That's what used to bug me about his money problems.  He was always trying to make rent, or pay Aunt May's expenses or take Mary Jane (or whichever love interest) out to dinner and couldn't figure out how to put it together, but could whip up some device to beat the villain-of-the-day, with no problem.  I might have bought it if they had done a story where he gets swindled out of a patent, for an invention and misses out on the cash.  Same thing when the FF had money troubles, yet Reed could take a lamp, a car battery, a colander and a transistor radio and make a death ray to stop an alien monster and couldn't figure out how to make money off that.  Stark couldn't have been the only one with any business sense!

Yeah, which made the money problems unrealistic.  Either they make money or not.  The writers rarely thought it through when they had the FF have money issues.  If they had thrown in a bunch of lawsuit judgements, for collateral damage, or personal injuries because of Johnny's fireballs (or Ben's tantrums) or a backlash against them because one of Reed's inventions sent someone's child into the Negative Zone....then, yeah, I could buy the money problems.

That's what I loved about Astro City; Kurt Busiek actually thought about such things and crafted whole stories around them, like a gimmick thief who pulls off the perfect crime, but can't stnad not getting the credit for it, or a Superman who humiliates the snoopy female reporter to the point of being abusive, then is amazed when she rejects him.  Or a little girl, in a Fantastic Four-style family, who wants to learn to play hopscotch, with other kids her own age, in a real public school.

Spidey and the FF were a step forward in adding real problems to superhero comics; but, sometimes, it was a hesitant step and some writers were better at it than others.

If I recall correctly - and I could be confusing this was a post-Ditko story or another character altogether - Spider-Man actually managed to sell something (webbing?) to someone, but they went to write a check and asked "Who do we make it out to?" They couldn't write a check to "Spider-Man," and he was unwilling to reveal his secret identity, so the deal fell through.

Thanks driver1980, and everyone else who's been commenting and reading

It's a 3 day weekend where I am, so I'm actually planning to try for 2 reviews a day from Saturday-Monday.  Probably one in the morning, and one in late afternoon (EST).  I don't think I'll manage that every weekend, but I'm hoping to get through the first year and up to the Annual, in about the next week.

Interesting colouring changes on the Marvel Tales cover, when compared to the original. In particular, I like how Doctor Octopus isn't entirely in shadow on the new cover; the crescent of illumination on him works really well and I kinda think the Marvel Tales cover "pops" a bit more.








I really like Doctor Octopus as a villain for Spidey and, certainly prior to the Green Goblin becoming a serious and recurring threat, Doc Ock really is the Spider-villain, so far as super-powered adversaries go. Note again how Stan and Steve continue the theme of Peter Parker going up against much older men (not sure how old Doc Ock is exactly, but he's definitely in late middle-age at least). As I noted in my comments for last issue, I feel this is symbolic of the '60s generation gap.

Also, this is the first time Peter gets well and truly beaten by a super-villain and it causes him a real crisis of confidence. There's a vulnerability in that which endears Peter to the readers and I'm pretty sure that such overt displays of self-doubt from the hero were quite rare in superhero comics of the era.

I also love how contemptuous Ock is of Spider-Man when he's slapping him around the face during their first encounter. To me, a defeat like this is an example of Stan and Steve tapping into the familiar feeling among young readers of having disciplinarian older folks in their lives always having the upper hand and always seemingly "winning". I firmly believe that's a contributing factor to why these comics resonated with young readers so much.




I agree with all of this and, yep, this is the first appearance of the Spider-Signal (something that artist Steve Ditko came up with).




This is the first glimpse we get of the rivalry between Spidey and the Human Torch, with Peter thinking "big deal!" when one of his female classmates (Sally from Amazing Fantasy #15, maybe?) tells him that the Torch is giving a talk to the Midtown High students. This rivalry will become much more of a thing in the near future, of course. But it's also telling that Peter actually draws confidence and inspiration from the Torch's talk to go on and tackle Doc Ock again.




Spider-Man's real arch-enemy is J. Jonah Jameson. There's no question about that in my mind.

But yeah, Doc Ock is a good 2nd or 3rd, depending on where you place the Green Goblin.




As I think codystarbuck said earlier, Doc Ock's mechanical arms are a great visual and Ditko really goes to town in the climactic final battle sequence. There is loads of bone-crunching action here!

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 4 (reprinted in Marvel Tales 141 )



“Nothing Can Stop… the Sandman

Credits (as they appear in the comic):

By Stan Lee + Steve Ditko


Plot Synopsis:

A terrible new foe called the Sandman terrorizes the city! How can Spider-man hope to defeat a villain made of living sand when he can't even deal with common street punks without getting hassled by the police, or even prevent his mask from getting torn during a fight? When the Sandman turns up at Midtown High, of all places, a huge battle ensues and Spidey manages to score a win! (if only he remembered to set up his automatic camera first)!





Comments:

Jameson has turned the whole city against Spidey, but that doesn't mean Spidey can't have a little fun. This is the first time Spidey pays a visit to Jameson's office just to mess with him, and it won't be the last time we see pranks like this



I originally assumed that receptionist in issue 2 was Betty Brant, but it turns out it wasn't, but here she is for sure. Well, she's just Miss Brant for now. She and Peter know each other's names so they have met before apparently (if not in issue 2, then somewhere between then and now, off-panel). Miss Brant thinks of Peter as "JJ's young photographer". I don't think the actual age difference between the two has actually been narrowed down to a specific number, but it is generally accepted that she is older than Peter. Of course you could still think of someone as "young" even if they're the same age or older than you, depending on the context. Even though we haven't met any other Bugle employees, I'd wager that Peter probably is the youngest photographer they've got. Somehow I think Peter is possibly the only teenager Jameson knows and/or manages to tolerate. Jameson does like to pretend, though, that he has the best interest of America's youth in mind since he's always trying to save them from being corrupted by a certain wall-crawling masked menace .





Sandman’s origin is told in flashbacks via a news broadcast. He’s apparently a somewhat established villain, known to the authorities, but hasn’t really faced any other super heroes yet. Even Spidey’s heard of him too. When relating the Sandman's history, the newscaster says he was “known as Flint Marko” before becoming the Sandman. Stories that come much later will confirm that Flint Marko wasn’t his real name.

I like the way Sandman’s features are drawn. He looks close enough to a human guy, and could probably pass for someone with an odd complexion, but the inking style shows he’s supposed to look like he’s actually made of sand. Some later artists will stick to this, either by drawing a few extra specks to represent grains of sand, or by relying on the colourist to add some sort of grainy effect. Spidey even seems surprised when he first gets a look at the Sandman and can tell he’s not just some regular crook.




I think this is the first time Spidey’s costume gets damaged. Early in the issue, his mask rips exposing his face forcing him to run from the fight. Spider-man is one of the few heroes who managed to keep his identity secret from almost anyone for quite a long time. The weird fantasies he imagines when there's a chance his identity might be exposed is a great example of Peter's paranoia over this!

.   

Presumably Spidey's had to patch up his costume from time to time before, and hopefully wash it too. Also, if you're going by the original versions, then some time between Amazing Fantasy 15 and Amazing Spider-man 1 the colour of the spider on his back changed from blue to red, so he's definitely made some alterations, not to mention the other additions like the utility belt for his web-cartridges, camera and spider-signal.




This issue has the usual amount of scenes between Peter’s home, school and work. The big fight scene occurs at MidTown High where Peter goes to school. None of his classmates think it’s weird that Spidey shows up there, but then again there’s really no actual reason that the Sandman should show up there either. Some of these students went to see Spidey perform back in Amazing Spider-man 1, so it's not their first time seeing him in action. Peter's classmates and supporting cast members will become involved in some future adventures for whatever contrived reason serves the story.




It's interesting that someone with Sandman's abilities should even need to go to the trouble of hiding out in a school or any other occupied building where there's a chance someone might spot him. You'd think someone who could turn himself into a pile of sand would just find a beach, or sandlot or any number of out of the way places. The fact that the police can almost catch the guy shows that there is some limitations to his abilities. Later writers will make it seem like holding himself together and maintaining his human form is a struggle. The origin sequence from the third movie demonstrates this pretty well. It's possible though that it might actually be the opposite, that using his powers is what taxes him more than just being a regular guy. That's certainly how it seems from these early appearances where we'll see Sandman get tired from fighting too much, or succumbing to lack of oxygen. You don't always need to have a vacuum cleaner, like Spider-man uses in this issue, to defeat villains like the Sandman. If Marvel's super-powered heroes can have ordinary human problems, why not the super-villains?


This is also the first time Spidey sets his camera to take automatic pictures of himself, but it’s not what you’d expect. Having forgotten to take pictures of the actual fight, Spidey takes pics of himself jumping around throwing punches at a pile of regular sand which was sitting in a bucket. He justifies it to himself without a second thought, and if Jameson wants to pay for pics of Spidey punching sand, that’s his business.





Notable differences in the reprint:

Not really a difference between the original and reprint, but worth mentioning. The Sandman’s pants are blue on the cover, but brown on the inside pages else. This is how it appears in ASM 4 too, so it’s interesting that they’d decide to remain so close to the original cover when it likely would have made more sense to colour the pants to match their usual brown colour. The addition of the UPC box on the reprint means some of the original cover text gets shifted.  Last issue they had to remove an entire caption, but here it's nothing too drastic

The letters page Marvel Mails appears here with the first letters commenting on the new direction and on the stories that appeared in MT 137. The letters page also includes a Next Issue box announcing next month’s adventure.

I forgot to mention this in my first review of Marvel Tales 137, but the letters page credits indicate that the Editor is Tom DeFalco, and the Assistant Editor is Mark Gruenwald. I assume any changes to the stories would have been coming from them.


Personal anecdotes:

I bought this issue sometime during the summer of 1986, around the same time and at the same store I picked up a lot of these early back issues. I’d already read a few other Sandman stories from later Marvel Tale reprints when I was getting stuff new off the stands around 1983-84, but this was the first time reading his origin. I knew he also appeared in some Fantastic Four stories and wasn’t sure before reading this if he was actually an FF foe before appearing here, like some other foes we’ll soon meet.

This was the only issue I bought this time around. My Mom took me and my brother in to the city where the comic store was and we met my Dad for lunch. I don’t remember what my brother bought, but it probably wasn’t a Spider-man title. I remember my Dad made b/w photocopies of the covers on his office’s copier, enlarged to 11x17 size. I still actually have that copy. Found it while cleaning their basement a few years back. Still haven’t decided where to hang it. Since it's in black and white, I don't care what colour the Sandman's pants are