So, The vulture in the first story and the handyman in the second, the Spiderman The series was doing very well in its second issue. With the backstory firmly established in the first issue, Stan Lee and his crew decided to draw some supervillains for Spider-Man.
Synopsis
In this issue, Peter Parker starts working for a world famous scientist, Professor Cobbwell. While his school teachers are happy with him, his colleagues and classmates begin to label him a bookworm and he ends up not being the most famous kid in school.
Now, like any other intern, Parker’s life is not just about working at what he is, but also about doing the tasks that the teacher tells him to do. This brings him into contact with a man known only as The Tinkerer, who repairs important men’s electronics for just a dime.
Parker finds this suspicious, and his spider-sense tingles when he arrives at The Tinkerer’s lair, but he has no choice but to leave. After all, the intern has to do only what his employer has told him, right?
Back in the professor’s lab, the same tingles are felt and our costumed superhero is stumped. Feel the same tingles when you were in The Tinkerer’s lab!
As Professor Cobbwell leaves for the day, Spider-Man investigates the radio and finds some unique devices. Our brave hero at heart decides to investigate further.
Well, Spidey discovers that The Tinkerer’s repair shop is just a front for an alien race that has a unique plan for world domination. They have inserted a device into the electronic devices of all the important men, so that they can decipher their user behavior and spy on them.
In fact, the alien race is sniffing around defense plans being discussed by an Army Major even as Spider-Man finds out about their dastardly plan.
Spiderman is found and there is a skirmish between the aliens and Spiderman. Although Spidey overpowers them all, he is eventually captured after a device is thrown at him. He is held captive in a special cell, which Spidey comes out of with his web.
There’s another skirmish now, where one of the control panels gets hit and there’s a big fire. Spiderman escapes, along with The Tinkerer and all the aliens. When people see Spiderman escaping from the chimney, they wonder if it was Spiderman who set the building on fire.
Discussion:
In the first issue, Peter Parker was accused of his role as Spiderman, and in the following issue, he first fought a common criminal, The Vulture, and the third story pitted him against an alien race!
That escalated pretty quickly, didn’t it? Well, the common thread in all these stories is electronics. A miniature camera, a device that stops the Vulture’s artificial wings, and special devices on radios that allow people to spy on others.
We need to emphasize here that although electronics may seem poorly portrayed, it is ultimately an electronic device that Spiderman uses to defeat The Vulture.
If the comics are a picture of the situation back then, we guess being in the electronics business wasn’t a good idea at the time. In these issues, along with larger than life characters like an alien race and a flying thief, new electronics are at the center of the theme.
Spider-Man’s character has also grown tremendously in the early issues, and the writers have gone to great lengths to explain how Spidey is doing things.
We can’t wait to read the other adventures and discuss them. Are you? Tell us all about it in the comments section below.
