The Amazing Spider-Man #8 Review

Featuring Spidey facing off against his three greatest foes: a fellow superhero, a hunk of scrap metal, and a peer from Midtown High!

As is often the case with 1960s covers, there’s a lot going on here, and that corn-on-the-cob yellow background doesn’t do readers’ eyes any favors.

By Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Jack Kirby. Published by Marvel Comics. All images fair use.

After every Spider’s Web, there’s a Special Announcements Section — which is fascinating to read retrospectively. Marvel has always been good at playing itself up, and I know if I lived in the 1960s, I’d be as excited for upcoming releases — Thor, Dr. Strange, Iron Man — as the next comics junkie. They’re all legacy characters now, but there’s still something incredible in reading about their rise to prevalence.

Either way, the very last bullet point in the Special Announcements Section more or less summarizes The Amazing Spider-Man #8: “[T]his ish was intended as a [change] of pace!” And… it shows.

As the cover wouldn’t have you forget, “this ish” features not one, not two, but three tussles for our hero. The first (and — I’ll just come out and say it now — the best) is the long-awaited bout with Flash Thompson. Remember last review when I said I was being facetious about “not knowing” who Peter would unleash his pent-up rage on? Yeah. Not that new readers couldn’t have seen it coming, but it is kind of…