Hello and welcome to the new Marvel in the 1960's. Today we look at Th Amazing Spider-man vol 1 # 1 from 1963. However, before we start lets recap last time where we looked at Iron Man. It was his origin story and showed the United States involvement in Vietnam. Turing back to this issue it is time to look at the plot.
The plot of issue one is interesting following trends in the 1960's following two stories an issue. Story one begins with a recap of Spider-man's origin story and the family in trouble on rent. It than deals with Peter trying to think if he should use his powers for good or evil and he chooses good. During this he is less successful on trying to make money for the family. He than has to deal with the smear campaign of J. Johah Jameson the publisher of the Daily Bugle and calling him a public menace.
The rest of the story deals with saving Jameson's son on a space capsule that is facing that it might crash and Peter as Spider-man uses his new powers to do. It also ends with disappointment as Jameson manages to get Peter in trouble as Spider-man and wanted by Federal Services
Story to picks up with Peter deciding to try and join the Fantastic Four. He than gets into the Baxter building and by misunderstanding attacks them all. They try and calm him done by he leaves fast after hearing they are not in it for the money. Across town the Chameleon is stealing missile defense plans. He hears and reads about Spider-man and plots to pin his crime on Spider-man. Chameleon than gets the plan in action by sending a message only a spider could hear. He than steals then the plans and escapes in a helicopter and flies to a waiting Russian sub to deliver the plans. Luckily, for the government Spider-man is not far behind and chases the sub off. He soon defeats Chameleon and the helicopter and brings him back to the building. However, Chameleon is not done and uses a smoke bomb to hide and change into a guard. The guards think he is one until Spider-man's spider sense helps him to rip the uniform. Peter flees and the Fantastic Four as the issue ends hope he does not fall into a life of crime.
With the plot examined it is time to turn to the impact it had on the marvel universe in the 1960's. One of the greatest impacts this issue does is to move Spider-Man from existing in a fictional city to being based in New York. It than further builds the importance's of New York as hero Central for Marvel by adding him. It also his him interacting with the Fantastic Four and would help to develop him being a backup member of team years down the line. Second, it also shows the formation of the Daily Bugle being against Spider-man and would help the paper to exist in the Marvel Universe and be mentioned in other comic series. Third, it also builds on the importance of the Cold War in the Marvel Universe in the 1960;s as being secondary villains to many of the heroes. Ultimately, in the end Spider-man #1 did not ass a whole lot new to the universe but did further build the universe Marvel was building at the time.
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