September 1963: The Web and the Flame

When Spider-Man co-starred in Strange Tales Annual 2 (Sept. 1963), the fourth issue of his own title appeared alongside it on newsstands. 

Even that early in his career, Spidey was clearly a star. And even then, I remember how odd I found it to see Spider-Man drawn by someone other than Steve Ditko. Rarely was an artist more completely identified with a character.

But then this was a Strange Tales Annual, not a Spider-Man Annual, and Jack Kirby often drew the Human Torch feature in Strange Tales. Ditko does ink the story, but it’s the Kirby style that stands out.

“It’s a fun issue that sparks off a nifty Marvel Universe tradition. Spidey and the Torch continue to get on each other’s nerves even after they team up, providing us with some funny banter,” observed Tim DeForest. “It’s the beginning of a mildly adversarial friendship that will be the springboard for many entertaining stories in the years to come. A minor corollary to this is that they meet atop the Statue of Liberty after they decide to join forces —this would become their usual meeting place whenever one of them needed to contact the other.”

And once the Torch and Spidey teamed up, the Fox — a vulpine-looking mastermind art thief named Reynard Slinker — didn’t have a chance.

The two teens were a study in dramatic contrast — one blond, well-off and show-offishly confident, the other dark-haired, financially strapped and somewhat unsure of himself, despite his super powers. The uncertainty of Peter Parker's life, in and out of costume, came through strongly and proved to be a solid reader hook.

I remember that I was also fascinated by another Kirby story in this annual, a reprint from Strange Tales 67 (Feb. 1959). I Was the Invisible Man! is the first-person narrative of scientist Adam Clayton, who creates a device that will accelerate his atomic structure, permitting him to move at invisible super speed and pose as a superhero.