Mark Ginocchio - 100 Things Spider-Man Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die

To my wife, Erin, for embracing the superhero chaser in me.

Contents

Foreword by Tom DeFalco

Peter Parker is an amazing guy. Like many of us, his parents once dropped him off with relatives and departed with the usual, Be good for your aunt and uncle. Unlike many of us, Petes parents never returned, so he stayed and grew up with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben.

Thats only one of the things that differentiates Peter from the rest of us. He was also bitten by a radioactive spider while still in high school. Instead of dying an agonizing death from radiation poison, he gained the proportional strength, speed, and agility of a spider. He also developed a spider-sense that somehow warns him of danger. And he invented a pair of gizmos that shoot webbing strong enough to hold a rampaging Rhino. Like I said, Petes an amazing guy.

I was about 11 years old when I first encountered Peter Parker on a spinner rack at the local candy store where I regularly bought my comic books. Already a fan of Marvels Fantastic Four (which might have been up to the sixth or seventh issue at the time), I was intrigued by the new Spider-Man character introduced in Amazing Fantasy #15 .

I became an instant fan when Pete was awarded his own title Amazing Spider-Man some months later. I faithfully followed Petes adventures until I joined Marvel Comics in the late 70sfirst as a writer and then in the 80s I became Petes editor. A few years later I found myself writing Amazing Spider-Man (and paired with the equally amazing Ron Frenz) before becoming Marvels editor-in-chief in 1987. I returned to writing Petes adventures in the mid-90s and even co-created Spider-Girl with Ron Frenz (yes, Ive often ridden on his shoulders) in 1998. Spider-Girl told the story of an aged Pete and his teenage daughter, who had inherited his powers and taken up the family webs. (Thanks to a brief stint as a scripter on Untold Tales of Spider-Man, I am one of the few writers who dealt with Pete as a teen, a young adult, and a middle-aged man.)

Enough about me! This book is about Pete. You are about to learn some intriguing things about everyones favorite friendly neighborhood web-slinger100 things to be exact, and your guide will be Mischievous Mark Ginocchio.

Mark is a professional writer and editor. Hes also one of Spideys biggest fans. Not only does he write a regular blog called Chasing Amazing which is devoted to our ever-amazing one, Mark also co-hosts Amazing Spider-Talk with Dapper Dan Gvozdena podcast that used to invite Ron and me on for the occasional interview but has gotten too big and fancy for us.

Mark has scoured the pages of Spideys adventures and annoyed quite a few past creators (the guys relentless) in his hunt for facts that will enlighten you about our boy Pete. The time has now come for you to sit back and enjoy.

Thanks for being there!

Tom D.

Introduction

My love for superhero comics was born from a weekly ritual with my older brother. When I was in elementary school, every week he and I would walk to the corner candy store in my small Long Island, New York, hometown with a dollar in our pockets to buy whatever treasures we could afford. Id usually buy a snack (one time I bought 20 pieces of bubble gum just because that was the most efficient way to spend my dollar). However, one afternoon when I was about seven, I followed my brother over to a spinning rack of comic books. He picked up a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #296 Ill never forget that strange cover depicting a giant red-and-blue spider tormenting this nebbish man with glasses and four mechanical arms (it turned out to be Spideys archnemesis, Doctor Octopus). And since this was my older brother, someone I looked up to and idolized, I decided Id use my dollar to do the same. (I even got a quarter back in change!)

A few weeks later, I saw another Spider-Man comic on the spinner rack: Amazing Spider-Man #297 . I once again used my weekly dollar to pick up a comic. And on the very first page was a visual that has stuck with me ever since: an illustration of a miserable-looking Spider-Man, sopping wet from being out in the rain. He had run out of fluid in his patented web shooters and was unable to swing across town to get home. I thought to myself, What kind of superhero is depicted as such a loser in his very own comic? As it turns out, it was the kind of hero that I would instantly gravitate toward. Superman, Batman, Captain America, Iron Man, etc., were all idealized grown-ups, doing grown-up things. Spider-Man, while certainly not a kid by the time I started reading his comics, was totally different. He was average. He had problems. He was someone I could relate to.

Since those days at the candy store, Ive managed to stick with Spider-Man for nearly 30 yearsenduring a slew of writers and artists, editorial mandates, and status quo upheavals. And while Id be a liar if I said I never took a lengthy break from the character (a multi-year story involving clones can break the spirit of the most devoted fan), as time went on, I dreamt that someday I would own every single issue of Amazing Spider-Man . It was mostly fueled by my love for the character, but also my compulsive need to collect and have every single issue of the series. It was a crazy dream. One that required two things I had very little of: time and money. But it was something I stuck with for more than 25 years, scouring an assortment of local comic book shops, conventions, musty VFW halls, online auctions, and more, until October 2014, when I purchased a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #3 (the first appearance of Doctor Octopus). That was the final piece to my collection. Only fitting that the first and last Spider-Man comic I purchased for my collection featured Doc Ock on the cover.

In the interim, I started a blog that chronicled my quest to collect every issue of Amazing Spider-Man, called Chasing Amazing . I also co-founded the Amazing Spider-Talk podcast to talk about Spider-Man comics past and present on a weekly basis. It was during these endeavors that I started talking to some of the creators who had scripted, illustrated, or edited Spider-Man and learned some of the stories behind my favorite stories. By discovering some of these anecdotes or behind-the-scenes machinations, Ive come to appreciate Spider-Man even more than I did as a kid.

In taking you on a tour of 100 things every Spider-Man fan should know or do before they die, my goal is to share these stories and help you appreciate the world of Spider-Man as much as I do. These breakdowns of key stories, moments, creators, characters, and activities aim to both shepherd new fans into the flock of die-hards and provide some new insights to the hardcore fans. I love to think that Ive written a book I would like to read over the course of every phase of my own fandom. I hope in reading this book you will make some fantastic new discoveries about a character who I have nothing but love and respect for.

1. Introducing Spider-Man

In the world of comic books, there are origin stories, and then theres Amazing Fantasy #15 , arguably the most famous and expertly crafted superhero introduction the medium has ever produced. Even the most casual of fans knows Spider-Mans originhigh school bookworm gets super powers from a spider bite; dons a red-and-blue costume and maskand Uncle Ben is probably second only to Bruce Wayne/Batmans parents when listing the most famous dead characters from the world of comics.

But beyond everyones familiarity with the story, and the pop culture phenomenon that Spider-Man would become, Amazing Fantasy #15 still warrants celebration more than 50 years after it was first published in August 1962. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Spider-Mans co-creators, needed just 11 pages to introduce Spider-Man to the world. That means the Spider-Man story (one of four tales to appear in the issue) is so tightly plotted and scripted, in the span of a mere 11 pageshalf a comic by todays standardsthe reader gets nearly every critical element of the Spider-Man mythos.