Although Ditko was probably doing the majority of the plotting, Stan still had plot input at this time. Ditko has stated that he was unhappy about having to do another Spidey-Torch team-up in #23, and he "protested it" by having them get in each other's way and work poorly together during the final fight with The Beetle. 

OK, finally caught up with the thread...





These are a couple of really good, intriguing covers by Steve Ditko. Both of them do a great job of making you want to find out what happens inside each comic. The cover of issue #26, with the mysterious Crime-Master gassing Spidey on the rooftop, as the Green Goblin hovers nearby, is especially good.





I always felt like this strange, slightly nonsensical title was a reference to something else…like a song or something. For me, the song that it always brings to my mind is the traditional tune "My Bonnie", with its line: "Bring back my baby to me." I have no idea whether that's where Stan Lee got the idea for the title, but the song had been recorded in a rock 'n' roll style by Tony Sheridan & the Beatles in 1962, and it was re-released once Beatlemania had hit in America and peaked at number #26 on the U.S. charts in March 1964. However, I think it unlikely that Lee was aware of Sheridan and the Beatles' recording. But that's always the song I hear in my head whenever I see the title of ASM #27.

Does anybody know if "Bring Back My Goblin to Me!" is alluding to anything in particular?





The Crime-Master is a very memorable character from this period of Spider-Man. I really like his clothing – the sharp suit and fedora – and that distinctive black and white face mask.





Peter finally snapping and lunging at Flash and the others is an example of the new, angrier Peter Parker that we've started to see in these recent Ditko-plotted issues. As I said before, an incident like Flash potentially getting his comeuppance from Peter fits right in with Ditko's Randian philosophies. Of course, Peter pulls back at the last minute, thanks to Liz's alarmed reaction breaking through his rage, but still…this seems like an angrier version of Peter than we've hitherto seen.

Also, yeah…it's a nice touch to see Flash firstly being impressed by Peter taking the rap for the fist fight, and secondly, to see him admitting to the school principal that Peter wasn't really to blame. This isn't the first time that we've seen that beneath his bullish exterior Thompson has a conscience, and it foreshadows the maturation we'll see in the character later.





Yeah, the lost costume(s) sub-plot is a fun one and, as you say, Peter having to web the mask of the store-bought replacement in place saves him from having his secret identity revealed by the bad guys at least twice.





I think Peter finding the hidden compartment in Foswell's wardrobe and deducing – incorrectly, as it turns out – that he is either the Crime-Master or the Goblin is understandable. Of course, he actually turns out to be Patch, the stool pigeon, but I think that Peter can be forgiven for getting this wrong.





It's neat to finally have a proper two-part adventure. This will become a much more common occurrence when Ditko leaves the book and John Romita takes over.





Yeah, the fight sequence at the start of issue #27 is really well handled by Ditko. I especially like the panels where Spidey pursues the Crime-Master under the waterfront pier and into the sewer system; the artwork is very atmospheric in that sequence.

Also, I want to mention that it's significant that the three brave Policemen get so much credit here and are shown to be such heroes. That is very much in line with Ditko's conservative, Randian objectivism. It's also likely significant that one of them is African-American. The writing in this sequence and its heavy-handed moralistic message really reminds me of some of Ditko's later, more extreme work, such as Mr. A or Killjoy.





In a gangster's line of work, if they haven't been killed or incarcerated, they are lucky! 😊

I kinda like the Crime-Master turning out to be no-one we've met before, but then again, it doesn't feel terribly satisfying. He goes out in a pretty anti-climactic way too, with his being gunned down by the police mostly off-panel. But then I guess that's the point! Ditko wanted more realism and less of the traditional superhero or adventure serial tropes. To hammer the point home, Spider-Man even thinks to himself that "in real life, when a villain is unmasked, he isn't always the butler, or the one you suspected", which very much reads like Ditko's heavy-handed scripting, rather than Lee's.





You're right, of course, about it being pretty much impossible to realistically suspect Foswell of being the Green Goblin. But, I like that Ditko still teases the readers with that possibility near the end of ASM #27.





Once again, I suspect this is Ditko's Randian philosophies surfacing in the comic, along with his feeling rather under-compensated by Lee when it came to his credits on Amazing Spider-Man.


Overall, these are a couple of excellent issues, full of intrigue, action and drama. The cat-and-mouse-game between the Green Goblin and the Crime-Master is hugely entertaining and the structure, pacing and story-beats in these issues are really spot on. My only slight criticism of this two-parter would be that there's an awkward jump on the first page of ASM #26, with the Goblin and the Crime-Master already knowing each other and having already revealed their secret identities to one another. It sort of feels like you've skipped an issue or something. But that aside, these are two really excellent comics.

Unfortunately, Ditko taking over the plotting will prove to have a down side, as the book dips in quality significantly following #28. I know, I know, everyone loves Spidey lifting the big-ass machine off of him in #33 but that's pretty much the only highlight of the end of Ditko's run. Not only do we see most issues padded with boring, drawn-out fight sequences but the scenes set at ESU make me cringe. It's obvious neither Stan nor Steve have a frickin' clue what college is like, treating it like high school on a slightly larger scale. I tend to skip #30-38 altogether in my ASM readthroughs, preferring to jump right to the first Romita issue rather than torture myself... but maybe that's just me.

Cei-U!
I summon the big letdown!

I don't know if the coloring in the original issues was the same or if it was purposely changed for Marvel Tales to fit future events, but in the panels posted from the issue reprinting 27, "Norman" from the Gentleman's club and the Goblin while out of costume are both wearing the same colored suit and tie

Thanks Shaxper, and everyone else who has been reading along and participating in the thread!   It's been fun re-reading these stories, and doing the write-ups!  I'm sure I'll eventually manage to adjust to everyone else's pace, or maybe everyone else will adjust to mine!