Amazing Reads: Amazing Fantasy #15

First and foremost, Welcome!

James here doing something a little different and hopefully entertaining for our regulars to this site. As our regular listeners may have heard I've decided to pick up Spider-Man titles for the next year. So I figured I'd do something on the side as a way to discuss the books I end up with that I don't talk about on the show, and even go back into the past whenever I feel like it. I have a stack of Amazing Spider-Man Essentials, so that would be a good place to start.

So that will be what this is. A review/recap/comedy routine of old comics, specifically Amazing Spider-Man and his spin-offs.

Our first feature: Amazing Fantasy #15

I think I've seen this somewhere before.

So the perfect place to begin. Issue #1, well, more of a 0 issue really, about 40 years before 0 issues existed. For those who don't know, Heroes didn't normally start off with a self titled book in the Gold and Silver Ages. There are exceptions to that, Captain America and Flash had self titled beginnings during the 40s. And Marvel introduced X-Men, Fantastic Four, and the Hulk in the their own self titled books in the 60s. But most heroes came from Anthology series that would then grow popular enough to warrant their own staring book.

So we have Spider-Man's first debut, Amazing Fantasy #15. This is the classic. The origin. If you've seen anything Spidey, you've seen this story, essentially. It's kind of dull reading if you go back to it, especially after seeing Rami's film, or the cartoon series, or any of the retellings in the past 50 years. So let's get started.

We begin with mild-mannered Peter Parker. Science geek who is hated by everyone cause he's...well a science geek. His Uncle Ben and and Aunt May are introduced, and boy are they old. I mean, like REALLY old. Something to remember about the Silver age, they're quick reads, we're on page two, and we've met, Flash Thompson, Aunt May, Uncle Ben, Peter, and each have their characteristics we will know for years to come, annoying, doting, dead, geek. Oh, and I love this panel.

Oh I know how you feel Pete.

Next page, boy we're moving fast. Ol' Pete here is going to watch radioactive experiments, because remember kids, Radioactivity gives super powers, not cancer. A spider finds it's way into a blast of magic science doohicky. Pete is bitten, Pete heads on way home. Pete is the butt of everyone's jokes. Seriously, this guy has no respect. NONE! The car the basically nearly kills him, we get a lovely bubble from who I assume is Flash Thompson (because I can!) "That is one egghead who won't daydream anymore when he crosses the street." Seriously, nearly killing a guy, and that is what you say. Bloody New York.

Even the people who like him, call him a pansy.

So near death teaches our friend Parker one thing at least, he can climb on walls. And that he has super human strength. Go figure. On his way home Peter sees that he can make money by beating some wrestler named Crusher Hogan (Any relation to Happy, I don't know.) No real reason he needs the money, he just wants it. Kind of a theme for Peter here. You start to see that maybe that Bad Karma should be going his way. So Pete becomes a masked wrestler. Pete wins. A sleazy scumbag manager comes up to Peter, and goes on, "I can make you a star", routine.

No caption this time, just a few general comments. One, great conviction on the name there. You designed a costume to look like a spider's web, you better have a spider based name dude.

And two, And only a science major would thing the web wings would look cool there Spidey.

Moving on.


Welcome to Part 2. Yes, every six pages a new story happens in these old books. And well, Amazing Fantasy was so strapped for ideas, they just decided to shove a conclusion to this Spider-Man story. (That and the book was getting canceled, more on that later.) So we open part 2 with fame and fortune for our intrepid hero. As he's leaving...

Oh, Hey, I recognize that!

Aw, the famous, No, I won't stop the thief bit. See, in later incarnations it's been tweaked. The thing often included is that Spider-Man feels stiffed by the manager, or where-ever and doesn't give a damn if money is taken from them. Here, it's because he couldn't be arsed. He flat out says, "That's your job" to the cop. So yeah, Spider-Man, arrogant prick with a vendetta to the world. I do wonder how this'll turn out.

We get a brief little interlude showing how awesome and loving Aunt May and Uncle Ben are. So Loving, and Awesome, and Old. So we get a newspaper montage for a panel, and we return to our hero returning home one evening to find that his home was broken into. A cop informs Peter that Uncle Ben was killed (I'm shocked I tell ye). Peter rushes upstairs, changes into Spider-Man and rushes off to confront the killer, where the cop happens to have told Peter where the guy was hiding out.

We get a brief little action scene, and Spider-Man beats up the killer.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Pupils!

Yes, our killer is the the thief Peter couldn't be arsed to stop earlier. But we knew that, right folks. I mean, this origin is a common as Batman's or Superman's. Come to think of it, all three of them their natural parents are killed off and they're raised by surrogates. Interesting. So our story winds to a close with Peter going, "It's all my fault." So he becomes a hero based on guilt. Not an outstanding feeling to do good, but because he was a righteous arse, and karma bit him on the backside. Oh, and we get this...

Stan Lee said it, not Ben.

And that winds down our first discussion here. This is a bit longer than I had thought it would be, but what can I say, I like talking. So a few parting words before I go. I do suggest this as a read. However you can find it. It's not a bad story, it fits pretty well within the style at the time, and certainly is interesting to see Peter and Spider-Man as they were first created. Some of it has changed over the years, to make it seem like Peter doing more of the wrong thing for the right reasons, then just being an arse, but other than that, it works.

One last thing...

There is no Amazing Fantasy #16 (Well, not till the 90s, but let's move on). I think It's kind of funny reading this, because I had always heard that 15 was going to be the last one, because of it's poor sales, and the reason Spider-Man was published at all, was because it was going to be the last book, and no one cared. The studio didn't know he'd be a big hit. Unfortunately, AF was still cancelled, and it wasn't until March 1963 that we got The Amazing Spider-Man. Which will be our heroes next appearance. Of course, I may be confusing that story with the creation of Final Fantasy, I'm a bit like that.

Brief Edit:
I've decided to include a firsts when a first shows up. So let's run down our Firsts for this issue.
First Character Appearances:
Peter Parker
May Parker
Ben Parker
Flash Thompson
Spider-Man
Peter's Joe Chill (Don't know his name)

Other firsts:
Web shooters
Spidey's costume
Uncle Ben's death. (We'll see that again...and again...and again...)