AMAZING FANTASY 15 (reprinted in Marvel Tales 137)



Cover by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko

“Spider-man”

Credits (as they appear in the comic)

Stan Lee
S. Ditko




Plot Synopsis:

It’s the first appearance and origin of Spider-man! ‘Nuff Said!




Comments:

Okay, my Plot Synopsis above was pretty brief, which is the way it’s going to be for most of these, because I hope anyone really interested in them has already read them, or if not, they’ll go out and read it for themselves. The Lee/Ditko era is always my go-to recommendation when asked by anyone interested in reading Spider-man comics. Whether you have access to the originals, Epic collections, Essential collections, or even these Marvel Tales issues that I’m going to be reviewing, it’s all good.

I often see this story cited as one of the best origin stories ever, and it definitely is. There’s so much packed in to these few pages. We’re introduced to Peter Parker/Spider-man, given a glimpse into his school and home life before seeing how he got his powers and made his first costume and web-shooters. Then there’s Aunt May who will be a regular supporting character, and his classmates at Midtown High Flash Thompson and Liz Allan (who isn’t actually named yet, but obviously that’s her). This is pretty much the only appearance of Uncle Ben before he dies, but he’ll continue to be an important part of Spider-man stories for years to come.
























Of course, the story ends with that classic line “In this world, With Great Power, there must also come --Great Responsibility”. It’s been quoted in countless stories and adaptations over the years, but rarely is it repeated in these early issues. I don’t think it needs to be either! The motto is always there at the heart of the character of course, but there’s so many other great ideas in the upcoming issues that they don’t need to rehash the origin every month.




Notable differences in the reprint:

Beginning with this issue, Marvel Tales gains a new logo which will differentiate it from the issues that came before. There’s a new corner box of Spidey’s face, which is based on the original corner box done by Ditko and used on the original covers starting with ASM 2. The face that appears on Marvel Tales is re-drawn and looks more like John Romita’s style



As with all the Lee/Ditko stories that I’m reviewing, the Marvel Tales reprints feature new colouring, most issues are by Andy Yanchus. I’m not sure if he does the cover colours too, but I really like the way the sky looks on Marvel Tales 137 and prefer this to the original background colouring used on AF 15 and its modern day reprints.



I’ve re-read these stories so often over the years that I’ve forgotten how good these Marvel Tales issues look. The versions I usually re-read are either scans of the originals from DVD-Rom collections (put out around 2005 or so), or more recent re-coloured versions which are included in TPBs like the Epic collection, or in digital format on the Marvel Unlimited app. The recent re-coloured versions try to stick close to the original colour choices, even going to great lengths to maintain inconsistencies and errors, whereas the Marvel Tales reprints try to strive for a look that’s in-line with any newer stories that the company was producing at the time.

In the original the spider logo on the back of the costume is usually coloured blue, but here it’s red like it usually looks in pretty much every subsequent appearance. Also, the scene where Spidey recognizes the burglar is altered so that we can’t see his eyes through the white-lenses of his mask.





Some of the later issues will make changes to the text, either to correct errors or update topical references, but there isn’t too much of that here. I’m definitely not going to do a line by line comparison for any of the issues I’m reading, just calling out the ones I spot or feel are important enough to address.


Oh, yeah! For those of you who don’t know Spider-man’s name has a hyphen in it. His name isn’t Spiderman (I’ve read that was because it looks too much like Superman), but in these earlier issues they weren’t always consistent with the hyphen, at least in the original versions. As far as I can tell, any missing hyphens are fixed for Marvel Tales! Boy! The people in charge of Marvel Tales were really going all-out to try and make these issues even better than they already were (if such a thing could be possible!)



Personal anecdotes:

This isn’t the first Spider-man story I read, not even my first Lee/Ditko story. It wasn’t even my first time learning his origin.

At the most all you need to know about Spider-man’s origin is that Peter Parker gets bitten by a radioactive spider, (and for the longest time that’s all I really knew). I’m sure I’d seen images of Pete getting bitten by the radioactive spider in Spidey Super Stories comics, and I think it was also used in the intros for the weekend Newspaper strip which my local paper would have been running when I was a kid.

The first time I’d actually encountered a version of Spidey’s origin was in a re-run of the 90 minute pilot for the Amazing Spider-man TV show which starred Nicholas Hammond as Peter Parker. I was only 1-year old when the show first aired so wouldn’t have watched it then, but I do have some vague memories of seeing some wall-crawling scenes from an earlier re-airing of this episode before I finally got to watch the whole movie when it was re-run on TV around 1983.

The first time I saw a faithful adaptation of the full origin story from Amazing Fantasy 15 was when it was told through flashback in an episode of Spider-man and his Amazing Friends. I probably didn’t watch this in its original airing, but these episodes were re-run pretty regularly, so I probably saw it sometime in 1984. Later that year or sometime the next, I’d also get to see the episode of the 60s Spider-man cartoon which told another similar version of the story.

I was already pretty familiar with the origin before I picked up this copy of Marvel Tales in the summer of 1986 when I began trying to fill in the back issues I missed the first time around.


Extras:

Spidey’s origin didn’t take up a whole lot of pages, so there was room at the end of Marvel Tales 137 for some extras. A reprint of Dr. Strange’s origin fills up most of the remaining pages and then there’s also a few cool pinups at the end, one Spidey and one Dr.Strange, both by Ditko. Before that though there’s a brief text piece which takes the place of the Marvel Mails Letters Page and discusses some of the other comics where Spidey’s origin has been retold, including a short back up in the original Spectacular Spider-man magazine, as well as a more recent retelling from the similarly titled Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-man series.

Ditko’s unused alternate cover for Amazing Fantasy is also featured here, apparently coloured for the first time



One final thing about the cover:

Whether we’re talking about the published Kirby/Ditko cover or Ditko’s own version, both feature a scene that isn’t even in this issue. Marvel wouldn’t actually get around to elaborating on this scene for another half century in another different Amazing Fantasy series’ 15th issue published in 2006, where we learn that “The guy in Spider-man’s Armpit” is none other than Steve Ditko himself. Okay? Sure why not? If Spidey is going to blurt out his secret identity to anyone, why not Ditko?



I’m pretty sure that’s not what either Kirby or Ditko had in mind, but it was a fun tribute just the same. The guy in the Ditko version could certainly be Ditko without his glasses, I suppose, but the one in the published version is definitely not. Maybe it’s supposed to be Jack Kirby? Kinda looks like him but I guess the actual story of “That other guy in Spider-man’s Armpit” is still waiting to be told

Hey jtrw2024, first off a belated welcome to the community here!

In terms of this review thread, I really like your approach on this first one you posted. The origin story is indeed one many of us (if not most) here are very familiar with, but tying it into Marvel Tales is a nice approach. And also not diving too deep into retelling the story but still adding appropriate historic context, plenty of visual cues with the example pages, and in particular, including the personal anecdotes part which I really like. I love hearing what the personal journeys of other comic book fans here have been, and I can relate to things like the TV references you mentioned. I also like the interesting minutiae you pointed out with the differences between the original and Marvel Tales, stuff that's just kind of neat to call out.

Spider-Man is my favorite character as well, I read his early material through publications by Pocket Books, Fireside, and yes, Marvel Tales too. I look forward to following this thread, please certainly keep those reviews coming! 

My favorite thing in comics is those first 40 issues of Spider-Man, along with the first two annuals and Amazing Fantasy #15. In the 1990s, I had the first four volumes of Marvel Masterworks for Spider-Man and I used to read the whole run every six months or so.

I still read them. But it’s more like every two or three years.

And Amazing Spider-Man Annual # 1 is by far my favorite single comic book.

So I’ll be reading this thread with interest and commenting from time to time.

By the time these issues of Marvel Tales came out, I had read most of the Ditko stories in various reprints, and I even had a few of the original comics. But I tended to buy the Marvel reprints anyway just so I didn’t have to put my grubby hands on my original comics and because some of the reprints were in that paperback size and were a little bit hard to read.

I definitely remember that I read Spider-Man #21, #23, #25, #26, #27, #29 and #34 in the Marvel Tales format for the first time. A lot of great comics in there! #34 is still my favorite Kraven the Hunter appearance after all these years.

I also first read the Lee-Ditko run through the early 80s Marvel Tales reprints. I know I had 137 at one point, but not sure if I got it off the newsstand or sometime later. I for sure missed 138, because I remember not seeing a reprint of ASM 1 until a friend had a mini copy that someone gave him during trick or treating, and that was around 1988 or so. I *think* I had 139 off the newsstand, but definitely got 140, reprinting the great first Doc Ock story, brand new. From there I didn't miss an issue until around the reprint of ASM 29

First off, thank you very much to everyone who's taken the time so far to read and comment on my first review.  I'll be getting to the next review sometime later today, but first a little background on Marvel Tales and some other the other reprint series Spider-man has starred in over the years



Marvel Tales was a reprint title headlined by Spider-man which began in the late sixties. Initially also including reprints of other characters’ titles, it would reprint the early Amazing Spider-man stories more or less in sequential order, up until its 136th issue which ended with a reprint of ASM 159. Sometimes issues would be skipped in cases where they were reprinted elsewhere like Annuals or Treasury Editions, or where the originals were not available for reprinting.


The following is a breakdown of what I’ll be reading and a short history of some of Spider-man’s reprint series


1) The focus at the start of this review will be the reprints starting in Marvel Tales 137 from 1982, which would start over with newly re-coloured re-prints of the earliest stories starting with Amazing Fantasy 15 and continuing on with Amazing Spider-man 1-50, including the first 3 annuals (published mostly in the correct order).


Following the reprint of ASM 50 in Marvel Tales 190 it would print two extra-size issues reprinting important story lines from ASM 96-98 and 121-122. (which I will be including in my reviews). That would be it for the sequential ASM reprints for a time. After that Marvel Tales would begin reprinting other things like Marvel Team-Up issues, Punisher appearances from various Spider-titles, etc (but these won’t really be part of this review thread)



2) The Amazing Spider-man reprints from issue 51 onward would be picked up shortly after in late 1986, early 1987, this time in a bi-monthly digest called Spider-man Comics Magazine. This series would continue for 13 issues ending in late 1988 and would include reprints up to Amazing Spider-man 87(albeit skipping some issues, a couple annuals and the 1st issue of the Spectacular Spider-man Magazine). It would however include Spectacular Spider-man Magazine issue 2, and a Spider-man story from Marvel Super-heroes 14.


This is the reprint format I’ll use for this stretch of issues, probably filling in the missing issues with some earlier reprints


3) After the cancellation of the Spider-man Comics Magazine digest series, Marvel Tales would again pickup the reprints starting with their 223rd issue which reprinted ASM 88. This would only last for five issues, which would use an Iceman appearance in the reprint of ASM 92 to segue into a series of reprints featuring Spider-man/Mutant team-ups, before transitioning to other themed reprints , miscellaneous stuff and mid-late 1980s ASM reprints before its eventual cancellation in 1994. (again, most of these stories would be outside the scope of these reviews and won’t be covered, unless I decide to do an overview somewhere down the road)




4) The reprints for stories after ASM 92 will be from the earlier run of Marvel Tales starting with issue 73 from 1976 , bringing us full circle back to issue 136. Any issues which are skipped over, in the above series will be filled in from some other reprint sources.


5) I won’t be including any of the spin-off titles, like Marvel Team-up, or Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-man, though I will include the 2 issues of the Spectacular Spider-man Magazine and Marvel Super-Heroes 14. I’d initially thought to exclude Marvel’s Giant-size issues from the 70s which relate to Spider-man , but figured they’d be easy enough to fit in close to the tail end of this run.






I don’t have a lot of the earlier Marvel Tales issues, but since these cover pretty much the same issues that were reprinted in the 80s, it’s not too big a deal. At some point I’ll probably have a post going over what was reprinted in these issues, but that will come after the formal issue by issue reviews.



At some stage I’ll also probably discuss the 2 short-lived reprint series from the 90s.


Spider-man Classics started in 1993 while Marvel Tales was still coming out (because it was the 90s and you could never have too many comics on the stands). This series was supposed to reprint the early Amazing Spider-man issues, but actually just reprinted the 1982-83 Marvel Tales issues. This series only ran for 16 issues (Reprinting the stories from Amazing Fantasy 15, and ASM 1-15) .


After Spider-man Classics was cancelled, the reprints for Amazing Spider-man 16-21 would be continued in a 100 page series called Spider-man Megazine which started in 1994. Along with these early ASMs (one per issue) every issue of Spider-man Megazine had a reprint of one Marvel Team-up issue and two ASMs from the 80s Roger Stern/JRJR run. This only lasted for 6 issues before being cancelled.

Marvel must have had a surplus on this particular issue as they gave it away in a fig newton's promotion in 1984:

Welcome aboard The Amazing Spider-Man ship! To be honest, instead of a series review of all or a continuous run of issues, I would suggest you do a comparison/contrast of select TASM issues to their reprints in Marvel Tales and The Amazing Spider-Man Annual (or The Spectacular Spider-Man magazine #1's reprinting in TASM #116-118), because of Marvel's habit of truncating original comic stories (i.e., removing entire panels or pages) as ad space became more important as the years moved forward, and see how it affected stores, and to what degree (e.g. were the cuts a detriment to the story or the heart of it was still intact).