Amazing Spider-Man #9 (February 1964) – “The Man Called Electro” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko
This one starts with Spider-Man swinging frantically through the city, ignoring everything around him in his haste (even inadvertently foiling a bank robbery just by swinging past). Turns out he has some medicine for Aunt May and wanted to fill the prescription as fast as possible. If she’s so sick she can’t live without a pharmacy prescription, why isn’t she in a hospital? Maybe they can’t afford a hospital stay. Elsewhere, Electro (another villain with staying power … I forgot how many classic baddies we meet in these early issues) is out on the prowl, knocking
over an armoured car full of gold to demonstrate his powers for us. Wasn’t that nice of him? The next day at school, Peter is so worried about Aunt May that he doesn’t pay attention to his classmates, even when Flash tries to act human for once. Aunt may heads to hospital for the first of many unspecified operations, so now Peter really needs money. He goes out as Spider-Man to get some photos, but the rain screws that plan up, so he has to head home and worry some more. Electro robs the Forest Hills bank the next day and Jameson just happens to be there. Why would Jameson do his banking in Forest Hills? I thought he lived in Manhattan? Maybe he spreads it 
around to be safe, or maybe his family banked there for years or something. Anyway, Electro recognizes Jameson, who comes to the ridiculous conclusion that Electro must be someone he knows. When Electro uses electro-magnetism to scale a wall and Spidey swings by moments later, Jameson’s deductive abilities go into overdrive and he decides Electro must be Spider-Man. Peter goes to Jameson for a loan (you can guess what the answer is) and remembers the reward for Electro’s capture. He scours the city and finds Electro breaking into a building, but gets zapped into unconsciousness. When he wakes up, he stages some photos of himself so
he can superimpose them on earlier shots of Electro to make it look like Spidey and Electro are one and the same. He sells the photos to Jameson (feeling shitty about it), who’s thrilled that he was right. We get a brief origin story for Electro (he was a lineman who got hit by lightning) before he goes to bust some cons out of central holding to form a gang. But cons aren’t really known for following orders, so a riot breaks out. Peter and Betty wait at the hospital until Aunt May’s operation is done. Peter heads to the prison as Spidey to confront 
Electro, making Jameson look like an idiot. Spider-Man insulates his hands and feet with rubber so he can go up against Electro’s power, but he still ends up cornered. Luckily, there’s a fire hose handy and he knocks Electro out by dousing him with water. He gets photos of the fight and gives them to Jameson for nothing to make up for faking the earlier ones (and of course Jameson figures he’s getting the better of the deal because Peter is an idiot). Peter and Betty have a brief spat but make up right away, so things end on a slightly more positive note than usual.
This is a really good issue with another classic villain and the deepening of the Peter/Betty relationship. Aunt May’s unspecified health problems will be an ongoing source of worry for years to come, but it’s also a way to show how much Betty cares about Peter by having her the only one to show up and comfort him during the operation. We see that Betty is hiding some kind of secret about someone she cared for getting hurt because he was
addicted to danger. She’s worried Peter may have that same recklessness and end up hurt too. We’ll find out more in a couple of issues, but it’s interesting to see this early that Betty and Peter really aren’t compatible. He could never give up being Spider-Man and she could never live with him being Spider-Man, so they’re just not right for each other. The same could be said for Gwen in a few years, which is why I think Mary Jane is the right one for him eventually. (Yes, I’m team MJ … what of it?) We do see Flash try to reach out to Peter and get ignored because Peter is so worried about his aunt; I guess Pete decking Flash last issue earned him a bit of respect. I’d forgotten about Peter faking the photos to sell to Jameson, kinda like he did with the Sandman pix, but at least he makes up for it by giving Jameson the real photos for free. For a 
stingy guy, Jameson isn’t shy about paying for quality photos, since he offered Per $1000 for proof that Electro was Spider-Man. Jameson’s whole conclusion on that front makes no sense; he’s been on TV ranting about Spider-Man and is a well-known publisher in New York, so why wouldn’t Electro recognize him? Jameson’s paranoia is starting to affect his thinking, but it’s nice to see most cops still regard Spider-Man as a force for good (although ordinary citizens are divided on the issue, as usual). Electro’s identity is shown to us, but when Spidey unmasks him at the end he doesn’t recognize him, which makes sense; why would some random crook be someone Spidey knows personally? That’ll be a running theme in future issues, with a few notable exceptions (like next issue’s main villain).
Amazing Spider-Man #10 (March 1964) – “The Enforcers” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko
This one starts with a new crime-lord called the Big Man organizing a daring daylight robbery. Spider-Man tries to stop it and ends up looking stupid, just as the Big Man planned. At the hospital, Liz and Flash drop by to visit Aunt May and Peter is asked to give her some blood for a transfusion. He’s reluctant because of his irradiated spider-blood, but he has no choice and everything seems to work out fine. He gets a break when the neighbours take Aunt May away to Florida for a week for a vacation. The Big Man continues his crime spree and we see
Jameson hanging around some of the crime scenes, but he tells the cops he thinks there is no Big Man and that Spider-Man is behind the robberies. Jameson is so worked up that he orders one of his writers (Frederick Foswell) to write a series proving Spider-Man is the Big Man, even though there isn’t a shred of evidence to indicate that. Betty leaves work and is accosted by the Enforcers (Big Man’s personal muscle) because she borrowed money from a loan shark and still owes the interest. Peter comes along and when the Enforcers threaten him, Betty says she’ll get them the money somehow. She tells 
Peter it was a case of mistaken identity to protect him (and because she feels stupid for getting involved with a loan shark in the first place), but he knows she’s bullshitting him. Spider-Man intimidates a thug into spilling the Enforcers’ whereabouts and we get a cool fight scene with Spidey taking on all three Enforcers. (For the record, that’s Montana, master of the lasso, Fancy Dan, martial arts expert, and Ox, who’s about as strong as a normal human can be.) Realizing he’s overmatched, Spidey takes off and notices Jameson walking by outside, which he finds strange. Peter keeps trying to help Betty, so she decides the only way to keep him safe is to leave town. Peter starts to suspect Jameson is the Big Man and decides to brag about
knowing his identity so the Big Man will have him kidnapped and he can get inside the villain’s hideout. The plan works and we see that Big Man actually does know Peter Parker, which makes Pete even more suspicious of Jameson. His plan works and he’s taken inside Big Man’s hideout where he changes to Spider-Man and starts kicking ass. He pounds a bunch of mobsters and takes on the Enforcers again, but realizes he needs help and uses his Spidey-signal to alert the cops. When the police show up Big Man takes off and Spidey goes after him, but he escapes. Spidey heads to the Daily Bugle 
building, still thinking Jameson might be the Big Man. His suspicions seem confirmed when the cops show up to arrest someone, but it turns out to be Foswell instead, which blows Spidey’s mind (and presumably, ours as well). After Foswell is taken away, we get a soliloquy scene from Jameson in his office where he admits to himself that he hates Spider-Man so much because he’s jealous of how selfless Spidey is for risking his life to do the right thing with no thought of reward, which is pretty much the opposite of Jameson himself.
This is a pretty good issue that introduces (and gets rid of) the Big Man and the Enforcers. Both will be back in future issues and I always loved the
depictions of Spidey fighting all the Enforcers at once. They may not have super-powers, but their coordinated attacks can give Spidey trouble. The whole thing with Spider-Man thinking Jameson is the Big Man but it turning out to be someone he never considered is another twist on the “unknown villain” scenario we saw last issue. That’ll be an ongoing theme and I think it was due to Steve Ditko’s influence over the plots. We’ll see the same thing later when Jameson and Foswell are both suspected of being the Crime Master and the Green Goblin. A lot of evidence did point to Jameson being Big Man, so I guess we were supposed to suspect him too. Peter’s irradiated blood transfusion to Aunt May will come up in future issues too, although I’m assuming Stan didn’t actually plan that far ahead back then. We see Flash 
and Liz visiting Aunt May, which makes sense; if they go to the same school, they must live in the same neighbourhood and their families would know each other. Flash also tries to warn Peter against bragging about his knowledge of Big Man’s identity, showing that Flash isn’t quite as big an asshole as he seems. The big thing this issue was Jameson’s revelation (to us at least) of why he hates Spider-Man so much. It makes sense and it actually fits Jameson’s character as we know him now and as he’ll evolve later, but that particular motivation won’t really be explored much in future issues. Maybe Jameson is so ashamed of it he can’t even let himself think about it.
Noticeable Things:
- I’m wondering where the Kingpin is while Big Man is running riot through the city. I know Kingpin hasn’t even been conceived of yet, but later continuity will establish that he was already a top-level gang boss by this time. Maybe Big Man is paying him off (since Foswell seems to know him later), or maybe Kingpin is letting Big Man take all the heat while he operates under the radar.