Screw It, We're Just Gonna Talk About Comics

Maybe our favorite issue yet! Action, drama, humor and as always amazing Steve Ditko art! Doc Ock unmasks Spidey! He really does it, but there's a TWIST that helps Spidey protect his identity. Plus Will bought comics this week and Kevin loves when Loki and Thor are nice to each other.

It's the return of premier Spidey villain Doctor Octopus, and this issue sizzles! We've got melodrama in Peter's growing love affair with Betty Brant! A new troubled character who threatens to destroy the people he loves with his gambling addiction! A climactic battle! And a bunch of times Doc Ock calls people FOOLS! WE LOVE THIS ISSUE!

The best worst villains in the Spider-Man universe: it's the Enforcers! Ox! Montana! And the even more insanely-named Fancy Dan! Artist Steve Ditko really seems to be following a "make 'em fun-to-draw first, worry about the story second" rule with these guys, and your co-hosts Kevin and Will couldn't be happier. These villains, led by the almost-but-not-quite-as silly "Big Man" are some our favori...

One of the coolest powers yet most desperate costumes ever, Electro is the villain for this issue. He's got lightning bolts on his wrists, ankles and face, and he's called Electro. Now, what do you think his powers revolve around? But despite this costume, this issue has some of the most moving and affecting storytelling yet in the series! Co-hosts/brothers Kevin and Will freak out about it!

Alex Fernie (UCB, Bajillion Dollar Properties, Do You Want To See A Dead Body?) is our first ever guest as we go over Issue 8, the oddly subtitled "Tribute To Teenagers" issue. A tribute in that there are teenagers IN the story, and that might be the total tribute that happens. Also there's a huge killer robot, Peter punches Flash and Peter is a straight-up bully to the Human Torch in the backup s...

Our first return villain and it's our favorite winged septuagenarian (assuming) The Vulture! Peter Parker's brilliant "Anti magnetic inverter" (?) no longer stops bird-brain, so how will Spider-Man beat this weird old man who flies? Other questions: why do Parker's classmates stay so caught up on crime news? How far will JJJ go to save a buck? Are Peter and Betty crushing (yes)? Kevin and Will lov...

This issue introduces what will be another classic Spidey villain: The Lizard! Spider-Man travels to the swamps of Florida to battle this tragic scientist-turned-lizard-man! And JJJ is along for the ride. Kevin is moved by The Lizard's tears! Will realizes that he might like JJJ as much as if not more than Spider-Man!

Spidey meets Marvel's most notorious villain --- the very unsubtly named Doctor Doom! An exciting idea that leads to a just okay story! But even a sub-par Doom story has all that great/ridiculous Doctor Doom dialogue! Never has a villain referred to himself in the third person like Doctor Doom! The issues also features a favorite trope: bully Flash Thompson getting humiliated!

Another major villain debuts: The Sandman! A man gets the power to separate himself into millions of tiny sentient beings and he uses it to…. Get big bags of money! Come on, Spidey still specializes in THUGS, no matter how powerful! Also: Spidey shows off in front of his high school classmates! Peter almost gets a date! Sandman can't stop saying his own name! And MORE!

The debut of Doctor Octopus, one of the greatest Spidey villains of all time! Fittingly, this is the first truly great issue of Spider-Man! Great characters, moody beautiful art, terrific action and a great story! We can't stop raving about this one!

We meet the first classic Spider-Man villain: The Vulture. Like all great Ditko villains, he seems created just for the cool visuals. He looks distinct and cool (or at least intriguingly odd), he's smart, he's mean, and he will be back.  And... there's also a second story! The tale of the Tinkerer. It is... an ungood story. Seems left over from the old Amazing Fantasy bin. But the art is great, an...

For his second appearance, Spider-Man gets his own comic that contains two -- really THREE -- stories! He meets J. Jonah Jameson, the perpetually angry newspaper publisher who uses his media empire to paint Spider-Man as a MENACE! He meets the FF, who reject him as a member, for many reasons including that he basically breaks in to their headquarters and tries to show off! He meets the Chameleon,...

Amazing Adult Fantasy was an anthology comics series that featured stand-alone sci-fi and fantasy stories. They were short, dark, weird and often had twist endings. Think Twilight Zone, but five page comics stories. But this issue -- the series' last issue -- broke from its pattern in a few important ways. One, it changed its title to just "Amazing Fantasy." And two, it introduced Spider-Man.

In this podcast, we will discuss all 41 of the original Spider-Man comics done by the original creative team of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko! But before we do, we wanted to give a background on both the character and us! So we talk about the history behind the creation of Spider-Man, and what he came to mean to the world of comics and beyond.