Spider-Man will be the cover character of all remaining parts of the retrospective.
He’s the first Marvel character to be published regularly in Italy, starting from 1970: his first series will last 283 issues, all the way up to 1981. A second series of 58 issues will reach 1984.
His name was consistently translated as Uomo Ragno, a literal translation (without the hyphen, although technically speaking it’s the literal translation of “Man Spider”).
The Corno series was titled L’Uomo Ragno, which is simply “THE Spider-Man”.
Star Comics will keep the same title when it picks up the publishing rights from 1987 to 1994, and the same will be done when both Marvel Italia and Panini Comics continue… see the first part of the retrospective for more details about the publishing shenanigans.
The series title will be renamed as simply “Spider-Man”, without translating the title, from 2008 and it continues as such to this day. The name inside the translated comics will slowly transition to just reverting to “Spider-Man” over the years.
It’s kind of surprising that the Italian translation lasted until 2008, considering that ALL movies simply kept his name as Spider-Man without translating it.
That being said, to me he will always remain Uomo Ragno first and Spider-Man as a very distant second.
But let’s swing right into the issue!
L’Uomo Ragno #73 (1973)
Published by: Corno
The cover advertises the backup features, which might be unexpected: the Hulk and Doctor Strange (both of which keep their name), and a somewhat accurate translation of the title.
Doctor Strange was the historical back-up feature, all the way back in the very first issue!
You might think it was done because he’s also a Lee&Ditko character… but they initially published stories from the Roy Thomas run from 1968, because Corno could be VERY random.
Also, as you might notice from the upper left corner, for whatever reason Corno decided to color the lenses of Spider-Man’s mask yellow instead of white!
I haven’t been able to find a single source stating WHY this was done, and it seems that it didn’t stick to the imagination of readers: I’ve talked to people who grew up reading the entire Corno run and they don’t think of him having yellow eyes. The same goes for me.
They weren’t entirely consistent: you can see on the cover that the spider-signal is kept white.
Amazing Spider-Man #72 (1969)
by Stan Lee & John Romita
Speaking of Shocker, he’s one of the villains that keeps his original name in the translation.
This is just his second appearance, having debuted in #46 two years earlier.
The story sure has a dynamic beginning, with The Shocker breaking into the house of Spider-Man mentor figure Captain Stacy and knocking him out
This is part of a famous storyline involving the McGuffin Lifeline Tablet, often considered (and with good reason) one of the best parts of the Lee&Romita run.
Captain Stacy is perhaps most famous as the father of Spider-Man love interest Gwen Stacy, and she shows up just in time to witness Shocker.
You’d expect Shocker to take her hostage, but thankfully we avoid the stereotype.
While Shocker is often taken as sort of a joke villain and definitely a born loser, I never bought the idea that he should be dismissed so easily. This story certainly doesn’t underplay his threat.
Although Gwen is hyping Shocker a bit too much. Last time he lasted quite a bit against Spider-Man because the wallcrawler had an injured arm, but then the story ended LIKE THIS:
The Shocker then tries to sell the table to the nearest totally legitimate pawnshop…
…but he can’t sell it: Spider-Man got it off Kingpin, and NOBODY wants to upset either.
The Shocker then goes on a rampage that gets enough publicity to get the attention of Peter Parker.
So this leads to a confrontation between them.
Spider-Man lands a few punches, but the Shocker’s costume is able to absorb the vibrations AND allows him to pack quite a punch.
The public goes WAY overboard with their reaction when Shocker pushes Spider-Man off the roof. Did they just forget about the web?
Shocker escapes, giving Spider-Man the chance to put a Spider-Tracer(patent expired) on him.
You’d expect Spider-Man to quietly follow him, but he has more important matters to attend to: send Aunt May as far away as he can afford.
And as he’s thinking about the last time he fought the Lizard (who will come up later in the storyline, so Stan is reminding readers about him) it starts raining.
Another subplot going on is that Robbie Robertson is currently in charge of the Daily Bugle, because J. Jonah Jameson is at the hospital after a heart attack.
Glad to see he’s feeling better.
Gwen then informs Peter about the attack on her father. In this period she’s a bit ambivalent about Spider-Man; she will only get to hate him after her father is killed one year later.
Things seem to get better with her, but then Peter gets VERY jealous of Flash Thompson (who was in the Army in this period).
It’s a common misconception to consider young Peter Parker as a goody-two-shoes, something perpetrated by most adaptations.
The actual Peter was a volcano of pent-up anger ready to snap and act like a jackass at any minute.
Which is a big, BIG reason why I love this character: he’s BY FAR his own worst enemy, a concept that endlessly fascinates me.
What better way to blow off some steam than punching a supervillain?
The Shocker is getting more respect than he’ll typically, get, but… come on. IT’S SPIDER-MAN.
And so The Shocker is defeated…
…which in typical Spider-Man fashion brings little joy to the hero.
Historical significance: 7/10
The storyline as a whole is QUITE significant, but this issue is a very small part of it.
Personal significance: 10/10
This is the only story I had by the Lee&Romita duo, and I LOVED IT.
Great action, good dialogue, cool villain, and I was fascinated by having all these supporting characters around.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
All things considered, not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
It’s the Lee&Romita run, to this day a master class on how to do a serial. In typical Spider-Man fashion the actual superhero story takes second place, with Peter Parker’s misadventures being the real focus but at the same time reflecting on the main story.
Tales To Astonish #67 (1965)
by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko
cover by Jack Kirby
If you’re more of a Ditko fan than a Romita fan, the backup feature is from the excellent but underrated Lee&Ditko run from the Hulk.
We begin with the familiar sight of the Hulk smashing some tanks, but this time it’s communist tanks.
That is one impressive rug-pulling trick.
We’re not officially in the “Hulk Smash” era, but his personality is close enough.
If it wasn’t for the hammer & sickle symbol on the tanks, this is basically a scene from 50% of Hulk stories from the 60s.
And then the Hulk leaps from his vaguely defined position, moving towards Mongolia and finally arriving in the Himalayas.
The previous story is SUPER vague on exactly WHERE he is, but he’s implied to be in a fictional country right next to China.
Sounds legit.
The Hulk then takes a nap, and once he wakes up he’s transformed back into Bruce Banner.
Which makes the locals think that he’s escaped from the Soviet Union.
Which makes me even MORE confused about the Hulk’s path. Where would this fictional country be located considered:
A) it’s close to China
B) you have to move towards Mongolia in order to reach the Himalayas
C) the Sovien Union is not on the other side of the continent
Wait, he IS in Mongolia!? Then WTF was the point of namedropping the Himalayas since they’re not anywhere near Mongolia???
To be fair, when they talk about Mongolia they might be talking about Inner Mongolia, an autonomous province of China.
Except… guess where that province is? NEXT TO THE COUNTRY OF MONGOLIA!
Bruce Banner has SOMEHOW still a secret identity in this period, so Major Talbot is sent all the way to Mongolia to pay the ransom.
But then the bandit cap is attacked by some other group, so both Talbot and Banner have to flee…
…right into a cliff.
Tales To Astonish #68 (1965)
by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko
I’m generally not a fan of covers that show both stories and even less so when they’re split horizontally like this, but this time I think it kind of works.
I remember little from these two Hulk stories, but this awesome Jack Kirby splash page stayed with me.
Still no idea on how Banner kept both a secret identity and was still employed by the Army when he kept disappearing like this.
He’s also learned that he doesn’t know ANYTHING about geography, he just leaps back home.
Seriously, HOW CAN HE KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS???
Little known fact, but at this point in time the President (clearly Lyndon Johnson here) was the only person other than Rick Jones to know the Hulk’s secret identity.
So maybe that’s the answer to my questions on why he’s still around.
The next villain is going to be the Leader, who this time uses one of my absolute favorite gimmicks: he shrunk down his androids to the size of single cells (!!!), so he’ll be able to easily deploy a huge army of them.
And for me, the story ended with the Leader approaching an island where the Army is about to test a new weapon: the rest continues in the following issue, which I didn’t own.
Which is too bad, because it’s one of the Leader’s best plans!!!
Historical significance: 0/10
There are A LOT of moving parts in the Hulk serial in this period, so I might be forgetting something, but I don’t think this really goes anywhere.
Personal significance: 4/10
As mentioned I barely remember anything from this. I have a fondness for the plan of the microscopic androids, but that’s not from this: I first saw the full story in the (badly) animated version in the 60s.
Silver Age-ness: 4/10
No seriously, where IS that fictional country???
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
I’ve given high praise to the Hulk serial in this period… but these two issues specifically are among the weak ones. Nice action, but little else.
Strange Tales #161 (1967)
by Raymond Marais & Dan Atkins
cover by Jim Steranko
Don’t worry, this is not YET ANOTHER story with the Yellow Claw because we’re not talking about the Nick Fury cover story…
…but the lesser known Doctor Strange backup feature.
This is one of the most successful parts of Baron Mordo’s career, but we’re not here for him either: once he banishes Strange into another dimension, he’s no longer a factor.
And speaking of that other dimension: we may no longer be in the Steve Ditko era, but this is still a crazy journey.
Crazy visuals aside, this is also one of the weirdest, complex and best Doctor Strange storylines of the era. This is the storyline that first introduced the Living Tribunal, who was first seen in #157 and that Strange is scheming to stop here.
As I’ve mentioned a few time I’m a HUGE fan of the cosmic side of Marvel, so I’m a bit surprised that I completely forgot the Living Tribunal was namedropped here!!!
But there’s also Strange’s occasional love interest of Victoria Bentley, who for some reason gets sucked into this dimension.
So Strange has to save her from a giant ant…
…and learn that Victoria was brought here by a newly introduced magic entity, Nebulos.
And that’s how it ends!
Historical significance: 4/10
The storyline as a whole is HUGELY important for Doctor Strange, but nothing happens here.
Personal significance: 4/10
I would probably have loved this story if I had any idea WTF was going on, but I like the artwork.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
I’m sure being on drugs would help understanding any of this.
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
As a whole, this massive storyline is excellent. But without an extensive background on all the large amounts of lore behind this and the details of what Strange is trying to do… good luck following!!!