Marvel Treasury Edition #1: "Spider-Man Tackles The Torch!"

Download Marvel Treasury Edition #1







I was only ten years old, but I can still recall precisely where I was when I first eyed this baby. I had just stepped into The Bottle Shop, which was located on Main St. in the small bedroom community I grew up in (and the only alternative to Rexall's Drug Store's comic book spinner rack), when I spied this beauty on the magazine rack. Of course, I had to buy it and I've have had it in my collection ever since. It's almost difficult to believe that I used to think that $1.50 was a steep price to pay for a comic book!

Not a mutant, Spider-Man has been Marvel's most successful and popular character. After auditioning in Amazing Fantasy #15, he moved into his own title, The Amazing Spider-Man, early in 1963. He was the creation of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, with possible input from Jack Kirby.

The original story introduced mild-mannered high school student Peter Parker, who lived with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Clean-cut, hardworking, and bespectacled, Peter was a brilliant science student but was shunned by his fellows and labeled a "bookworm." After being bitten by a radioactive spider at a science exhibit, he gained "spider powers" that included superhuman strength and agility and the ability to cling to any surface and spin webs.

Among the artists who've drawn the old web-spinner have been John Buscema, Gil Kane, John Byrne, Todd McFarlane, and a host of others.


Credits

Cover: John Romita
Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Inks: Steve Ditko

Reprinted:

• from Amazing Spider-Man, The (Marvel, 1963 series) #8 (January 1964)