Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Marvel Year Two: Spider-Man

...or Spiderman, or The Spiderman, this hasn't been settled yet.  Parker starts still mostly motivated by money, though not out of greed...


The Spiderman still has his agent and does a public appearance, but J. Jonah Jameson's articles hurts this career.  He saves astronaut John Jameson to improve his PR, tries to join the Fantastic Four but splits when he finds there's no pay, gets trapped by the Chameleon by the promise of profit, fights the Vulture in order to sell pictures to Now Magazine,


before finally investigating the Tinkerer out of heroic intention, or at least curiosity.  By his fourth appearance he's doing his patented "webbing up random burglars while on patrol" bit.

I don't know enough about Golden Age comics to tell how unique Spider-Man is, but he's the only Marvel hero who's poor.  The FF had financial trouble one issue, but everyone else is able to go on European vacations whenever they want, while Peter has to hustle to get a flight to Florida.  This is partially aspirational, but it's also easier to write for a rich superhero and not explain how they can fly around the world and not have a day job.

One thing that puts Spider-Man apart is the villains.  The majority of villains in other comics are rarely seen again, but I think every villain in Spider-Man so far becomes a heavy hitter, or at least a regular.

(The Amazing Spider-Man 1-7)

Collected in Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Great Power in paperback or Kindle

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