dangerous foe yet in “The Amazing Spider-Man” #3!
Cover by Steve DitkoWritten by Stan Lee
Illustrated & Colored by Steve Ditko
Lettered by John DuffyPeter Parker has been The Amazing Spider-Man for a fairly short time. He’s come up against some moderately tough baddies like the Vulture and the Chameleon, fought and teamed up with other heroes like the Fantastic 4, and is struggling to find that balance between his life as a high school student and as a web-slinging superhero. And just when things couldn’t get any tougher for him, an extremely dangerous villain is born from one of the greatest scientific minds in the world.
Though I am a child of the 80s and 90s, I grew up with a very classic exposure to Spider-Man. My dad had some of the old Masterworks collections, I would occasionally get my hands on a current issue, and by the mid-9os I was watching the animated series. So, my taste for the character was born of these varied, yet surprisingly similar styles. It’s what I love most about the Raimi Trilogy and the MCU connected films, when they beautifully blend current sensibilities with the evergreen ideas and themes that have made the character stand the test of time for 62 years. I love (almost) all eras of Spider-Man, but part of me will always want to return to the early days, and that first volume of “The Amazing Spider-Man” Masterworks which collected, of course, Spider-Man’s first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 and “The Amazing Spider-Man” #1-5. I read this over and over again as a kid before my comics collection really started to boom in my teens. I could have written about any of the issues in these early volumes, but aside from Spidey’s first appearance, the most important issue has to be #3. The introduction of Dr. Otto Octavius aka Doctor Octopus! And while there are some other other popular villains early on, some aren’t as indelible as Doc Ock, or it wasn’t a first appearance, like Dr. Doom showing up in issue #5. On the surface this issue remains special because Doc Ock is still one of the most popular and effective super villains of all time, but it also marks the first time Spider-Man really came up against a dangerous and highly intelligent foe that made it feel like he could lose.
While Peter’s difficulty with balancing the two halves of his life is his biggest challenge, his day to day as Spider-Man has become more or less mundane. He’s stopping bank robbers and petty criminals with ease and even thinking to himself that it has been a while since he has had a real challenge. And like the old adage goes, “Be Careful What You Wish For,” Mr. Parker. Like with all things in comic books, the very night Peter is having this thought, one of the greatest scientific minds on the planet is working at an atomic research facility with mechanical arms of his own design to assist with his highly dangerous experiments. Though working on ways to improve the human experience, Dr. Otto Octavius is a proud and arrogant scientist. Believing that he can run risky experiments without error, he ends up causing a massive atomic explosion. Somehow surviving, but having absorbed an unbelievable amount of radiation, the side effects are bizarre, even by 1960s comic book standards. Alive, stronger than ever, and able to control the mechanical arms with his mind, like any other limb, the newly born Dr. Octopus believes that he must continue his experiments and never allow anyone to get in his way.
For being the third issue of a brand new series, Lee and Ditko really put Spidey through the ringer with his bouts with Doc Ock. Definitely the most intelligent, conniving, and physically formidable villain that Peter has come up against thus far, it was shocking to read this and see our hero not only get beaten easily, but get humiliated, and have his strength, smarts, and gadgets come under real scrutiny from a single antagonist. A single fight with Doc Ock makes Peter question if he should even be Spider-Man anymore! Even though Peter struggles from his very first appearance and for many years to come across the pages of Marvel Comics, seeing him so downtrodden in this issue is a huge shock. As Ock gains strength and ego through his schemes succeeding and so easily beating Spidey, our hero struggles to find his purpose, and it comes from all the places one would expect. Chats with Aunt May, proving other students wrong, and even an indirect pep talk from his sometimes pal, the Human Torch. Seeing Peter re-evaluate his whole outlook is pretty powerful. Regaining his self-respect, using his smarts to re-work his webbing so it is strong enough to deal with Doc Ock and other super strength characters, and even making other creations to take down Ock this time around. Lee always succeeded with getting down into the nitty gritty of what makes these characters tick and what makes each of them unique and interesting and this issue is a perfect example of a fantastic classic Stan Lee script.
Continued belowWhen it comes to re-visiting old comics the one major element that always takes me out of fully enjoying a lot of them are the over written scripts. Where modern comics have learned to allow the illustrations tell the story with only necessary dialogue or narration included, comics of the past put in narration, dialogue, thought bubbles, etc, and the majority of it was just reiterating what the art was telling us or what the reader could simply infer from context clues. And while this script most definitely still has some of that, it is a bit more economical than many of the scripts from the same era. Lee is really coming into his own in writing these characters and letting Ditko carry a lot of the storytelling weight with his dynamic art, is what made them one of the greatest creative duos in the history of the medium.
Like writing of decades past, the artwork in these comics can be a bit less than exciting, or timeless, or in some cases is down-right bad. That is something you’ll rarely get from the great Steve Ditko. His style would be duplicated for years, but his character designs stand the test of time. The classic Spidey suit feels as fresh as it ever has, and while a bit different than what they would eventually become, the design of Ock’s mech arms in this issue have always stuck with me. I love the weird blend of analog and high tech styles to bring the arms to life, and Ditko makes every bit of usage a sight to behold. Whether they are being used as lab assistants, weapons to take down our hero, or in a few moments as camouflage. The fight scenes are exciting, the fantastic is just that, and Peter’s time at home or at school are dramatic and heart-rending. This is what has helped created 100s of Spider-Man comics and so many of the live action and animated adaptations. It all goes back to Ditko. This is a special book. Some of it might not hold to up to today’s standards, but the feat of Ditko’s art and Lee writing great scritps, this is a blueprint.
Final Verdict: 8.5, An everlasting classic issue that fully encapsulates Peter Parker and his dual life and a fantastic introduction to one of the all time great super villains.
