July 1968: Politics and Power

The month before the new magazine appeared, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, the brother of the recently martyred JFK, entered the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, citing “deep … divisions within our party and country” that made it  “…unmistakably clear that we can change these disastrous, divisive policies only by changing the men who make them.” And President Lyndon B. Johnson announced he would not seek that same nomination.

The very month the magazine appeared, Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot on the balcony of a Memphis motel. Riots in more than 100 cities nationwide left 39 people dead, more than 2,600 injured and 21,000 arrested over the next week.

Meanwhile, back in the Marvel universe, New York City mayoral candidate Richard Raleigh is alliteratively named, like many Marvel heroes including Peter Parker himself, and appears to share their values.

Apparently an honest, crusading “law-and-order” candidate, the handsome Raleigh is in fact a power-mad schemer who is orchestrating super villain attacks against himself to put his election over the top.

“To me, you’re just another sheep … like all the unthinking masses,” Raleigh sneers at an aide. “One day, all who live will be my slaves!” This was the superhero version of Elia Kazan’s prophetic film A Face in the Crowd, released a decade before.

The new magazine reflected Stan Lee and John Romita’s zest for the zeitgeist. The real-world themes of political hypocrisy and an easily conned American public — even Peter’s friends MJ and Harry and his Aunt May support Raleigh — show that Lee and artist Romita were probably hoping this 35-cent magazine might appeal to a slightly more “grown-up” audience than the comic book.

The Spectacular Spider-Man was a first — the first Marvel magazine and the first such magazine devoted to a superhero — and one “second” (the second Spider-Man title).

Although the magazine was short-lived, the story was retooled for Amazing Spider-Man 116-117 (Jan.-Feb. 1973). By then, Nixon was terminally embroiled in Watergate.

1968 was, in several ways, a peak year for Marvel Comics.