Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2. Dr Strange

(Cover from 1965.)

"The Wondrous World Of Dr Strange!"

Written by Stan Lee.
Drawn by Steve Ditko.
Lettered by Sam Rosen.

"Whoa-ho-ho, it's magic," sang 1970s' hit-makers Pilot. "Never believe it's not so." They also sang a song about their Auntie Iris. Sadly only the first of these ditties is relevant here as Spider-Man officially meets Dr Strange for the first time ever.

Of course, those with memories that stretch all the way back to yesterday's review'll recall Peter Parker met Dr Strange in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (as did Flash Thompson's fist) but this time it's Spider-Man's turn. Sadly this is the only new tale in the mag, as the Herculean efforts of the first annual aren't repeated and this one's bulked out by a bunch of already reviewed tales from Spidey's early days [1][2][3].

In our one new outing, Spidey and Strange find themselves up against the power of Xandu the magician. Xandu has one half of the handily alliterative Wand of Watoomb and needs the other to become all-powerful. Trouble is, Dr Strange has it. So, Xandu hypnotises two bar-room bullies into being unstoppable engines of destruction and sets them on Dr Strange. Despite being the Master of Mystic Arts, Strange proves surprisingly inept in his attempts to thwart them, and Xandu has his hands on the wand.

Spider-Man though has blundered onto the scene and he and Strange join forces to defeat Xandu. The villain defeated, Dr Strange flies off, a plug from Stan Lee for Strange Tales ringing in our eyeballs.

It's an oddly naive but pleasing tale with Steve Ditko having to balance the otherworldly look of Dr Strange's mag with the more everyday style of Spider-Man's adventures. He does this pretty well although it's never going to be a totally perfect fit, and the two hypnotised thugs seem oddly simplistic visually, and out of place, in a Dr Strange tale - especially the section where they beat Strange up. The Master of Mystic Arts succumbing to mere fisticuffs? The indignity of it all. Spider-Man's not strictly central to events - serving more as a distraction to Xandu at key points in the tale, while Strange finishes off Xandu and robs the Wand of its power. But it's a pleasant bit of fluff, and even the fact that Xandu looks a bit of a berk, with his monocle and silly moustache, can't damage it.

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1. The Sinister Six

(Cover from 1964.)

"The Sinister Six!"

Written by Stan Lee.

Drawn by Steve Ditko.

Lettered by Sam Rosen.

In the early 1960s, men were men, women were women, sheep were sheep and money was money. You could get a house for thruppence, a yacht for two-and-six, and the Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 for a mighty twenty five cents. For your money, you got a whopping 72 (BIG) pages of your favourite wall-crawler and none of that reprint rubbish.

That's not all you got. You got a positive epic as Spider-Man takes on not one but a whole clutch of his old foes in the form of the Sinister Six. On top of that, we get cameos from Iron Man, Giant Man, the Wasp, Thor, Dr Strange, the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Captain America, each with a nice little caption beneath telling us we can read their adventures in the appropriate comic. This thing gives us the very definition of the phrase, "Pulling out all the stops."

Escaping from a jail that's conveniently stored his metal arms nearby, Dr Octopus gathers Spider-Man's five other greatest enemies (no Green Goblin) and says that together they can defeat Spider-Man. Then, showing the level of intelligence that got them all defeated in the first place, they decide the best way to beat him is to fight him one at a time!

Gang up on him, you idiots! Gang up on him!

Needless to say, given this tactic, Spidey beats them like he always beats them. I especially like the Sandman defeating himself by locking him and Spidey in an airless room and then passing out from lack of oxygen (Doh!). Aunt May shows her usual stupidity and lays the groundwork for future stupidity by totally failing to realise she's been kidnapped by Dr Octopus, and Betty Brant's in one of her liking Spider-Man moods. We also get the sight of J Jonah Jameson trying to communicate with a spider.

It's difficult to describe how great this is. The sheer level of effort that's gone into this comic's startling and we get some of the best artwork Steve Ditko ever did on the strip, including a splash page for every encounter Spider-Man has with a baddie. We also get the, "Spider-Man loses his powers," thing that got used in the second Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie. Now, as then, it's all psychosomatic and Spidey gets his mojo back once he realises he does want and need to be Spider-Man. If that's not enough, we get a multi-page gallery of Spider-Man's greatest foes, a nine page Secrets of Spider-Man feature, various bits and bobs about Peter Parker's private life and a story showing us how an issue of Spider-Man's put together, in which Stan Lee keeps annoying Steve Ditko by telling him what to do. I make no comment.

My only complaint is I'm a little worried that Spider-Man saves himself from death at the hands of Electro by grounding himself with his webbing. I'm no electrician - and I'm even less a super-hero - but isn't grounding yourself the worst thing you can do when confronted by deadly levels of electricity?

Amazing Spider-Man #109. Dr Strange

(Cover from June 1972.)

"Enter: Dr Strange!"

Words by Stan Lee.
Art by John Romita.
Lettering by Art Simek.

What's this on the splash page? Why, it's Stan Lee, promising us the imminent arrival of a surprise guest star. As Dr Strange is on the font cover, we might foolishly assume that guest star to be Dr Strange.

And we'd foolishly assume right.

Dr Strange, ex-world-class surgeon, ex-rehab candidate and now world-class mystic, created back in the days when a man might walk the streets of Greenwich Village, calling himself Dr Strange, without people asking questions.

But, as it turns out, Spider-Man, has questions. He has more questions than a hyper-active attorney. Upon being intercepted by the occultist - as he finally finds a way to escape the clinging clutches of Gwen - our hero wants to know just what's the deal with Flash.

Happily for all of us, the good doctor can tell him. Apparently, some Vietnamese cult want to sacrifice Flash so that their holy one can live again. He was the old man we saw Flash befriending in "flash-back" last ish and he was killed by the US attack on his temple. The cult hold Flash responsible and they aim to make him repay that debt.

Now, most people in their boat might bring in the lawyers but these are men of sterner stuff and they want real compensation. The sort that only comes with a human sacrifice. We should, I think, remember that this was almost forty years ago and such stereotyping of South-East Asians as mad cultists, ready to stick a knife in you at the drop of a hat, had yet to go the way of the dodo. Their plan revealed, the obvious thing to happen now is for Dr Strange to fire a spell halfway across New York at them and sort it all out.

But, of course, that wouldn't be much of a story - nor would it give us the class of action we crave. So he and the wall-crawler make their way to wherever it is in the city that Flash is being imprisoned and quickly sort it all out. As Spider-Man keeps the others occupied, Strange brings the "dead" man back to life with a quick spell and everyone's happy. Not least the old man. It seems he'd never been dead at all but had merely avoided being blown to pieces by going into a trance. You have to hand it to him, that's one hell of a trance that can make mortar fire bounce off you.

So now Flash is saved, the old man's saved and everyone's happy. Web Head can go home and get down to some good old-fashioned canoodling with Gwen right?

Wrong.

Sadly, by the tale's end, it's all doom and gloom again for our masked law-enforcer as he ponders the possibility that, now that Flash is back on civvie street, Gwen might be more attracted to him than she is to Peter. Poor old Peter, his personal life really is one big long car crash, isn't it?