Peter appears to be pushing Betty away at this point, but he might just be obtuse. The first appearance of Mysterio is decent, but not anything special. Lee spends a lot of time on Mysterio’s origin and the nature of his outfit–Lee’s pacing is great here, the amount of story he fits into the issue, but it’s barely about Spider-Man.

The Spider-Man story this issue is Peter worrying about developing a multiple personality or a Jekyll and Hyde type problem. Well, for a couple pages anyway. Then he’s worried about Aunt May’s mortgage payment (something he paid in full the first or second issue, for a year, so either Lee forgot or it’s been a while… and Peter missed out on Midtown’s summer vacation).

There’s just way too little Peter Parker and when there is Peter Parker, it’s usually as Spider-Man… so it’s not as compelling.

I can’t believe no one’s ever talked about Lee’s plotting pattern. It’s pretty apparent here, twelve issues in–Spider-Man somehow gets beat in the first fight, wins in the second. Meaning there have to be at least two fights a comic book. How things have changed… Marvel comics now do a cliffhanger in the middle of one fight….

This issue’s got a big battle sequence. Spidey and Doctor Octopus fight all throughout the Manhattan skyline. Spider-Man even helps capture escaped zoo animals.

Sadly, Lee seemingly forgot Betty Brant never wanted to see Spider-Man again at the end of the last issue, because she’s over it here. She and Peter’s romance resumes, unfortunately off panel–Jonah yelling at them for their office romance is hilarious).

Ditko’s art’s gotten a lot smoother as the action has gotten bigger.

It’s good, but not great.

Doctor Octopus is a weak villain.

I always forget how small the Marvel Universe is–if you’re going to get broken out of jail, might as well have Doctor Octopus do it. If you’re going to be a mobster and have a lawyer, it might as well be a lawyer whose sister is Spider-Man’s girlfriend.

There’s a lot of cool action in this issue–I love how small the fights are in these Spider-Man books. It’s not some grandiose skyscraper battle, it’s a couple guys duking it out on a runaway boat. Makes it feel a lot more… colorful.

Still, besides those action scenes, this issue is pretty weak. Doctor Octopus, now an ex-con (his sentence apparently ran under a year), is hardened and thuggish, not the laboratory scientist previously seen.

As for Lee’s resolution to Betty’s dilemma’s? It’s weak. Not terrible, but weak. It positions her and Peter too melodramatically separated.

Eh.

So I’m not imagining things–Lee was getting sick of the high school constraints. He sends Aunt May (all better after her operation, though she does need a blood transfusion, which apparently weakens Spider-Man, but it’s hard to gauge his abilities since… well, Lee always fluctuates them anyway to add drama to a fight) off the Florida and gives Peter a place to pace.

As bad guys go, the Enforcers are kind of boring, with the Big Man being an interesting idea for a villain, but not particularly thought through (how did Foswell become the Big Man?). But there’s lots of action and romantic drama from Peter and Betty (Lee wrote romance comics, after all).

Besides the developments with Betty, Lee’s got Flash Thompson softening up a lot this issue–so’s Liz Allen. She’s usually egging Flash to bully Peter, but here she’s sympathetic.

It’s good, but not outstanding.

I was going to open with a smart remark about Lee calling this issue a “book-length” story, but he really does fit a lot in. The whole arc with Electro, with lots of fight scenes, heist scenes, an origin and a prison break, plays second fiddle to the Peter Parker story. Lee puts Aunt May in medical danger–she needs an expensive, unspecified operation–and forces Peter to come up with the cost of the operation (see, if we had national healthcare, Spider-Man wouldn’t have had to fight Electro).

There’s also a lot going on with Betty Brant. Peter is clearly becoming split–there’s the Peter who goes to high school and the Peter who works for the Bugle; it’s okay, but it doesn’t really seem likely. High school, it seems, didn’t interest Lee much.

The ending is great. Makes me sad Peter didn’t end up with Betty.

When I started reading these comics again, I had no expectations. I read them as a kid, but as I grew up, I really only read Silver Age on recommendation and no one ever recommended a reread of these.

Most of these issues, so far, are absolutely fantastic. This issue, with the Vulture returning, has all sorts of great stuff in it–not to mention ending with Peter and Betty hanging out (romantically). Ditko’s art, though not always enthusiastic, is frequently great. He’ll go soft on Spider-Man details for a few panels and then come up with some incredibly dynamic one.

One thing I don’t think Lee noticed–though he does have Spidey’s wisecracking self-aware in this one–is how Peter Parker’s changed in terms of his self-image. Maybe with the girls, sure, but the super-powers are making him a much different person than originally seen.

Lee gets back on track (subtly developing Peter Parker too–the flirtations with Betty Brant at the Bugle give him the courage–apparently, it’s never pointed out–to ask Liz Allen out on a date), not just introducing the Lizard, but also sending Spider-Man to Florida. The comedy scenes with Peter and Jonah heading down are absolutely hilarious.

There’s a ton of story–besides the Lizard (and Peter’s high school science curing him), Lee has a museum action set piece (where Liz falls for Spidey). It’s nice to see he and Ditko work so much into one issue–though the alligator army is a little much. But the Florida trip gives Ditko a chance to draw differing environments.

The Lizard’s nickname is “Liz,” which I don’t think they kept, and Peter’s after a girl named Liz. Kind of strange.

Very good stuff.

Though Aunt May’s still not a character.

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.

It’s the first appearance of Betty Brant. I hadn’t been expected it, but now I’m looking forward to it. She and Peter’s romance was always effecting. Even here, her thought balloon foreshadows the eventual dating.

Lee fits a bunch into this issue (oh, it’s the first appearance of the Sandman too), including the first battle at Midtown High–the Sandman sneaks it and Spidey surprisingly appears–with Spider-Man coming up with some semi-scientific solution to the problem. There’s also, much more amusingly, Peter trying to figure out how to sew his mask back together after it gets ripped in the first fight with the Sandman.

The scenes with Peter stuck in bed, pretending to be sick because Aunt May almost walked in on his Spider-Man costume, are hilarious.

The Sandman origin, told mostly through a news report, is concise and well-executed.

So far, my favorite issue.