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In the span of two weeks I’ve polished off Marvel Masterworks Amazing Spider-Man Volumes 7, 8 and 9. That’s a pretty large span of Silver Age Spider-Man. This one collects Amazing Spider-Man #’s 78-87 which spanned 10 months from November 1969 to August 1970. Stan The Man Lee is responsible for all this madness, along with Jazzy John Romita (who worked on #’s 80-87), John Buscema (78-81, 84, 85) and Jimmy Mooney (78-82, 84-87). Romita was behind most of the art direction but he was so occupied with his job of overseeing all art projects at Marvel that he couldn’t always pencil every issue. Speaking of Jazzy John, he writes the introduction here, too. He talks about each issue, the people who worked on this collection, the Marvel way of writing comics, and the introduction of the Prowler. The name was actually inspired by Jazzy John Romita JUNIOR who sent it in as a youngster with a character design. Stan didn’t like the design but loved the name and it was used on the TV Terror character that was supposed to be in the third Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine!
Spoilers Ahead
-Amazing Spider-Man #78- Poor old Hobie Brown can’t catch a break. The window cleaner lost his girl, he quit his job and now he’s stuck. So he uses his technological prowess to become the Prowler and he’s got a grand idea – he’s going to steal something and then Hobie will turn it in and be a hero! Of course, you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men. Prowler breaks into the Bugle and steals the payroll when Peter happens to be there. Peter confronts Prowler but he can’t do anything to reveal his identity in front of JJJ! The interaction between Peter and his secret identity was played to its fullest here and Peter seeing Flash and Gwen together really just bugs him.
-Amazing Spider-Man #79- Prowler and Peter are still in the room and Peter throws himself out the window so he can don his costume and battle the Prowler. The Prowler is actually very upset at seemingly killing Parker because he’s not a bad joe at heart. Their battle is won by the Prowler but Spidey let him go so he can go back to the Bugle as Peter and show he isn’t dead (he was saved by Spidey!). Spidey finds Prowler again and stops him. He realizes that Prowler is just a young kid like himself who isn’t inherently bad and lets him go.
-Amazing Spider-Man #80- Peter has a run-in with Flash and he’s not too happy about him and Gwen. Flash just tells him that their meeting was about Peter and that nothing happened. Pete calls Gwen but doesn’t get too far. They do reconcile and decide to take a trip to look at some paintings that is being guarded by Capt. Stacy. Stacy ends up stealing the paintings and that’s when we realize that the Chameleon is involved in this little saga. Spidey investigates, a little decoy is set up to draw out the Chameleon and Peter immediately discovers which one is the fake when he sees Peter Parker leaving the scene. Obviously it’s the Chameleon because the Peter we know is in the Spidey outfit! This was the start of Stan and John trying to keep things to one issue at the behest of fans. That was an issue that led to the separation of Jack Kirby from Marvel. He wanted those single stories but Stan wanted the longer multi-issue epics. This rift led to Jack going to DC and Stan keeping the flame at Marvel.
-Amazing Spider-Man #81- This is the lamest single-issue story of the collection. Basically a villain called the Kangaroo (he can jump well) arrives in New York City and steals a bacteria that could wipe out the world! Kangaroo thought it was money and has no idea what that vile actually holds. Peter Parker picks up May from the airport and she thinks Peter is sick. She makes him stay in bed but Peter leaves (keeping a webbed dummy in his bed) to fight the Kangaroo and get that bacteria back in the hands of good. Kangaroo vanished (hopefully to never be heard of again) and Peter returns home to see that May had found the webbed body! Peter lies and says it wasn’t there and now is upset at himself that he tricked May and made her believe she saw something that didn’t exist. The villain sucked but the story with May and Peter and Peter’s own internal struggle with his identity is worth reading.
-Amazing Spider-Man #82- Peter looks for money and decides he’ll be a guest on an interview TV show. He’s generally happy because things are alright with Gwen (though a recent spat with Flash puts a damper on things). There’s a funny scene of him doing his laundry with a paper bag over his face to clean the Spidey outfit and he’s ready for primetime! Of course, Electro makes his appearance here (after agreeing to a sum of money with JJJ) and he’s defeated, too. Peter’s won but now he’ll never be on TV to get money.
-Amazing Spider-Man #83- A new mob boss makes the scene and he calls himself the Schemer. His scheme is to take over where the Kingpin left off. Kingpin has been absent lately and he’s been in hiding since he learned of his son’s disappearance oversees. He’s kept it from his wife but she found out anyway. Schemer’s plan hits high gear and Peter and Gwen are almost victims when a runaway truck nearly crushes them. Only Peter’s spider-strength saved them. Peter battles the Schemer but the Schemer ends up getting away. The Parker luck kicks in when he gets back to check on Gwen and she’s upset that he wasn’t at her bedside!
-Amazing Spider-Man #84- Peter continues searching for the Schemer and Kingpin vows to meet the challenge of this up and comer. Peter has another meeting with the Schemer but the Schemer eludes him and meets one on one with the Kingpin. Schemer manages to escape, seemingly with Vanessa (Kingpin’s wife) leaving Kingpin to ward of Spidey and chase after Schemer.
-Amazing Spider-Man #85- We pick up with Kingpin realizing that Vanessa is safe. Peter heads home and Gwen and Capt. Stacy are there. The wise captain asks Peter about his connection to Spidey to he heads to his room, dresses as Spidey and tells the two of them to layoff and the relationship is used to get Spidey money. We check back with Vanessa and Kingpin and Kingpin is not too happy that Vanessa let the Schemer escape It all comes to a head when all three are together, Spidey is trapped in a netting and Kingpin and Schemer square off. Schemer reveals that he is actually the Kingpin’s son! Kingpin is left in a state of shock and Spidey just swings off into the night.
-Amazing Spider-Man #86- I read this in one of the Black Widow Premiere Hardcover Classics. It was the first appearance of the Widow in her black duds and she basically battled Spider-Man to prove her mettle. Unfortunately Peter was getting progressively sick here and he was no match for her. Like most women she was disappointed by the man’s performance and bails. Spidey, however, wonders if his powers are finally starting to fade.
-Amazing Spider-Man #87- I haven’t mentioned any of the covers but this one was awesome with the bigger Spider-Man standing like a cloud over Peter as he reveals his identity. So Peter’s worst fears are realized – he’s losing his powers. He debates using what’s left of his powers to steal but comes to his senses in that regards. He is still sick when he shows up to Gwen’s party and reveals to everyone there (MJ, Gwen, Capt. Stacy and Harry) that he was Spider-Man. They remember his unmasking from way back in ASM #12 and wonder if he’s really sick to impersonate Spidey again. Spidey goes to the doctor (in his Spidey suit) and learns he just has the flu!! Ooops! So Spidey goes to Prowler (who owes him a favor) and he has him impersonate Spider-Man so that the identity is safe once more. This was by far the best issue of the lot. There was so much going on here and it was just so engrossing. What an awesome end to this.
-The Bottom Line- We have some extras here (the cover to ASM Annual #6, the cover rough for ASM #79, unused pages from ASM #’s 70 and 74 and original art from ASM #’s 82 and 85 as well as the Prowler character design) but those extras are just icing on the cake. The Silver Age Spidey stuff has withstood the test of time and Stan’s stories are just as interesting now as they were then. Even better, it isn’t dated. Sure there are some references that show when it was written but it doesn’t suffer from some of the corny dialogue that Stan was writing a few years before this. The art stands up very well, too, and the inking and pencils are so clean that I’d prefer seeing art like this over what I see in the monthly books! The one-off issues were interesting but the ongoing stories really allow Stan and John to let the story breathe and the little subplots with Peter’s life that spins its way through the titles really holds together everything. I’m waiting for a bad edition of Spidey Marvel Masterworks to be released but it doesn’t look like that’s about to happen. This is another fantastic set and another recommended collection.
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