Spider-Man Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man 19, Amazing Spider-Man 20

Amazing Spider-Man #19 (December 1964) – “Spidey Strikes Back” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko

This one starts with Spider-Man getting back into action after his existential crisis last issue. He busts up a gang of thieves, which makes J. Jonah Jameson apoplectic when he hears the news. Meanwhile, Sandman and the Enforcers capture the Human Torch (who’s apparently exhausted after a recent adventure in Strange Tales) and seal him in a chamber with just enough air to breathe, but none to spare for using his flame powers. Sandman hears that Spider-Man’s back in action, but he and the Enforcers figure they can handle him (which makes sense since Spidey ran away from Sandman last issue). The next day after school Peter Parker sees Fancy Dan and follows him to the Enforcers’ hideout. After a brief fight, the Enforcers take off but Spidey’s sure he’ll be seeing them again soon. At the Daily Bugle, Peter is formally introduced to Ned Leeds, who Betty’s been hanging around with quite a bit lately. Later, Spidey grabs a punk named Louie and shakes him down to find out where the Enforcers are hiding. Louie tells him willingly, so Spidey suspects a trap … and he’s right. Thanks to his Spider-Sense, he gets inside and tries to free the Torch, but Sandman and the Enforcers jump him. We get another one of those cool fights where Spidey uses his agility to take on multiple opponents, including Sandman this time. He frees the Torch and they round up most of the gangsters pretty quickly, but get in each other’s way when trying to bag Sandman. Luckily, all the fighting has tired Sandman out and he’s caught by the cops, although I doubt if they can hold him for long. Naturally, Jameson is pissed off about Spider-Man being a hero again, but he’s somewhat mollified by the exclusive pix of the big fight Peter sells him. As Peter heads home, we see someone following him and reporting on Peter’s whereabouts to a shadowy figure …

This is a really good issue, with lots of action and some of the usual character stuff thrown in. It’s weird that Sandman would be so tired that he’d start losing control of his powers and just surrender to the cops, but I guess he hasn’t had his powers that long so maybe he’s still getting used to them. Sandman mentions wanting to eliminate a bunch of superheroes so they can operate their criminal enterprise more easily. That actually makes sense and Spidey would be a major part of that. Human Torch also dealt with a lot of low-level crime at this point (especially in his solo stories in Strange Tales), as did Daredevil and Ant-Man. There’s a funny bit near the end of the issue where some people are reading the Daily Bugle and one of them speculates that Jameson and Spider-Man are working together, since Jameson claims to hate Spider-Man but keeps splashing his heroic exploits all over the front page. I’m sure selling papers is a major motivation for Jameson, but he really does hate Spidey. On the romantic front, Betty is seeing a lot of Ned lately and seems disappointed that Peter isn’t more jealous about it. I wonder if that’s her main reason for going out with Need, at least in the beginning?

Noticeable Things:

• Human Torch is apparently tired after a big fight in Strange Tales 127, which is why the Enforcers capture him so easily. That’s ironic, since the “villain” in that issue was actually Mr. Fantastic in disguise trying to keep Human Torch and Thing in top shape, which almost gets the Torch killed here. One more instance of Reed Richards being an asshole.
• Ox throws Fancy Dan at Spidey, which reminds me of Colossus and Wolverine’s fastball special.
• We see here that Spider-Man can’t break his own webbing. I think that changes later, either because his strength increases as he gets older, or he changes the formula of the webbing (although that would probably make it easier for anyone to break, so he probably wouldn’t do that).

Amazing Spider-Man #20 (January 1965) – “The Coming of the Scorpion” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko

This one starts with the same shadowy guy following Peter home from school, but this time Peter spots him. Peter worries someone might have figured out his secret identity, but he soon realizes the guy is working for someone else and decides to just let him follow for the moment. The guy trails Peter to the Daily Bugle where we find out that he’s a private eye named Mac Gargan and he was hired by Jameson to find out how Peter gets such great shots of Spider-Man. But Jameson has already come up with another scheme that’s more important: he wants to create a super-powered foe to take down Spider-Man. After reading a news item about Farley Stillwell experimenting with artificial mutations, he figures he can pay Gargan to be the test subject. Stillwell is hesitant but Jameson is willing to pay him too and he needs the money for more research. Stillwell gives Gargan the powers of a scorpion and even makes a costume for him with a tail he can control cybernetically. Jameson figures Scorpion won’t have any trouble wasting Spider-Man and he might be right; Scorpy is definitely stronger and his tail gives him an advantage for close fighting. Scorpion beats the shit out of Spidey on their first meeting, then decides to go on a crime spree. Jameson is pissed off that he’s not getting his money’s worth, but Scorpion has lost an sense of morality he had and is only out for himself now. Stillwell realizes what’s happening and tries to give Gargan a serum to take his powers away, but ends up falling to his death. Spidey tackles Scorpion again and gets knocked around again. Scorpion goes after Jameson since he’s the only one who knows his secret. Spidey arrives in time to save Jameson (and Betty) and starts by ripping Scorpion’s tail off. He then uses web fluid to stick Scorpy’s feet to the floor so he can pound him into submission. At school, Peter has to pretend he got into a fight to explain the bruises from the Scorpion fight and at home he has to tell Aunt May he was playing football. Just to top it all off, Jameson prints a story in the Daily Bugle making himself look like a hero for standing up to Scorpy while barely mentioning Spider-Man at all.

This is a classic issue that introduces another long-lasting villain. Seeing the Scorpion’s creation was cool and it’s interesting to see him slowly degenerate into a psychopath, although I get the feeling Mac Gargan was a bit of a scumbag to begin with. Peter does recognize Gargan as the guy who was following him when he sees him at Jameson’s office, but he still doesn’t know why he was following him. I’m assuming Gargan’s identity will be revealed after his arrest, so Peter will probably figure out that Jameson had something to do with his creation, especially with Stillwell’s death while trying to stop Scorpion. The most fascinating thing about this story is seeing Jameson’s reaction when he realizes he’s created a monster, someone who’s far more dangerous than Spider-Man ever could be. Unfortunately, Jameson takes the wrong lesson from the experience and concludes that nobody should have enough power to threaten humanity …especially Spider-Man. There’s a scene where Peter almost lets his temper get the better of him and pounds Flash, but he comes to his senses in time. That’s what separates Spider-Man from Scorpion … his conscience and sense of responsibility, but of course Jameson doesn’t know about that.

Noticeable Things:

• The $10,000 that Jameson pays to Stillwell and Gargan (that’s $10,000 each) has the equivalent spending power of $100,000 today. Jameson must’ve been pretty rich to be throwing that kind of money around.