"THE MAN CALLED ELECTRO!"
Writer: Stan Lee/Penciller: Steve Ditko/Inker: Steve Ditko/Letterer: Artie Simek/Editor: Stan Lee/Cover Art: Steve Ditko
Synopsis: Spider-Man faces more troubles than ever before as a new super-powered criminal, Electro, begins making waves in New York, and J Jonah Jameson accuses the two of them being the same man...
Review: I said at the end of my last review that ASM #9 is when the book really starts to kick into full swing, and I wasn't kidding. Not only do Lee and Ditko leave split books behind completely, in favour of full-length stories, but this is where we start to see more continuity between issues, more problems besetting Peter's personal life than ever before, and we also get a few hints of what's to come in future issues; all the subplots and storylines that we love Spider-Man for have their humble beginnings here.
We get a reference to Peter and Flash's fight from the previous issue, providing a neat little bit of continuity, but more significantly, Aunt May falls badly ill and is rushed to the hospital, leaving Peter with the task of scraping one thousand dollars to pay for an operation she desperately needs. The sense of isolation and hopelessness that Ditko conveys in the scenes of Peter sitting alone at Aunt May's bedside as the night draws in is palpable; his artwork really does reach new heights of greatness in this issue. I love the moral dilemma Peter suffers when he fakes a set of photos that prove Spider-Man and Electro are one and the same; it really shows the extremes he's forced to go to in order to pay for his aunt's healthcare. We also start to see some of the first seeds of a story arc being sown when Betty wistfully tells Peter that he reminds her of someone she knew once...a mystery that will be answered in the next few issues (or Untold Tales of Spider-Man, depending on your perspective).
Electro himself has (sounding like a broken record, I know) long been one of my favourite villains, and this first appearance in particular ranks very highly for me when it comes to Electro stories; in fact, it may even be my favourite. You just get such an incredible sense of the raw power of Electro, the way Spidey can't even touch him without being shocked by enough volts of electricity to kill an ordinary person, and the ways in which he manipulates his electrical abilities - climbing up walls by adhering to the metal pipes inside the building, using a set of cables as an improvised electric whip - are creative and exciting to look at. I also appreciate that we get a brief origin story for the character in this issue, which didn't always happen at this stage of the comic (Chameleon and Vulture wouldn't get origin stories for decades to come), and you've got to love the fact that Spidey beats his opponent in the end - after a spectacular battle in a rioting prison - by dousing him with water from a fire hose.
Honestly, there are so many little moments that I absolutely adore peppered throughout this issue that to mention them all would make this post ridiculously long. Suffice to say, ASM #9 is the best issue of ASM so far, a richer, more complex story than anything we've seen from the pages of a Spider-Man comic (hell, probably any Marvel comic) so far, with stunning artwork and storytelling from Ditko, who is at the top of his game, whilst Stan's dialogue grounds the characters in a reality that we can recognise; more than ever, Spider-Man feels the way the final text box describes him: "the super-hero who could be...you!" The dream team has brought Spider-Man to new heights, and it only gets better from here.
How beautiful is this splash page:
Rating: 5/5
Next time, a new wave of organised crime sweeps New York, as Spider-Man faces the Big Man and his ruthless Enforcers, and Betty Brant makes a startling decision!
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