Spider-Man's Greatest Team-Ups: Human Torch, 1964
Spider-Man’s Best Team-Up Stories: 1964
Spidey & Torch in the 60’s are the closest thing to the Superman & Batman of Marvel, where heroes don’t so much team-up as encounter one another. Teams working closely together is more of an 80’s Marvel depiction.
And the tradition of Spider-man paired up with darn near Everyone starts with probably his 3rd Torch encounter, in Strange Tales Annual #2 (ASM #1 & 3- Johnny, a.k.a. the Torch for those who don’t know, visits Pete’s Midtown High to speak). I didn’t think much of the villain, but The Fox at least challenges the boys to use their heads, nowhere in their league physically. Here, also, is where annuals turn into popular places to team up heroes. What better example than Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965)? I think every active Marvel hero turns up in those pages, only one of which has mushy vows and the rest feature Dr. Doom’s greatest threat yet: send every hostile super human possible to attack with no organized plan. Spidey’s cameo doesn’t make for much of a team-up, though.
The first glimpse of a great Spider-Man team up, to me, is Amazing Spider-Man #19, (Dec., 1964- that cover date indicates it was released by September, 1964, in most locations.) The Human Torch spends most of the issue a prisoner of Sandman and the Enforcers, true. Not only is the throw down the topper to a whole issue dedicated to Spidey’s surprising ways of hitting crooks, but Webhead and Matchstick even have to over come a mutual mistake born of never having fought super-criminals together before. But great as all that is, Spider-Man’s still jealous of Torch, who he thinks of as no friend, but he can’t leave him in the hands of the villains. Same time, Johnny snarls at his kidnappers that he’s no pal of Spider-Man. He even snaps about how long it took Spidey to free him to fight. But there’s no way around how much better they are working together against evil-doers, even if they’re too proud to say. They’re being their ideas of macho. This success as Spider-Man gives him the satisfaction of first upturning JJJ’s biggest band wagon yet, and as Peter Parker, relaxes him enormously. For once he floats over the angst, not because everything’s coming up roses, but because he’s over come a neurosis, for now, of what people think of him. It’s a Marvel Milestone.
Since I’m not sure why the Enforcers and Sandman would benefit from lying in wait and taking out a battle-weakened Human Torch to be their hostage- unless they planned to lure Spider-Man to them all along- revisiting this for the first time in ages, I see how Ditko’s plot, in the art, might have been what I just said. It’s Stan’s script that adds the part about Sandman only getting the Enforcers aboard because he’d gotten rid of Spider-Man. That’s not a bad idea. But why kidnap one quarter of the single famous, greatest super team in the world? There’s no overarching logic to way laying Johnny Storm for any purpose save to lure Spider-Man to the trap as depicted.
But look. Spider-Man is the funniest superhero comic book in the world at this time. Everyone’s presented as a comedy character- except Betty, who’s in soap opera mode. Paired with the issue before, it’s an early highwater mark for the Marvel Age. Terrific. Dramatic range, misery, fear, and doubt before a triumph with more personal meaning to Spidey than any since he first defeated Doctor Octopus. Rather, he’s encouraged- wall-crawling seems meaningful.
Fittingly, the Human Torch was there at the start, when Spidey is first called a coward while he leaves Torch to fend off the Green Goblin- at a Spider-Man Fan Club meeting, no less! But his aunt’s desperately ill. There’s even more pressure on, since the Fan Club’s President is hectoring jock Flash Thompson, whose own fortunes nosedive a minute for supporting such a fraud as Spider-Man. So even when Peter’s arch rival at Midtown High gets his come-uppance, it’s even more at Spidey’s expense! Flash’s sometime squeeze Liz Allen- who’s turned to Peter’s tutorial advice with some attraction evident, besides- asked her dad to host the event, and Betty...you know, I could’ve started with ASM #17. But my point was: team-up. First best one for Spider-Man.
Amazing Spider-Man issues #17-19 tell a story tightly knit as a trilogy- which is a first for the title, and, I think, for Marvel Super Heroes.
I even liked Spidey and Torch against Speed Demon in the origin of the new Frog Man. And I’ve got to say, while I picked something more obvious for the best team-up of 1985, if you want a good laugh, the way they work together in Peter Parker #103 has friendly echoes of their early rivalry, a creepy half ghoulish sorta-Peter and Spider-Man effigy filled out like a real body, hanging on fire besides the flame-written words, “You’re Next!” Had a plot like none other before it at Marvel, too, courtesy of Peter David in one of his first published stories. The sharp wit and black humor make it ‘85’s honorable mention.
I suspect this entry will remain one of my personal favorites. I thought a fun summer comics writing project would be to select Spider-Man’s best classic team-ups, ending in, say, 1985. So how about fifteen posts, several with a second comic mentioned, from another year. Random years, too. Just more fun and interesting to me than reading and writing my selections chronologically.
I intended to start with Marvel Team Up #1- another Spider-Man/ Human Torch team-up, again versus the Sandman- as it’s maybe Marvel’s first great Christmas story- since I was only wow’d by two or three team-ups I’d read before then. I’ve even read his team-up with Thor in MTU #7 already.
While co-creator and, increasingly, plotter, artist Steve Ditko, did not draw many Spider-Man team-ups, he’ll have the Torch back in #21, where both heroes makes asses of themselves over Johnny’s paramour, Dorrie Evans, before trashing the Beetle in a fight that is maybe even more cool than this one, as I love fights in houses. In Ditko’s stories, despite Marvel’s most successful supporting cast, Peter’s often a loner in both guises, often due to his own choices, when not due to the hazards of life spent secretly changing into Spider-Man. Marvel heroes, in those dawning years, were more apt to encounter, rather than immediately (or, in any way) team with, one another. They’re comics for the non-team player. Aside from characters who’ve decided to band together as teams, the awesome Spidey/ Torch pairing is, correct me if I’m mistaken, the first Marvel Team-Up.
Spidey & Torch in the 60’s are the closest thing to the Superman & Batman of Marvel, where heroes don’t so much team-up as encounter one another. Teams working closely together is more of an 80’s Marvel depiction.
And the tradition of Spider-man paired up with darn near Everyone starts with probably his 3rd Torch encounter, in Strange Tales Annual #2 (ASM #1 & 3- Johnny, a.k.a. the Torch for those who don’t know, visits Pete’s Midtown High to speak). I didn’t think much of the villain, but The Fox at least challenges the boys to use their heads, nowhere in their league physically. Here, also, is where annuals turn into popular places to team up heroes. What better example than Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965)? I think every active Marvel hero turns up in those pages, only one of which has mushy vows and the rest feature Dr. Doom’s greatest threat yet: send every hostile super human possible to attack with no organized plan. Spidey’s cameo doesn’t make for much of a team-up, though.
The first glimpse of a great Spider-Man team up, to me, is Amazing Spider-Man #19, (Dec., 1964- that cover date indicates it was released by September, 1964, in most locations.) The Human Torch spends most of the issue a prisoner of Sandman and the Enforcers, true. Not only is the throw down the topper to a whole issue dedicated to Spidey’s surprising ways of hitting crooks, but Webhead and Matchstick even have to over come a mutual mistake born of never having fought super-criminals together before. But great as all that is, Spider-Man’s still jealous of Torch, who he thinks of as no friend, but he can’t leave him in the hands of the villains. Same time, Johnny snarls at his kidnappers that he’s no pal of Spider-Man. He even snaps about how long it took Spidey to free him to fight. But there’s no way around how much better they are working together against evil-doers, even if they’re too proud to say. They’re being their ideas of macho. This success as Spider-Man gives him the satisfaction of first upturning JJJ’s biggest band wagon yet, and as Peter Parker, relaxes him enormously. For once he floats over the angst, not because everything’s coming up roses, but because he’s over come a neurosis, for now, of what people think of him. It’s a Marvel Milestone.
Since I’m not sure why the Enforcers and Sandman would benefit from lying in wait and taking out a battle-weakened Human Torch to be their hostage- unless they planned to lure Spider-Man to them all along- revisiting this for the first time in ages, I see how Ditko’s plot, in the art, might have been what I just said. It’s Stan’s script that adds the part about Sandman only getting the Enforcers aboard because he’d gotten rid of Spider-Man. That’s not a bad idea. But why kidnap one quarter of the single famous, greatest super team in the world? There’s no overarching logic to way laying Johnny Storm for any purpose save to lure Spider-Man to the trap as depicted.
But look. Spider-Man is the funniest superhero comic book in the world at this time. Everyone’s presented as a comedy character- except Betty, who’s in soap opera mode. Paired with the issue before, it’s an early highwater mark for the Marvel Age. Terrific. Dramatic range, misery, fear, and doubt before a triumph with more personal meaning to Spidey than any since he first defeated Doctor Octopus. Rather, he’s encouraged- wall-crawling seems meaningful.
Fittingly, the Human Torch was there at the start, when Spidey is first called a coward while he leaves Torch to fend off the Green Goblin- at a Spider-Man Fan Club meeting, no less! But his aunt’s desperately ill. There’s even more pressure on, since the Fan Club’s President is hectoring jock Flash Thompson, whose own fortunes nosedive a minute for supporting such a fraud as Spider-Man. So even when Peter’s arch rival at Midtown High gets his come-uppance, it’s even more at Spidey’s expense! Flash’s sometime squeeze Liz Allen- who’s turned to Peter’s tutorial advice with some attraction evident, besides- asked her dad to host the event, and Betty...you know, I could’ve started with ASM #17. But my point was: team-up. First best one for Spider-Man.
Amazing Spider-Man issues #17-19 tell a story tightly knit as a trilogy- which is a first for the title, and, I think, for Marvel Super Heroes.
I even liked Spidey and Torch against Speed Demon in the origin of the new Frog Man. And I’ve got to say, while I picked something more obvious for the best team-up of 1985, if you want a good laugh, the way they work together in Peter Parker #103 has friendly echoes of their early rivalry, a creepy half ghoulish sorta-Peter and Spider-Man effigy filled out like a real body, hanging on fire besides the flame-written words, “You’re Next!” Had a plot like none other before it at Marvel, too, courtesy of Peter David in one of his first published stories. The sharp wit and black humor make it ‘85’s honorable mention.
I intended to start with Marvel Team Up #1- another Spider-Man/ Human Torch team-up, again versus the Sandman- as it’s maybe Marvel’s first great Christmas story- since I was only wow’d by two or three team-ups I’d read before then. I’ve even read his team-up with Thor in MTU #7 already.
While co-creator and, increasingly, plotter, artist Steve Ditko, did not draw many Spider-Man team-ups, he’ll have the Torch back in #21, where both heroes makes asses of themselves over Johnny’s paramour, Dorrie Evans, before trashing the Beetle in a fight that is maybe even more cool than this one, as I love fights in houses. In Ditko’s stories, despite Marvel’s most successful supporting cast, Peter’s often a loner in both guises, often due to his own choices, when not due to the hazards of life spent secretly changing into Spider-Man. Marvel heroes, in those dawning years, were more apt to encounter, rather than immediately (or, in any way) team with, one another. They’re comics for the non-team player. Aside from characters who’ve decided to band together as teams, the awesome Spidey/ Torch pairing is, correct me if I’m mistaken, the first Marvel Team-Up.
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