Amazing Spider-Man #2 (May 63): Duel to the Death With the Vulture!

Creative Team: Stan Lee, script; Steve Ditko, art; John Duffy, lettering

Synopsis: A new menace is in town - the Vulture. And J. Jonah Jameson wants pictures of him for teh Daily Bugle and Now Magazine. Peter realises as Spider-Man he can get pictures of the Vulture no one else can. So he gets is Uncle Ben's old camera and suits up. Meanwhile, the Vulture decides he's going to steal the diamonds from a diamond exchange and goes about alerting the media and the police that he plans to do so. Spider-Man spots him making his rounds and follows, hoping for some pictures. The Vulture notices he's being followed and out maneuvers Spidey, swooping in from behind, and dumping him in a water tower. Spidey finds he's all out of webbing. And he can't stick to the slippery sides of the tower. So he uses his incredible leg strength to launch his way out. That night he creates a utility belt to store extra vials of webbing, a spotlight, and his camera. He also creates a device that he hopes will stop the Vulture from flying. The next day, in a supreme twist of irony, he sells his Vulture pictures to the man who hates his costumes persona. All Peter asks is Jameson never asks him how he does, or give him credit - he just wants money. The next day, the gang from Midtown High go to check out the diamond exchange in hopes of seeing the Vulture. Peter ducks out early and the kids think he's afraid. The exchange is heavily guarded with helicopters and police watching the skies. As the diamonds are transfered, the Vulture pops out of the sewers, grabs the diamonds, and flies back down. He finally emerges from a subway tunnel while Peter becomes Spider-Man and goes looking for him. He finds the Vulture and the two begin an airborn battle. Spidey uses his device to ground the Vulture. He's easy pickings for the police at that point. What Spider-Man's device did was create an anti-magnetic barrier, and since the Vulture was using magnetic force to fly, it cancelled out his abilities. Parker then sells the next batch of pictures to Jameson and makes enough money to pay rent for a year and buy some new kitchen appliances.

Yeah, but is it good? I like this one. The Vulture is finally a colorful, costumed villain worthy of Spider-Man. And there are many more to come. There's some pseudo-science nonsense about magnetic fields, but the concept of Spider-Man using his scientific know-how to defeat his enemies is what this hero is supposed to do. We also get a fairly logical reasoning behind Spider-Man creating his belt to hold extra web fluid cartridges - He ran out when he needed them. And this is the first part of the long standing duality of Jameson hating Spider-Man, but loving (although masking it) Peter Parker for getting pictures of Spider-Man. Jameson is one of the alltime great supporting characters in comics. At this point it seems as if they were really pushing the fact he's a magazine publisher rather than a newspaper publisher. He's both, but Now Magazine would eventually be quietly forgotten and the Daily Bugle becomes his main focus. Now notice the title of this story - Duel to the Death. That's a bit of an exageration as neither man is dead, nor was there any indication one wanted the other dead.

Significata: First appearance of the Vulture. Spider-Man creates a utility belt to hold extra web fluid. Peter Parker becomes a photographer and starts working freelance for the Daily Bugle (and Now Magazine).

The Uncanny Threat of the Terrible Tinkerer!

Creative Team: Stan Lee, story; Steve Ditko, art; Art Simek, lettering

Synopsis: Peter's science teacher at Midtown High introduces him to Prof. Cobbwell, a renouned electronics expert. Cobbwell is looking for a student to help him over the weekend and Peter jumps at the chance. Cobbwell asks that Peter pick up a radio from a repair shop for him on the way. Peter goes to the Tinkerer Repair Shop to get the radio, which only costs a dime to repair. Even in 1963 that's not very much. Some srange radio emission trigger Peter's spider-sense. It turns out in the basement of the repair shop, the Tinkerer has aliens working for him (extra-terrestrials, not cheap Mexican labor). The aliens are putting spy devices in the repaired equipment. So Peter takes the radio back to Prof. Cobbwell and senses the same emissions coming from the radio. After a while, Prof. Cobbwell goes to teach a class. Peter checks the radio and finds the spy devices. He changes to Spider-Man and goes back to the shop to get to the bottom of this. He sneaks in and finds the Tinkerer and the aliens listening in on military leaders. Spider-Man is spotted by one of the aliens. He takes on all three of them, but is zapped by the Tinkerer. They put him in a plastic bubble and start to suck out the air so he'll suffocate. He shoots his web through one of the air holes and hits the control pannel, releasing him. As he fights the aliens again, the control pannel is damaged and starts a fire. The aliens bolt and Spidey grabs they Tinkerer, yanking his face off (a masl), but he gets away too. Spider-Man flees the building and gets back to the lab before Cobbwell returns. Cobbwell comes back and explains he saw a space ship take off. They laugh.

Yeah, but is it good? These backup stories rarely are. It's obvious Stan Lee still has his head in the weird sci-fi tales that were prevalent in comics before the return of the heroes. Aliens spying on Earth through an electronics repair shop? Why would the Pentagon send it's radios to a small New York store? Silly Stan, aliens are for Fantastic Four stories. And the Tinkerer is a villain who would never be seen again until a younger generation of writers one day said "Hey remember the Tinkerer?" and bring him back rarely and in unimortant roles.

Significata: First appearance of the Tinkerer.  ¶ 11:20 AM