Well I read the first 20 issuses of OG amazing spider-man and I have to say its pretty rocky, its difficult to read. heres what I though of each issue, ( when I say great, its great for its standard) on a scale of bad-ok-good-great.
>AF15.
Great- after all it is a timeless story, not much to comment on.
>ASM 1
Story 1 Great- It picks up right after the events of the origional, spiderman still isn't a hero yet, hes still trying to use his powers for money, even contimplating stealing at one point, then he can't get any work as an entertainer becuase the entire world has turned on him. Its a bit hard to believe that people would fall for JJJ's propaganda but I guess it was early 60s america, JJJ was probably used as a stand in for the comics code authority.
Story 2 (chameleon) Good- while chameleon isn't a great villain, its still pretty good for peters first adventure.
ASM 2
Story 1 (vulture) Great- this was a pretty cool adventure, spider-man still isn't really a hero, his goal is to take photos of Vulture which would land him a job at the daily bugle and battles vulture as this enrages him.
Story 2 Bad- wow that story was shit, I know its the silver age, but its a bit early in his adventures to add aliens, even if you get past that the story is terrible.
>ASM 3 (Dock Ock)
good - still good, but a bit disappointing for Doc ocks first appearance ( the radiation made him evil). suddenly spider-mans a hero who fights crime, there was no reflection of what happened with uncle ben or how with great power comes great responsibility. hes a crime-fighter now.
ASM 4 (sandman)
Great - this story is the best example of peter trying to balance his school life while been a super-hero,
ASM 5 (doctor doom)
Ok- while the action scene with doom is pretty cool, its not really a great story,
woops forgot image
ASM 6 (lizard)
Good- pretty entertaining story, the first one to take place outside new york,
ASM 7
Great - Im honestly suprised vulture has been the most consistant villain so far, I always thought he was the most boring one, some great action scenes, and the fact that he uses a gun in this issue is hilarious since its the most threatening he'll ever be.
ASM 8
Story 1 Bad - this one is pretty shit, not only are we cheated out of the fight with Parker and Flash (it dosen't count, he looked away) its got a terrible villian. funny this is how he canonically loses his glasses,
whoops I did it again.
>ASM 8
>Story 1 Bad - this one is pretty shit, not only are we cheated out of the fight with Parker and Flash (it dosen't count, he looked away) its got a terrible villian. funny this is how he canonically loses his glasses,
Story 2 Bad (even worse than story one)- WTF peters been such a dick in this one
ASM 9 (electro)
OK - not a great first appearance for electro, this is also the first issue we see sick Aunt May.
ASM 10 (the Enforcers)
good- while the enforcers generally suck, this is still pretty good in its own merits.
ASM 11
Ok- while he is pretty good, Doc Ock's issues are still pretty weak. this one has the first instance of tragedy in parker's life (beside uncle ben) and its pretty weak, it isn't brought up again.
ASM 12
OK - still some creative action scenes with Doc Ock, the cover is a complete cock-tease, (that couldn't be the real spider-man he was fighting so badly that peter parker was merely impersonating him.
ASM 13
Bad - wow, not a good introduction to mysterio, interesting though his depicted more of a physical threat to spider-man than other incarnations, due to his stunt training.
ASM 14
great - I say great but that depends on your point of view, this is pretty crazy even for silver age spider-man, at times it feels like captain underpants in tone. but its still campy fun,
ASM 15
good - decent action with Kraven and chameleon
ASM 16
Great - Im surprised this is a pretty decent crossover.
ASM 17
good- Im really tired of seeing the fantastic four in these issues, but spider-man vs goblin was pretty good,
It’s impressive how many cross overs they had in the beginning but I suppose they wanted to build the shared universe aspect
ASM 18
Bad - they try to go serious and low-key with this corny dialogue of the silver age and it just doesn't work.
ASM 19
Ok - an improvement of the last issue but still not great.
ASM 20
Good - well its decent,
ASM ANNUAL
Great - This is a great story, you get the feeling that they are now realising Spider-man is a major hit, a lot of the villains who failed to make a decent start (mysterio) have a better chance here, the action is really well drawn.
the only thing I found weird was Aunt May falling in love with Doc Ock, all Betty Brant had to tell her was that he was a super-criminal.
So after all that its a pretty shaky start to the legendary comic run. while I do call a lot of these issues good im ranking them on a scale, really the only ones worth reading are AM15, 2, 4, 7, 14, 16, and ANNUAL.
although one gripe I forgot to mention with the ANNUAL was all the unnecessary cameos, they felt pretty forced in this.
anyway I hear from 'If this be my destiny' onwards the series starts kicking into gear. is that true?
what do you think of my rankings anyway?
This may be my favorite Dr. Doom story. The energy and inventiveness of the battle is incredible. I love how many weird weapons that Doom brings to bear. Fights with Doom really should be marathons with numerous back up plans and weapons.
>anyway I hear from 'If this be my destiny' onwards the series starts kicking into gear. is that true?
I mean I'm of the opinion that all of spider-man up to 121 is great, but yeah that's about the part where it really becomes classic Spider-Man, if that makes sense
I've neve read any Spiderman before, this actually sounds like a good place to start. I might read these some day. Cheers op
Also notable issue because one of those two stories was very very probably scheduled for Amazing Fantasy #16, before the decision was made to cancel that comic and relaunch Spider-Man into his own comic (which necessitated the rushed production of the space capsule story)
>tinkerer story bad
Shit taste
I think you have to take Silver Age comics for what they are, and that is, now,
Horribly dated.
But it was a jump from relying on mythology and mysticism in origins to a sci-fi base, and,
A lot of great stories have come out of it.
So you have to appreciate the foresight that went in to them,
Rather than the corny, outdated parts.
But, I enjoyed your rundown, OP.
At least it is an original thread, with some effort and thought put into it.
what wrong with after 121?
ASM 1 is notable because right out the gate Peter is getting shit on at every single opportunity, and it ends with him sobbing while running through the streets at night.
Get out of here man. This was a ballsy issue to put out at the time for as little as Spider-man fights the villain and deals with other issues.
Its the issue where Gwen Stacy dies. Its not bad afterwards, theres just a fall from innocence after that. Well the 70s is pretty rocky storytelling in ASM and Spectacular too. But Spider-man comics pick up again in the 80s.
Come on, that fight was hilarious.
Great thread OP
>If this be my destiny' onwards the series starts kicking into gear. is that true?
Issue 33 is arguably the best Spider-man comic period, if you're not sold by that point you probably won't ever be sold.
Someone did a gif of this with the water running and it looks pretty dope
One of the things that surprised me about reading 1960's Marvel is how close together all of the famous characters were invented, and how quickly the Universe developed.
Yeah it felt like Ditko did like 80% of the most memorable Spider-Man villains.
Isn’t venom the only spider villain not created by ditko to get a substantial role in his movies so far?
Does Shocker count?
I have this issue. My uncle gave me his copy as a birthday present since he knew that I was really into Spider-Man at the time.
I suppose you're right, though they did kill him off and replace him pretty quickly in the movie
This is a good idea for a thread and nice OC, but my god, man, is your commentary shallow. For some issues you only summarize the plot. This is supposed to be the board for people into the hobby, would you make the surface beginner posts on Yea Forums? Would you go talk like this on Yea Forums? Why is there a different standard for Yea Forums?
That's actually a cool cover