Amazing Spider-Man #17 (October 1964) – “The Return of the Green Goblin” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko
This one starts with Spider-Man wondering what happened to the Green Goblin after their first encounter, which he says was “months ago” even though it was only three issues ago. Maybe Stan was still trying to approximate “real time” at this point. By a remarkable coincidence, the Goblin is also thinking about Spider-Man, preparing a new arsenal of gimmicks to deal with him next time they meet. Flash Thompson starts a Spider-Man Fan Club, which he doesn’t want Peter Parker to join. Peter’s fine with that, but Liz sure isn’t. Later, Spidey
accidentally ruins a movie take when he mistakes it for a real robbery, then gets upstaged by Human Torch when someone actually does rob a store. Flash has promised everyone that Spider-Man will show up at the first fan club meeting and Spidey decides he may as well make an appearance. Naturally, Peter can’t take Betty (which makes her think he’s going with Liz) and almost gets stuck taking Mary Jane until she comes down with a headache. A couple of unexpected guests make plans to show up at the club meeting; Johnny (Human Torch) Storm brings his girlfriend Doris Evans, but she makes him 
promise not to become Human torch to upstage Spidey; and Green Goblin decides to crash the party. When Spidey shows up, everyone cheers but Green Goblin attacks immediately. The crowd thinks it all part of the show and Spidey lets them believe that so nobody will be hurt in a stampede to the exits. As Spidey and Green Goblin fight, the crowd slowly realizes it’s not just an act and Johnny becomes Human Torch to stop some crooks who are robbing the place from trying to shoot Spidey. Peter overhears Liz wonder why he’s never around when Spidey is, so he makes a quick change to his civilian identity so she can see him, leaving Torch and Gobby to mix it up. Spidey gets back into the fight but
hears Liz’s dad on the phone taking a call about Aunt May having a heart attack. Spidey takes off without a second thought, leaving everyone thinking he ran away out of fear. Green Goblin delays Human Torch long enough to escape and Peter reaches Aunt May’s bedside. Jameson is ecstatic at Spidey’s supposed cowardice and the first meting of the Spider-Man Fan Club turns out to be the last, as everyone walks out (except Flash, who continues to defend his hero).
This is a really good issue that gives us not only a second Spider-Man/Green Goblin match, but throws in the Human Torch as well. Spider-Man’s
supposed cowardice makes him more of a pariah, although it’s cool to see Flash defending him no matter what. I guess Green Goblin isn’t publicly known yet since his last appearance was in the New Mexico desert, so it makes sense the crowd would assume he was part of the show. We see that Johnny Storm actually does like Spider-Man, at least until he runs away. Peter showing up to talk to Liz right when Spider-Man disappears seems more suspicious to me, but apparently it worked. Speaking of Liz, Peter’s love lie continues to get more complicated, with Betty jealous of Liz and Aunt May pushing him to date MJ. For a supposed nerd, this guy sure seems to have plenty of options. Of course in hindsight, we know MJ was faking her headache because she knew Peter’s secret and wasn’t ready to deal with it yet. Aunt May tells Peter that MJ is a huge Spider-Man fan, which makes
sense since he’s the only person who actually knows who Spidey is (and whose aunt lives next door to him). The Liz/Betty thing is getting a bit old but some of their snotty comments to each other are hilarious. I love how Liz refers to Betty as “Miss Brant”, which Betty says makes her feel old. There’s been endless speculation about how old Betty is, with the canon explanation being that she’s Peter’s age but had to quit school and get a job after her mom got sick. Personally, I don’t think Jameson would hire a drop-out even if her mom was his previous secretary, so I always figured Betty was a year or so older than Peter, which isn’t really that big a deal. They’re obviously not banging, and Betty being older would fit with Liz’s “Miss Brant” shade.
Amazing Spider-Man #18 (November 1964) – “The End of Spider-Man” – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko
This one continues from last issue, with everyone reacting to Spider-Man’s apparent cowardice. We get cameo reactions from Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, Kraven, Vulture, the FF, the Avengers, and Daredevil, plus some ordinary citizens … most of whom are ready to believe the worst. Meanwhile, Peter is at home taking care of his Aunt May, who’s recovering slowly from whatever operation she just had. Anna Watson comes over to
look after her (and she’s mistakenly called Mrs. Watkins through this entire story … I think we can chalk that up to Stan’s famously bad memory for names). Peter is so worried about leaving Aunt May alone, he calls in a report about a robbery instead of stopping it himself because he’s afraid of getting hurt and leaving May all alone. He needs money to pay for her medicine, so he tries to interest an artist in creating some Spider-Man trading cards (wow, Stan was really ahead of the curve on that one!) and even tries to sell his web 
formula, but nobody wants to buy a super-strong adhesive that dissolves after a short time exposed to the air. Meanwhile, Jameson is still gloating (which makes his staff dislike him more than when he’s in a bad mood) and Betty’s still pissed off at Peter. Spidey runs into Sandman but refuses to fight him for fear of getting hurt and takes off. Dozens of people witness him running away from Sandman (and someone gets it all on film), so he looks even worse now. Human Torch knows Spidey too well to believe he’s a coward, but when he tries to meet him at the Statue of Liberty, Spidey doesn’t show. Flash Thompson goes even further, dressing up as Spidey and trying to stop some crooks. Liz tells Peter what he did and Peter goes to stop him but it’s too
late. Flash gets the shit kicked out of him and is saved by some cops, meaning Peter doesn’t have to go into action as Spidey. To make things worse, Peter spots Betty having fun with some new guy (who’ll turn out to be Ned Leeds). Peter finally decides to give up being Spider-Man and even throws his costume in the garbage, but a rousing speech from Aunt May about dealing with her own condition inspires him to keep going as Spidey, no matter how hard it is.
This is an unusual issue because Spider-Man barely appears and doesn’t actually do anything, but it still works as a story. I generally like 
“downtime” issues since they give us a chance to get to know the characters better. The irony is heavy in this one, with Flash getting pounded to defend Spidey’s honour (never suspecting he’s really Puny Parker), and Aunt May inspiring Peter to keep risking his life on a daily basis. It’s cool to see the various reactions to Spider-Man’s supposed cowardice and I’m glad the Human Torch is smart enough to realize there’s more going on than meets the eye. Their usual meeting spot (the Statue of Liberty) was established in the Strange Tales annual and will become a tradition. As for Peter quitting being Spider-Man, that kinda becomes a tradition too, with him deciding to quit every few years but always coming back. There are a few other interesting
moments in this issue: the first appearance of Ned Leeds, who will become fairly important in future issues; the mention of Anna Watson going home to cook dinner for her husband, which we can maybe put down to Aunt Ma being addled from all the post-op drugs she’s on; Liz wanting to go see a Peter Sellers movie with Pete; and Jameson mentioning that postage used to be one cent cheaper for unsealed envelopes, something that wouldn’t even be sent nowadays.