The Amazing Spider-Man
The Amazing Spider-Man is an ongoing American comic book series featuring the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man as its title character and main protagonist. Being in the mainstream continuity of the franchise, it was the character's first title, launching seven months after his introduction in the final issue of Amazing Fantasy. The series began publication with a March 1963 cover date and has been published nearly continuously to date over six volumes with only one significant interruption. Issues of the title currently feature an issue number within its sixth volume, as well as a "legacy" number reflecting the issue's overall number across all Amazing Spider-Man volumes. The title reached 900 issues in 2022.
The series began as a bimonthly periodical before being increased to monthly after four issues. It was the character's sole monthly headlining title until Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man would launch in 1976. After 441 issues, The Amazing Spider-Man was restarted in 1999 as issue No. 1 of Volume 2. It ran for 58 issues before reverting to the title's overall issue number with #500 in 2003. The series ran essentially continuously over the first two volumes from 1963 until its [|landmark 700th issue] at the end of 2012 when it was replaced by The Superior Spider-Man as part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch of Marvel's comic lines. The title was occasionally published biweekly during the first two volumes, and was published three times a month from 2008 to 2010. After the relaunch of Action Comics and Detective Comics, The Amazing Spider-Man briefly became the highest-numbered active American comic book.
The Amazing Spider-Man returned with volume 3 in April 2014 following the conclusion of The Superior Spider-Man story arc after 31 issues. In late 2015, the series was relaunched with a fourth volume following the 2015 Secret Wars event. After 45 years, the volume was once again relaunched as part of Marvel Legacy, returning to the overall "legacy" numbering with issue No. 789 in late 2017. Less than a year later, the series was relaunched again with a fifth volume as part of Marvel's Fresh Start. For the first time, although the issue numbers were again restarted from #1, the issues also bore the overall "legacy" issue number. A sixth volume commenced in April 2022 to celebrate Spider-Man's 60th anniversary. Since the second volume, the title has had various release schedules, including monthly and bi-weekly, among others.
Publication history
Writer-editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Steve Ditko created the character of Spider-Man, and the pair produced 38 issues from March 1963 to July 1966. Ditko left after the 38th issue, while Lee remained as writer until issue 100. Since then, many writers and artists have taken over the monthly comic through the years, chronicling the adventures of Marvel's most identifiable hero.The Amazing Spider-Man has been the character's flagship series for his first fifty years in publication, and was the only monthly series to star Spider-Man until Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man, in 1976, although 1972 saw the debut of Marvel Team-Up, with the vast majority of issues featuring Spider-Man along with a rotating cast of other Marvel characters. Most of the major characters and villains of the Spider-Man saga have been introduced in Amazing, and with few exceptions, it is where most key events in the character's history have occurred. The title was published continuously until No. 441 when Marvel Comics relaunched it as vol. 2 No. 1, but on Spider-Man's 40th anniversary, this new title reverted to using the numbering of the original series, beginning again with issue No. 500 and lasting until the final issue, No. 700.
1960s
Due to strong sales on the character's first appearance in Amazing Fantasy No. 15, Spider-Man was given his own ongoing series in March 1963. The initial years of the series, under Lee and Ditko, chronicled Spider-Man's nascent career as a masked super-human vigilante with his civilian life as hard-luck yet perpetually good-humored and well-meaning teenager Peter Parker. Peter balanced his career as Spider-Man with his job as a freelance photographer for The Daily Bugle under the bombastic editor-publisher J. Jonah Jameson to support himself and his frail Aunt May. At the same time, Peter dealt with public hostility towards Spider-Man and the antagonism of his classmates Flash Thompson and Liz Allan at Midtown High School, while embarking on a tentative, ill-fated romance with Jameson's secretary, Betty Brant.By focusing on Parker's everyday problems, Lee and Ditko created a groundbreakingly flawed, self-doubting superhero, and the first major teenaged superhero to be a protagonist and not a sidekick. Ditko's quirky art provided a stark contrast to the more cleanly dynamic stylings of Marvel's most prominent artist, Jack Kirby, and combined with the humor and pathos of Lee's writing to lay the foundation for what became an enduring mythos.
Most of Spider-Man's key villains and supporting characters were introduced during this time. Issue No. 1 featured the first appearances of J. Jonah Jameson and his astronaut son John Jameson, and the supervillain the Chameleon. It included the hero's first encounter with the superhero team the Fantastic Four. Issue No. 2 featured the first appearance of the Vulture and the Tinkerer as well as the beginning of Parker's freelance photography career at the newspaper The Daily Bugle.
The Lee-Ditko era continued to usher in a significant number of villains and supporting characters, including Doctor Octopus in No. 3 ; the Sandman and Betty Brant in No. 4 ; the Lizard in No. 6 ; Living Brain in No. 8 ; Electro in No. 9 ; Mysterio in No. 13 ; the Green Goblin in No. 14 ; Kraven the Hunter in No. 15 ; reporter Ned Leeds in No. 18 ; and the Scorpion in No. 20. The Molten Man was introduced in No. 28 which also featured Parker's graduation from high school. Peter began attending Empire State University in No. 31, which featured the first appearances of friends and classmates Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn. Harry's father, Norman Osborn first appeared in No. 23 as a member of Jameson's country club but was not named nor revealed as Harry's father until No. 37.
One of the most celebrated issues of the Lee-Ditko run is No. 33, the third part of the story arc "If This Be My Destiny...!", which features the dramatic scene of Spider-Man, through force of will and thoughts of family, escaping from being pinned by heavy machinery. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "Steve Ditko squeezes every ounce of anguish out of Spider-Man's predicament, complete with visions of the uncle he failed and the aunt he has sworn to save." Peter David observed that "After his origin, this two-page sequence from Amazing Spider-Man No. 33 is perhaps the best-loved sequence from the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko era." Steve Saffel stated the "full page Ditko image from The Amazing Spider-Man No. 33 is one of the most powerful ever to appear in the series and influenced writers and artists for many years to come." and Matthew K. Manning wrote that "Ditko's illustrations for the first few pages of this Lee story included what would become one of the most iconic scenes in Spider-Man's history." The story was chosen as No. 15 in the 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time poll of Marvel's readers in 2001. Editor Robert Greenberger wrote in his introduction to the story that "These first five pages are a modern-day equivalent to Shakespeare as Parker's soliloquy sets the stage for his next action. And with dramatic pacing and storytelling, Ditko delivers one of the great sequences in all comics."
Although credited only as artist for most of his run, Ditko would eventually plot the stories as well as draw them, leaving Lee to script the dialogue. A rift between Ditko and Lee developed, and the two men were not on speaking terms long before Ditko completed his last issue, The Amazing Spider-Man No. 38. The exact reasons for the Ditko-Lee split have never been fully explained. Spider-Man successor artist John Romita Sr., in a 2010 deposition, recalled that Lee and Ditko "ended up not being able to work together because they disagreed on almost everything, cultural, social, historically, everything, they disagreed on characters..."
In successor penciler Romita Sr.'s first issue, No. 39, nemesis the Green Goblin discovers Spider-Man's secret identity and reveals his own to the captive hero. Romita's Spider-Man – more polished and heroic-looking than Ditko's – became the model for two decades. The Lee-Romita era saw the introduction of such characters as Daily Bugle managing editor Robbie Robertson in No. 52 and NYPD Captain George Stacy, father of Parker's girlfriend Gwen Stacy, in No. 56. The most important supporting character to be introduced during the Romita era was Mary Jane Watson, who made her first full appearance in No. 42, although she first appeared in No. 25 with her face obscured and had been mentioned since No. 15. Peter David wrote in 2010 that Romita "made the definitive statement of his arrival by pulling Mary Jane out from behind the oversized potted plant and placing her on panel in what would instantly become an iconic moment." Romita has stated that in designing Mary Jane, he "used Ann-Margret from the movie Bye Bye Birdie as a guide, using her coloring, the shape of her face, her red hair and her form-fitting short skirts."
Lee and Romita toned down the prevalent sense of antagonism in Parker's world by improving Parker's relationship with the supporting characters and having stories focused as much on the social and college lives of the characters as they did on Spider-Man's adventures. The stories became more topical, addressing issues such as civil rights, racism, prisoners' rights, the Vietnam War, and political elections.
Issue No. 50 introduced the highly enduring criminal mastermind the Kingpin, who would become a major force as well in the superhero series Daredevil. Other notable first appearances in the Lee-Romita era include the Rhino in No. 41, the Shocker in No. 46, the Prowler in No. 78, and the Kingpin's son, Richard Fisk, in No. 83.