Spider-Man Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man 13, Amazing Spider-Man 14

Amazing Spider-Man #13 (June 1964) – “The Menace of Mysterio” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko

This one starts with Spider-Man committing a robbery … at least, it’s someone dressed like Spider-Man who seems to have all his powers. J. Jonah Jameson is ecstatic that he was right all along and most of the city believes Spider-Man has gone bad (with the notable exception of Flash Thompson). Even Peter Parker isn’t sure; he wonders if he might have a split personality and be committing crimes at night unknowingly. He goes to see a psychiatrist but decides not to risk his secret identity. After stopping by the Daily Bugle trying (unsuccessfully of course) to get a loan from Jameson, Peter runs into Liz Allan who’s still sweet on him after his heroics last issue. At the Bugle building, a weirdo called Mysterio appears out of nowhere to demand Jameson print a challenge to Spider-Man. Peter sees it and accepts the challenge, meeting Mysterio on top of the Brooklyn Bridge. Mysterio turns out to be more trouble than Spidey anticipated, being able to dissolve his webs and even confuse his spider-sense. Spidey retreats and Mysterio claims victory, getting a parade and a front page exclusive from Jameson. Peter meets Mysterio at the Daily Bugle and slips a spider-tracer onto his cloak so he can track him. He catches Mysterio at a movie studio and they start fighting. Spidey lets Mysterio get the upper hand so he can goad him into confessing, which Mysterio does, throwing in his origin story as bonus. (Basically, he was a movie stuntman and F/X whiz who decided to imitate Spidey’s powers with technology.) Once he has the confession, Spidey pounds Mysterio, breaking his spider-sense jammer and wrapping him up for the cops. When news gets out that Mysterio imitated Spider-Man to steal the money, the public opinion shifts back again. Jameson is despondent (though he’s mollified somewhat by the spectacular photos Peter sells him), and Flash is insufferably smug.

This is a classic issue of Spider-Man with some great fight scenes (especially on the movie set), a wild new villain, and some interesting questions about identity. In a way, every superhero (or villain, I guess) with a secret identity kinda has a split personality. The question is, which identity is the “real” one … or are they both real? Or both false? This story doesn’t delve that deeply into the idea, but it makes you wonder about what it must feel like to live a lie every day. No wonder Peter is afraid he has a split personality (or Dissociative Identity Disorder in modern parlance). It’s cool to see Flash defending Spidey no matter what, but we also see Betty Brant has faith in Spider-Man’s innocence, despite what happened to her brother a couple issues ago. Mysterio’s confession and origin recap were a bit convenient, but I guess it just shows how arrogant he is. It’s cool how he uses tech to duplicate Spidey’s natural powers; in future issues he’ll lean more into the psychological stuff, but here he’s just a tech wizard who built some really cool shit. We see Spidey still uses a radio receiver to track his spider-tracers, but that’ll change in future issues when he attunes them to his spider-sense.

Amazing Spider-Man #14 (July 1964) – “The Grotesque Adventure of the Green Goblin” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko

This one starts with a new villain the Green Goblin (whose face we don’t get to see) contacting the Enforcers (who’ll you’ll remember from issue 10) and promising to help them eliminate Spider-Man. Goblin then goes to see B.J. Cosmos, a stereotypical Hollywood producer, and promises he can get Spider-Man to star in his next movie. Gobby gets Spidey’s attention and sends him to see Cosmos, who signs him—presumably not under his real name—to a contract. Peter’s thinking about how the money will help him and Aunt May and he manages to get assigned to take photos of the new Spidey spectacle by Jameson. Once they’re out on location in the New Mexico desert, Spidey quickly realizes he’s been had and that these are the real Enforcers. As Green Goblin and the Enforcers attack him, we get a cool fight scene with Spidey using his agility to take on multiple opponents at once. Spidey whips up a dust storm so he can get to some caves, but Green Goblin spots him and alerts the Enforcers. They seal the cave but that gives Spidey the advantage and he picks them off one by one until only the Goblin is left. Goblin is too quick for Spidey to catch and he soon has bigger things to worry about (literally!) as the Hulk emerge from the shadows to attack these pesky intruders. Spidey evades him and coaxes him into shattering the boulder so he can get out. He tries to capture the Goblin but he’s too tired so he’s forced to let him go. He heads back into the caves to get the Enforcers out before the Hulk wastes them and leaves them for the cops. Unfortunately, since the movie won’t be completed, Cosmos doesn’t have to pay Spidey, though he does at least pay his way back home.

This is another issue that introduces a classic villain, although this version of the Green Goblin isn’t quite as menacing as he’ll be later on. Spidey’s fights with the Enforcers and Hulk are actually more exciting than anything he does with the Goblin. Gobby’s flying broomstick looks kinda goofy (and I’m not sure how he even stays on the damn thing), but his identity is still a secret and he continues plotting against Spidey. The Hulk fight was cool and it was nice to see Spidey let loose on the green behemoth … not that it did much good. B.J. Cosmos is a caricature of a Hollywood producer, although I can’t help wondering if he was based on someone Stan actually knew. I’m not sure why Spidey’s spider-sense didn’t warn him about the Enforcers (or the Goblin for that matter) earlier; they certainly had evil intent towards him. Maybe at this point, it only warns about imminent danger, so it didn’t kick in until they were ready to attack. Or maybe he was getting low-level tingles all along but ignored them. While Spidey out West, we get a little look at people back home: Liz is letting Flash know that prefers brains over brawn, Aunt May is worrying about Peter (big surprise), and Betty is scared Peter might be boning a bunch of Hollywood babes. I’m not sure why she’d assume that since Peter’s not exactly heartthrob material, but I guess she figures every woman sees him the way she does.