Amazing Spider-Man Annual Assessment -- Ending Phase 1

In order to celebrate his first successful year on the job, Marvel issues The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1, a way of putting together a yearbook of Spidey's adventures and a chronicle of how he came to be.  Adding some story to the fluff was a tale in which Spider-Man feels like he's losing his powers at a time when a circle of his most brutal villains decide to band together in the name of shameless cross promotion.  I used this issue more as a fun subject for the class today, as a way of cooling things off after such a rigorous comics loaded session of summer school.

The annual's feature story is mostly an opportunity to show off the vast world of Spider-Man and the many regular characters that inhabit his comic world.  The story also takes the opportunity to tease at the cavalcade of superheroes that inhabit New York City, as this issue is chock full of cameos by the upper echelon of the Marvel Universe such as Thor, Dr Strange, Captain America, The Fantastic Four, Ant Man, Iron Man and even the X-Men : First Class all pop up in the Spider's Web.  While the story consisted of a gauntlet style matchup where Spider-Man had to brawl WWE style against The Sinister Six, there was nothing here that furthered along the chronicles of Peter Parker.  How it does serve as a great yearbook with outstanding pin up style art and close ups and makes the perfect issue to wrap up Phase One of Comics in the Classroom.

When Betty Brant and Aunt May are captured, Peter Parker quits moping around the city wondering about his risk taking lifestyle when he is driven to slip back into the red n blue to take down The Sinister Six. Meanwhile the hexagon of hellions can't seem to get along but still manage to formulate some ludicrous scavenger hunt style game to play with Spider-Man in order to finally do the one thing they couldn't do solo, take the boy down.  So they feel that if he makes it through all six members of the gauntlet, he will die fighting or at least develop a series of awful blister.

Spider-Man swings past the numerous cameos and hops around New York in a menagerie of beautiful splash pages.  One by one, he relives The Sinister Six of their cheat cards and consciousness, hitting Electro at the Stark Power Plant, Kraven in Queens, Mysterio at a movie studio, Sandman in the park, the Vulture in the sky and eventually Dr Octopus in the deep dark lair of a large castle outside of the city, I'm guessing it was Scarsdale.

All in all the story plays out like a video game, and ends with a happy ending with Betty Brant back in his arms and The Sinister Six all going Shawshank style into Riker's for the remainder of the year.  The issues finishes out with a art gallery of Spider-Man's villains and co stars as well as a historical timeline of his rise to teenage mega stardom.  Concluding with a profile on the creators and you've got yourself an excellent idea for the class. 

Instead of making their own Spider-Man yearbooks, the students opt to map out a 5 year plan for The DC Cinematic Universe, which ended up being a fun oaktag style class project and invoked numerous debates about who should play Wonder Woman.  Of course once the topic turned back to Spidey, we began laying out the curriculum for our master script.

With 22 issues in the can, we have covered Amazing Fantasy 15 -- Spider-Man's origin, as well as the first 20 issues of Amazing Spider-Man before capping it with Spider-Man's first yearbook.  We have gathered enough material from the comics and our class debates to layout the origin of our darker version of Spider-Man.  We will now use half the class to work on the screenwriting software to start putting the foundation into our graphic novel script.

We will spend the second half of class focusing on developing our villains, making a prime connection to our hero's origin in order to really capture not only the homage to the 60's and it' unique impact on superheroes and storytelling.  Instead of continuing to comb through Amazing Spider-Man in order we will be jumping ahead to focus on all stories featuring Kraven the Hunter.  No great superhero story is complete without a supreme villain and we want to make sure to show respect to all interpretations of the Golden Age version of my favorite all time Spider-Man villain. 

I've compiled a list of 32 comics, which cover several titles besides Spider-Man and include X-Men, Kazar, Daredevil and several of the old horror anthology titles from Marvel's run in the 60's and 70's.  Our goal is to have finished draft ready to be shipped to the bigwigs at Disney.

Well before the fun, begins, I'm heading off to Comic-Con this week to promote my new Kickstarter Campaign for The Chronicles of Faro.  I hope if you've been enjoying this entertaining and educational blog that i can invite you to be a part of my amazing series about a time traveler who adventures back in time, gets seduced by The Devil and prevents the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.  Check us out at the link below :)

James Bond meets Quantum Leap

Thanks again for taking part in Comics in the Classroom

Amazing Spider-Man 20 -- The Spider and The Scorpion -- No Rainbows Included

It's a brand new year for Spider-Man, and as he settles into 1965 the crew at Marvel Comics celebrated by putting out a special Annual edition of The Amazing Spider-Man as a tribute to the web slinger's staying power.  Since my goal was to cover the first 20 issues of Amazing before jumping ahead I will go over the Annual right after we get through this next edition of Comics in the Classroom, which has Spider-Man doing battle with a deadly new foe with an origin slightly similar to his...................................The Scorpion.

As we all know by now, and I hope you've been paying attention along with the rest of the class, Peter Parker became The Spider-Man when he was bitten by a spider that had been drenched in radioactive rays during a science experiment.  Logically why wouldn't the scientific muckity mucks take that same wild approach and apply it to other insects and assorted creatures.  Big light bulbs emerge across the craniums of my students as they introduce the idea that in our master script, Peter Parker's scientist father Richard, should be experimenting with the secret super soldier serum and test its effects by injecting several different test subjects, one of which will be the fateful spider that ends up biting his son and sending him off to the outstanding life of a costumed adventurer.  What if  besides testing his serum on a spider, maybe he tries it out on a monkey, or a fly, or a lizard, or or or or or or, a deadly scorpion.  Let's begin today's lesson before I make you vomit from over praise of my class.

So when our tale opens Peter Parker is still being shadowed by a mysterious guy in a cheap suit.  Mind you he isn't following Spider-Man, but his alter ego, so there is certainty something intriguing about to develop, well at least I hope so for the sake of our viewing enjoyment.

Peter slips into his Spidey digs to give the stalker the slip.  We find out soon after that the stalker is working for J Jonah Jameson, who is obsessed with finding out how he manages to get the best photographs in the city.  Jameson also continues his raging obsession with taking down Spider-Man, which still baffles me considering how any pictures of the wall crawler in action means massive sales for The Bugle.  Either way, Jameson reads about a scientist named Farley Stillwell, who is doing controversial experiments involving artificial mutations with various species.  When Peter stops over at the Bugle to take another crack at luring Betty Brant away from her new boyfriend Ned Leeds, he sees Jameson leaving his office with his stalker, who's name is revealed to be Mac Gargan.  (Cue the dun dun dun music)

When Jameson and Gargan head over to Stillwell's lab, they are shocked to see he has successfully cross mutated a fish and a rat, with the former now crawling on a open branch and the latter swimming underwater with no difficulties.  Putting up 20 grand of his own cash, with 10 going to Stillwell for his serum and research and the other 10 to Gargan for being the test subject, they all agree mutating Mac to have the powers of a scorpion will give him the ultimate advantage over the half man half spider that seems to torture the publisher so much.  After hours of prep and warnings, Gargan is set up in a scientific suit as Stillwell obtains a scorpion and begins the cross mutation process.  Of course nothing should go wrong when it comes to flaunting the rules of science,  but as I say in my upcoming graphic novel (Screw you, this is my first shameless plug)

"Sometimes nature provides us with an anomaly,"

Fitted with a synthetic tail and a puke green outfit, the newly buffed up Mac Gargan tries out his new powers and astounds Jameson and Stillwell when he crushes a block of solid granite.  Now let us remember the old Spider-Man proverb, "With great power must also come, great responsibility."  Somehow, I don't think Mac Gargan is going to subscribe to the Parker motto.

Spidey swings off to The Bugle to confront Jameson about having Peter Parker stalked, and Jameson couldn't be any friendlier.  Of course the sneaky publisher is stalling the web slinger in order to set up a battle between him and The Scorpion.  When the green suited menace makes his appearance, the brawl is on and Scorpion overpowers Spider-Man, tearing through his webbing like it was made of paper and nearly crushing his skull with his pincer tipped synthetic tail.  Jameson grins with delight at the thought of being the mastermind who dropped the Spider.

While The Scorpion gives Spidey a sound thrashing, Dr Stillwell is wracked with guilt over taking money to perform such a dangerous experiment.  As he anxiously tries to find a cure, The Scorpion goes off on a crime spree, slowly but surely losing every last bit of humanity left in his soul as the mutation takes over his mind.  Desperate that he will be blamed for the carnage, Jameson frantically tries to find Stillwell, who tracks down The Scorpion and tries to convince him to drink a serum that will turn him back to a normal human.  The mad Scorpion attacks Stillwell, who then attempts to pursue him up a building to toss the serum at him before he slips and plummets to his death.  With Stillwell out of the way, The Scorpion heads over to The Bugle to take out Jameson for good, eliminating anyone else who knows his true identity.

Spider-Man recovers and gives chase to The Bugle, where the two combatants trash Jameson's office.  Filled with a fiery rage, Spidey shoots a thick web goo all over the floor and once he has Scorpion pinned down, he uses every last bit of strength he can muster to rip off his foe's tail.  Spidey then proceeds to pound The Scorpion with a series of vicious uppercuts, knocking his opponent out of the game and sending Jameson into an endless rage of jealousy and confusion as he was forced to root for the guy against the guy he created to defeat him.  All in all, an ironic and action packed installment of Comics in the Classroom.

Vocab Word Web

1- Candidate

2- Overconfident

3- Pedestrian

4- Undisputed

5- Botanist

6- Influential

7- Patron

8- Dynamo

9- Indicates

10- Arrogant

11- Misgivings

12- Dormant

13- Chortles

14- Compulsion

15- Prophetic

16- Predatory

17- Embodiment

18- Wallop

19- Alibi

20- Cordial

Amazing Spider-Man 19 -- The AracKnight Strikes Back -- Kills Jar Jar -- I Wish

Christmas time 1964 -- Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer premiers on TV as comedian Lenny Bruce is sentenced to 4 months in prison for obscenity while the Cleveland Browns defeat the Baltimore Colts for the pre-Super Bowl era NFL Championship.  More then enough reasons to celebrate another edition of Comics in the Classroom.

Aunt May is out of her wheelchair and back in good spirits, which means Peter Parker is off the bench and back in his Spider-Man suit to take back the streets and with that his reputation.  Leaping right into the middle of a bank robbery, Spidey feels like a man again as he takes out a group of thugs and nearly gives J Jonah Jameson a massive coronary when the news hits the streets that the man in red n blue is back on the attack.

Meanwhile, across town, The Human Torch is touring through town, exhausted from his last battle (which is mentioned as occurring in another title) when he is jumped by The Enforcers.  After fighting with the arrogant trio, The Torch is then attacked by a giant wave of sticky, sandy goo as the new leader of The Enforcers is revealed to be The Sandman, who takes out the blonde hero and drags his unconscious carcass back to their hideout to hold for ransom in a glass tube slowly losing oxygen.

Over in Midtown High, Flash Thompson is once again king of the crowd as he brags across the school about being right about Spider-Man.  Once recess hits, Peter is anxious for a swing around the city when he spots Fancy Dan of the Enforcers patrolling through town and up to no good.  Spidey follows Fancy Dan and ends up in a fun filled and wisecrack laced brawl with The Enforcers, as well as a bunch of goons from The Sandman's crime crew.  When the cops arrive on the scene, the criminals scatter in different directions, and a satisfied Spider-Man decides to save the hero act for later and get back to the affairs of one Peter Parker.

Peter shows up at The Bugle in time to see Jameson in a pissy mood and meets the paper's newest reporter, Ned Leeds, who also happens to be the new man in Betty Brant's love life.  When Peter shows understanding and is friendly towards Ned, Betty does her usual melodramatic worry that Peter isn't jealous and that he never loved her in the first place.  Betty Brant continues to be a source of ridicule and amusement among the class, even the female students can't stand her.  I am still determined to make her our "Bond Girl"

After slipping into his Spider-Man costume and giving Jameson a little verbal torture, our hero swings around the city and decides to jump a few stool pigeons in order to find the whereabouts of The Enforcers hideout, where he learns that they are working for The Sandman and that they have The Torch trapped as their weakened prisoner.

After taking out the lookouts posted all over the rooftop, Spidey leaps into The Sandman's living room and the brawl is on, with Spidey taking on both Sandman and The Enforcers.  Spidey is having the time of his life, dropping one liners and delivering the full force of his strength while battling his four opponents.  When The Sandman starts turning on the shape shifting, Spidey angles his body to have them throw him into the glass cage where they're trapping The Torch.  The cage shatters and the blonde burning man is freed from captivity.  What follows is your typically awesome battle royal as Spider-Man and The Human Torch tag team in a Texas Tornado of a brawl that ends with The Enforcers unconscious and The Sandman on the run. Torch and Spidey both go for the leader and end up tangled up in a large mess of webbing, while The Sandman runs grainy head first into a waiting police barricade.

With the criminals all wrapped up, Spidey and The Torch share some friendly wisecracks before splitting off their separate ways.  Peter heads off to The Bugle to sell photos of the brawl to Jameson, who lights up in pleasant spirits once the sales of his paper shoot up with the exclusive shots.  Once we feel like our hero has a happy ending, we find out that someone is having him followed.   All we know is it's a man in cheap suit reporting in to a man who's face is hidden in the shadows.  Who is the mystery man stalking Peter Parker?  You're just gonna have to wait for the next fun filled episode of Comics in the Classroom.

Vocab Word Web

1- Compelling

2- Pulverized

3- Expose

4- Asbestos

5- Composition

6- Extinguish

7- Fearsome

8- Unmitigated

9- Recite

10- Corralled

11- Incompetents

12- Suffocate

13- Amateurs

14- Sentry

15- Amoeba

16- Profound

17- Genuine

18- Traumas

19- Quarry

20- Surveillance 

Amazing Spider-Man 18 -- Spidey Wusses Out -- Melodrama Ensues

November 1964 -- President Johnson is re-elected, 2 stage escalation bombing begins in North Vietnam and the St Louis Hawks Bob Petit becomes the first NBA player to score 20,000 points.  It's a wild month for sports and science as we begin another wonderful session of Comics in the Classroom.

The fallout from last issue carries over as the battle between Spider-Man and The Green Goblin is the number topic all over New York, with villains, superheroes and pedestrians all still astounded that Spider-Man ran away from the fight like a coward.  Unable to give the reason why, lest giving up his secret identity, Peter Parker considers hanging up the tights for good as his guilt over not being there for his Aunt May is taking its toll on our web slinger.

While Peter worries over having enough money for May's medication, J Jonah Jameson is basking in his glow of claiming Spider-Man was a fraud from the beginning.  The whole city turns on Spidey, with the exception of his most loyal fan, Peter's high school nemesis Flash Thompson, who constantly defends his hero at the expense of being mocked by his fellow classmates.

While trying to avoid all confrontations, Spider-Man desperately tries to figure out ways to make money, trying to sell his webbing to an adhesive company or trying to sell his image for trading cards, all paths to nowhere.

Peter tries to add some positive vibes to his love life by trying to reconcile with Betty Brant, but she's pulling such melodrama over seeing Peter with Liz Allen at the dinner club last issue that she won't even answer his calls, leaving the class to debate whether or not Betty is capable of being the "Bond Girl" in our master script.  After too much of Betty's prancing and whining, I'm almost inclined to agree.  Reading these old stories from the 60's written by the legend Stan Lee is an honor in itself, but during Betty's constant mistrust of Peter Parker, you just have to fight the urge to have Peter grab Betty by her shoulders and shake the stupidity out of her and scream,

"MORON, I AM SPIDERMAN, NOW STOP GIVING ME CRAP AND JUST KISS ME DAMMIT!!!"

Going for a swing around the city to cure his depression, Spider-Man shoots mask first into The Sandman, who is itching for a brawl.  Rife with worry about his Aunt May, Spider-Man eludes The Sandman, who continues to pursue and taunt him for being a coward.  Even the TV cameras and bystanders start taunting Spider-Man as everyone is getting in on the act of catching him constantly retreating from trouble.

J Jonah Jameson continues to barrage the public with pictures and footage of Spider-Man fleeing from danger, and the public won't let up as Peter Parker nears a nervous breakdown.  His old nemesis and sometimes ally, Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch, flashes rapidly out of Fantastic Four headquarters with a mission to find Spider-Man and once and for all get to the bottom of the sudden change of character.  The Torch even writes a huge message in flames across the Manhattan skyline, begging Spider-Man to meet up with him at the spot of their last encounter, which ends up being a reference to another Marvel title called Strange Tales.  This leads to a quick reminder of how Marvel used their characters to cross pollinate with each other across other titles in order to increase awareness and sales for their lesser popular titles.  Can't fault the publishers for getting greedy, and of course many of the students point out that Marvel Studios is currently using the same tactic in their unbelievable line up of blockbuster movie franchises, dropping Easter eggs and several references and hidden messages in each film.

The Torch sits atop The Statue of Liberty for hours, anxiously awaiting for his friend and competitor to appear, which much to his disappointment and confusion, he does not.  The Torch isn't the only one who is depressed over Spidey's apparent retirement as Flash Thompson, determined to prove that Spider-Man is still out there and still a hero, foolishly dons a Spidey costume and sets out into the community to rebuild his hero's reputation.  When he runs into a trio of car thieves, Flash does his best to impersonate Spider-Man, but nearly beaten to death in the process and just barely rescued by the cops.  Peter tries to comfort Flash but is blown off, and to make matters worse, on his way home from school Peter spots Betty Brant on a date with another guy.

Fully depressed and content to ditch Spider-Man forever for an attempt at a normal life, inspiration comes from his Aunt May, who makes a miraculous recovery and gives Peter a firm monologue about the ability to use spirit and gumption to overcome any obstacle.  With his aunt's words lighting a small flame inside him, the final spark comes from another J Jonah Jameson editorial in the Daily Bugle in which the publisher claims the entire Spider-Man ordeal was just a big hoax and publicity stunt played upon the unsuspecting public.  With his heart on fire, and adding to his anger of losing Betty, Peter digs his suit out of the trash and is determined to swing back into the hearts and minds of the public, accepting his destiny as a costumed adventurer and a full fledged superhero.

With references to actor Peter Sellers, Russian premier Krushchev and even The Cardiff Giant, as well as editor's notes referencing other issues in the Marvel Universe, this was definitely one of the odder and intriguing tales in the life of our beloved Arac-Knight.  All in all another fun filled day in the annals of Comics in the Classroom.

Vocab Word Web

1- Cringe

2- Preconceived

3- Valiant

4- Furtive

5- Jittery

6- Generous

7- Hypocrite

8- Redeem

9- Morosely

10- Respite

11- Adhesive

12- Evaporates

13- Popularity

14- Cowardice

15- Jovial

16- Impersonate

17- Gumption

18- Sympathy

19- Sensitive

20- Invalid

Amazing Spider-Man 17 -- Goblin's Back -- Torch is Wack

October 1964 -- The Summer Olympics kick off in Tokyo, Martin Luther King wins the Nobel Peace Prize,  50 people crawl through a narrow tunnel under the Berlin Wall, the Russians launch the first flight crew into orbit without space suits, the 565 carat Star of India is stolen from the Museum of Natural History and at a campaign rally in Madison Square Garden, President Johnson pledges the creation of a Great Society.

With all this hullabaloo going on in the world, Spider-Man gets a chance to redeem himself after last issue's shameless marketing mess when he takes on his deadliest foe to date.............the dreaded Green Goblin.

Our tale begins with the Green Goblin practicing a number of lethal tactics on a Spider-Man dummy while talking out loud over his obsession with the wall crawler before showing off his redesigned weapons and then changing into his street clothes.  His identity still hidden, I think Marvel had no idea who they intended the Goblin to be so they kept him in the shadows, although he is well dressed.

Across the city in Midtown High, Peter Parker is also thinking about the Goblin while Flash Thompson is making plans to start his own Spider-Man Fan Club.  Even though Peter is not on the guest list, he decides to make an appearance at the first club meeting in order to surprise his biggest fan.  Of course the teenage hijinks fly when Peter walks Betty Brant home from the Daily Bugle and run into Liz Allen and Flash Thompson.  Liz and Betty get into a competitive war of words, which makes Flash insanely jealous and Peter intensely flattered.  Using her father's money and dinner club, Liz Allen buys an ad in the paper inviting Spider-Man to make an appearance, an advertisement also read by the

mysterious Green Goblin, still facing away from the cameras to hide his secret identity.

On his way to the club meeting, Peter spots a burglary in progress, but before he can change into his Spidey duds the robber is caught and dropped by Spider-Man's old competitive nemesis............The Human Torch. The Torch tosses Peter an autograph, which leaves the annoyed Peter wondering why he doesn't have as successful a career as the Fantastic Four.  I leave some time open for discussion with the class to ponder the valuable question.

Is it better to compete or co-exist?

I then recount my college days to tell them about the guy I competed with in college who ended up becoming one of my best friends still to this day.  Nothing like a walk down memory lane to invoke odd stares from teenagers as I get lost in my own crooked nostalgia.  All the while Peter is still fending off Aunt May and her consistent attempts to set him up with what he thinks is frumpy old Mary Jane Watson.

Spider-Man heads off for his big appearance at the Avenue Dinner Club, where all the gang has gathered for another display of aerial stunts.  Besides Flash, Liz and the rest of the Midtown High crew, J Jonah Jameson shows up with Betty Brant and even The Human Torch shows up with his girlfriend Dorrie, who makes him swear not to compete with Spidey.  Also en route to the club is The Green Goblin, who vows to make Spidey's appearance a major smash.

Spidey flips in and wows the crowd, but someone is throwing bombs on stage shaped like small stuffed frogs pumpkins, ghosts and bats.  The Goblin pops in and battles Spidey, meanwhile the audience thinks it's part of the show.

As the two combatants trade barbs and jabs, The Torch spots the Goblin's goons attempting to rob the club during the melee.  Torch flames on and goes to attack the goons, running right into Spider-Man and the Goblin in the process.  As Goblin turns his attack to the Torch, Spider-Man takes the opportunity to make a quick appearance as Peter Parker, as Liz Allen has become the first of many curious females who question why Peter and Spidey are never in the same place at the same time.

Torch is being knocked around by The Goblin, forcing Peter back into action before he can confront Betty Brant, which sets her jealousy levels over his relationship with Liz Allen into major overload.  Spider-Man gets back into the fray with The Goblin while the Torch collects himself.  In the midst of their battle there's a call at the club looking for Peter Parker, who was known to be in attendance as a club guest.  When Spider-Man overhears the call, he learns that his Aunt May has suffered a massive heart attack.  Without hesitation or concern for The Goblin, Spider-Man immediately ducks out and heads for the hospital, leaving the entire crowd utterly stunned and convinced that he cowardly retreated from battle, much to the delight of Spider-Hater Jameson and the complete shock of Flash Thompson.

Peter is so distraught he swings across the city out of costume while The Torch fends off The Goblin long enough to make him retreat.  While Peter sits at Aunt May's bedside, Jameson runs a special edition of his paper reporting Spider-Man's defeat and retreat, Betty sulks in her apartment wondering if the man she loves is two timing her with Liz Allen, and Flash Thompson's club falls apart before it's even started, even though Flash refuses to give up on his hero.  All in all this was not a good episode in the life of our titular hero, which gives the class a great perspective on why Spider-Man was such a popular series not only in the 60's but today as well.  Spider-Man represented the first series that made the supporting storylines just as intriguing as the action and heroism.  As we come close to finishing the historical portion of our class, the students are getting very excited at the concept of writing our own Spider-Man story.  Our master script continues to take shape, and another wonderful episode of Comics in the Classroom concludes.

Vocab Word Web

1- Vanquish

2- Puny

3- Editorial

4- Aroused

5- Hesitant

6- Publicity

7- Gossamer

8- Emitting

9- Hunch

10- Potent