Comics : Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #53

This story is part of a Lookback Series: Al Observes

Background...

Spider-Man catches a dose of amnesia, and the fast-thinking Doctor fools him into believing that he is Octopus's Partner-In-Crime. Ock and Spider-Man go on a rampage, during which Spider-Man takes on most of the Army! Truly, this was the age of Marvelous Comics. Treat yourself to a walk through a great Spidey story, courtesy of Stan Lee, and John Romita the Elder.

Of course, if you bought a copy of the latest Essential Spider-Man, you don't need me to tell you about it here. But, in case you didn't, here's one of the best Doc Ock stories ever! And in it.... Doc Ock wins!

In Detail...

"Enter: Dr. Octopus"

	Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #53  Summary: Doc Ock Returns  Arc: Part 1 of "Doc Ock Wins"
	Editor:  Stan Lee Writer:  Stan Lee Pencils:  John Romita, Sr. Inker:  Mickey Demeo Cover:  John Romita, Sr.	Staff Only Images Review Edit
	Oct 1967 : SMURF 053.500 : SM Title : Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1)  Reprinted In: Marvel Tales #38  Reprinted In: Essential Spider-Man #3
Characters: Watson, Anna, Aunt May Parker, Doctor Octopus, Flash Thompson, Gwen Stacy, The Jackal, J. Jonah Jameson, Mary Jane Watson-Parker

It is the day after the battle with the Kingpin, in which Frederick Foswell lost his life, and Spidey is sitting in a web-hammock reading the newspaper outside the Daily Bugle building. Publisher J. Jonah Jameson leans out his window and shakes his fist at the wall-crawler. "Get outta there, you web-swinging weasel!", yells Jonah, "All my employees are so busy gawkin' at you that they're not getting any work done." Quickly, Spidey swings down at a startled Jameson, tosses his newspaper at him and says, "Anyone who pays a dime for that scandal sheet oughtta get eleven cents change." "You fouled-up freak!!", JJJ replies, "I'll see you behind bars yet!!" "Yeah", Spidey says, When I come to visit you at feeding time in the monkey house!"

Spidey swings away and winds up perched on a clock tower, trying to cool down. He gets so preoccupied that he forgets where he is and the "Bong!" of the clock's bell surprises him so much, he topples right off. It is a simple matter to shoot a web to stop his fall but the striking of the clock also reminds him that he is "due in class soon". "Lucky I'm carrying my civvies in my web-sling", he says, and he swiftly makes his way to Empire State University.

As he web-slings on campus, Spidey spots Flash Thompson and Gwen Stacy. They spot him, too. Flash, who joined the army in ASM #47 and is dressed in his uniform, tells Gwen that he is the webhead's biggest fan. She asks him how he knows Spidey isn't someone he'd dislike under that mask. "Not a chance, doll-face", says Flash. Just then, Harry Osborn walks up. He asks Flash and Gwen if they've seen Peter. "I'm sick of being his social secretary. All I do is take messages for him because he's never around!" (At this time, Peter and Harry are roommates.) Flash says, "He'll never change! Once an itch, always an itch! Right, Gwen?" and Gwendy cryptically replies, "Don't ask me, gents. I'd rather itch than switch!" (Everybody recognize the inspiration of Gwen's statement to be the Tarryton cigarette slogan, "I'd rather fight than switch."? Everyone know there used to be cigarette advertising on TV?)

Meanwhile, Spidey has lifted a section of the gymnasium roof off so he can sneak in and change into his civvies. He is just putting his shirt on over his costume (while standing on a walkway high off the gym floor) when he hears footsteps. Quickly, he manages to change clothes and leaps to a climbing rope which is attached to the ceiling. He doesn't realize that his Spidey mask is sticking out of the back of his pants. As he scoots down, Professor Warren pokes his head into the gym. Now down on the floor, Peter tells the Prof that he was "just taking a little workout". Warren is impressed. "I never realized you were so agile, son!" Then, noticing Pete's exposed Spidey mask, he says, "Better tuck in your undershirt, though." Peter nervously complies, thinking, "Lucky he's so near-sighted. He didn't see the web pattern." Before leaving, the Professor tells Pete he has two "extra tickets to tonight's science exposition". He invites Peter and a friend to join him.

Out in the hallways, Pete meets up with Gwen. ("Say!", she says, "Aren't you the one who picked a peck of pickled peppers?" I think it is lines like this that made some people very happy to see Gwen eventually go.) Pete starts to ask her to join him at the science expo but Harry walks by and gives Pete "the big freeze". Gwen explains to him that "your unexplained comings and goings seem to be shaking him up, laddie". When Pete finally gets around to inviting Gwen, he is a little nervous about asking her to join him for something as dry as a science expo but Gwen says, "In case you've forgotten, your little blonde buddy is a sci major, too!" (How many of you out there knew that!)

After class, Professor Warren tells Pete and Gwen that he will get his car and meet them out front. (He also says, "You're bringing Miss Stacy? I certainly admire your choice, Parker!" And with what happens with the Jackal and the Gwen clone almost ten years later, it almost looks like the world's earliest clue, doesn't it?)

Outside, Flash is waiting for Gwen so they can go dancing at the "disko". When Gwen tells him she is going out with Peter, it is just like old High School times. Flash and Pete go nose-to-nose with the former asking "Are you tryin' to beat my time with Gwen?" and the latter replying, "You never had any time to beat!" Gwen breaks up the spat by suggesting, "Let's all meet later at the Coffee Bean and puff a purple peace pipe!" (Meaning WHAT exactly, Stan?) As the two men continue to carp at each other, Peter thinks, "Spidey's biggest fan! Oh, bro-ther!" As Pete and Gwen go join Professor Warren at his car, even Harry gets into the act. "I never could understand why he bugged you, Flash", he says, "but now... I can't explain it, but he acts like he's in his own private world and everyone else better keep out!"

In Warren's car, the threesome discuss the exhibit at the science expo. It is a "new type of missile defense called a nullifier" and it is Gwen who surmises (correctly) that "it nullifies the homing devices of enemy missiles". At the exhibit, the Prof explains that today's demonstation is of the "nullifier's stabilizer control" and that "for maximum security, the two parts of the stabilizer will be delivered separately".

They head for their seats. Pete can't believe he is actually out with Gwen. But his infatuation is pushed away by a violent tingle of his spider-sense. Gwen immediately notices that Peter is acting strangely. He tries to deflect her concern by saying, "I just thought I recognized someone". "From the look on your face", Gwen replies, "He must have been a ghost".

They take their seats in the hall. As Peter frantically looks around for any trouble, the demonstration begins. On stage, the two parts of the stabilizer have been put together. A bearded, balding scientist begins a lecture but he is interrupted by a man in a green cape who stands up and declares himself "the only one on earth powerful enough to seize your nullifier, despite anything you can do". Pete stands, recognizing the voice. Seconds later, everyone else recognizes the man as well, as Doctor Octopus extends his metal arms. He seizes the nullifier with one, while lifting the bearded scientist away with another and attacking the guards with the other two.

The audience panics. Everyone rushes for the exits. Professor Warren yells to Gwen, "You and Peter follow me!" but a worried Gwen replies, "Peter? I... I thought he was with you!" In the confusion, our hero has slipped away. Finding a Men's room, he enters and changes to Spider-Man.

Out in the lecture hall, four guards enter, firing tear gas. (There is no one else in the room but Doctor Octopus, carrying the nullifier in his flesh and blood arms, and all of the wooden chairs have been smashed into kindling. Did the bolting audience do that?) The attackers figure they have the upper-hand because Otto isn't wearing a gas mask but the good Doctor demonstrates yet another use for his tentacles. He whirls them around, faster and faster, "like four unstoppable living propellers". This movement not only blows the gas away but knocks the guards to the ground as well. He picks up the four helpless guards with his metal arms (one of the guards looks like he's got "Norman Osborn hair") and declares himself "the world's most unbeatable human" but a taunting voice cries out, "You're lying in your teeth, grapefruit head!" and Spidey swings into action.

Ock drops the guards to defend himself but Spidey gives him a swift kick in the head before he can react. Using his tentacles to brace himself from the impact, Otto goes on the offensive. He follows Spidey to the ceiling and knocks the wall-crawler through a nearby window.

Now things get a trifle confusing. From one angle, the broken window appears to be dozens of stories from the ground, towering over nearby buildings. In other angles it appears to only be three or four stories up. (Still, I had the impression the whole lecture was taking place on the ground floor.) Then, as Spidey clings to the wall, Doc Ock announces that he is coming in for the kill... "I will reach you long before you can make it to the ground!"... but he says this as he climbs in the opposite direction... up to the roof! It takes Spidey to chase after Ock. As Otto makes it to the rooftop, Spidey grabs ahold of his upper right tentacle and hangs on for dear life!

On the ground, a worried Gwen looks all over for Peter and can't find him. As Spider-Man fights Octopus above her she "can't help feeling that [Peter's] in some sort of danger!"

On the roof, Spidey fires a big white blob of web fluid in Otto's eyes. Doc is forced to switch the nullifier to one of his tentacles while he pulls at the sticky gunk with his real hands. To prevent Spider-Man from pressing his advantage, he dangles the nullifier over the street. "If I drop it, dozens will be crushed.", he says. Spidey puts a tracer below Ock's lower left tentacle, then must dash over the side of the building as Otto follows through with his threat of dropping the stolen device.

Spidey can't get to the nullifier in time but he manages to snag it with his webbing. Octopus can't get the webbing off his face so, using his "tentacles as feelers" and traveling blind, he makes his escape. Spidey hands over the nullifier to the guards below then returns to the scene of the battle, only to discover Ock is gone. He knows he can follow his spider tracer any time. For now, he decides, "I'd better change again and cut back to Gwen and the Prof!"

And, back on the rooftops, as he slowly makes his way back to his hidden lab, Dr. Octopus recalls his last battle with the web-slinger (in ASM #32) in which both he and Spidey seemed "destined for a watery grave". Amazing Spider-Man #33 is one of the classic issues of the Ditko era as Spider-Man battles back from being trapped under an immense piece of machinery in Ock's undersea hideout, the water leaking in threatening to drown our hero. But Octopus' defeat in the previous issue is left mostly to the imagination. It appears that he, too, is crushed under the falling debris and left to drown. Here, Otto reveals that he was not trapped under the rubble. Instead, he used his arms to raise himself up over the rising water level. Then, groping with his tentacles, he found an oxygen tank with scuba mask and, donning them, made his escape through "the same tunnel as the one which Spider-Man had excaped thru, just seconds earlier". (Ah, the good old days, when a villain was always certain to reveal how he had survived his previous appearance.)

Now back at his lab, Ock fumes over Spider-Man's continued interference. The webbing dissolves enough for him to remove it. When he pulls the webbing, his tentacles shift just enough to dislodge the hidden spider tracer. Octopus realizes what the miniature spider is and he also realizes that "there still may be time for me to turn the tables".

At the Science Expo, Peter rejoins Gwen and the Professor. He starts to spin a tale to explain his disappearance but Gwen puts her arms around him and says, "It doesn't matter where you were, Pete, as long as you're back!" The Professor takes a look at the youthful affection and quips, "We'd better be leaving now! You're making me feel old!"

Professor Warren drives Gwen and Pete to the Coffee Bean (with Pete marveling that Gwen is "the only girl who's never asked me for any explanations"). Inside, at a table, are Flash, Harry, and Mary Jane. The sparring begins, with Flash asking Gwen why she has chosen to hang out with "Puny Parker". "Didja lose a bet or something?" Gwen replies that, "You've got your guru, I've got mine". (Huh?) MJ tells Gwen, "I only loaned him to you, lady.", while Harry remains silent and stone-faced. "Is he jealous of Gwen and me?", Peter wonders.

The tension is short-circuited by the arrival of Aunt May and Anna Watson. They are so excited about their new idea that they just had to stop by the Coffee Bean and tell everyone. They have put an ad in the newspaper looking for an extra boarder. (At this point in time, May and Anna live together in Anna's home.) They think they have found a perfect way to "make some extra pin money". Peter thinks it's a fine idea but warns, "Be careful whom you accept, hear?"

Peter decides to escort May and Anna home, giving him an excuse to get away and "back to the trail of Doc Ock". Harry and Flash make fun of Peter behind his back but MJ and Gwen clearly don't feel the same way.

And, in a shack by the docks, Otto Octavius is setting up a trap. He has constructed "a makeshift replica" of himself sitting at "a dummy control panel" and placed Spidey's tracer on the arm of the chair in which the replica is sitting. On his patrol, Spider-Man picks up the emanations from his tracer almost immediately. He dives down at the shack, intending to crash right in, when his spider-sense tingles, warning him of danger. "The closer I get, the more it tingles! It can only mean, a trap!" Pulling aside the metal blinds on the window, Spidey peeps into the room. "It doesn't look like a trap", he thinks, "But my spidey-sense still won't buy it." It looks like an unsuspecting Doc Ock at his control panel. Spidey can even see his spider-tracer. But then he realizes, "Hey, wait a minute! How did it get onto the chair? That little gizmo hasn't yet learned to crawl!" Taking no chances, Peter creates a ball out of webbing and slingshots it into the room, taking cover just after he does so. With the impact of the web ball, the whole shack goes up in a fierce explosion.

Back at his real hideout, Doc Ock gloats over the seeming death of Spider-Man. Now, he decides, "I've got to find a safer hiding place. After my abortive attempt to steal the nullifier, every federal agent in the country will be searching for me. Thus, I must find a place of sanctuary, so innocent-appearing, so much above suspicion, that no one would ever think that Doctor Octopus might be hidden there!" Donning a hat and overcoat, and carrying a suitcase, Otto Octavius exits for this issue.

At the docks, Spidey is alive and well, thanks to his spider-sense. He looks out over the city. Wherever Doc Ock is, he vows, "Sooner or later, I'll find him!" But does he expect to find him at May and Anna's house... answering their classified ad?

A very touching letter in The Spider's Web from India Company fighting in the Vietnam War. "Dear Stan, Since all of us in the headquarters section of India Company are Spider-Man fans, we regret to inform you that Corporal St. Clair, whose letter will be printed in Spider-Man #50, was killed in action on 28 February, 1967. He was a squad leader in our 3rd Platoon when his patrol was ambushed southwest of Da Nang. Your comic, Spider-Man, is the most sought after piece of literature and art work in this company. Keep up the good work; you're a real morale booster."

"As a mark of respect for Corporal St. Clair", Stan bypassed the usual "Next Issue" blurb "to express the fervent hope that the day will soon come when men in every land will walk together in peace - and brotherhood."

By Al Sjoerdsma (E-Mail)