Amazing Spider-Man 5 – Comics Archeology

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #5 (1963)
by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

According to the cover, “it had to happen”: Spider-Man versus Doctor Doom.
It seems obvious now: a popular hero versus a popular villain. But in 1963, having the villain from another title was groundbreaking!

That’s a weird cover. Is the web snapping or is it disappearing into the title? Is Spider-Man using it to swing or to drop down? Why is Doom shooting energy beams at the floor?

Still, it’s better than the first page: Spider-Man and Doom seem more confused than anything about what they’re supposed to be doing.

Also I’m not a big fan of Ditko’s rendition of Doom’s mask.

Anyway, J. Jonah Jameson has bought some time on an unspecified TV show to rant about Spider-Man, and I guess it’s on a channel that Doom watches in his lab. Maybe he keeps it as background noise.

Doom is talking to himself (of course) about how the Fantastic Four are always in his way and he’s not been able to defeat them.
That doesn’t sound like Doom, at least from a modern perspective. We’re still very early in his characterization, though.

Doom talks about his last encounter with the Fantastic Four, which he escaped because they forgot that he can fly. Deciding to recruit Spider-Man, he builds a transmitter that used an actual spider to send some kind of telepathic signal.

That’s either a strange perspective or that is a HUGE spider.

Note that Doom has correctly deduced the existence of the spider-sense, which is supposed to be a secret during this time. So Doom was able to build this transmitter based on… uhm, I’d say absolutely nothing except “he has the powers of a spider”.

Spider-Man is, understandably, alarmed by the new voice in his head.

But he’s able to trace the source, focusing on how strongly he can feel the signal.
Did Doom know so many details on how the spider-sense works? He didn’t give him any sort of direction, just a general “hey dude, Doom wants to talk with you”.

Once they meet, Doom gives him the usual pitch of “together we can rule the world”.
His thoughts are interesting: he’s appealing to Spider-Man’s envy of more popular heroes and to his pride. The first one is quite an insight, but the second feels like Doom is projecting a lot.

Of course Doom has horribly misread Spider-Man.

So Doom declares he’s an enemy, and he doesn’t need much to get rid of Spidey: just a Doombot…

… and finger lasers.

It’s enough to make Spider-Man decide to escape because he doesn’t like “being a human target for big bad villains”.
Better get used to it, webhead.

He’s just joking (shocking for Spider-Man, I know) because his actual plan was to get back to the lab and tackle Doom by surprise… but Doom is already bored with him and just blows everything up.

Peter Parker gets to sell a few pictures of the resulting fire, and we get the first time he notices Betty Brant, who will become his first girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Flash Thompson… Peter’s high school bully… put on a Spider-Man costume to prank Peter.

Doom has built a device that can track Spider-Man like a Geiger counter

So… you can probably guess where this is going, right?

Yes, Doctor Doom kidnaps Flash Thompson instead of Peter Parker.

His plan is to use Spider-Man as bait for the Fantastic Four, something he announces by hijacking all TV transmissions.

I hate to admit it, but Doom’s plan is pretty lame. He just asks the Fantastic Four to disband and surrender or otherwise he’ll kill Spider-Man? What a letdown! He already tried to shoot them into the Sun and the last time he appeared he almost started WWIII, as a threat this is a major downgrade!

Peter is tempted by the idea of just letting Flash die, but just for a moment. He decides to go stop Doom, but there’s a further obstacle: aunt May.

She’s too worried that Peter could be hurt if he goes outside.

And since aunt May is so frail she can’t get scared without risking death, Peter decides to worry her by cutting power to the house and going out anyway.

Fantastic use of shadows by Ditko.

But if she’s so terrified by the idea of Peter being hurt if he goes outside, couldn’t they wait until morning to buy a new fuse?

Weird seeing Peter think “a teenager’s life is at stake” when he’s a teenager as well.
And since he’s going after Doom, technically two teenagers are going to be in danger!

Spider-Man deduces that Doom must be using a lot of electricity to hijack the TV, so he looks for a place where he could be hiding huge dynamos. Kind of a stretch in a superhero comic.
Nobody draws New York City quite like Steve Ditko.

Although a giant telephone on top of a building isn’t exactly in Ditko’s style.
Also note Spidey’s very goofy pose.

Meanwhile Flash Thompson is taking his situation about as well as you would expect.

Spider-Man finds Doom: be ready for a fight.
The “gol-dangest, ding-bustedst, rip-snortin’est super-character fight you’ve ever seen”, according to the narrator.
(I’m pretty sure most of these aren’t words)

It’s really a fun fight, taking advantage of Ditko’s creative use of panels, Spidey’s dynamic motions, his constant jokes and Doom coming up with weapon after weapon after weapon.

Usually Spider-Man is the one tearing down his enemies with sheer exhaustion, but eventually Doom has the upper hand.

He even throws a punch TWICE! We don’t see that often.

Doom is about to defeat Spider-Man, but when the Fantastic Four arrive at the scene he decides to escape because “he’s not ready for them”.
Okay that REALLY doesn’t sound like Doom at all!!!

Spider-Man leaves, and the very confused Fantastic Four rescue Flash.

And in typical Spider-Man fashion, Flash ends up being the hero of the school.

Historical significance: 6/10
The only impact on Spider-Man is that this is the first hint of a relationship with Betty Brant, but it’s quite minor in this issue.
You would think Flash being kidnapped by Doctor Doom would be referenced every once in a while, but that detail seems to have been forgotten to time.
What DOES elevate the significance is the first issue of a major villain appearing in another title, which helps make the Marvel Universe much more cohesive.

Doom significance: 7/10
The issue itself has no repercussions in future stories (Doom won’t be the main antagonist in a Spider-Man story for hundreds of issues), but this firmly establishes Doom as a threat outside of the Fantastic Four book.

Silver Age-ness: 6/10
If this was a DC Silver Age comic, it would be a 0/10. But for Marvel, and very early Spider-Man in particular, Doctor Doom mistakenly kidnapping Flash Thompson just because he happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time is much sillier than the standard.

Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
Outside of the coincidence leading to the Flash kidnapping and aunt May being deathly afraid of Peter dying if he gets outside, most of the issue holds up surprisingly well.
The fight between Spidey and Doom is still fun and exciting, but that’s what you get with a legendary artist like Ditko.

It was a Doombot all along
We definitely get a couple of Doombots. Between his cowardice at the end and him admitting being defeated by the Fantastic Four in the past, it’s possible that the real Doom doesn’t even appear.

Take over the world
Once again, no, Doom is only thinking about the Fantastic Four.

Destroy the FF!
Kind of, at least as a backup plan.

Crazy tech
Lots of cool gadgets in his fight with Spider-Man, as well as a sort of “Spider-Man detector”.
The transmitter that allows him to talk to Spidey through the spider-sense is the real winner: its use isn’t entirely unique (other villains will use something similar), but this one has a spider inside.
And I still like to think it’s a giant spider.

Superhero count: 10
Adding Spider-Man to the number of heroes who have fought Doom.

Interesting extracts from the letters page:

Letter #1: “enough with the atomic scientists who speak too formally!”