"MARKED FOR DESTRUCTION BY DR. DOOM!"
Writer: Stan Lee/Penciller: Steve Ditko/Inker: Steve Ditko/Letterer: Sam Rosen/Editor: Stan Lee/Cover Art: Steve Ditko
Synopsis: Doctor Doom hatches a plan to defeat his sworn enemies, the Fantastic Four, by capturing Spider-Man and holding him for ransom...
Review: And so we come to the first truly average issue of ASM. There's nothing particularly bad about this issue - save for a few oddities and inconsistencies that I'll get to - but there's also nothing that great about it either, other than Ditko's artwork, and let's face it, that was always going to be stellar, leaving this story with very little to make it stand out, beyond the novelty of having Spider-Man fight arguably the greatest villain in the Marvel Universe, and this is hardly the only time the two come up against each other anyway. The fight scenes themselves are certainly enjoyable - I particularly like Spidey blocking an instant-freeze chemical using his webbing, and the tussle between the two foes as deadly bolts of energy swirl around them - but they lack the punch and excitement of the past three issues' brilliant battles.
Doom himself is rendered beautifully by Ditko, but we're still at a fairly early point in his history. Several decent Doom issues had been published in the pages of Fantastic Four by this point, but the crucial FF Annual #2 - in which we are not only treated to a cracking Doom story, but also his origin for the first time - wouldn't be released until the following year, after which practically every Doom story was guaranteed to be a winner: I'm talking Issues #39-40, #57-60 and #84-87; all classics of Silver Age Marvel. Here, he's a far more basic character, an imposing and cool-looking, but ultimately kind of generic supervillain who's only there to market ASM to FF readers.
There are still some nice scenes of Peter interacting with his fellow students - although I don't know why he's hanging out with them at a bowling alley when he's supposed to be a social outcast at this point in the comic - plus Jameson and Betty (and we start to see the first seeds of romance blossom between Peter and Jameson's secretary), but none of it feels all that substantial, and the subplot involving Flash dressing up as Spider-Man to scare Peter feels rather juvenile; maybe teenagers behaved this way in 1963, but I doubt it. It does however, lead to a fun mix-up when Doom captures Flash instead of the real Spider-Man, and the subtle way in which Ditko indicates that Flash's costume isn't the real Mc-Coy, by covering it with small creases, is the work of a true master.
This isn't a bad issue by any means, but it's a few marks away from being a good one. Nothing stands out as being very good, and there are a handful of plot holes - Doom blowing up his first hideout, but conveniently not blowing up his second one, enabling Flash to escape; Doom running away from a fight with the Fantastic Four, when he wanted them to turn up in the first place - drag the issue down a bit, not to mention this is the second time a villain has conveyed a message to Spider-Man using his spider-sense, only this time, Doom uses an actual spider in a glass jar, which he just happened to have (was he saving it for a special occasion?). And so, we're left with an issue that feels decidedly middle-of-the-road, but it could have been a lot worse. It's harmless enough.
Rating: 3/5
Next time, Spidey is taken away from his New York stomping grounds and travels to the Florida Everglades, where he finds the terrifying, rampaging...Lizard!
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