BC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #5

As I’ve related before, my buddy David Steckel had inherited a bunch of assorted comic books from older cousins who had outgrown them, and so his haphazard collection reached all the way back into the 1960s in a scattershot fashion. Among the books that he had, and which he let me borrow and read at a certain point, was AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #5, the notorious story revealing the secret past of Peter Parker’s parents Richard and Mary Parker. That was a hell of a hook for a big Annual story, and i was definitely interested, having heard nothing about them at all in my reading up to this point. The graphic John Romita cover, clearly influenced by the kinds of op-art effects that Jim Steranko had brought to the field, was another eye-catching reason to read it. (That’s Mary Jane Watson sporting her short-lived short-and-curly haircut, an ill-considered attempt to differentiate her from Gwen Stacy. He hair’s been miscolored brown here.)

This was a story that really only could have been told at this point in time. While it was cooling by 1968, the spy craze was still a strong fixture in popular culture, so what could be better than setting up Peter’s lost parents as secret super-spies who had been lost on a mission? But if you ask me, it was a bad choice, in that it immediately made Peter’s life extraordinary even before he got bitten by that irradiated spider. Spidey’s appeal was that he was an everyman, but this was another place where his background proved to be anything but ordinary. The story itself is fine, but the ramifications of it were a bit troubling. Stan Lee seemed to come to that conclusion as well, as Peter’s parents aren’t mentioned again for decades after this.

The story was drawn by Larry Lieber, Stan’s younger brother who had mostly been plying his craft on westerns and the like. Larry had been working on this special story for a year–it had originally been announced in the previous year’s AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #4 which he’d also illustrated. John Romita is listed on this job as a consultant, which amounted to him functioning as a bit of a co-plotter, Lee having turned a lot of the management of the series over to John by this time. This was considered an important story, and so Larry spent an inordinate amount of time on it. Lieber’s work is clearly influence by Romita’s (as well as Kirby’s) but his figures are a lot more stiff and he can’t quite capture the smooth, fluid movements that Spidey is supposed to have. The art here is fine, but it’s a bit clunky and restrained when we get to the action.

In fact, he spent so much time that the size of Marvel’s original art boards changed while he was only halfway done with the job. So the back half of the issue is drawn at the new, smaller size. You can see the difference in the size of the lettering (which wouldn’t be reduced quite so much at the new board size) on these two continuous pages. It isn’t super-noticeable unless you’re looking for it, but it’s clear-as-day if you are. Also, Lee uses the Red Skull as the villain in this story, the mastermind behind the murder of the Parkers, forgetting that the Skull had been in suspended animation since WWII and wouldn’t have been active then. Later writers have decided that this was the bogus Red Skull who fought the Captain America of the 1950s, but that makes the story even more convoluted. It’s all a bit of a mess.

The extra-length story opens in the Casbah within Algiers where Spidey has come seeking answers concerning the disappearance of his parents. After an action sequence in which the web-slinger is attacked by bad guys, we get a flashback to Peter Parker discovering hidden clippings in Aunt May’s things that indicate that Richard and Mary Parker were traitors to their country. Unable to accept this, Spidey borrow a ship from the Fantastic Four and heads overseas, determined to find proof that will exonerate his parents even after so many years. It’s a fool’s errand, but after Spidey starts to poke around, he’s attacked by the guys from the opening, and we’ve now come narratively full circle. The web-slinger is able to follow his attackers back to their base, where he discovers that they’re in the employ of the Red Skull–as were his parents. It’s a crushing blow.

Outmatched by the Red Skull and his superior skill and weapons, Spidey retreats. But the Skull then calls in his master assassin, the Finisher, and set him the task of eliminating the wall-crawler. The Finisher attempts to do so by launching missiles at the hero from his car that will follow his every move. But at the last minute, Spidey doubles back to the car, causing it to be destroyed by its own ordinance. Before he perishes, the Finisher reveals that he sabotaged the Parkers’ plane on the orders of the Red Skull–but Spidey still needs proof of their innocence, and there’s no other way to get it than by confronting the Skull himself. So he heads back to the Skull’s lair and the two combatants duke it out.

In the end, while the Skull is forthcoming about the fact that he had the Parkers killed because they betrayed him, Spidey still doesn’t have any tangible evidence. The Skull himself is seemingly blown up in the backfire of one of his own weapons, which sets the place on fire. But before escaping, Spidey is able to lay hands on Richard Parker’s credentials as a covert government agent, which were secreted inside his Red Skull Membership Card for some reason. Either way, Spidey now has the proof he needs to redeem his folks, and so he swings away in a triumphant final shot. It’s a pretty fun story, one that owes a lot to the James Bond films of the era. It’s just also an ill-fit for the background of such a relatable and urban character as Spider-Man.

This Annual was also full of secondary features that were a lot of fun–such as this spread imagining Peter Parker using his spider-powers as a professional athlete.

There was also this spread in which the wall-crawler was presented in the style of other cartoon heroes. The one of Spidey as Mickey Mouse proved to be prophetic in the long run.

All of the Marvel Annuals for this year included short behind-the-scenes strips about how the stories were produced, another way in which the Marvel Bullpen and its staffers were fictionalized into entertaining personalities. This three-pager by Marie Severin was very funny and much-reprinted. It took the place of a never-finished earlier version that Larry Lieber had worked up with John Romita–despite their many strengths, comedy wasn’t their forte, and so Lee turned to Marie to carry the ball here. It’s maybe the best thing in this entire Annual.