Amazing Fantasy #15: "Spider-Man!"

Summary
Peter Parker, who the narrator tells us is "far from being the biggest man on campus," tries to get some of his fellow students to go to a science exhibition with him, but they tell him to take a hike.  ("You stick to science, son!  We'll take the chicks!")  At the exhibit, he's bitten by a radioactive spider and soon realizes he's developed super powers, being able to cling to walls and walk on cables "as effortlessly as the spider itself can glide along its web."  To test his powers, Pete dons a mask and enters a wrestling contest with Crusher Hogan.  Defeating him easily, Peter makes $100 and meets a TV producer who tells him he'll be a "smash on Ed Sullivan's show."  Peter constructs his Web-Shooters and gets himself a costume, calling himself Spider-Man.  He then begins to perform in a series of televised events.  One night, after such an event, he fails to stop a thief who ran past him, telling the police officer who asks him why he didn't trip him, "that's your job!"  Aunt May and Uncle Ben later surprise Pete with the microscope he's always wanted and Spider-Man's career continues to go well.  One night, on the way home from a personal appearance, Pete learns (from the same cop, seemingly, who tried to catch the thief earlier) that Uncle Ben has been murdered by a burglar.  The cop tells Pete the thief is hiding in the old Acme warehouse at the waterfront and Pete dons his Spider-Man costume to go get him.  He finds him hiding and realizes that it's the thief he failed to stop the previous night.

The Review

As anyone who's read this issue before knows, despite being the start of the Spider-Man mythos, it's really not all that exciting.  Lee gives us Spider-Man's origin story in just 11 pages.  In fact, Peter doesn't get bitten by that famous spider ("whom fate has given a starring, if brief, role to play in the drama we call life!") until page 3, so the entire origin story really happens on just nine pages.  Pete gets his Spider-Powers, becomes a professional wrestler, fails to stop a thief, and suffers the loss of Uncle Ben.  Talk about concise!

Beyond the origin story we all know, I found certain parts of this issue interesting for being different from my normal understanding of Spider-Man's origin.  First, in my review of "Amazing Spider-Man" #661, I criticize the author for having the Avengers Academy kids gush over Spidey's professional wrestling career, saying that it lasted "five minutes."  Um, I might've been wrong about that.  In this issue, we see several newspaper headlines saying that Spider-Man played to a packed house, won a "showbiz" award, and was slated to star in his own TV series.  Apparently, he really did have something like a career.  I mean, it clearly didn't last for years or anything, but I guess he would've been sufficiently high-profile as a "celebrity" (if not necessarily a wrestler) for the kids to remember him before he took up superhero-ing.

Second, Uncle Ben never says "with great power comes great responsibility."  The narrator does, saying, at the end of the issue, as Spidey silently walks into the night after discover his role in Uncle Ben's death, "with great power there must also come -- great responsibility!"  I assume, at a later date, Lee gives us a flashback of Uncle Ben saying it to Peter, but I thought it was interesting that it doesn't happen here.  Speaking of Uncle Ben, I was surprised to see that he only has two lines in this issue.  That's it.  He wakes up Peter for school ("You're not fooling' me, Petey.  I know you're awake -- and it's time for school!") and tells Aunt May not to feed Peter too much ("Don't fatten him up too much, dear!  I can hardly out-wrestle him now!")  Not bad for a guy who becomes one of comicdom's most beloved figures!  Also, wheatcakes appear in this issue!  It's what Aunt May was feeding Peter (his favorite breakfast) when Uncle Ben tells her not to overfeed him.  Who knew wheatcakes were so steeped in history?

Finally, we have some non-standard depictions of Spidey here.  First, we have the famous Web-Pits, and I wonder when they actually disappear.  But, also, when Spidey is holding the thief, he actually has pupils, which Ditko seemed to add to stress how shocked he was.  In terms of the more standard aspects of his Spider-Powers, we get his ability to stick to walls and his Spider-Strength.  Lee doesn't specifically mention his Spider-Sense, though I think it's implied when he leaps away from the car that almost hits him, the event that makes him realize he can cling to walls.

Looking more thematically, I was surprised just how angry Peter is in this issue, even before Uncle Ben's death.  When he received his microscope from Uncle Ben and Aunt May, he thinks, "They're the only ones who've ever been kind to me!  I'll see to it that they're always happy, but the rest of the world can go hang for all I care!"  He tells the cop who berates him for not stopping the thief, "Sorry, pal!  That's your job!  I'm thru being pushed around -- by anyone!  From now on I just look out for number one -- that means -- me!"  Lee makes it pretty clear just how alone and isolated Peter is at the start of the issue, with the kids (and even the scientists) making fun of him.  (It's pretty bad when a bunch of scientists call you a wuss, which they do when he gets light-headed after getting bitten by the spider and has to leave the exhibition.)  But, I didn't realize just how dark Peter's thoughts were.  In a post-Columbine world, it's an interesting insight to see, and sets up later discussions (particularly in "Amazing Spider-Man" #1) about whether Pete will eventually turn to a life of crime.

I want to note that Lee's narration is really great.  Although the issue doesn't really conform to modern standards of dialogue and flow, it's through the narrative bubbles that we get most of our insight into Peter and the troubles he faces and life he leads.  The narrator tells us that Peter is "far from being the biggest man on campus" and that Aunt May "thought the sun rose and set upon her nephew."  Lee gives us the insight we need to understand just how powerful of a character he and Ditko created.