When I Was Bitten By Spider-Man

You've been asked the question. We all have, whenever we were dumb enough to admit that we are comic book collectors. Who is your favorite superhero? Sometimes that depends on my mood. If I feel angry it's the Hulk, if I'm kinda isolated it's the Silver Surfer, or if I'm gonna perform a charitable act, it might be Superman. It's hard for me to choose just one, but if I had to, in my heart of hearts, I'd pick Spider-Man.

I got bitten by Spidey one day in 1970. My family had moved to Anchorage, Alaska, because my Daddy worked for Exxon and had to work there during the construction of the pipeline. Durin' the winter it was colder than heck, darker than hell, and there was plenty of time to read comics. I had seen Spidey on TV in those early cartoons, but never read his comics until I walked into a quick-mart and found Marvel Tales #29 sittin' on the rack. This "Double-Feature Special" was one heck of a deal: two Spidey stories (reprinted from Amazing Spider-Man 39-40) plus a Dr. Strange story for twenty-five cents! The cover looked suspicious to me; I never believed that Spider-Man would be unmasked before a villain. Up till this point I was a Superman/Batman devotee. This here Marvel Tales cover had to be like one of those gimmicky DC covers, right?

Hoo-boy, was I wrong. This two-part Spider-Man tale was the greatest super-hero story that I had ever read! Even though it was my first introduction to the Green Goblin and Norman Osborne, I had no trouble followin' the plot. I couldn't get over how methodically the Green Goblin had taken out Spidey: first, by blunting his Spider-Sense during a robbery. Second, followin' him around New York City and discoverin' his secret identity was Peter Parker. And third, attackin' him in front of his own house in Queens, with frail Aunt May just a few yards away behind a fog-enshrouded window. This kind of deal just didn't happen in DC Comics! Lex Luthor with his smart-ass brain didn't ever cotton to Clark Kent's identity and the Joker never tracked down Batman to Wayne Manor. (Maybe they did once or twice, but they were dumb enough to be fooled later.)

While I didn't get the full impact of the Green Goblin being revealed as Norman Osborne (because I didn't wait for 3-4 years to find out), I did get hooked into the soap opera. Norman was a short-tempered workaholic with no time for his teenaged son, Harry. When Peter Parker finally goads Osborne into fightin' him one last time, man to man, the Green Goblin gets an electro-chemical charge that erases his memory. Norman suddenly has no idea that he is a villain, but even better than that, he realizes he's been a total dumbass to his son Harry! Ain't that what most neglected boys want, just a bit of love and attention from their Daddies? I couldn't believe it when Sam Raimi didn't use this ending in the first Spider-Man movie, but that was one of many blunders regardin' his version of the Goblin.

This story is what made me a Spider-Man fan (and a Marvelite) for life. I got a subscription to Amazing Spider-Man because I kept waitin' for the day that tickin' time bomb would explode, the day Norman would become the Green Goblin again! Nuff said.

Technorati : Spider-Man