Guess who wins in a fight between Doctor Doom and Spider-Man? Guess who wins in the rematch? If you guessed Doctor Doom both times, you get a twelve cent sucker, which is what this issue cost when it came out. It’s a twelve cent sucker too. Lee opens it with some expository paragraph about how it’s the best comic the reader has ever read. It’s amazing bad he is predicting reading experiences.
Besides the contrived Spider-Man versus Doctor Doom story, there’s this stuff with Peter’s classmates. Lee has never really shown them as bullies or downright mean, but here he does. Here, Liz Allen is really mean to Peter; here, Flash Thompson is ready to–presumably–rough him up. It’s like an Archie issue gone bad.
However, the Daily Bugle stuff–Betty crushing on Peter, Jonah going off about how Spider-Man sells papers–works.
The rest doesn’t.
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