Amazing Spider-Man #22. The Circus of Crime are back

(Cover from March 1965.)

"Preeeeeesenting...
The Clown, And His Masters Of Menace!"

Written by Stan Lee.

Drawn by Steve Ditko.

Inked by Steve Ditko.

Lettered by Artie Simek.

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.

He's not alone. After being sacked by the Circus of Crime, the Ring-Master knows too. Some people have no gratitude.

Having got rid of their creator, the Circus remodel themselves as the Masters of Menace and decide to rob an art exhibition sponsored by Daily Bugle publisher J Jonah Jameson. But this issue has to be a first. It has to be the first time The Amazing Spider-Man has made us worry about J Jonah Jameson's welfare, as he's rushed to hospital after being headbutted by Cannon-Ball. As such I suppose it's a vital step in humanising our favourite irritant. Needless to say, when he comes out of his coma, he's as cantankerous and self-serving as ever.

J Jonah Jameson's injury aside, it's another of those knockabout tales with Spider-Man yet again up against a set of foes who're blatantly outclassed by him, allowing Steve Ditko to have fun with the action scenes. And, here, the characters of the individual members of the Circus of Evil seem far more individually defined than they've ever been before.

It's definitely a step in the right direction and it's good to see Princess Python get a prominent role, nominating the Clown as new leader of the group, coming up with a new name for them and getting to take Spider-Man on, single-handed, almost managing to unmask him in the process.

Of course, with all this, it's clear the Princess, not the Clown, should be leader of the circus but this was 1965 and maybe the idea of a woman being in charge was too far beyond the pale. I seem to recall a similar situation with the Frightful Four in the Fantastic Four comics where it was obvious Medusa should've been their leader but instead she spent all her time scheming, and manipulating the other members, to get what she wanted. How times have changed.

You have to feel sorry for the Ring-Master. First he gets sacked and then bullied by his colleagues then he gets hypnotised by Spider-Man then he gets arrested for a crime he didn't commit and then he gets re-arrested when he's in the process of handing the stolen paintings in. What else did The Shadow say? Oh yeah; he said that crime doesn't pay. He clearly didn't realise that, in the world of comic books, honesty pays even less.

Amazing Spider-Man #16. Daredevil and the Circus of Crime

(Cover from September 1964.)

"Duel With Daredevil"

Written by Stan Lee.

Drawn by Steve Ditko.

Inked by Steve Ditko.

Lettered by Sam Rosen.

As Mary Jane Watson once said, "Well pierce my ears and call me drafty!" because Spider-Man gets to meet another super hero -- and, for the first time ever, it's not a member of the Fantastic Four.

This time it's Daredevil who gets the privilege, which seems an appropriate choice as there are many parallels between the two heroes: Spider-Man's spider-sense/Daredevil's radar sense; both men's heightened athletic ability; both having lost father figures during their teen years, at the hands of a criminal; both having an on-off romance with a secretary; both with home-made gadgets that fire a line they can swing from. And then there's the fact that, when we first met both of them, they were ridiculed by the other kids for being bookworms. In fact, you have to wonder if the similarities are coincidental or if, knowing he had a hit on his hands with Spider-Man, Stan Lee had decided to repeat the formula with another hero.

Whatever, it's still clearly early days for the man without fear when this tale takes place because he's still wearing his original, short-lived costume, the yellow and black one that some of us have always preferred to the all red version.

But heroes are only half a story and the bad guys of the piece are the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime. I assume that, "Circus of Crime," isn't how they're billed on the posters. It might be somewhat of a giveaway.

Needless to say, like the two-bit crook he is, the Ringmaster's planning on using his hypnotic powers to rob the audience at tonight's show but, just to show the sort of luck the Ringmaster has, both Peter Parker and Matt Murdock are in the audience, which means that, before long , both Spider-Man and Daredevil are stepping in to stop him.

It's a good fun tale and oddly reminiscent of Jack Kirby, in the fun Steve Ditko seems to be having with the non-stop action as, first, Daredevil and Spider-Man go head-to-head before Spider-Man takes on the entire Circus of Crime on his own.

Actually, that's the one disappointing thing about this tale, that, after he's snapped Spider-Man out of his trance, Daredevil decides to leave the rest of the scrap to Web Head and sit in the crowd, as Matt Murdock, "watching." It would've been a lot more fun to see the pair of them team up to take on the circus.

Oh well, what can you do? This is Spider-Man's comic and it seems it's therefore been ordained we have to see Spider-Man - and Spider-Man alone - tackle the pernicious performers.

But the Ringmaster really is an idiot. Not content with wasting his powers of mind control on what's essentially nothing more than glorified pick-pocketing, he comes up with a scheme that practically invites Spider-Man to come along to the show. Why risk attracting the attention of a super hero if you're going to commit a crime?

Then again, why use your awesome powers of mind control just to rob a few punters of a few dollars each when you have it within your abilities to take over an entire nation?

I suppose that explains why the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime never amounted to a hill of beans in the overall scheme of things and why, ultimately, they rarely seemed anything more than a comedy outfit.