playing catch up again...






Ah, so we've reached the lauded Master Planner three-issue storyline. Perhaps the pinnacle of Steve Ditko's tenure on Amazing Spider-Man? Although, personally, I think issues #5 or #20 are actually the pinnacle, but this arc sure runs those issues a close second.





I definitely think that the introduction of Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy is one of the reasons why this arc is so famous or "important". At this point, Harry is being a complete jerk to Peter and almost looks set to become the new Flash Thompson – except that Flash is here too, of course. It's rather unsurprising that Flash quickly forms a friendship with Harry.

As for Ditko's Gwen Stacy, it's clear that she is already friends with Harry and she seems like a bit of a cold fish initially. She also thinks rather a lot of herself! Her character will dramatically soften later on, during the Stan Lee and John Romita era, but there are still glimpses of the gentler Gwen here in these three issues. She’s not quite as cruel as Harry or Flash, for one thing, and, even though she dislikes Peter initially (mostly because he's not immediately bowled over by her beauty and charm), she is drawn to him almost from the start. There's clearly something about the boy that Gwen finds very attractive, though she is confused as to why at this stage.





Again, this is a reappearance of the new, "angrier", more passive aggressive Peter Parker that we've seen in the comics of late. Peter really is acting like a bit of a d*ck to Betty. We also see this angrier Peter in the scenes where he's rampaging from bar to bar threatening criminals and also where he smashes up the desk in Aunt May's house out of sheer rage.

I don't know how much of this angrier Peter is down to Ditko's own personality bleeding onto the page, but it has always been my assumption that that's the case. Likewise, I see Ditko's personality in the sneering attitudes of the two new characters Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy too.

I mean, I know that Stan was writing the dialogue for these issues, but he was also having to follow Ditko's story notes and dialogue suggestions, as well as reflecting what the art was actually showing. So, there's little doubt in my mind that it's not coincidence that Peter seems angrier, less tolerant and more of a d*ck in these Ditko-plotted issues than he was before.

I guess that I assume that this is Ditko's doing because I tend to see his behaviour behind the scenes (like not talking to Stan Lee) as overly angry and a bit immature. Yes, I realise that he had his grievances with Stan, but how many people in their job can just decide that they are no longer going to talk to a co-worker because of things they've said or done? Being an adult means compromising sometimes in order to do the job that you are being paid to do – even if you are freelance or have very strong principles (and, as we know, Ditko was drinking the Ayn Rand objectivist cool-aid at this point).

I'm a big fan of Ditko generally, but I could do without this angrier, more bitter Peter Parker.










Ha! First mention of Richard Parker – super-spy!

Not that he's mentioned by name, of course, but yeah…this is a mildly significant piece of dialogue.





I love Spider-Man's relationship with Dr. Connors. It's always nice to see the pair of them interacting, and of course, their friendship makes for even more drama when Connors inevitably turns into the Lizard again.





Ha! I see what you did there.





OK, I'm gonna court controversy here and say that I've never really gotten the love for this famous scene. I mean, don't get me wrong – it's a great sequence, but there are other sequences in the Lee/Ditko run that are just as powerful IMO.





For me, Spidey's escape from Doc Ock's underwater base after he's thrown the heavy equipment off himself is more exciting to read than that famous scene where he's lifting the machienary off his back. It really illustrates how brave Peter is and the lengths that he will go to in order to save Aunt May.



By the way jtrw2024 , something I think you forgot to mention is that Amazing Spider-Man #31 features the first appearance of Professor Miles Warren (though he's just plain old "Professor Warren" here). He's the science teacher who admonishes Peter for the mini explosion that results from Harry tampering with Peter's experiment, and it's Gwen who identifies him as Professor Warren. He's just a background character for a long time, of course, but as I'm sure we all know he will later become the Jackel and cause Peter no end of trouble.


All in all, this three-part arc is really, really good. It powers along in an exciting and extremely readable way. Ditko's fingerprints are all over this story, with the seriousness of tone and Peter as angry uber-nerd. Unfortunately, everything from here on out, until he leaves the comic, was a slow retreat for Ditko. As usual, the artwork is really on point and, in particular, the way Ditko communicates Peter's weariness and determination with the character's body language as he struggles to escape the Master Planner's secret base is superb. Stan Lee's dialogue is fine, but it's quite subdued, especially in the action sequences – there isn't a lot of the usual Spider-Man wise-cracking as he fights his enemies. Maybe this story was too serious for that?

Personally, I wouldn't say that the Master Planner storyline is the pinnacle of the Lee/Ditko run – there were too many "pinnacle moments" prior to this for that to be true. But I would say that this is the last truly great story of the Lee/Ditko run.

I was a little too old to get into "Turtle Mania" when it hit in 1989 or thereabouts, but I had enjoyed playing the TMNT role-playing game a few years earlier. I've never read a TMNT comic in my life and neither have I seen the live action movies, but I'll be interested to read your thoughts on at least the earliest comics, thwhtguardian.

Just to be clear, the "Cat" isn't actually a cat-themed villain (although, as a "cat person" myself, I'm certainly a fan of those types of characters). He's called "the cat" simply because he's a prolific cat burglar.





That's basically just a re-coloured version of the splash page from page 1 of ASM #30 (with Thor and the Human Torch added).

I have to say, I do kinda like it as a front cover, as I've never been a particularly big fan of the original. That said, I do absolutely hear your comment about the original cover having "Golden Age crime comic book roots". That had never occurred to me before, but I think you are spot on that this was exactly what Ditko was going for.

I re-read the second Elfquest TPB this week, "The Forbidden Grove", which collects issues 6-10…





Six years have passed since the end of the previous volume, and Cutter and Skywise decide to leave the safety of the Sun Folk village to search for other clans of elves. The pair find the burned ruins of their old home, the Holt, and encounter dangerous tribes of trolls and humans. Meanwhile, Cutter's wife Leetah decides to follow her husband, bringing their young children along, as well as several other Wolfriders, including Strongbow, Redlance, and Treestump. This second party is attacked by huge birds of prey, with only Leetah and the children managing to escape into the sinister and enchanted Forbidden Grove, while the other elves are all captured and imprisoned atop the forboding Blue Mountain. Leetah and the children are then waylaid by mischievous woodland sprites, but luckily Cutter and Skywise rescue them.

This second Elfquest story from Wendy and Richard Pini is every bit as good as the first five-issue adventure – and it might even be better! The relationship between the elves and humans is examined in a little more depth than it was in the first volume, showing that the humans aren't just destructive, primitive barbarians. The two elves even experience kindness and help from some of the human's they encounter!

The trolls too get a much more three-dimensional treatment here than they did in volume 1. There's a hilarious episode in issue #7 where Cutter and Skywise are captured by trolls and spend the day chatting with their captors and quaffing distilled dreamberry juice, which ends up with the two elves thoroughly inebriated. There's great dialogue in this scene, which serves to bring a lot more depth to the troll race than we've seen before.

Wendy Pini's artwork continues to improve by leaps and bounds. In particular, she's excellent at conveying the characters' emotions with subtle facial expressions and body language. There's also plenty of pleasing background detail in her art, and I really like her distinctive style of hatching and cross-hatching. Her artwork is still pleasingly cartoonish, but it's always skilfully rendered and highly detailed.

Overall, this was a cracking good read. The volume ends on something of a cliffhanger, which makes you eager to read the next instalment. "The Forbidden Grove" expands the setting of Elfquest considerably, with some excellent world-building, while the characters are all so well written that you can't help but be touched by their relationships and their tragedies. There's also an important subtextual message throughout about the dangers of isolationism and prejudice, and how these sentiments are always destructive. It's good stuff!

My wife knows the MCU much better than I do -- I'm really not a fan of superhero movies, as a rule of thumb. So, on the rare occasions that we talk about comics, we'll usually be comparing notes on differences between the comics and the films.

Ha! No...but I do have stickers on the outside of the poly bags of certain Marvel Tales issues to tell me where some of those Untold Tales... issues slot in if they occur mid-issue. The stickers have messages on them like, "This comic takes place between panels 3 and 4 of page 11 of Marvel Tales #160 (ASM #22)" (or something similar).

It's not even just Untold Tales... that I do that with either: in order to fit the events of Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #2 into the events of concurrent issues of Amazing Spider-Man, I have a sticker on the poly bag with instructions on how to split the mag up to make it fit, like...

• Amazing Spider-Man #66 - p.1-5, panel 3
• Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #2 - p.1-17, panel 1
• Amazing Spider-Man #66 - p.5, panel 4 - p.10, panel 4
• ...etc, etc

Seriously, it's like an illness with me!

I love this cover. It's an unusual one for the time because it's a somewhat generic "pin-up" cover, which of course are much more common nowadays, but were much less so in the '60s. Those are some great depictions of Spider-Man though: this should've been licenced as a poster.





"Probably"? They are definitely, 100% the two characters that Ditko is most closely associated with – Marvel or not.

Myself, I'm a big fan of both Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, so you won't be surprised to hear that this is one of my favourite comics from this period. I mean, it's a story that is plotted and drawn by Steve and features the two characters he is most closely associated with – it's a total Ditko-fest!





The lack of any of Peter's supporting cast is a shame, but I can also totally understand why they're not featured. After all, this is a magical story and perhaps Ditko felt that the more grounding influence of Peter's civilian dramas would seem out of place?

This story is right in Ditko's wheelhouse and, as you say, it allows him to do what he does best. The artwork is superb, with lots of pleasing background detail – especially in Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum – and, of course, there are those glorious, psychedelic depictions of magical dimensions that Ditko draws so well in the Dr. Strange stories.





Yeah, Xandu is a perfectly fine protagonist and adversary for this issue – I actually like him and his costume quite a bit – but I'm not sure he needed to ever re-appear. He definitely pops up again in a mid-70s issue of Marvel Team-Up, where he once more troubles Spider-Man and Dr. Strange.





I interpret this as Spidey making a sarcastic reference to the battle that he and Strange had against Xandu just a few pages earlier. But it could equally just be a case of Stan Lee mistakenly thinking that the two heroes had previously met and fought side-by-side. I'm gonna assume that this throw-away comment of Spidey's bugged Kurt Busiek too and that's why he penned an earlier encounter between Strange and Spider-Man in 1998's Untold Tales of Spider-Man: Strange Encounter.


As I said earlier, I'm a big fan of this annual and it's one of the Spider-Man comics from the Lee/Ditko run that I've re-read the most. I'm guessing that most fans would consider it a bit of a come down from the standards of Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 – just from the point of view of its diminished page count, if nothing else! But I actually prefer it to annual #1. It feels less like a flashy showcase for Marvel's other superhero books, which annual #1 definitely was at times. I assume that this lack of crossover cameo appearances is down to Ditko, who apparently disliked such things.

Story-wise, the way Xandu steals Strange's half of the Wand of Watoomb, with help from two brainless thugs, feels similar to the way that some of the Dr. Strange stories in Strange Tales began…and from there it reads like an issue of Marvel Team-Up. But the plot and story structure work well, resulting in a hugely enjoyable, magic and action-infused romp. The supernatural elements also make for a nice change of pace to the slightly more grounded stories we usually get in Amazing Spider-Man.