Spider-Man Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man 15, Amazing Spider-Man 16

Amazing Spider-Man #15 (August 1964) – “Kraven the Hunter” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko

This one starts with Spider-Man breaking up a robbery gang who are still in the planning stage. One of the crooks gets away by quickly changing his look, which is easy for him since he’s the Chameleon in disguise. I’m not sure why Spider-Man’s spider-sense doesn’t warn him of the disguised Chameleon, but maybe he was so close to the other bad guys he assumed it was them setting it off. Anyway, Chameleon’s pissed off that Spidey ruined his plans so he decides to call an old friend to take care of the Web-Slinger. That friend is Kraven the Hunter, who’s already pretty famous for having hunted and captured every beast on Earth with his bare hands. Kraven shows his prowess by rounding up some escaped animals at the docks, impressing the crowd (including Spidey). Kraven lets the onlookers know that he’s come to New York to hunt Spider-Man. He starts by reading everything about Spidey and arranging a burglary so he can study his prey. Spidey senses him and they mix it up, with Kraven soon realizing his opponent is more skilled than he’d thought. He cheats by dosing Spidey with some kind of spray and scratching him with a drugged spur, which makes Spider-Man’s hands twitch uncontrollably by the next morning. He has to hide it from Aunt May and his classmates and the shaking gets so bad he can’t even aim his webs properly. He spots Kraven strolling into the park and follows, but his spider-sense was dulled by the stuff Kraven sprayed on him, so he doesn’t see the trap until it’s too late. There are two Kravens and one of them sticks a couple of magnetic cuffs on his arm and leg that start pulling his two limbs together. Spidey douses the lights in the ark and spills web-fluid on the cuffs to screw them up. (The captions say he uses the web-fluid to silence some bells on the cuffs, but it looks like the magnetic attraction stops after he uses the web-fluid, so I’m assuming there was some confusion with what Ditko drew and Stan was just making a guess about the bells.) Kraven tries to take Spidey down again but gets caught in one of Spidey’s giant webs. Kraven and Chameleon are arrested and deported, but Peter Parker still has problems with his love life; he has to juggle Betty and Liz while Aunt May is trying to set him up with their neighbour’s niece … I wonder who that could be?

This is another great issue with the first appearance of Kraven the Hunter. It’s interesting that Kraven is already well-known as a hunter, kinda like a superhuman version Clyde Beatty or Frank Buck without the guns. Chameleon describes Kraven as a friend here, but we’ll later find out they’re step-brothers (or half-brothers, I forget which) and that their relationship hasn’t always been that friendly, with Kraven treating Chameleon like shit. Them being deported makes sense since they’ll eventually be revealed as Russians, although Kraven says he’s going to the Congo … maybe he has dual citizenship? The Congo is probably where he acquired his powers in the first place. It’s also interesting to note that Kraven’s famous sense of honour and fair play is absent here; he uses the potions to give him an advantage over Spidey and even acknowledges to himself that he can’t beat Spider-Man fairly. We also get our first mention of Mary Jane Watson (and her aunt Anna), although we don’t hear her name yet. Aunt May tells Peter MJ would make a great housewife, which seems a bit off. I think Aunt May’s sharp enough to see MJ isn’t really housewife material, but maybe she just assumes that’s what Peter is looking for and tells him what she thinks he wants to hear. The jealousy stuff between Betty and Liz is getting old; if Betty’s that insecure, it’s probably good Peter doesn’t end up with her.

Amazing Spider-Man #16 (September 1964) – “Duel With Daredevil” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko

This one starts with Peter heading out as Spider-Man to get away from Aunt May nagging him about dating Mary Jane Watson … if he only knew! He runs across some thieves about to accost a blind man. Spidey pounds them but after he leaves, we see the blind man isn’t exactly helpless since he turns out to be Matt Murdock, better known as Daredevil. The circus is in town and Spider-Man is slated to appear, which makes Matt curious enough to attend with Foggy and Karen. Of course, this is the Circus of Crime and they’re just using Spider-Man’s name to attract a bigger crowd for them to rob, but Peter decides he may as well show up to garner some positive publicity. Spidey’s appearance stokes up the crowd and freaks out the Crime Circus, but Ringmaster doesn’t let it spoil his plans. He just uses his hat to hypnotize Spidey before putting the rest of the crowd into a trance. Ringmaster’s hat must work visually because Matt Murdock is unaffected. He changes into Daredevil and takes on the circus criminals, until Ringmaster sends the entranced Spider-Man after him. Luckily, the hypnotized Spider-Man’s reflexes are a bit off and he has to keep getting orders from Ringmaster. That gives Daredevil enough of an edge to evade his stronger opponent until he can grab Ringmaster’s hat and break his hold on Spidey. Daredevil sits back and lets Spidey take care of the rime Circus, which makes a better show than anything these losers would’ve put on. Spidey avoids being entranced again by closing his eyes and decks Ringmaster, retrieving his hat so he can release the crowd (who all think they had a wonderful time at the circus).

This is a pretty good issue, although I’ve always thought the Crime Circus were a bit goofy. They made quite a few appearances in the Silver Age, so Stan certainly liked them. I suppose for people of that generation circuses still held a certain magic; kids dreamed of running away to join the circus, but circuses also had a slightly seedy reputation … sometimes even sinister, like in those Ray Bradbury stories. So I guess that’s why Stan saw them as a viable threat, despite their lack of super-powers. The Crime Circus had only appeared once before (in a Hulk comic), so I guess the general public didn’t know they were crooks yet. This is an early crossover for Daredevil (between issues 3 and 4 of his mag), who’s still in his yellow costume here. Peter’s love life continues to be troubled, with Aunt May badgering him about MJ and Betty getting worked up because she thinks he’s taking someone else to the circus. Betty invites Peter and his aunt for dinner; maybe she senses Aunt May isn’t really sold on her as Peter’s girlfriend and is trying to score some points.