Yes, another original, this time with most of its cover, even! Not only that, but there’s now just 1 reprint between here and ASM 129. I have managed to obtain all but 10 issues of ASM Vol. 1. I sometimes can’t believe it. Might as well keep posting the 2nd covers of the reprints, tho, just ‘cuz they’re fun and I have them. To my eye, this cover features a Spider-Man by Kirby and everything else by Ditko, and one really wonders why. Especially given how weird the Spider-Man is. How curious. I assume I was able to achieve ownership of this on account of how, no matter what the cover says, no one is particularly excited about The Enforcers.
Yes, how could any superhero hope to contend with such villains as Big Guy, Guy With Rope, Little Guy, and their nefarious boss, Guy With Gun? But, regardless, the first page features a truly historic moment:
Spider-Man’s first encounter with his true nemesis, gas. That was some complicated plot, there, Big Man. As Spidey spins himself a web parachute feeling embarrassed, and people on the street below make fun of him, The Big Man says the news will be out that they made a fool of Spider-Man, so their work is done. He’s off to a meeting of mob bosses he’s called to let them know he’s taking over. He says he’s going to run NY crime like a business, and if anyone disagrees, his Enforcers will take care of it. When they object, he sends in the goons, giving him a chance to explain their… skills? We learn Fancy Dan, the little one, is a judo expert as he tosses the bosses around. Then we see Ox is strong and Montana is good with a rope. I mean, kind of self-explanatory. Having had the bosses all beat up, he sends them home to await further instruction. Meanwhile, at Forest Hills Hospital, Peter is surprised to find Liz & Flash come to see how Aunt May is doing. Liz’s idea, of course. But he soon learns she needs a blood transfusion. He worried that his blood might be radioactive, but agrees anyway.
What a busy page! So much going on so soon. Things continue in this vein on the next page, as the various goons pull more crazy jobs, some get arrested, but know The Big Man will bail them out the next day, and JJJ tells a passing cop they should be focused on Spider-Man, who obviously made up this Big Man character to throw them off his trail.
Egads! Betty owes the Enforcers money?
Yes, it’s true. She’s in trouble. And it’ll only get worse for her. Now this is an usual superhero plot, the hero’s girl in debt to the mob. Anyway, Spider-Man scares the guy by putting him in a big spider web and making a big fake web spider, and the guy gives up The Enforcers’ location. Our man takes off for it in some of the first real webswinging action ever in the title, but is lassoed out of the sky by Montana. Unfortunately for Montana, that puts him right where he wanted to be. The Enforcers and The big Man are waiting for him. Spidey leaps into action, dodging the rope while knocking Ox down easily, and then we get maybe the first real page of the now-famous Ditko action.
These guys may be jobbers, but Ditko miraculously really sells them as a threat here. Spidey kills the lights and flees before things get too weird, but recovering in the alley outside, he sees JJJ walk by. He thinks The Big Man must be someone smart with a lot of money, and begins to wonder if his boss is the crime lord. He decides to call Betty and see if she’s noticed anything weird, but she’s at home freaking out about The Enforcers hurting Peter. She decides the only thing she can do is… “leave! Never see him again!” That’s… pretty extreme, Betts. The next day, JJJ says she said she had to go out of town for awhile, and Peter is shocked she left without telling him. He stops by Foswell’s desk, wondering why he’s writing all this “Spider-Man is the Big Man” stuff, but he says he’s learned you do what JJJ says if you want to work there. Peter think Jonah’s desperation to pin this on Spider-Man only makes him more suspicious, and comes up with a pretty wild plan. At school, he begins very loudly telling everyone he’s figured out who The Big Man is and the cops will give him a reward for helping in his capture.
So The Big Man knows who Peter is. What a twist! The goons take Peter to their hideout and put him in a prison cell, where he switches to Spider-Man and breaks loose. And just his luck, all the mob bosses are arriving for their weekly instructions. He’s so intent on watching what goes down, worrying that there’s too many mobsters for him to handle, he ignores his Spider Sense as a goon discovers him. Suddenly, he’s down in the middle of all the guys he didn’t think he could fight. He tries some wacky stuff to thin them out, but it’s not too successful. Then The Big Man rolls a bunch of oil drums down a ramp at him, which mostly just takes out a bunch of the mobsters.
Kirby is the undisputed master of huge, powerful, larger-than-life superhero action, but look how wild and inventive Ditko was. Spider-Man never stops moving, using the environment like a proto-Jackie Chan hero. It’s all really cool and really unique, then and now. Our hero plants his feet on the wall and flips Dan, but he’s running out of gas. He manages to get his spider signal beamed outside, where a cop sees it and they come running. Inside, Spidey’s still managing to stay ahead of the goons, but he’s tiring, and Big Man notices. He tries to shoot Spider-Man, but of course can’t, and then decides it’s time to flee. The Big Man escapes, but Spidey thinks he knows where to find him, and heads to The Bugle. He’s more sure than ever when he sees JJJ fretting in his office. Jonah is actually worried accusing Spider-Man of being The Big Man is going to blow up in his face, and as Foswell enters with his newest column, JJJ’s fears are confirmed.
Whaaaat? The only new character in this issue is also the mystery villain? Can you believe it??
And there you have it. Panel 3 is another famous, widely reproduced one. Even the minor issues have big stuff in them. In the letters, a debate rages over whether Steve Ditko is a good artist, which really goes to show, nothing ever changes. People hate Steve, then Romita comes in and people are appalled that Ditko was replaced by this hack, and then Don Heck starts doing the pencils and people are upset that Romita isn’t on full-time anymore, etc. Comics in a nutshell. There’s an interesting blurb where Stan admits he doesn’t quite know exactly what’s happening next issue, as he often didn’t, but then goes on to vaguely describe what will happen, and gets it all wrong. It’s pretty well known Ditko was doing this book without any input from Stan starting around issue 26, but it’s not too hard to imagine it was already happening sometimes or all the time by #10. And finally, here’s the 2006 cover. Maybe Tom Raney again? Not sure.
