AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #3: Eight is More Than Enough!

Published: July, 1963

ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL
Spidey is bored! It’s all too easy, and he wishes for a worthy opponent. Enter Dr. Octopus, a brilliant scientist so named because he wears a specially designed contraption with multiple arms that allows him to perform experiments behind lead walls, shielding him from radiation.

Of course, in the Marvel Universe, any time you combine a brilliant scientist with radiation, you know what’s going to happen. That’s right! In the ensuing nuclear accident, the mechanical device becomes fused to the Doctor’s body, but what’s more, the arms now obey his mental commands. He’s also a tad more paranoid than what could be considered entirely healthy, and megalomaniacally convinced he is “the supreme being on earth!”

DEFEAT
Octopus’ accident is big news, but no one can get into the private hospital to snap a pic. No one, that is, except the amazing Spider-Man! However, when Spidey arrives, he finds Octopus threatening the hospital personnel. Well, we can’t have that! But when Spider-Man steps in, Octopus easily defeats him.

What???

While Doc Ock heads out to commandeer the brain center of the atomic lab, we find Peter despondent, seriously considering hanging up the webs for good. However, just in the nick of time, Torch hosts a motivational assembly at Midtown High, encouraging all the young folk to stick to their school work, don’t be discouraged, and NEVER GIVE UP!! Infused with new purpose, Peter dons his costume once again and pits his brilliant scientific skills against Octopus by concocting a potion to fuse the mechanical arms to each other.

High jinks ensue, but with Octopus crippled, this time, Spidey emerges triumphant!

Only one more thing to do. No, he’s not after that elusive photo. Instead, Spider-Man heads to Torch’s hotel room to thank him for all he’s done. To which Torch replies… “Huh?”

Torch may be confused, but I’m not, and I have to say, many many kudos to Stan for such an accurate and enjoyable portrayal of teenage angst.

IDENTITY CRISIS
Any time you have a high-schooler in the throes of an identity crisis, you’re bound to get a boatload of melodrama. Adding superpowers to the mix only makes the emotional cocktail that much more volatile and explosive.

Sure, this is a tale about SPIDER-Man, a superhero, but it’s the very human elements of this saga that most interest me. The villains, the crimes, the superpowers and the stories are all adequately interesting, but it’s the boy Peter that has most captured my attention. He’s just your average dorky kid with all sorts of personal, financial and social issues, who must come to grips with the fact that even superpowers can’t solve every problem. Oh, the highs and the lows! Last time we saw Peter he was happily buying Aunt Mae a kitchenful of new appliances, but here he is now, after a single disheartening incident, ready to hang up the figurative cape, and the literal mask, forever.

PERFECTIONISM
Would you say Peter Parker is a perfectionist? (Go ahead…say it! And if you CAN say it, add it to your tongue twister list!) Even before Peter became Spider-Man, it bothered him immensely that he did not possess the “social graces” of someone like Flash Thompson. Peter was not popular, and he knew it, but he threw himself into his schoolwork and reveled in his smarts. That was his claim to fame, what made him feel exceptional. He might not be able to get the girls, like Flash, but he sees himself as the smartest kid in school. Not just A smart kid. The SMARTEST. And now, he has superpowers! So now not only is he smart, but he’s also super. As far as Peter is concerned, Spider-Man not only makes him better than he was, but also makes him better than everyone else (and most importantly, better than Flash Thompson).

But what if Spider-Man can’t be the very best at everything every single time? What if he can’t live up to Peter’s high expectations? What if there’s someone out there who can actually beat Spider-Man? Well, as a person who lives life by superlatives, Peter has no idea how to deal with that possibility. He’s crushed, and resorts to that old standard in a crisis: if you can’t be the absolute best, then give up completely and say, “Screw it!”

Hmmm…Not a very mature reaction to adversity, is it? But who ever said teenage boys are mature? Remember, underneath it all, Spider-Man is just a teenager, prone to extreme emotions.

THE EXPERIENCED SUPERHERO
Of course, that doesn’t quite explain how Johnny Storm so confidently steps in to give his little pep talk. Can we simply put it down to, “Well, Johnny’s been at this superhero gig a lot longer than Peter”? Yes, he has, and those experiences have indeed given him a perspective young Peter lacks at this point in his superhero career. Johnny even alludes to those experiences. But we know from our reading that Johnny has also had his moments of teenage angst and self-doubt, just as Peter is having now.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but in Fantastic Four #3-4, didn’t Johnny get so mad at Reed and Sue and Thing that he, basically, ran away from home, and they all had to go out looking for him? And more recently, in Strange Tales #107, he was so annoyed by the others excluding him from the superhero shenanigans that he decided to take on Sub-Mariner all by himself?

So the Johnny Storm we see here, encouraging young people to “Never give up!” is, at least to some degree, a student in the school of hard knocks. And let’s not forget, here we are seeing the very public face of a very public teenager, putting on a good show. I’m sure Johnny still has many moments of self-doubt, and I’m sure we’ll run into them the next time we pick up Strange Tales to read about the Human Torch. As for Peter, though, let’s not forget that we’ve only known him for three issues so far, and he’s still very young in his development, both as a superhero, and as a young man.

It’s often said that we experience our greatest strides in personal growth not in periods of prosperity, but in times of adversity. In this story, Peter faces adversity and emerges from the crisis not only a better superhero, but also a more mature young man. I’m hoping that as the Spider-Man saga continues, our hero will find himself in many more predicaments that severely test his mettle. Even if he does not emerge perfectly victorious in every situation, the overall direction will surely be to give us a better, more developed and interesting costumed character.

VILLAIN
Personally I don’t know if I find Dr. Octopus the most fearsome villain ever (check out where I’ve placed him in my Villain Valuation). Sure, he’s brilliant, and has lots of arms, but do supernatural evil forces tremble in his presence? Does he command an army of minions? Can he fly? Or become invisible? Could he beat Thing in a fair fight? Or even in arm-wrestling?

I thought it rather amusing when “the foremost brains of the nation’s armed forces and security agencies” meet to discuss the Octopus threat, and one of them says, “We’ve never been up against anything like this before! A brilliant scientist with superhuman powers on a mad rampage!” Oh really? Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that pretty much the formula for every other Marvel Comic up to this time? What of Dr. Doom? Radio-Active Man? Mole Man? The Voice?

The official who lets this exclamation pass his lips…where has he been all this time? Obviously, he just transferred in from some alternate universe. Get a clue, buddy! This is how things are going to be, from now on.

So, despite what some inexperienced government officials would have us believe, in some ways, Doctor Octopus is “par for the course.” But in the end, Spider-Man does indeed subdue him. Still, we know this villain will be back. And why shouldn’t he be? He’s proven himself the worthy opponent Peter was hoping for, so surely we can look forward to many more tanglings of webs and tentacles.

So Spidey has met his match…or, at least, what was very nearly his match. But next time we venture into the Marvelous Zone, our villain will be a tiny little bit different than what we’re used to.