I’ve probably read the Spider-Man story from Amazing Fantasy #15 ten or fifteen times, but nothing else. It’s such a famous story, I’ll bet one could recount it panel-by-panel with some effort. I did manage to find something new this time, something I hadn’t thought about before. Lee doesn’t do anything to make Peter Parker particularly likable. Sure, he’s bullied, but he’s not a martyr. Instead, the tragedy is what makes him so compelling.
The rest of the issue is odd little one-offs. First is a religious story. It’s a waste of time.
The second is a mummy thing, with the best Dikto art in the book. It’s got a cool surprise ending and it moves nicely, but it’s really all about the art. The expressions on the protagonist’s face, for example, stellar.
The third is a “Martians among us” story; good, but way too short.
one thing you’ll see after going through a bunch of Marvel’s older monster books, is the far out art in many of them. Although Kirby & Ditko seem to have drawn 95% of them, there are quite a few beauties by many golden age artists to be found in there. Ditko’s art for these one offs seems at MANY times to be inspired and much, much, better than the straightforward mainstream stuff you’ll find in Spider-man. Nuff Said!