Amazing Spider-Man #4 "Nothing Can Stop The Sandman!" Classic Talkback (Spoilers)

[Spider-Man]

With Spider-Man 3 coming, let's take a look at Sandman's first comic appearance!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #4
http://samruby.com/AmazingSpider-ManA/AmazingSpider-Man004_small.jpg (http://samruby.com/AmazingSpider-ManA/amazing_spiderman_004.htm)
Image from of Samruby.com


Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Steve Ditko
Cover: Steve Ditko

Spider-Man faces off against a new threat - a man who is made of sand! Can Spider-Man stop the Sandman before he robs the city blind?

Comments?

[Kazuya Prower]

It's times like these I'm glad I got the Amazing Spider-Man DVD-rom that has every ASM issue and annual up to June 2006. Anyway, this issue was classic. We got to see Sandman's origin, Spidey's mask torn off in round 1 and escapes before being noticed, Sandman demanding for a high school diploma, then being sucked into a vacuum. They don't make classic stories like this anymore.

[LazyReaper]

I actually re-read this classic a month ago. I own the reprint of this through Marvel Tales. It's amazing how much comics have changed today in their visual storytelling. The issue is really corny, but I found that to be part of the fun of going back and reading something as old as this.

-Aximlli-

[Ed Liu]

I read this in my ASM Marvel Masterworks. I think one of the things I love the most about the earlier Spider-Man stories is that he is almost always completely outclassed by his villains early on. Every villain battle he gets himself into nearly does him in, and he has to come up with increasingly clever ways to defeat the villain because the last trick won't work twice in a row. This is pretty radically different from the average Superman comic of the era -- Superman may outwit his foes as often as he punches them through a wall, but there's more of the sense of a cat playing with its prey with him. You feel that Spidey is really fighting for his life in the Lee/Ditko stories, and only his skill at continually improvising is saving his bacon. It puts Spider-Man in the position of the underdog despite his tremendous powers, and everybody likes rooting for the underdog.

It's a common thing in Spidey comics and got overdone by the time we hit Venom IMO, but placed in context, I think it was a pretty radical thing to do.

The other neat thing I picked up on when I finally read the Lee/Ditko run end-to-end is how Peter's relationship with Betty Brant changes over time. Excluding the usual hiccups that always seem to pop up in relationships with superheroes, the two grow closer in a pretty organic and natural way, even through Stan Lee's typically bombastic dialogue. There's an incredibly sweet moment later on (issue 7, it turns out (http://samruby.com/AmazingSpider-ManA/amazing_spiderman_007.htm)) when Peter and Betty are hiding behind a desk at the Bugle after some crazy supervillain rampage, and they just decide to stay there with each other after everything is over, implicitly acknowledging their mutual affection. I don't even remember who the villain was, but I remember that moment between him and Betty.

As for the story itself, there is something hugely entertaining about defeating a guy made of sand with a giant vacuum cleaner. I was also amused by the bit at the end when Peter realizes that he forgot to take pictures of the battle, but realizes he can just stage some for the Bugle by tossing sand in the air and punching it.

-- Ed

[Stu]

I love Lee/Ditko's run. It's corny, sure, but there's a surprising amount of depth to the characters and they all remain loveable in thier own way. Spider-Man grew up a hell of a lot through these early issues, and as Ed mentions, he spends a lot of his time getting his ass handed to him.

His ego often gets the better of him, most noteable when he mentions he's bored of fighting petty criminals and wants a challenge in Amazing Spider-Man #3 when Doc Ock embarasses him in thier first battle. I also love how he's absoloutly terrified of anyone finding out he's Spider-Man and simply runs away the moment his mask is damaged - that's how Spider-Man should be. Take note, Joe and Joe.

As I said over in the animation retrospective (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=189385) for Sandman, he's not a great favourite of mine but I love how powerful he is in the issue - simply a thug who ran into a bunch of superpowers beyond those of his wildest dreams.

Great issue. Any chance of us getting more classic talkbacks?