Spider-Man Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man 25, Amazing Spider-Man 26

Amazing Spider-Man #25 (June 1965) – “Captured by J. Jonah Jameson” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko

This one starts with Peter Parker retrieving his spider-signal from the roof where he left it last issue. He spots some car thieves and attracts the attention of a cop with the spider-signal, getting a few photos in the process before heading home to sew a spare Spider-Man outfit. Oh, the glamorous life of a superhero. The next day, Jameson’s not too enthusiastic about the pix until Peter (who’s desperate for money, as usual) sells him on the angle that it looks bad for Spidey to be outdone by a lone policeman. An inventor named Spencer Smythe shows up with a robot he says can beat Spider-Man. Peter thinks it’s funny (didn’t he learn anything from his encounter with the Living Brain?) and talks Jameson into letting Smythe demonstrate. Peter’s not so amused when the robot ensnares him in its unbreakable steel coils. (Smythe programmed it to be attracted by spiders and luckily Peter was holding one when the robot grabbed him.) Peter feels like an idiot for talking Jameson into sponsoring Smythe and Betty is pissed off at him too, pointing out how Spider-Man has saved both her and Aunt May in the past. At school, Liz is all over Peter which makes Flash jealous as hell. He tells Peter he’s going to kick his ass after school and figures Peter’s anxiety all day is because of that. But Peter’s actually worried about the robot tracking him down, so when he sees it coming he takes off. Flash figures Peter’s running away from the fight, so he and his cronies go after him, followed closely by Liz. Peter manages to get far enough ahead to change into Spider-Man before the robot (which is being operated by Jameson and has his face) catches up. Spidey faces the robot, but Smythe built it too well and he’s forced to retreat. Flash decides he’d rather try to help Spidey against the robot than find Peter Parker and Liz goes along, hoping it’ll assuage some of Flash’s jealousy. At the Daily Bugle, Betty tries to sabotage Jameson’s control over the robot, but he throws her out before she can succeed. She decides to go ask Peter for help, hoping he can talk Jameson out of capturing Spider-Man the same way he talked him into it. Now that the fight has moved on, Flash wants to find Peter again and heads for his house. Liz goes along to try to warn Peter and runs into Betty, but they both get a shock when Aunt May introduces them to Mary Jane Watson. We don’t get to see MJ’s face here, but Betty and Liz are certainly impressed. Elsewhere, Spidey is getting tired and that gives the robot enough of an edge to capture him. While Jonah and Smythe head for the robot’s location to unmask Spider-Man, Peter opens the robot’s chest-plate and checks out the circuitry. When Jonah and Smythe arrive, they find an empty Spider-Man costume in the robot’s coils and Jameson freaks out, blaming Smythe and Peter Parker for making him look stupid again. Flash is still hanging around Peter’s house and sees MJ leave, but is told to get lost by a cop. When Peter gets home, Aunt May has found his spare costume and confiscated it, although she doesn’t suspect him of actually being Spider-Man. So now he has no Spidey costume. Ah, the old Parker luck.

This is a pretty good issue, although the robot is a bit goofy-looking after all this time. I get the feeling it was probably considered goofy even back then, but Smythe and his Spider-Slayers (and later his son) will be part of Spidey’s life for a long time to come, and all because Peter talked Jameson into listening to Smythe. It was cool seeing Betty try to help Spider-Man and having Betty and Liz meet Mary Jane before Peter is pretty funny. Of course, both of them assume he’s been seeing MJ on the sly definitely see her as competition. Flash’s jealousy of Peter is weird, but I guess Flash is so used to being admired he can’t figure out why Liz would prefer Peter. Naturally, Peter is oblivious to the depth of her feelings and years later flash will say part of the reason he was such a dick was because Peter seemed to be playing with Liz’s feelings rather callously. That may be true to some extent, but Flash is still an asshole as far as I’m concerned.

Noticeable Things:

• When the cop rousts Flash in front of Peter’s place, he says they got a call about a suspicious character hanging around. I’m thinking Liz might’ve made that call to keep Flash from confronting Peter.
• Flash says he helped Spidey unmask the phony psychiatrist “a few weeks ago”, but it was just yesterday that Peter left his spider-signal on the roof. I don’t think a few weeks went by between scenes either, since Liz’s study date with Peter is said to be “last night”. So I guess Stan just wasn’t paying attention.
• We get another Norman Osborn appearance, this time coming out of Jonah’s office at the Daily Bugle.

Amazing Spider-Man #26 (July 1965) – “The Man in the Crime-Master’s Mask” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko

This one starts with Peter looking for the costume Aunt May took from his last issue, but he can’t find it. She probably cut it up to make doilies. Elsewhere, Green Goblin is meeting with a new masked mob boss, the Crime-Master. Goblin proposes they work together to take over the city’s syndicates, but Crime-Master prefers to work alone. Apparently, they’ve revealed their secret identities to each other, so neither of them can sell the other out. Crime-Master goes around town intimidating other mobsters into joining him and later we see Frederick Foswell at home putting some kind of outfit into a false compartment of his wardrobe. I guess we’re supposed to assume Foswell is the Crime-Master (because we know he likes wearing masks), but that seems too obvious. At the Daily Bugle, Peter has an argument with Betty about Mary Jane (even though he’s never even met her) and overhears Jonah telling Foswell to find out if there’s a connection between Green Goblin and Crime-Master. Peter still doesn’t trust Foswell, so he sticks a Spider-Tracer in his hat. At school, Flash pisses Peter off more than usual, so he jumps Flash and all his asshole friends. The principal sees him and gives him shit and Peter takes the blame for everything because he feels guilty about losing his temper and almost hurting Flash and his punks. Flash overhears Peter taking the blame and lets the principal know what really happened. Peter buys a Spider-Man costume from a store but the fabric is cheap and keeps coming loose, so he has to stick it together with webbing. He goes to check out Foswell’s place and finds it empty, though it seems like Foswell has changed clothes before he left. Crime-Master shows up and takes a shot at Spidey, who pursues him. When Crime-Master runs out of bullets, Spidey figures it’ll be easy to capture him, but he gets a face full of gas for his trouble. The gas clings to his mask and he ends up falling off the roof before he can get the mask off and clear his lungs. He heads to the Daily Bugle, still wondering if Foswell might be the Crime-Master and learns from Jameson that Smythe has his costume. He goes back to Foswell’s place and finds a clue pointing to a warehouse, so he heads over. That’s where the mob bosses are meeting to throw their lot in with Crime-Master, but one of them (Patch) is a police informant and lets the cops know what’s happening. Green Goblin is still pissed off at Crime-Master for shutting him out and they start fighting, but Goblin can’t kill Crime-Master without his secret being exposed. Green Goblin takes off but notices Spider-Man hanging around and surprises him, knocking him out. Luckily, the webbing Spidey used to stick his cheap costume together keeps Gobby from removing his mask, but he still manages to spoil Crime-Master’s big moment when he hauls the unconscious Spider-Man into the middle of the mob meeting.

This is the first part of a classic story pitting the Green Goblin against the Crime-Master. We’ve seen or heard of Crime-Master before, but he must’ve started his campaign to take over the mobs a while ago since the cops and Jameson are both familiar with him. The red herrings are everywhere and I guess I can see why Spidey might suspect Foswell, but from our point of view it’s obvious he’s not Crime-Master. Maybe we’re meant to think he’s the Green Goblin since Crime-Master takes a shot at Spidey (thinking he’s Foswell) because he considers him a threat. But it’s Foswell’s underworld connections and new job as a reporter that Crime-Master is worried about, as we’ll see next issue when Foswell figures out Crime-Master’s true identity. Of course, Foswell is hiding something (he’ll turn out to be the informer, Patch), but even as a kid I never figured he was the Green Goblin. I’m wondering if Green Goblin really shared his identity with Crime-Master; it seems unlikely and I think there’s a story in Untold Tales suggesting Goblin gave him a fake identity. But Goblin is worried about Crime-Master exposing his “secret”, so maybe Crime-Master knows something else about Green Goblin besides his real name. It was cool to see Peter go after Flash and his pals and I was surprised to see Flash man up and take the blame. Maybe he’s not a complete prick after all.