Spider-Man Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man 3, Amazing Spider-Man 4

Amazing Spider-Man #3 (July 1963) – “Spider-Man vs Doctor Octopus” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko

Ah, another classic villain origin story. This one starts with Spider-Man catching some thieves and lamenting that stopping ordinary punks is too easy and that he’d like an opponent who really challenges his power. Careful what you wish for, Spidey! Not far away, Spider-Man’s wish is about to come true, as nuclear scientist Otto Octavius uses the extendable arms he invented to work with dangerous chemicals and radiation. Already nicknamed Dr. Octopus, Octavius has found a way to control the arms mentally, giving him superior reach and strength (and arrogance, although I suspect that was already there). But there’s an explosion and Octavius’s metal arms are bonded to him permanently. He also suffers brain damage that makes him paranoid enough to believe everyone is against him, so he uses the arms to bust out of his hospital room and take over the hospital. News soon gets out and Jameson sends Peter Parker to get a photo of Dr. Octopus. Peter goes as Spider-Man, thinking it’ll be another quick fight, but Doc Ock’s arms make him stronger than any foe Spidey has faced yet. Spidey gets his ass kicked and feels completely humiliated, but Ock’s hostages get away so he goes back to the Atomic Research Center where his accident occurred and takes it over. Peter is so despondent about being defeated for the first time, he doesn’t care about anything. But Human Torch makes a guest appearance at Peter’s school and gives a motivational speech that gets Peter’s confidence back. He suits up as Spider-Man an goes into the research center ready to kick Doc Ock’s ass. This time he uses his brains as well as his muscle and whips up a chemical that fuses two of Ock’s arms together. That gives Spidey an advantage and he uses it to get close enough to deck Dr. Octopus and wrap him up for the cops. He goes back to thank the Torch for his help, but naturally Torch has no clue what he’s talking about.

This is a really good story about the origin of a classic villain. I’m not sure how much of Dr. Octopus’s later excesses can be put down to brain damage; he seemed like kind of an asshole even before the accident, but I suppose it didn’t help any. Doc Ock has had so much retconning of his background over the decades that it’s hard to fit it all in, but I think this story holds up pretty well except for some of the antiquated tech stuff (which is easy enough to hand-wave). Dr. Octopus seems like a goofy concept (and name), but he depicted as quite dangerous here and Ditko’s art makes him look downright sinister in some places. I like how Human Torch ended up being the motivating factor in Peter getting his confidence back. The two of them act like they don’t like each other, but they’re probably more alike than different. Obviously Torch doesn’t know Peter Parker yet, but his confusion when Spidey thanks him at the end is great. It’s also good to see Stan and Steve acknowledging that there are other superheroes in New York at this time, though I’m sure some of it was just cross-promotion since the FF was a big seller at the time.

Noticeable Things:

• This is the first time we see anyone break Spider-Man’s webbing (and Spidey is pretty amazed by it).
• There’s a caption at the end pointing out that Peter didn’t sell any photos to Jameson this issue, which is interesting since his original reason for going after Doc Ock was to get pictures of him. I guess he forgot and then had too much to do afterwards (or was too bummed out to care).

Amazing Spider-Man #4 (September 1963) – “Nothing Can Stop the Sandman” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko

This one starts with Spider-Man jumping three guys about to break into a jewelry store. Unfortunately, he grabs them before they’ve actually committed any crime and they yell for the cops, so he’s forced to take off. Spidey blames J. Jonah Jameson for turning people against him, so he drops by the Daily Bugle building and leaves a little surprise for the publisher. On his way home, he notices a guy on a rooftop running from the cops and decides to tackle him. He gets more than he bargained for because this turns out to be Sandman, who can change his body into sand and alter its consistency from loose to cement-hard. In the scuffle with Sandman, Spidey’s mask gets torn in half and he’s forced to flee to keep Sandman from seeing his face, leaving the villain to break into a bank. At hoe, Peter sews up his mask (he says he’s terrible at sewing, but didn’t he sew his entire Spider-Man costume by hand?) while watching a news report on Sandman’s origin. Basically, Sandman was a felon (Flint Marko, a great hoodlum name if I ever heard one) who busted out of prison and hid on a beach near a nuclear test facility. When a bomb was being tested, it caused Marko’s body to take on the properties of the sand and the Sandman was born. While Peter is stuck at home, Sandman goes on a crime spree in New York, so Peter vows to stop him. He drops by the Daily Bugle to ask Jameson for an advance (which is refused) and we see the “surprise” Spidey left last night was some webbing on Jameson’s chair. I’m not sure why it hadn’t dissolved already; maybe he left it liquid form and that lasts longer? We also get our first look at Betty Brant, who will be a very important character in the future. At school, Liz has agreed to go out with Peter but he has to break the date because he plans on going after Sandman that night. Pete won’t have to wait that long though, since Sandman is running from the cops and decides Peter’s high school is the perfect place to hole up. He threatens the students and demands the principal give him a diploma, but is refused since he hasn’t earned it. Peter changes to Spidey and tackles Sandman and we get a great ongoing fight through the school. Spidey manages to maneuver Sandman into the basement where he traps him inside a huge vacuum. I get where Stan’s coming from with that, but it seems like Sandman would be able to re-form his body quite easily and bust out of the bag. Maybe we can assume Spidey trapped part of Sandman in the vacuum and the rest somewhere else, to keep him from reconstituting himself. Since he didn’t get any photos of himself fighting Sandman, Spidey fakes some by tossing sand in the air and taking pictures of the “fight”. Spidey delivers Sandman to the cops and Peter delivers the photos to Jameson. Later, Peter tries to make up with Liz and gets into it with Flash but backs down for fear of hurting him.

This is another classic story with a great villain (although I personally prefer the reformed Sandman we got years later; I wish they hadn’t turned him back into a villain). It’s interesting that Sandman already has his powers before even meeting Spidey and that he’s already quite notorious. There are a few strange bits in this story: Spidey’s mask tearing seemed like plot convenience; Sandman wanting a diploma and the principal refusing felt like a PSA for kids to stay in school; and Jameson telling the cops that they could’ve waited and starved Sandman out of the school is just stupid, but maybe it’s just to show how far Jameson is willing to go to blame Spider-Man for something (which we also see when JJJ tries to think up ways to connect Spidey and Sandman, hoping they might be working together). It’s interesting that a cop outside the school basically tells Jameson that the police don’t really have a problem with Spidey helping them and it’s obvious JJJ is just airing his own private grievances. We do get some important plot points for Peter Parker here too, like the first look at Betty Brant and the first inkling that Liz might be interested in him. As I mentioned above, using the vacuum to defeat Sandman (which is foreshadowed in a panel where Peter has to take some stuff to the janitor … Chekhov’s vacuum, I guess) is a bit hard to swallow, but there are ways around that. Overall, this is another great issue and Ditko’s art really shows the variety of Sandman’s powers.

Noticeable Things:

• Peter has a TV in his room, which seems strange for someone who’s short of money. Maybe he bought it with the money he made from the Vulture photos, or maybe it was broken and he fixed up himself.
• There’s a scene during the school fight where Liz wonders where Peter has disappeared to. That happens a few more times in upcoming issues, but luckily we don’t get a Lana Lang situation where Liz is sure Peter is Spider-Man and is continually trying to prove it. That would get old fast.