The Web Grows

The first appearance of the Vulture was how Peter got a job selling pictures of Spider-Man so narratively it makes perfect sense that his return in #7 takes place mostly at the Daily Bugle.  There's not a lot of story in this issue outside of the fight scenes yet by the end, something about it comes off as satisfying, like Lee and Ditko had reached a deliberately-considered step in the story they were telling.  It starts with a recap of #2 and the Vulture escapes from jail.

One theme for this issue is Peter's dual-identity, a lot of work is put into focusing on both characters.  Attention is also given to taking basic details of life to center the story around, ignoring realism whenever necessary.  The most obvious example is that Spidey injures his arm in the first fight with the Vulture so he needs to make that work as Peter as well as protect it in the rematch, but other details get attention too.

Lee and Ditko probably understood quite well that they couldn't answer some obvious questions with any realism but at least asking the question could be entertaining and make the reader feel more 'sophisticated' with his understanding.  The Parker house is in Queens, the Forest Hills neighborhood, so Peter has to sit around for 20 minutes until he "senses" nobody is around to see Spider-Man leaving the house.  Then he immediately gets to Manhattan.  How?  By walking?  You cannot 'web-sling' between two-story houses.

By now the series had established its characters fairly well so each issue was a decision on how much attention they each got.  Peter hears about the Vulture's escape during a volleyball game at school.  The kids make fun of him for quitting volleyball, then they make fun of him coming back with an injured arm, that's their contribution to the story.  He needs to hide his costume change from Aunt May - by hiding on ceiling like she's a complete idiot - and she forbids him from playing volleyball at school because of his injured arm.  This might be an appeal to the readers, 'this is how stupid the adults in your life are too.'

JJJ's appearance is quite amusing.  Peter has to convince him to buy the Vulture pix and they start negotiating the price.  Then the Vulture attacks and Jameson uses the same negotiation skills to keep from being robbed.  At the end he blames Spidey for all the destruction.  The fight scene is quite good, running through the offices, down the stairs, the printing room and eventually outside.  I'm finally old enough to not really be interested in superhero fights but I have enough experience in comics that I'm quite impressed by Ditko's design and pacing.  Panel-by-panel, he does keep the narrative going.  The dialogue usually bounces back-and-forth from Spidey worrying about what will happen next or quipping at the villain, also fun.

The fight in the Bugle also helped establish the 'big business' aspects of the story.  It would never be fully-fleshed out in Ditko's run but it's clear that he was thinking a lot about this, as was Stan.  It's believable that the offices and buildings are designed like this, as well as all the employees we see running around.  The Vulture made a point that this being payday, it was a perfect time to rob the place.  That part's not as realistic although maybe there was something believable about it before we used internet banking.  But there's an overarching sense of a big business here, even without much focus on its role in a media empire.  It may not be real but it's believable and fund, bring back the reader.

Then there's Betty, being very smoothly added to the story.  She asks how Peter injured his arm and doesn't believe it was a volleyball game, so he says he was fighting the Vulture when it happened.  'Oh well, ask a silly question...'  Peter has certainly been getting better at dealing with girls and Betty is certainly likeable.  After the battle, she probably can't leave, she's still on the clock, so she just sits on the floor next to her desk.  Peter comes back, he was hiding, not heroic, they start talking and that's where the story ends.

Lee and Ditko clearly wanted the romance to be a big part of the story.  Stan always said romance comics were the most fun to write and, working 'Marvel method,' Ditko was doing most of the heavy-lifting right from the start so he was definitely overseeing this.  They also had enough awareness of the medium and genre they were working in to make use of the stereotypes or avoid them.  They also knew their target audience.

#8 was the 'Tribute to Teen-agers' [sic] issue.  Not really any reason for that but it sounded good at the time.  This was two shorter stories.  The main one took place at school.  Flash bullies Peter and breaks his glasses, finally getting rid of the 'Clark Kent' comparisons.  It still seems ridiculous in several ways, but Peter finally decides to have it out with Flash, who he can beat easily.

They've been told to handle it in a boxing match which Peter wins so easily that Stan Lee needs to work in dialogue that makes it look like everyone believes this.  But this was intentional, Flash regains consciousness just before the criminals run in, trying to escape, trip over him and they're now unconscious too.  Peter is able to set him up, 'only Spidey could have beaten them so easily and you weren't around while the rest of the fight was going on!'

The story centers around a super-robot, brought to a high school for some reason.  The robot can solve any problem so the students decide to ask about Spider-Man's real identity for some reason.  They throw in a bunch of random facts which Peter is instructed to program into the robot for some reason.  The robot prints the answer in mathematical code for some reason, which is left with Peter to translate overnight for some reason.  Then criminals who work for the robot scientist for some reason try to steal the robot but accidentally set it on a rampage for some reason.  Everybody in school is watching Peter and Flash fight for some reason so they ignore the robot.  In the last panel of the story, Peter says he'll just say he lost the paper listing Spidey's secret ID for some reason.  This never comes up again so he obviously got a way with it for some reason.  I can't think of any reason this isn't believable and my super-robot is on the fritz so I can't ask it for help.  When oh when are they going to invent google?

The fight with the robot is enjoyable and handled much like the fight with the Vulture in the previous issue.  The kids at school get some attention.  Liz has a very small bit of sympathy for Peter but otherwise no one stands out besides Flash.  Most of stories so far have included some of Peter's interest in science and this is no exception.  In this instance, he doesn't reprogram the robot but is at least able to turn it off during a dangerous moment.  In general the story is quite stupid but all the parts are entertaining enough for what they are.

It was shorter than most issues because #8 also includes a six-page story drawn by Jack Kirby.  The overall franchise is still being constructed and they need to get the two most prominent teenage characters together, handled by the *other* major Marvel artist.  Really it's out-of-character and only Stan's dialogue makes it work.

For some reason, Spidey is stalking the neighborhood Johnny Storm's girlfriend Doris.  Johnny has chosen this moment to show off his brand-new car, a Chevy Corvette Stingray, which had started being manufactured August 1962, the month cover-dated on Amazing Fantasy #15.  Johnny is surrounded by adoration by teenagers, they start dancing because... teenagers, Spidey is spying on them and decides to interfere.  Everybody is angry at him for this so of course he's willing to join the party.  There's needing to give the characters a reason to fight but this is ridiculous.  Isn't there crime out there Spidey could be fighting?

Have you ever heard of Frank Merriwell?  Neither have I but Spidey snarks 'Who writes your dialogue, squirt?' and that's who he cites.  Wikipedia says Merriwell was a fictional character, created and usually written by Gilbert Patten under the pen-name 'Burt L. Standish.'  Merriwell was quite popular in the first few decades of the 20th century, in dime novels along with a comic strip, a radio show and a movie serial.  A reboot was attempted in the 40s but it only lasted a few years and another attempt in the 60s which immediately failed, which may be why Stan was thinking of him for the dialogue here.

Based on the description, Merriwell was essentially a superhero, just without superpowers.  He was excellent at all sports, which gave him a reason to go around, get into adventures and fight crime.  He was always right and idolized by his fictional fans.  I'd never heard of the guy but this is what the mass-media has been pushing for over a century now, Merriwell first appeared in 1896 by a NYC-based pulp fiction publisher, Street & Smith, who would have many other famous writers working for them over the decades.  So in many ways, this was what Marvel was aspiring to become, yet much of it is completely forgotten now.  And you get all of that here in one word-balloon in one panel on one page of one short comic-book story.

Anyway, the Torch is as irritated by Spider-Man as anyone would be and is ready to burn him down.  The Comics Code wouldn't permit the use of FAFO but that's what Spidey is facing here.  Then the other three FF-members show up, Spidey is stupid enough to keep fighting but Sue gets involved and makes them stop.  This is very cheesy and really had no purpose as a story, but the FF had now made four appearances in eight issues, corporate IPs being put together to keep pushing the franchise, the theory which made me start thinking about DC and Marvel history, to the point where I'm now spending page-after-page analyzing Ditko's Spider-Man.

By this point, most of the franchise was in place.  The Avengers had just formed a few months earlier and were only a couple months away from Captain America joining them.  I still think that had always been the goal being aimed towards, back when publisher Martin Goodman told Stan Lee to do a rip-off of Justice League, which led to the Fantastic Four.  Just a couple months after that, Marvel would have its first multi-part story, the Fantastic Four fighting the Avengers over the Hulk.  If you recall, the Hulk was the story-reason for creating the Avengers - reused for the 2012 movie - and was always a monster rampaging around to smash stuff.  Like Spider-Man, he was used to put together the various corporate IPs.

The same month as the FF/Avengers/Hulk fight, Daredevil #1 was released, the final creation for Marvel's early years.  Spider-Man wasn't in the comic but he was on the cover as a selling point, 'if you like him then buy this.'  Daredevil #2 would start with an appearance by the Fantastic Four and the villain was Elektro, one of Spidey's crooks.  Daredevil would be the only character in this era created with no contributions from Kirby or Ditko yet they were still relevant here.  He would also guest-star later this year in Spider-Man #16.