The Amazing Spider-Man #50 Review

Does what is arguably the most important comic in Spider-Man history stand the test of time?

This is perhaps Spidey’s most iconic cover ever, right alongside Amazing Fantasy #15’s cover.

By Stan Lee and John Romita. Published by Marvel Comics. All images fair use.

Many — if not all — superhero comics are predicated on the concept of identity. Kal-El of Krypton is at once an immigrant from the stars, a Kansas-reared farm boy, a reporter in a major metropolis, and his world’s foremost protector. The members of the Fantastic Four explicitly decide not to hide their civilian identities, performing good deeds with the wind in their faces. Mark Grayson struggles to understand his status as a half-human, half-Viltrumite hero, as well as what it means to be a hero in the first place.

Indeed, Peter Parker/Spider-Man was not the first and will not be the last comic book superhero to grapple with identity issues. From the beginning, however, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko did something a little… different with Peter — something that changed the landscape of comics as we know it.

They made things personal.

Yes, Dear Reader, that’s the not-so-secret ingredient to The Amazing Spider-Man’s success. Oh, it wasn’t the only ingredient Lee and Ditko used: Peter looked and acted like a normal kid, and wasn’t relegated to teenage sidekick…