Amazing Spider-Man #41, Oct. 1966

Amazing Spider-Man #41, Oct. 1966

Stan Lee, Writer
John Romita, Artist
M. Demeo, Inker
Art Simek, Letterer

Already, Lee is starting to plug Spider-Man into the standard Marvel process, now that Ditko’s no longer got the creative control. We start to see interweaving plots and soap operatic reveals designed to keep you buying the comic, and all the other ones that intersect with this one. It’s not at its worst in the 60’s at all, but here you see it very clearly being shaped into that mold.

Peter Parker bought a motorcycle! Also apparently J. Jonah Jameson’s son, the famous astronaut John Jameson, got exposed to some space spores while in space and now the army thinks the commies are going to try to kidnap him.

In comes the Rhino, who was apparently paid to kidnap John Jameson for some foreign countries, and Spider-Man has to fight him off, despite Rhino’s superior strength. Eventually he suplexes the bounty hunter and leaves him for the cops to try to figure out how to deal. Also, Peter Parker bought a motorcycle!

Rhino’s the first new Spider-Man villain in a while that really works for the guy. It’s also more interesting when the first two pages of every comic aren’t just the origin story for that month’s bad guy.