Spider-Man Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man 27, Amazing Spider-Man 28

Amazing Spider-Man #27 (August 1965) – “Bring Back My Goblin to Me” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko

This one continues right from last issue with Green goblin bringing the unconscious Spider-Man to the mob meeting to show up the Crime Master. The mobsters immediately decide they prefer Green goblin as their leader, since he beat Spider-Man. But Spidey’s not finished yet; he wakes up and starts struggling, tossing goons around even though he’s chained up. Three cops show up (having been alerted by Patch’s tip last issue) and start pounding the punks. That gives Spidey the room he needs to bust out of his chains and join the cops in beating the shit out of the mobsters (after setting up his camera to get shots of the big brawl). When more cops arrive, Green Goblin takes off and Spidey goes after Crime master but loses him in the sewers after running into a cloud of nerve gas Crime Master left for him. Spider-Man still suspects Frederick Foswell and goes to search his apartment, getting more suspicious when he finds the false panel in Foswell’s wardrobe. Spidey drops by the Daily Bugle to warn Jameson that Foswell shouldn’t be trusted, but Jameson doesn’t believe him. Foswell comes in and Spidey starts asking questions. None of them realize Crime Master is on the roof across the street ready to waste them all. But the cops show up and shot him, unmasking him as Nick “Lucky” Lewis, a minor crime boss who apparently got ambitious. Spidey feels kinda stupid (he’s never even heard of Lucky Lewis) and apologizes to Foswell, but privately thinks he could still be the Green Goblin. He heads back to the warehouse get his camera, which some kids found. He ends up in the water but gets the camera back and leaves. Unfortunately, the store-bought costume starts shrinking from the water and he has to peel it off. He decides to sell his photos to the daily Globe but the editor (Barney Bushkin) is so nosy that he figures he’d better stick with Jonah next time. Peter goes home to sew a new costume, but ends up taking Aunt May out to a movie. We see Foswell returning home and stashing his Patch disguise in the wardrobe compartment and we see Green Goblin (his face still obscured) planning to lie low for a while until Spider-Man has forgotten him.

This is a really good issue and a good wrap-up to the Crime Master storyline. It does make sense that Crime Master wouldn’t necessarily be a character we (or Spidey) already know. Having him be some wannabe gangster—and having Foswell figure out his identity because of his criminal background—does seem realistic. Of course, Spidey’s right that Foswell is hiding something, but we see that he’s Patch not Green Goblin. Patch is obviously known to the police as an informer; one of them mentions getting a tip from him after the warehouse fight … let’s hope no crooks were within earshot at that particular moment. According to an issue of Untold Tales of Spider-Man, Green Goblin really faked Crime Master out when they revealed their identities to each other by telling him he was really Jonah Jameson (with the help of a Jameson mask). That explains why Crime Master was ready to waste Spidey, Foswell, and Jameson here. There were some funny moments this issue too, like Peter’s cheap costume shrinking and Barney Bushkin being so obnoxious that he makes Jameson look good by comparison. Jameson recognizes Peter’s photos in the Daily Globe and decides he’d better flatter him a bit, so I guess Jameson does appreciate Peter’s work.

Amazing Spider-Man #28 (September 1965) – “The Menace of the Molten Man” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko

This one starts with Peter at school getting ready for graduation. Liz Allan is in a weird mood, not wanting to talk to him or Flash Thompson. School gets out early and Peter heads over to Spencer Smythe’s place to get his Spider-Man costume back. (It’s the one Pete left behind when he defeated Smythe’s robot in issue 25.) He manages to switch costumes because Smythe is distracted by his assistant (Mark Raxton) who’s come to take his share of a liquid-metal alloy that he and Smythe have been working on. After a struggle, the liquid alloy spills all over Raxton and absorbs into his skin. Peter gets caught by the spider-slayer robot and just gets free before Smythe comes to. He gets Raxton’s address and goes after him as Spider-Man. Raxton was freaking out about his new condition but soon realizes it’s given him super-strength and metal-hard skin, so naturally he figures he should be a super-criminal. As he’s packing to leave town, Spidey shows up and they engage in a great fight. After a long struggle, Spider-Man overcomes Molten Man and leaves him for the cops so he can rush off to his graduation ceremony. Peter graduates with honors and receives a scholarship to Empire State University (and Flash gets an athletic scholarship, so he’ll be joining Pete there). Peter tries to talk to Liz again and she tells him she always had a thing for him but it’s time for her to move on. Jameson gives the commencement speech and later tries to suck up to Peter to make sure he doesn’t sell any more photos to rival newspapers.

I always liked this issue even though technically nothing much happens; Spidey fights Molten Man and Peter graduates. But the fight scenes are great, with Ditko in top form. And it’s cool to see Peter graduating high school and moving on with his life. Liz’s little speech to Peter (about how she’s not just graduating from high school but also from the dizzy blonde stereotype role she’s had for the last few years) is pretty good too. Years later, it’ll turn out that Mark Raxton is Liz’s step-brother and part of the reason she’s acting so weird here is because of everything that’s going on with him. There are a couple of continuity mistakes here, both of which can be put down to Stan Lee’s infamously bad memory for details. Liz Allan is referred to as Liz Hilton and Anna Watson says Mary Jane is her daughter instead of her niece.