"THE MENACE OF...MYSTERIO!"
Writer: Stan Lee/Penciller: Steve Ditko/Inker: Steve Ditko/Letterer: Artie Simek/Editor: Stan Lee/Cover Art: Steve Ditko
Synopsis: A recent spate of robberies appear to have been committed by none other than Spider-Man himself. To find out what's really going on, Spidey will have to triumph over the enigmatic Mysterio...
Review: This is a very difficult issue for me to review, because I know it practically off by heart. The events that make up Mysterio's first appearance are so deeply seared into my brain that I could reel them off in my sleep. Perhaps I'm too familiar with the story, but I'll do my best to review it, regardless. Ol' fishbowl face is one of my all-time favourite Spidey villains; at one stage, I would have named him as my number one, and re-reading ASM #13, it's easy to see why. He's such a bizarre, yet beautifully intricate piece of Ditko brilliance: the scale-like green armour, the gilded gloves, the huge purple cape fastened with clasps that bear the mark of a wide-open eye, and of course, that glorious fishbowl covering his head. Mysterio is iconic; not perhaps to the general audience, but we Spider-philes adore him; his costume is a classic case of the impressive blending seamlessly with the silly, and creating a wonderful new adversary for Spider-Man.
Of course, it's not just Mysterio's design that makes him stand out. Mysterio's defeat of Spidey atop the Brooklyn Bridge is one of the most defining for me in all of Spider-Man. Mysterio may not be the first villain to defeat Spider-Man, but he's the first to publicly humiliate him, the first to turn the entire city against him, and get the populace to cheer at the hero's downfall. Not only that, but he revels in the resulting publicity, further rubbing the web-head's face in it, whilst also proving to be a nice contrast: where Spidey shunned interviews and press junkets, Mysterio gladly accepts them just to show off (I wonder if this was a comment by the famously reclusive Ditko about the evils of celebrity?) In addition, Mysterio's vast array of 'powers' afforded to him by means of his special effects mastery makes him one of the most formidable villains in Spidey's rogues' gallery; here is a villain that can practically do anything, or at least, make you think he can, which might as well be the same thing. When you can't even trust your senses, what can you trust? I actually think it would be future writers and artists that would get the most out of Mysterio, and just how mind-bending his illusions can be, but I still get a huge kick out of Ditko's acrobatic fight scenes, particularly the climactic one set against the backdrop of a movie studio, and his depiction of Spidey getting the tar beaten out of him as he is blinded on all sides by Mysterio's smoke - and with a completely neutralised spider-sense - is fantastically tense and exciting.
This issue is mostly plot-based, but we do still get some slices of Peter's personal life thrown in, such as Aunt May's struggles to pay the mortgage, and Flash getting annoyed with Liz's increasing interest in his high school enemy. I do like how Peter is slowly getting more confident in hurling insults back at Flash, here telling him that for someone who's supposed to be his girlfriend, Liz doesn't show all that much interest in Midtown High's football star. We also get the first of what will become many glimpses of Betty Brant: Paranoid Lunatic, as she immediately begins to wonder if Peter is having a relationship with Liz, simply because she's seen the two in the same vicinity on more than one occasion. This is fairly tame compared to some of Betty's later assumptions; in future issues, she's ready to believe the worst of Peter based on literally no evidence whatsoever. Amidst all of the personal drama, Lee and Ditko also make time for the kind of fun moments that make their run so unique, such as when Spider-Man visits a psychiatrist to see if he really is cracking up. The doctor's line: "You're the kind of patient every psychiatrist dreams of!" got a good laugh out of me.
This isn't a story devoid of flaws. Peter is a little bit quick to assume that the only explanation for the 'Spider-Man crime wave' is that he's losing his mind, and not that someone else is duplicating his powers (especially odd, seeing as the Chameleon did it back in ASM #1), and I also feel that the insanity-inducing potential of Mysterio's powers isn't explored enough here, nor is the movie studio, of which we only see one sound stage. With all that said, it's still another really fun issue; not one of Lee and Ditko's best, but it's a great showcase for one of my all-time favourite villains, and features some brilliant bits of dialogue that only Stan could come up with; my favourite has to be Peter's idle musing as he walks to school: "I don't know what to worry about first! Paying the mortgage, or wondering if I'm a sleep-walking criminal!"
Rating: 4/5
Next time, Spider-Man will come face to face with his arch-nemesis for the first time, along with some old friends (or should that be enemies?), along with a special guest star! The Green Goblin is almost here...
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