—Flash ThompsonWell well! So teacher's pet is gonna help the nice little doctor with some experiments this week-end, eh? While us other dumbheads waste time having dates and livin' it up!
Appearing in "Duel to the Death with the Vulture!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Vulture (Adrian Toomes) (First appearance) (See chronology)
Other Characters:
- Numerous unnamed New Yorkers
- NOW Magazine (First appearance)
- Joe (First appearance)
- J. Jonah Jameson (See chronology)
- ⏴ Eleonore Brant ⏵ (First appearance) (Unnamed)
- ⏴ Flash Thompson
- ⏴ Liz Allan
- Numerous other unnamed Midtown High School students
- ⏴ Raymond Warren
- Uncle Ben Parker (Photo)
- NYPD
- Officer Chuck (First appearance)
- Officer Charlie (First appearance)
- Numerous other unnamed officers
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth-616
- Earth
- North America
- United States of America
- New York
- New York City
- Manhattan
- Jameson Publications (First appearance)
- Radio Network
- Little Italy (First appearance)
- 240 Centre Street (First appearance)
- Park Avenue
- Park Avenue Diamond Exchange (First appearance)
- New York City Sewer System
- Queens
- Staten Island (First appearance)
- Abandoned farm silo (First appearance)
- Vulture's hideout (First appearance)
- Abandoned farm silo (First appearance)
- Manhattan
- New York City
- New York
- United States of America
- North America
- Earth
Items:
- Vulture's Wings (First appearance)
- Numerous copies of NOW Magazine (First appearance)
- Spider-Man's Belt Camera (First appearance)
- Spider-Man's Suit and Web-Shooters
- Spider-Man's Utility Belt (First appearance)
- Anti-Magnetic Inverter (First appearance)
Synopsis for "Duel to the Death with the Vulture!"
—VultureNothing I like better than taunting my enemies!
New York City is being terrorized by a new criminal called the Vulture. He is equipped with artificial wings that allow him to swoop down on his victims, snatch their valuables, and fly away before they know what is happening. Nobody has been able to photograph him, and J. Jonah Jameson needs pictures to illustrate his Vulture feature article for NOW Magazine. Peter Parker decides to try to photograph the criminal in action. Selling the photographs will help him and his Aunt May make ends meet.
Meanwhile, the Vulture is in an abandoned silo, his Staten Island hideout, making plans to hit the Park Avenue Jewelry Exchange. As he flies out over the city, he is spotted by Spider-Man, who is equipped with a miniature camera once owned by his late Uncle Ben. Spider-Man manages to take some photographs of the Vulture, but the Vulture sees him, attacks him from behind, knocks him out, and dumps him into a water tower. After breaking out of the water tower, Spider-Man heads home, where he adds some improvements to his devices and develops his photographs.
The next day, Peter Parker arrives at J. Jonah Jameson's office with pictures of the Vulture. The publisher is very impressed and pays him well. The next day Peter heads for the Park Avenue Diamond Exchange, which the Vulture tauntingly announced to the public as the site of his next robbery. While everybody expects the Vulture to strike from above, he strikes from beneath a manhole cover, seizes a case of diamonds, and flees through the New York City sewer system. Spider-Man uses his Spider-Sense to track him down and wins their battle with an anti-magnetic inverter, a device he built to counteract the magnetic power that the Vulture uses for flight. The Vulture is left for the police, and Peter Parker has photographs of the Vulture's capture, which he sells to J. Jonah Jameson for a large sum of money. Peter and Aunt May are able to make ends meet.
Appearing in "The Uncanny Threat of the Terrible Tinkerer!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Tinkerer (Phineas Mason) ⏵ (First appearance)
- Quentin Beck ⏵ (First appearance) (Unnamed) (Disguised as an alien)
- The Tinkerer's Gang (First appearance) (Disguised as aliens)
Other Characters:
- Professor Cobbwell ⏵ (First appearance)
- Peter Parker's High School Classmates
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth-616
- Earth
- North America
- United States of America
- New York State
- New York City
- Queens
- The Tinkerer's Garage
- New York City
- New York State
- United States of America
- North America
- Earth
Items:
- Spider-Man's Suit and Web-Shooters
- Spider-Man's Utility Belt
- Resisto-Glass Prison (First appearance)
- Grimms' Fairy Tales (Mentioned)
Vehicles:
- The Tinkerer's "Space Ship"
Synopsis for "The Uncanny Threat of the Terrible Tinkerer!"
Peter Parker is busy in the Midtown High School science lab when Mr. Warren introduces him to Professor Cobbwell. The professor needs an assistant for the weekend, and Peter Parker comes highly recommended. The next day, Peter runs an errand to the Tinkerer Repair Shop, where Professor Cobbwell has left a radio to be fixed. But in the basement of the shop, a group of what are apparently extraterrestrials have been placing spy devices into the radios of certain customers. The spy devices evidently enable them to estimate the earth's strengths and weaknesses in secrecy before they strike.
Spider-Man's Spider Sense detects an odd kind of radiation emanating from the shop basement. Later, this same kind of radiation is detected from the radio brought back to Professor Cobbwell's laboratory. His curiosity aroused, Spider-Man secretly returns to the Tinkerer's shop and sneaks into the basement, where he sees the "aliens" and the Tinkerer and deduces their plans. Unfortunately, he is spotted, and, in the ensuing battle, he is stunned by one of the Tinkerer's electrical weapons. He is placed into a "resisto-glass" enclosure, from which the Tinkerer and his gang believe he cannot escape. They plan to kill him by withdrawing all the air from the enclosure.
Spider-Man thwarts their plan by shooting web fluid out of the holes through which his air supply is being withdrawn. He hits the button on their control panel that opens his glass prison. A misdirected weapon starts a fire, and the Tinkerer and the "aliens" all flee. They appear to leave the earth in a large spacecraft, while all that remains of the Tinkerer is a face mask in Peter Parker's hands.
Notes
Continuity Notes[]
Duel to the Death With the Vulture!
- This story is expanded upon in Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 3) #1.2–Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 3) #1.3.
- A number of details in this story are considered topical references per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. These details are: The type of camera that Peter uses, the technology used that allows the Vulture to fly, as well as the Magnetic Inverter.
- Although unnamed here, the secretary at the Daily Bugle building is Eleonore Brant. She is first identified in Untold Tales of Spider-Man #12, that story also explains what happens to her following this story.
- In this story, Peter asks Jameson to keep his name a secret, and to credit his photos to a staff photographer. This was an attempt to prevent his classmates from making a connection between Peter and Spider-Man. Eventually, he revealed that he was taking photos for the Daily Bugle during a class presentation, as seen in Untold Tales of Spider-Man #11.
- Vulture's costume sports a tail, seen on the cover and in most panels within the issue. The tail shows up again on the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #7.
The Uncanny Threat of the Terrible Tinkerer!
- A number of details in this story are considered topical references per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. These details are: Any references to the Tinkerer specifically fixing radios. Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 3) #1.4 states that Peter was sent to get Professor Cobbwell's antique radio repaired. Likewise should the price of the Tinkerer's repair jobs (10 cents) be considered topical.
- The "aliens" in this story are revealed to be criminals disguise and the entire thing was a charade to throw off anyone who might discover their operations. This fact was explained in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #51. That same issue reveals that one of the crooks is Quentin Beck, who becomes Mysterio in Amazing Spider-Man #13.
- Peter's part time job with Professor Cobbwell is shortlived, the details of how he loses this job are revealed in Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 3) #1.4–Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 3) #1.5.
Chronology Notes[]
Events occur behind the scenes in this story that affect the chronologies of the following characters:
Spider-Man:
- Duel to the Death With the Vulture!
- ⏴ Page 1-Page 3, Panel 3 ⏵ - Peter learns about the reward for a photo of the Vulture, decides to use his powers to photograph the villain.
- ⏴ Page 3, Panel 4-Page 5, Panel 1 ⏵ - Spider-Man tracks down the Vulture.
- ⏴ Page 5, Panel 2-Page 7, Panel 2 ⏵ - Spider-Man defeated by the Vulture, but comes up with a means of neutralizing his powers, takes his photo to the Daily Bugle.
- ⏴ Page 8, Panel 3 ⏵ - Peter shows J. Jonah Jameson his photos of the Vulture.
- ⏴ Page 8, Panel 4-5 ⏵ - Jameson agrees to buy the photos.
- ⏴ Page 8, Panel 6-Page 14 ⏵ - Spider-Man defeats the Vulture.
- The Uncanny Threat of the Terrible Tinkerer!
Aunt May:
- Duel to the Death With the Vulture!
- ⏴ Page 3, Panel 3 ⏵ - Aunt May gives Peter her late husband's camera.
- ⏴ Page 14, Panel 5 ⏵ - Peter gives Aunt May the money he earned from taking a photo of the Vulture.
J. Jonah Jameson:
- Duel to the Death With the Vulture!
- ⏴ Page 2, Panels 4-5 ⏵ - Jameson puts out a reward for a photo of the Vulture.
- ⏴ Page 8, Panels 3-5 ⏵ - Jonah buys photos of the Vulture from Peter Parker.
- ⏴ Page 14. Panels 4-5 ⏵ - Jonah pays Peter for more photos of the Vulture.
Vulture:
- Duel to the Death With the Vulture!
- ⏴ Page 1-Page 5, Panel 1 ⏵ - The Vulture begins his crime spree.
- ⏴ Page 5, Panel 2-Page 7, Panel 2 ⏵ - The Vulture battles Spider-Man.
- ⏴ Page 8, Panel 6-Page 14 ⏵ - Vulture is defeated by Spider-Man, arrested.
Publication Notes[]
- This issue features the first diagram detailing how Spider-Man's web-shooters operate.
Trivia
- This issue is technically the first in comic book history to feature the traditional comic corner box. It was Steve Ditko's idea of featuring a corner box spotlighting Spider-Man. Stan Lee liked it so much he had Jack Kirby do the same for the cover of Fantastic Four #14. However, in the month of release of these two books, Fantastic Four came out earlier, for which it usually gets the credit of being the comic issue that introduced the corner box.[1]
- The cover logo was redesigned by Sol Brodsky and Artie Simek by repositioning lettering from the logo of issue Vol 1 1 and redrawing the webbing.
- The cover of this issue is one of the 32 that appear in the comic collection from the 2000 video game Spider-Man.
See Also
Links and References
- http://www.spiderfan.org/comics/reviews/spiderman_amazing/002.html
- http://www.spiderfan.org/comics/reviews/spiderman_amazing/002-b.html
References
- ↑ Cronin, Brian (8 July 2017) Steve Ditko Invented the Comic Corner Box CBR.com. Retrieved on 9 July 2017.