Amazing Spider-Man #7 (December 1963) – “The Return of the Vulture” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko
This one starts with the Vulture (whose real name we still don’t know) acting like such a good boy in prison that he earns the trust of the warden, who allows him all kinds of privileges … like working in the machine shop. Naturally, Vulture uses the opportunity to jury-rig a new flying device that’s good enough to get him over the wall. In his lair, he constructs a new set of wings even better than the first. At school, Peter Parker hears about the escape and fakes sick to go home and
change to Spider-Man. The vulture tests his new wings by evading police helicopters and decides to rob a jewelry store while he’s at it. Spider-Man soon confronts the Vulture and prepares to employ the same anti-magnetic inverter he used to defeat the villain last time. I’m not sure if Spidey is optimistic or just stupid, but he should’ve assumed the Vulture would correct the flaw that allowed him to be beaten before. But Spidey doesn’t consider that and gets taken by surprise. Spidey gets his ass kicked and Vulture flies off, assuming his 
foe is dead. Spidey isn’t dead yet, but his arm is in pretty bad shape, so he has to make up an excuse about a particularly intense game of volleyball to satisfy Aunt May. Peter’s candid photo of Vulture doesn’t impress J. Jonah Jameson much, but their argument is interrupted when Vulture shows up to rob the payroll. (Weren’t people paid by cheque in the 60s? It’s not the Old West.) Anyway, while Jameson tries to bargain, Peter slips out and changes to Spider-Man so he can tackle the Vulture again. He has to hide the fact that his arm is almost useless, but he manages to get the Vulture on the run through the Daily Bugle Building. His injured arm slows him up, but he follows
Vulture outside and lets himself get grabbed and taken into the sky. Before Vulture can drop him, Spider-Man webs the villain’s wings, causing both of them to plummet earthward. Spidey uses a web parachute to slow their fall and to let the now-helpless Vulture float into the arms of the cops below. He heads back to change into Peter Parker (taking a small detour to wen up JJJ’s big mouth) and snuggle up to Betty Brant beside a desk.
This is the first reappearance of one of Spidey’s villains; supposedly, they had a flood of mail requesting they bring back Vulture, but maybe Stan just 
didn’t have time to create a new baddie that month. The story is pretty good, other than Spidey making some stupid mistakes, like assuming Vulchy wouldn’t have modified his tech, or ignoring his spider-sense again. But I guess he is still learning, plus he’s a teenager and they tend to think they’re invincible anyway. It’s nice to see the romance between Peter and Betty advancing and the running B-plot of Peter getting tired of Flash’s bullshit will come to a head next issue. It’s also nice to see that the cops still respect Spidey and are bothered when they think Vulture might have killed him.
Noticeable Things:
- At school, Peter and Flash are tossing around what’s said to be a volleyball but looks more like a medicine ball to me.
- Peter’s lucky the Vulture didn’t see that close-up pic he was trying to sell to Jameson or his secret identity might’ve been blown. Obviously, Vulture would’ve remembered Spider-Man taking the photo.
- While in the air, Spidey asks Vulture if he was “vaccinated with a phonograph needle”. I guess that’s his way of saying Vulture never shuts up, which is ironic considering Spidey’s own tendency to prattle on at times.
Amazing Spider-Man #8 (January 1964) – “The Terrible Threat of the Living Brain” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko
This one starts with Flash being a dick to Peter at school, or as we also refer to it “a weekday”. Flash breaks Peter’s glasses and Pete’s finally had enough of Flash’s bullshit, so he basically tells him he’ll fight him after school. They’re interrupted by a professor bringing in a huge robot he calls the Living Brain, which sounds about as close to AI as you could get in the 60s. To demonstrate the Brain’s power, the prof asks for a question and the students want it to deduce Spider-Man’s true identity. Peter gets all
nervous but with the scanty info the kids give the computer, I don’t think he has to worry. The computer spits out an answer in mathematical code, which Flash somehow figures he can decode. That gets him and Peter at each other’s throats again, but this time their teacher suggests they settle it in the gym like men. So after school, Peter and Flash get into the school’s boxing ring (because … all schools had boxing rings back then?) and duke it out. Naturally, Peter has to hold back to avoid killing Flash, and his innate dodging makes it look like he’s running away, but he does pretty well for himself. As 
this drama is unfolding, the two guys who were hired by the professor to help move the Living Brain have decided to steal it so they can use its prediction powers to get rich. I’m not sure why the professor would thugs like this; they look like they walked straight out of prison this morning. Maybe their parole officer got them the job. Anyway, while everyone’s watching the fight, the thugs try to steal the Living Brain but accidentally turn it on. It goes on a rampage (which is what semi-intelligent robots did back then … I blame society) and Peter accidentally decks Flash while his head is turned to look at the robot, making Peter look like a dick. He changes to Spider-Man and tackles the Living Brain, which gives him a pretty good fight with all its
fancy doodads. Spidey finally uses his own brain to defeat the machine, opening its chest plate and shutting it off. When the two thugs try to run away, they trip over Flash and knock themselves out and Flash is acclaimed as a hero. Peter takes that as an opportunity to deflect suspicion from himself (and screw with Flash a bit) by suggesting that Flash is actually Spider-Man. The other students kinda believe it and everyone gets so worked up about the idea, they completely forget about the paper with the Brain’s answer on it (which Peter plans to say he lost, but I wonder if he actually did decipher it out of curiosity?)
This story is a bit goofy, even for 1964. The Living Brain looks more funny 
than menacing and the idea of it figuring out Spider-Man’s secret identity with the “clues” provided by the students is laughable. And even if Peter destroys the first paper with the Brain’s answer on it, what’s to stop the professor from asking it the same question again? Maybe it was dismantled after its rampage (although I think i actually does make a return appearance in the 80s). The whole thing with a teacher encouraging Peter and Flash to fight seems weird; nowadays he’d be fired and sued immediately, but back then I suppose it was considered better to have antagonists work things out in the ring under supervision instead of brawling behind the school like hooligans. Warren probably figured they’d end up with some mutual respect for each other, but I’m not sure that actually happened. I don’t know why Flash
figured he could decode the mathematical formula on the answer paper; maybe he was just trying to protect Spider-Man’s identity, since he worships him. It’s nice to see Peter’s glasses are gone for good, since his eyesight was cured when he got his powers anyway. There’s a back-up story with Spider-Man crashing a party at the Human Torch’s place and ending up fighting the entire Fantastic Four until Invisible Girl breaks it up. It’s always cool to see Spidey and the Torch mix it up, but it’s a pretty slight story, and it’s technically out of sequence because Torch’s girlfriend here is Doris Evans, who Spider-Man doesn’t actually meet until issue #21, so this story should take place after that.
Noticeable Things:
- The Living Brain was built by ICM … that’s a C not a B, so let’s not get the law involved.
- Peter’s science teacher is Mr. Warren, which is the name of his science teacher at university who becomes the Jackal. It’s later established that this Warren is the Jackal’s brother.
- Spidey is on the cover of NOW Magazine, so I guess it’s still being published at this point.