August 1962
Amazing Fantasy#15 (vol. 1)
“Spider-Man!”
EIC: Stan Lee
Cover Artists: Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko
Writers: Stan Lee
Pencilers: Steve Ditko
Inkers: Steve Ditko
Colourist: Andy Yanchus
Letterers: Artie Simek
Editors: Stan Lee
Cover Date: August 1962
Release Date: June 1962
Pages: 11
Cover Price: $0.12
First Appearance and Origin of:
- The Amazing Spider-Man/Peter Parker
SYNOPSIS:
Peter Parker is the biggest wallflower at Mid-Town High School in Queens, NY. A brilliant science student, he is ostracized by nearly everyone, especially the more popular kids who delight in making fun of the frail, bespectacled teenager.
But he is respected by his teachers and adored by his elderly Aunt May and Uncle Ben, who Peter lives with since his parents are dead.
While attending a lecture and demonstration in nuclear science, Peter is bitten by a spider that has been exposed to the radiation. Peter begins to feel unwell and wanders aimlessly out of the exhibit and into the street.
Suddenly, a car careens around a corner and nearly hits Peter, but at the last second, he leaps and in seconds, is clinging to the bare surface of a building facade.
Amazed at what is happening, Peter climbs up the side of the building to the roof, where he grabs a steel pipe for support and winds up crushing it in his hand. He also crawls down a taught wire, balancing on it like the spider that bit him.
Unsure of the extent of his powers and eager to test them, he sees an ad offering $100 for anyone who can stay in the ring for three minutes with a professional wrestler. Not wanting to embarrass himself, he wears a mask to hide his identity.
The bulky, muscle-bound wrestler mocks his skinny masked opponent before the match starts, but Peter quickly overpowers him and wins the match.
When he collects his money, the promoter tells him he is a television producer, gives Peter his card, and tells him he’ll put him on t.v.
Back at home, Peter fashions a skin-tight red and blue costume. He also uses his scientific ingenuity to concoct a fluid that acts as super strong webbing that he can use for all sorts of different things. He also creates devices to wear on his wrist that will contain the web fluid and shoot it out through a nozzle under pressure. The webbing will adhere to any surface and enable Peter to hang or swing from it.
The last thing Peter does is come up with a name for his costumed alter ego – Spider-Man!
In no time, Spider-Man has become a television sensation. Millions of people watch in awe as he climbs up walls, sticks to the ceiling, and does all manner of amazing tricks with his fantastic webbing.
Backstage, after the show, Spider-Man sees a man running frantically towards him as a police officer pursues him, calling him a thief and yelling for him to stop. Spider-Man does nothing as the man runs past and into the waiting elevator which closes before the policeman can reach it.
The policeman chides Spider-Man for not stopping the thief. Spider-Man tells him that stopping thieves is the policeman’s job, not his, and that he no longer lets others tell him what to do. “From here on,” Spider-Man says, “I only look out for number one – me!”
But, one night soon after, Peter returns home from a television appearance to find police cars in front of his Aunt and Uncle’s house. A police officer tells him that a burglar broke into their house and shot his Uncle Ben.
Furious, Peter rushes off, changes into his Spider-Man costume, and swings off to the old abandoned warehouse by the docks he overhears one of the police officers say the burglar is hiding out in.
The police are being held off, unable to get into the warehouse without being picked off by the burglar. But Spider-Man sneaks inside and surprises the burglar, crawling creepily down the wall of the darkened warehouse towards him.
The burglar tries to run but Spider-Man leaps over him to block his way. He fires his webbing at the man, incapacitating his pistol. Then, he knocks the criminal out with one powerful punch to the jaw.
But as he picks the unconscious burglar from the floor, Spider-Man is shocked to discover a startling thing…
And now he knows the heartbreaking truth – that if he had only acted when he had the chance, his Uncle Ben would still be alive.
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