The origin of Betty

The first eight issues of Spider-Man were almost entirely stand-alone.  The stories had very little which would be used for future storylines, other than the characters themselves.  The villains would return with J. Jonah Jameson as arguably the main enemy.  At this point I think Ditko was working on two ongoing storylines.  One of them, the analysis of organized crime and its connection to big business, may not have been a deliberate plot, it may have just been a convenient way to come up with new ideas for each issue.

The other storyline, I think was totally deliberate and if Ditko had been allowed to continue working on this title, it could easily have lasted a hundred issues.  This was the love story with Betty Brant.  Ditko was clearly making that the priority and although Stan Lee liked writing romance comics, he would fight against that to put more focus on the superhero parts of the story.  Stan has a point, the audience is little boys who are not yet become interested in girls, and unfortunately Ditko's motivations will never be known.

Issues #9-12 were effectively a multi-part story, setting Betty up for her role as lead female.  As it starts, her connection with Peter has already grown deep although it's very subtle to the reader.  Aunt May is sick and when Peter arrives to the hospital, Betty is already there.  Stop and think for a second what that says about the relationship.  'My co-worker's aunt is sick so I'm going to visit her in the hospital' is not remotely believable.  Ok, she and Peter have had discussions, he would have mentioned he was raised by his aunt and uncle, that still doesn't get to a point where 'of course I'll go see her when she's sick.'  And think about it from Aunt May's perspective, 'who are you?'  'I'm your nephew's girlfriend.'  You trying to give this lady a heart attack?

So with no information other than one comment from May about how nice it was for Betty to visit, it is clear that they have been introduced and already like each other.  Betty also knows that Peter is hiding secrets from the world.  With the need to pay medical bills, Peter even fakes pictures of fighting Electro to get money from JJJ.  When May goes in for surgery, Betty appears again to comfort him silently.  After the surgery, she informs him about updates from Electro and is worried about the danger Peter gets into taking these pictures.  They both know they're hiding secrets from each other.

They end #9 with an argument that actually deepens their relationship.  Betty's angry that Peter gets into danger.  Peter says he likes her but he's gonna do what he's gotta do.  She's seen bad things before to people she care about.  He storms out but feels bad, then she runs up to apologize and they walk off together into a very empty NYC street.  The captions tell us this could be "love."  They also tell us that Spidey is "the superhero who could be - you!" which doesn't really sound good when you think about but was obviously a good selling point to the audience.

Although most of the issue was fighting Electro as well as the fraud with JJJ, Betty was clearly the central point of the story with becoming close to Peter.  Some changes started being made to her with this issue, specifically her comments about her past.  She said she had just dropped out of high school last year.  And got a job as personal secretary for the publisher of a great metropolitan newspaper, um, no further questions.  What I meant was, and I'm guessing this was Stan Lee's decision, a Peter/Betty romance would be quite inappropriate given their age difference so that needed to be fixed.  I also assume that's the main reason for her new hairstyle in a couple issues, just to make her look younger.

#10 was the first issue of the 'big business/organized crime' storyline which I'll get into later.  This issue also shows the extended multi-issue storylines being planted.  Aunt May is getting better but she needs a blood transfusion and Peter is required to handle it.  No one checks that they even share the same blood type but Peter is jabbed and May is doing better.  She will get sick twice more during Ditko's run and the second time, it is a direct result of this transfusion.  It's a long-term consequence which leads to what generally-considered the highpoint of Ditko's run, the "Master Planner" trilogy.

Meanwhile Betty is leaving work for the day and a gang of thugs are waiting for her outside the Bugle, the Enforcers.  She's already repaid the loan shark but the interest has gone up because of this issue's villain, the Big Man.  Peter arrives in time to save her, almost revealing his superpowers in the attempt.  Betty is more terrified for him than anything else and runs away.

He tries to call her later that night, she reluctantly answers and says she'll explain everything tomorrow, then decides to run away permanently.  The rest of the story is about the Big Man, except for one panel telling us Betty has quit her job and is hiding in Pennsylvania, scared of everything.  We still don't know any details, other than owing money to gangsters.

In #11, Doctor Octopus is released from jail.  Spidey knows he'll be a bad guy and invents his 'spider tracers' to track where he goes.  He is surprised to see Betty driving the car for Ock.  The spider tracer becomes pointless when a map of Philadelphia falls out of the car somehow - yes, it really does that - Spidey knows where to go anyway.

Betty's brother also works for a gangster, that's how they got into this mess.  Doc is abusing both of them and breaking the other gangster out of jail.  Peter tracks Betty down and she's not remotely surprised that a teenage boy did that for her, all the way to Philadelphia.  Nothing creepy about that.  They both act like they're ready to tell each other all the secrets.

But that falls apart when everyone gets together on a boat, the fight scene starts and the gangster accidentally kills Betty's brother.  Initially she blames Spider-Man but later admits it wasn't his fault.  Still, she never wants to see him again, so Peter knows he can never tell that secret.  The way the last page is written and drawn, it looks like she's permanently gone from the series.  Instead she returns to the Bugle on page one of the next issue.

I still have to credit the fight scene in this issue.  They take up most of each issue but remain engaging this one, even just flipping through the pages, more stuff just keeps happening panel-by-panel.  It all builds up to the point where Spidey and Ock have made it to another boat and are both trying to finish this.  But neither can do it, the boat crashes and Ock has escaped.  It wasn't a brand-new concept, Dr. Doom never went to jail either, but I still have to wonder how this was approved by the Comics Code, especially with a murder happening here.

#12, JJJ can't keep a secretary but Betty has returned, all smiles and a new haircut.  Chicks, amiright?  Doc Ock is still on the loose and needs to handle that, so he breaks into the Bugle and kidnaps Betty.  In one of the stupidest scenes ever found in any comic book, Ock tells JJJ to put a note in the paper, telling Spider-Man to come see him and get info on finding Ock and Betty.  He tells JJJ where they will be.  Despite being right there, also threatened by Ock, Peter waits until JJJ has printed this new edition of the Bugle and then shows up to ask JJJ what's going on.  Peter is also getting sick, because that's also a thing.

Eventually Spidey shows up to get the information he already has to save the woman he loves, he goes to the fairgrounds where Ock and Betty are waiting.  He's much sicker so he's easy to beat.  Jameson and the cops have already showed up to watch this, so everybody sees Ock unmask Spidey and storm off looking for the *real* Spider-Man.  Betty is not remotely angry that Peter put himself in such a dangerous situation, just as she's fine watching Spidey fight Ock later on, despite what she said last issue.

Then the police lie to Aunt May and said Peter had fainted in the street because he was sick.  Ok, then a few panels later they came back the next morning to inform her of the truth.  *Now* she's mad about this and Peter - who's now perfectly well because it was only a 24-hour virus - lies to her and says he's going out to burn the costume.  Who is supposed to believe this stuff?

Topping this all off is that now, having seen the school nerd pretend to be a superhero and get beaten up by a supervillain, Liz Allen does a complete 180 and is now totally hot for Peter.  Because of course she is!  In at least four panels this issue, her hands are all over Peter's upper-body as she asks him out on dates.  Teenage boys usually like that, especially from girls they've had a crush on for years.  I quite enjoy Liz' contribution to the next year and her rivalry with Betty but this was not a good set-up for that.

And yet it still works.  I've been reading this comic for over 40 years and I'm not sure I'd ever noticed any of the obviously-stupid parts of this story, much less so many of them.  #12 still works fine on its own, as well as its connection to the last three issues.  Betty had already been set up as the love interest, this storyline set it in cement.

At times she will be inconsistent and I think that's mostly from the dialogue.  Stan was in the middle of a lot of different stories and admitted to not having a great memory so he might have had problems trying to remember where he'd left off the previous issue.  Doesn't have to be that accurate, it's only a comic book.

I've always thought Ditko's inspiration for the Betty/Peter storyline came from Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.  The lead female character is desperate to avoid admitting her love for the lead male character, even going through a couple marriages trying to avoid it.  This wouldn't work in a Comics Code-approved comic book for children but the theme is similar.  Eventually Betty would be desperate to get married.  Meanwhile Peter would have to deal with other girls, the equivalent of Veronica.