"THE RETURN OF THE VULTURE"
Writer: Stan Lee/Penciller: Steve Ditko/Inker: Steve Ditko/Letterer: Artie Simek/Editor: Stan Lee/Cover Art: Steve Ditko
Synopsis: The Vulture breaks out of prison and goes on another crime spree, prompting Spider-Man to swing into action, but things won't be so easy this time...
Review: And so, the Vulture becomes the first villain to ever menace Spider-Man for a second time, and I personally don't think they could have chosen a better candidate for the first returning bad guy. I may prefer Doctor Octopus, but I'm a huge fan of the Vulture too, and this gave Lee and Ditko the chance to feature him in a full-length issue, a more substantial story than his short and sweet debut. Unsurprisingly, they pull out all the stops and deliver another brilliant instalment; ASM really was the most consistently good Marvel title of the 60s, right from the beginning (not that I'm biased or anything). Everything about this issue is better than the Vulture's first appearance: better artwork, better character moments, better action; this is pure Lee and Ditko magic.
The Vulture himself is even more of a dangerous opponent than he was in his debut; not only are his new wings more powerful - and resistant to the anti-magnetic inverter used to defeat him last time - but he's become even more cunning in his aerial acrobatics: he flies low to the ground to avoid being picked up on police radar (as well as putting civilians in the line of fire if a cop was to try and shoot at him). Of course, we still get plenty of high-flying Vulture action, and Steve really outdid himself with this one; after two issues of decent but unspectacular battles, he comes back strong with some of the greatest fight scenes of the era: the initial conflict between Spidey and the Vulture, in which the web-head is knocked out of the air and takes a painful tumble onto the rooftops below is brilliantly impactful, thanks to the way in which Steve paces out the action, emphasising Spider-Man's desperate struggle to get one of his web-lines to connect, only for each of them to fail. The tension may be fantastic in this scene, but the sense of fast-moving fun and carnage during the final Vulture fight through the Daily Bugle building is off the scale. Spidey and the Vulture are leaping and soaring through the air, papers are flying all over the place, Jameson is yelling up a storm and the Bugle employees stare on in terror and confusion as their place of work is completely ransacked. It's a magnificent action sequence, with clear storytelling and gorgeously Ditko-esque acrobatic action.
But apart from the action, this issue just has so many delightful little moments that you would only ever find in a Ditko Spider-Man issue. Spidey having to wait almost twenty minutes to leap into action out of his bedroom window because their are too many pedestrians in the street that might see him is hilarious, but my favourite scenes have to be from the Bugle. The Bugle characters are some of my favourites, and even if not all of them have been introduced yet, the early interaction between the core trio of Peter, Betty and Jameson is lovely. The romance between Peter and Betty continues to develop nicely, thanks to a beautiful final page by Ditko, and we get some absolutely classic Jameson moments, including his nervous refusal when the Vulture demands that he hand over his money, and the iconic panel in which Spider-Man shoots a web over the blustering publisher's mouth in order to shut him up.
The Vulture's return is another highlight of these early Lee and Ditko issues, and much like ASM #4, I always forget just how good it is. The cover doesn't lie: this is Spider-Man as you like him, fighting joking, daring, and all with an arm in a sling whilst battling one of the most dangerous foes he's faced so far. By now, Lee and Ditko have proven that they can craft the perfect Spider-Man cocktail: action, humour and drama (although not much of the latter just yet), and things just get better and better from here.
Rating: 4.5/5
Next time, we get a brief return to a split book featuring two stories: in the first, Spider-Man battles the robotic menace of the Living Brain in the halls of Midtown High, and in the second, he tries to steal the Human Torch's girlfriend. Wait, what?
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