Showtime! Spider-Man, Spider-Man does whatever... Hi there, welcome to With a Hyphen, a weekly Spider-Man podcast where we go issue by issue from when Spider-Man was first published to read everything and anything Spider-Man. I'm your host, Aaron, and...
It's been a while since you've heard my voice, probably. I can explain. Life got in the way. So after issue two, what was meant to be a weekly podcast, kind of very quickly dropped off. And months later, I'm bringing you episode three. But I've got a plan in place to keep things going at a decent pace weekly.
and life isn't as in the way now. So, you know, that's a plus. But we're back, and at the end of the episode, I'll mention ways where you can support the show, where to follow the show, stuff like that, as well as how you can email in.
For this week, though, we've got issues three, four, and five of Amazing Spider-Man. So we're going to see Doc Ock for the first time. We're going to see Sandman for the first time. And we're going to get to see our lovely web crawler Spider-Man face down with the ever- evil dr doom so without further ado let's get into discussing these issues
Oh, and quick note before we go in, because I forgot to mention it when I first recorded the intro. I recorded the parts for issue 3 and issue 4 and 5 months apart. So they might sound a little different. And there might be some stuff I say that doesn't... totally connect together, but otherwise, it's great. Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man at your service. Amazing Spider-Man 3. This issue is definitely different.
than the last few in various ways. But first off, creative team as always. Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and John Duffy is back on letters. This is the first appearance of Doc Ock, the first appearance of the Daily Bugle, and the first use of the spider signal. But...
Like I said... this issue is a little different from some of the other ones we've read and i mean that more in the sense of like character work how it looks stuff like that like it feels like other issues we've read but it feels very different at the same time because it goes into a different mindset for peter and the art feels a lot more horror-like. And I think that has to do with the villain of the story being Doc Ock, Dr. Octopus.
so this issue makes spider-man 3 basically goes through doc ock's origin and his first battle with spider-man and all that i thought this origin of doc ock was interesting. The way his mind gets corrupted by the arms, right? Because the arms are these things he uses to deal with nuclear radiation, kind of like how he does in the Raimi movie. But in this, what happens is the radiation hits him and it corrupts his mind.
Like, that's how they describe it. Like, the radiation, like, messes with his mind, like the nuclear radiation, because there's a meltdown. And if you look at a lot of comics from like this era, like the 60s and whatnot, post, you know, World War II and all that, radiation is kind of like...
Not a good thing. You know, you have the stuff with Bruce Banner, who gets turned into this Jekyll and Hyde monster. You have the Fantastic Four, who do get affected by radiation and do have their powers, but...
It affects the Thing poorly. The Thing becomes this kind of rock monster. In this, it turns Doc Ock into this just corrupted scientific mind. And that's a lot of characters. A lot of characters who get their powers through radiation. It isn't always necessarily- a good thing there are some people that it does work out for
But a lot of characters, it doesn't do really all that well for. It ends up like this, where something becomes wrong. It changes their personality. It corrupts their mind. And it's very much a origin of a bygone era.
like radiation i guess is still sometimes used as an origin for characters but it's mostly for heroes i feel like i think it's become sort of a thing where it'll give you powers and the person will be good whereas before it would also kind of corrupt your mind a little or give you powers that would inflate a part of your mentality like in terms of peter
Him gaining the powers kind of boosted his ego a bit that he already had. And in the case of Doc Ock, it just kind of drives him insane. But radiation usually leads to something going wrong or changing on a mental basis with a lot of characters. at least in this era. But when we first meet Doc Ock, he's definitely very a positive guy. He's like, I can use these arms to do all this stuff. I'm going to change the world. And then his mind gets corrupted.
And the arms get stuck to him. Like he's literally like caught in a nuclear explosion. How he survives is beyond me, but the arms become attached to him permanently and his mind is corrupted. And he takes the hospital. He's in hostage. And Spider-Man goes to stop him. And this is the first time we see Spider-Man falter. Because Doc Ock...
is a match for him. Like, Doc Ock is beating the shit out of him and he just throws his unconscious body out the window. He's like, I'm done with you. I can't even be bothered to finish you off. Get out of here. He throws Spider-Man out the window. And this visibly shakes Peter.
Peter has never had this happen in this whole time of being Spider-Man so far. And he even says in the issue, like, no one can beat me, like, I want a real challenge. And anytime a hero says that, he's gonna get it, and he's gonna get kicked right onto his ass. And that's what happens. So a good portion of the issue is devoted to Doc Ock, you know, kind of showing how evil he's become, but another part of it is devoted to showing how just not confident in himself anymore Peter is.
And this issue has a guest appearance of the Human Torch, who they're like, okay, Spider-Man's not around. No one can stop this guy. We'll call in the Fantastic Four. But the Fantastic Four are busy, so they call in the Human Torch to help out, even though he's part of the Fantastic Four. I don't know.
But the Human Torch comes, but his powers aren't working for some reason. I think he has, like, a cold or something. That's what it is. Like, he's sick or something. But he gives a demonstration to Peter's school. And at the end of the demonstration, he's like, don't give up.
Like, keep doing your thing, keep pushing, blah, blah, blah, all that. Like, the generic inspirational speech. And Peter takes it to heart. He's like, it feels like he's talking directly to me, even though he's not. But he's like, it feels like he's talking directly to me. This is what I needed to hear. It gives him the mental strength to become Spider-Man again. And like I said, this is the first issue where we really see Peter question being Spider-Man.
Even to the point where he says to Jonah, he's like, I can't get you pictures anymore. And he's saying to me, like, I'm just, shit's not working out. Like, he's just, he's not in a good spot for most of the issue. But he gets his groove back, right? It's Peter's new groove. He gets it back.
And he goes to face Doc Ock again, who- Doc Ock is over here like, I'm gonna cause a nuclear meltdown and I'm gonna control America's nuclear power, you know? Power of the sun in the palm of his hand. He's out of his goddamn mind. He's just like ready to wipe out half of New York causing a nuclear meltdown basically. But Peter goes to fight him and he's like, all right, I couldn't beat this guy last time. How am I going to beat him this time? And we get to see Peter use his science abilities.
He creates a concoction that makes Doc Ock's arms, like, melt together when they touch. And it's really cool. Like, I love that they had Peter use, you know, science in this. I love whenever Peter uses science. He used it in the Vulture issue a bit.
But in this issue, there really is like, you know, a good few panels dedicated to it. Doc Ock even says like, oh, you like, oh, you think this is going to stop me? Like your little concoction or whatever. So they make a point of pressing home. Like Peter's using science partially to beat this guy. And science isn't just good enough. Doc Ock is an absolute force of nature in this book. He is unrelenting. Nothing can stop him. Peter beats him by like the skin of his teeth.
It's just all around a really like pulse pounding issue. There's a lot of tension in it. It's probably so far. my favorite issue of the ones we've looked at. And that might change throughout the rest of this episode. Four and five might change my opinion. but this issue with doc ock it had art that looked like it was out of a horror magazine i loved that it just ditco did some really great work with the inking and the colors and stuff in this it just it looked
Fantastic. Lee really went for it using the narration for writing. He just really went for it in this issue. All Around was a powerhouse issue. And it also was the debut of the letters segment of the book, which was also cool to see and read what people thought of the book and seeing them respond to people's thoughts on it.
All around Amazing Spider-Man issue three, first appearance of Doc Ock, a really, really solid issue that I would definitely recommend reading if you get the chance to, because it's just, it's, it's all around a great read. Here comes Spidey! Now, here we are with issue four of The Amazing Spider-Man, aka, nothing can stop, dot dot dot, the Sandman. So, of course, first appearance of...
The Sandman. But as usual, before we go into the issue, talk about the creatives. Stan Lee and Ditko on writing. Ditko on all the art pencil and inking. And Sam Rosen on letters. And Lee as editor. So really nothing really new there. Except for Rosen on letters. But I imagine lettering is going to kind of, you know, change a bit as it goes on, as that stuff normally does. But Lee and Diko are going to be pretty much on it until Romita takes over. So...
I'll keep naming it for a bit, maybe, but that's to figure out another time. But before we get into the issue, we'll talk first appearances in this. We had the first appearance of, of course, Sandman, because he's the villain of the issue, and the first appearance of Betty Brant.
who will become a major recurring character in Spider-Man over time and goes on to appear in movies and such. Sandman, of course, one of the villains slash heroes, kind of, of Spider-Man 3, but Betty Brant is in pretty much every version. of spider-man movies for the most part yeah yeah pretty much everything i think she's in the asm if i remember correctly and she is in uh mcu so
But let's talk about the issue. It's the first appearance of Sandman, and it was a fun one. It was definitely a fun one. Another issue where Peter kind of tries to figure out what it means to be Spider-Man, which is always a... I wouldn't say fun time, at least not fun for Peter, but it's always interesting to see.
Because as we've been getting farther into the run, farther into Lee and Dicko doing Spider-Man, they've been exploring more and more of Peter's mentality and his relationship with his peers. And this is the first issue talking about relationship with Peter is where Peter finally snaps at someone. Like he snaps at Flash Thompson at the end of the issue. And I found that because of...
Stuff like that and him questioning what it means to be Spider-Man and stuff with his identity and interactions with J. Jonah Jameson and the police in this issue. I hate to say it, but I think the stuff with Sandman was the least interesting stuff of the issue. Like, don't get me wrong, it was fun, you know, seeing Peter fight Sandman, getting Sandman's origin, which in this original origin is him...
getting hit with a nuclear bomb and all this stuff, atomic testing, because, you know, it's the 60s, and, like, all the villains and heroes gotta be made with atomic shit and whatever. I mean, that's, you know...
The difference between the Golden Age and the Silver Age is that when the Silver Age started, all the heroes started being more science-y, you know what I mean? Flash and Green Lantern were now science-based guys. They weren't, like, you know, magic and other stuff. And, like, medicine, I think, is how Jay Garrick was. And by this point, Captain America had been gone for a while, but he was science, but he wasn't nuclear silence.
You know, because he was from, like, the 30s. They were just like, he's a strong guy because we put stuff in him. But, you know, after World War II, all the heroes and villains just started being, like, more science and atomic. That plays into Sandman's origins here as well because we had, you know, I think it was...
atomic stuff with doc ock as i said in the beginning of the episode i filmed the doc ock and sandman parts months apart because of life stuff so i can't totally remember if it was atomic stuff but a lot of spider-man's villains are very much in the beginning here
comic-based as well as Spider-Man himself but like I said the Sandman stuff is kind of like the least interesting stuff of the issue the more interesting stuff was we got to see more of Aunt May and her relationship with peter and how she sees peter kind of as this meek
child still because you know peter hasn't fully gotten his confidence yet with his powers and sort of his confidence as a person because he's still in high school and he's still kind of an awkward nerd and we're gonna have that for a little while but Despite what people think, Peter does not spend a lot of time as Spider-Man in high school. Because if I'm remembering correctly, he does become a college student during the Ditko era.
which isn't very long compared to other eras. Like this issue, right, comes out in 1963, yeah? And John Romita starts drawing Spider-Man in 66. So for about... Three to four years, it's Ditko. But in that time, he does become a college student. So in terms of the history of Spider-Man, his time in high school isn't really that long. so it's interesting to see this like meek and more reserved peter because in so many of the movies like they play into that but it's not a major part of it like in
In the Raimi movies, yeah, he's awkward and stuff, but he's not like a total pushover. Like the moment he confronts Flash, he's not like a real pushover anymore.
In ASM, Peter's pretty... He's awkward, but I wouldn't call him, like, weak or cowardly or anything like that. And then MCU's Spider-Man is just kind of, like, just kind of dorky. Like, he gets bullied, but... people for the most part like him the only one who really seems to have a problem with him is flash whereas in the original comic here everybody's got issues with peter like people just rag on him
In this issue, he finally gets a date, and it's going to be with Liz, Liz Allen, who, if I'm remembering correctly, I haven't read this original stuff as I've mentioned before, is one of Peter's first love interests.
in the future i think maybe but liz allen is gonna go on a date with him and she's like oh he's asked me multiple times i feel bad for him blah blah and it doesn't end up happening and she's like calling him a coward and everyone else calls him this and that like she stands up for him a little at the end but not enough to really make up for the fact that she also was ragging on him
And then you have parts of the issue where Peter's walking by the crowds in New York and they're ragging on Spider-Man too. And he's just like, what is the point of me doing this? The issue ends with him talking about, am I doing this because I like the adventure of being Spider-Man? Like, is that it? Do I just enjoy the spotlight? Or do I want to do good?
Especially since earlier in the issue, he jumps some people who are about to rob a store before they rob it. So they try to get him arrested. He's like, I fucked up. That's on me. I shouldn't have done that. But like, still, this is ridiculous. I'm the good guy. And this issue kind of really plays into Peter never really seems to catch a break, at least not yet.
Because even after, you know, he gets the pictures for Jameson, he puts Sandman away, he's able to take Liz on the date now, he doesn't have to cancel, and he gets the money from Jameson, he can't go on the date with Liz. And he hears people ragging on Spider-Man on the way home.
He just can't catch a break. It's, you know, that Parker luck as it comes to be called. And it's interesting to see that so early on they were playing into, does he want to be Spider-Man? Does he not want to be Spider-Man? And...
As I said before, I haven't really touched on anything with Sandman in this issue because it was kind of the least interesting part of the issue. I think this issue was much more about Peter's character work than anything else. Yeah, they introduced a cool new villain. Sandman's fun or whatever.
But what I really liked about this issue was the character work done with Peter. And I think that's the most interesting stuff that Stanley really does with Peter in these early issues. Don't really have anything else to say about the issue beyond... I enjoyed the character work done in it. That's really all I have to say about it. It was more important for character work than introducing a new villain. It was a fun time but nothing crazy to write home about.
compared to some of the other stuff we've seen so far in terms of interactions with the villain i think the character work was the most important stuff here so i'm just gonna wrap up this issue with that and we'll move on to the next one which should be a fun one Dr. Doom. Gosh, I wish I'd brought my autograph book. And now we're on to Amazing Spider-Man issue number five. Marked for destruction by Dr. Doom.
I'll be honest, this was an issue I was looking forward to. I always love a good Doom story, especially when he's up against someone other than Fantastic Four. Now, I do love Doom up against the FF, but it's always fun to see him go up against other heroes.
Because you usually see him use, like, new gadgets or do, like, crazy things or whatever. Like, you know, he's going up against Dazzler, She-Hulk. It's kind of almost a rite of passage, eventually, for Doom to be a villain you face within your first ten issues if you have an- ongoing at least for some heroes anyways i know it was a big thing in like the 80s you know what i mean for a lot of heroes to go against dr doom to the point of like it was a joke in sensational she-hulk
that she was facing doom early on in her run so it was nice to get to see where that joke kind of originates from This issue was wall-to-wall fantastic, for lack of a better word. The action was to rhyme with fantastic bombastic.
The art was fluid. It was moving. It was popping off the page. It was a great-looking issue. My only thing with the art in this issue is that I think Steve Ditko draws a very goofy-looking Doctor Doom, but otherwise, issue looks... looked fantastic this issue honestly was a home run they knocked it out of the park with this one and the creative team for it was same as last issue dicko lee and rosen and they did a fantastic job
on this one premise of this issue dr doom is seeing that people think spider-man's a villain so dr doom wants to get spider-man on his side it doesn't work out flash thompson's gonna dress up as spider-man to scare peter doesn't work out because doom kidnaps flash it's just an and peter has to go rescue him it's all around just a a fun time very much a
ridiculous sort of story but a fun one because it's early spider-man i love this way more than issue four with the salmon issue the salmon issue was great for character work but the action and it was boring the action in this it was crazy dr doom was throwing gadget after gadget after gadget, and I was loving it, loving it, loving it.
They even make a point in the issue, in the narration, to say, like, we've been on this introduction so long, let's get into the action that you've been waiting for. And honestly, I was, I didn't even feel like I was waiting for the action. The introduction alone was a fun time, setting up, you know, Spider-Man fighting Dr. doom the stuff with flash thompson that all was great like i said the the action was bombastic and the character work in this was really fun too it was great we got
A bit of a relationship growing between Peter and Betty. Sort of friendship. But it seems like maybe they have a little thing for each other. Maybe they don't. I guess we'll find out. Little thing with Betty Brant going on. We got to see Aunt May again. Kind of treating Peter as a bit of a kid.
We got to see how Peter really feels about his... peers for a second when he finds out that doom is gonna kill flash thompson spider-man if the ff don't surrender he has a moment and it the art on this part fantastic by the way ditko draws half peter half spider-man face right and on one side peter's side it's him going like i should let him rot i should let him die for everything he's did to me but then the spider-man side is like what am i thinking what
Why would I do that? No, that's not the right thing to do as a hero. The real Spider-Man has to step in. And it's such this good moment because Peter's side has this kind of sly grin about it where the Spider-Man side is very serious. Now, Dicko tends to draw Spider-Man's face a little bit of the same sometimes, but you could see it in this. It was a very serious piece of art for Spider-Man. His face was serious. You could tell his demeanor was different under the side with the mask.
and it just that moment really added to like the intensity of the issue because it it showed you how peter really really doesn't like flash i mean people forget peter in the beginning was kind of like okay guys sometimes he constantly would talk about how like he doesn't like his peers he's gonna get back at them this and that you know but this issue also shows very discreetly that he may dislike these people
but he knows he's got to do the right thing. He's got to step up and he's got to be the hero, even if he doesn't like what he has to do, which in this case is rescuing the person who constantly tortures him day in and day out. And even at the end of the day, Flash gets the last laugh. Everyone's like, dude, you stood up to Dr. Doom, blah, blah, blah. And he's like, yeah, Dr. Doom didn't scare me. I'm Flash Thompson. Like even Liz Allen pokes a little fun at him at the end, you know?
But that character work along with the action made this, you can hear how excited I was by this issue and how super into it I was. It was just, it was panel to panel action nonstop. Even in the introduction, there was, like, stuff going on. Like, Doctor Doom was like, I'm gonna...
Make him my own. I'm gonna make him part of my team. We had Doom bots in this doing stuff too. We had Dr. Doom bringing out like freeze rays shooting finger guns and stuff. It was crazy. I was so into it. It was like... Peak 60s. Look at all this science stuff. There was like orbs shooting things. There was test tubes. There was like, you know, I said robots. Peter got to do some cool new stuff with his webbing. He was like shooting web balls, like fireballs. Like he even references.
the Human Torch. I just, this issue was just fantastic. One of the best we've read so far. I know we've only read, what is it, AF-15, now ASM 1-5, and FF Annual 1. So we've read... seven issues now and i'd say of the seven this was the one i was into the most so far now of course other issues are going to be better than it as we go on but right now this is this is top tier i'm love it's not that i don't have a lot to say about it it's that
It's just everything I'm gonna say is like, it's great. I loved it. Oh my god. You know, just... I'd have to pull out a thesaurus to fully describe how I felt. If you haven't read any of the issues we've been discussing, one, what are you doing? That's stupid. You should read every issue we're discussing so you can keep up with me. And two, read this one if you haven't. You gotta, this issue is just so...
So good. I'm pretty sure there's a true believer out there of it or a facsimile of it that you could buy for a few bucks. True believers don't get too expensive. Some of them get up there, but not this one doesn't. So if you can pick up this issue in some way. I highly recommend it. It's so fun. I was like looking at my AF-15 Spider-Man over on my shelf. I was like, oh, I gotta get a Doctor Doom to pose with him, man. That would look so sick. Like this issue just had me hyped up reading it.
And honestly, I'd say it's a pretty good note to end on for this week. And that was this week's episode of With a Hyphen. I think we had some pretty good issues this week with the first appearance of Doc Ock and that issue with Doctor Doom. The Sandman issue was alright. Not amazing, but...
All right. I said at the beginning I would talk about ways to support the show as well as the email. First, I'm going to go over the email, which I'm going to do every episode. The email for the show is with a hyphen cast at gmail.com. That's W-I-T-H-A.
H Y P H E N C A. st at gmail.com you can send in questions comments concerns recommendations really anything you want to that email within reason of course but in terms of supporting the show we do have a patreon set up The Patreon is just straight up with a hyphen.
And there's a link to it on my website, isolatedcomics.com. I don't use it a ton, but I am putting links to each episode on there. I'm going to be using it for other stuff as well coming up soon. It's just been kind of sitting there for a while, so I'm using it as sort of a home.
base for the show but at the moment the patreon which i don't expect anyone really to support i don't i'm not you know begging people to support it it's just one of those things where if you want to show your support you can
But at the moment, it's only a $1 tier. Episodes will be posted on there. There will be updates, stuff like that. Like I said, just a $1 tier. But if it gets support and the show gets bigger, I do want to do other things on there, like exclusive commentaries on like... and stuff like the old spider-man cartoons do commentaries on those things like that as well as playthroughs of old spider-man games or just any spider-man game really if you want to support the show you can go do that
Just subscribing to the show, honestly, is more than enough. Just putting it on your RSS feed by going through Spotify, Amazon, any of that, that's enough. But yeah, you can email in it with a hyphen cast at gmail.com. You can get all the info for everything over at isolatedcomics.com. isolatedcomics.com
But I'm going to wrap things up by saying that next week, we're going to be taking a look at Amazing Spider-Man 6 and 7, as well as Strange Tales Annual number 1 and Strange Tales number 115. So we'll have a little Doctor Strange next episode. That should be fun. So... I'm gonna leave you until next week. My name's Aaron, I've been your host, and this has been With a Hyphen. Gotta run! Or swing! You know what I mean.