Time once again to check in on the exploits of the greatest of the mid-1960s Mighty Comics super heroes, the hen-pecked Web. As you’ll recall from previous installments, Mighty Comics was Archie’s attempt to get into teh super hero game at the height of Batmania by reviving all of their long underwear characters from the 1940s. They attempted to follow in the mold of the new Marvel books that were getting a lot of attention, but they didn’t understand the formula of genuine drama and personal problems quite right, and so ended up with stories that felt more like pointed parodies of Marvel’s output of the time. In that light, though, they’ve often very enjoyable, in particular those of the Web.
This particular story was written by Jerry Siegel in his best (though not every good) imitation of Stan Lee’s contemporary patter, and illustrated by Paul Reinman and Chic Stone, both of whom had worked for Marvel earlier in their careers. It really didn’t help things much. Stone’s thick, open inks do help skew Reinman’s work away from the sense of “dirtiness” it often had under his own ink pen, so this was something of an improvement.
The shtick with the Web was that he ached to return to crime-fighting, something that his long-suffering wife Rosie was dead set against. and so, it was like a strange super hero sitcom, where instead of attempting toe juggle simultaneous dates with two girls, the Web would attempt to carry on his crime-fighting without his wife becoming aware of it.
Of course, in this story, we invert the classic set-up: Rosie won’t allow the Web to quit until he’s restored his good reputation following his being embarrassed by a villain, the Flipper, who eluded capture.
Mighty Comics even attempted to duplicate the free-wheeling style of Marvel’s letters pages, though they simply weren’t all that good at it.
This moment, though, feels like it came right out of a Carmine Infantino FLASH story.
And at the end, the status quo of the series is once more restored. These stories are hardly high art, but they are wonderfully unintentionally funny with just how inept their execution is.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
Inept is right. They’re copying both Marvel and DC, with neither to good effect. Especially lame is their attempt at Letter Page banter with those writing in. Good Grief!
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The writing strikes me as an (unsuccessful) attempt yo mash-up Stan Lee and campy Batman TV show dialog style. It does justice to neither.
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What kid could look at The Web and want to be that guy? His cape is unique….but seems designed to kill the wearer by getting snagged on flag poles and the like.
I bought a stack of these in the late 70s and they were goofy artifacts then. The Archie heroes smack of being from the Dollar Store before Dollar Stores even existed. … which is their main appeal….though I’m sure they didn’t set out to be that way. I wonder what the expectations were for their success at the time? These were made by professionals after all even if they weren’t at the top of their game. Did Archie think they really had something in the team of Siegel and Reinman?
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I read this dialogue and wish Basil Wolverton had written it Powerhouse Pepper style… “You better duck, cluck!”
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I liked seeing the 1st man of steel on the cover. Bad costume, though.
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I finally see a 1960s Web story I like! I’m a sucker for the “hero rallying after an ignoble defeat plot.” Maybe that’s why the Spider-Man strip influenced so much of my life from 1963 to even now. The Ditko Spider-Man was all about wanting to quit, ignoble defeats, and rallying to a partial victory.
Especially when Aunt May or Johnny Storm would lecture him to never give up.
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The best thing I can say about the Mighty Heroes is that they show how much work and talent it took to make Marvel’s best stuff so good, even if it looked effortless.
I can’t say I enjoy the Web as much as you do, Tom. That kind of nagging relationship isn’t pleasant to read, though this one is an exception.
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The Web had a respectable run and decent stories in the ’40s; I credit Dwight Decker with showing me the virtue of the MLJ line, but I have no excuse for my morbid fascination with the “Mighty” Comics. It was the 60s is the only excuse I can use. As I said, this was the only Web strip of the 60s I enjoyed, and I hope I explained why.
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