Is this still canon? Seems really weird for Spider-Man to fight aliens in his second book...

Is this still canon? Seems really weird for Spider-Man to fight aliens in his second book, and not make a big deal about it. His books were never cosmic then, it just feels so off rereading it.

it was retconned, the aliens were an illlusion created by tinkerer and mysterio

Retconned, the customers just dressed as aliens for reasons.

Cool, makes sense, thought it might be something like that.
What's the explanation for JJJ's "Now" magazine? Does he run both the paper and magazine?

NVM, issue 5 confirms it's both.

For the longest time I wandered why the fuck they even bothered with that retcon.

I realize now that it was to appease faggots like OP.

Byrne and Claremont were the worst continuityfags of all time, bless their hearts.

I don't get why it's such a problem, Earth is like an alien gas station in the Marvel universe.

It was before Byrne. Roger Stern was the one that made the retcon.

Spidey was an everyman, not Flash Gordon. It's weird for a hero based on teen drama and "grounded" villains to fight aliens in his third appearance.

Motherfucker, HE HAS SPIDER POWERS AND BODIED DOCTOR FUCKING DOOM.

HE FIGHTS A FRANKENSTEIN LIZARD IN FLORIDA AND A BUNCH OF GANGSTER COWBOYS!

It makes LESS sense for aliens to not be a thing, especially when aliens have canonically always been a thing with Marvel.

Oh. I gotta say I'm not very familiar with him, though I have his Hulk run on my backlog this week.

Nothing before that was even close to grounded, I think you mean to say street-level, but in Marvel aliens ARE street-level.

Maybe if it were Daredevil or Power Man or someone like that I'd agree.

So you're not counting the time Daredevil fought Namor in his first few issues, or the time Luke Cage joined a robot revolution in Latveria?

He's saying the complaint would be more valid as their premises and early stories are slightly more grounded.

Spideys early villains had some kind of explination, even if it was "fuck you, radiation". The aliens in the book are 2 retards who hang out in Tinkerer's basement, and fuck off in the first sign of trouble. What was their goal, to fuck with radios?

>Spider-Man
>grounded

See

It's all about context. If this issue happened NOW, nobody would think twice about it. It's because it happened really early on, back when the "Marvel Universe" was barely even a thing. It was just Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man, and they met in his ongoing's first issue, but it was more like "Hey, what if Spidey looked for a job over at our other mag?" Basically just cross-promoting the two. And since FF was more overtly sci-fi from the beginning, it made sense when they fought the Skrulls in their second issue.

In Spidey's case, it felt more like they weren't sure what direction they wanted to take the book. Amazing Fantasy #15 was a really downbeat story that feels almost like a deconstruction of a superhero origin story. #1 has the aforementioned FF team-up, and that ties into continuing the idea of Spidey trying to fiind a way to monetize his powers - Ditko in particular didn't want to abandon that angle because Muh Objectivism, so it takes a while before Peter's motivation shifts from "I need to sell PICTURES! Pictures of SPIDER-MAN!" to a sense of guilt and responsibility. At the same time, his first costumed villain is the Chameleon, a Commie spy - then next issue, they shift from espionage to sci-fi with the aliens plot. It must've seemed pretty lame to the letterhack fans at the time that they did a loose retread of FF #2 in ASM #2, a sign that they were out of ideas right out of the gate. But as history showed, they were just unsure about what kinda threats Spidey would fight consistently. The Vulture is a more conventional supervillain, and became the true template for Spidey villains - robbers with superpowers and preferably a green costume.

It's very telling that the entire first year of ASM introduces villain after villain that became permanent fixtures of the series... and also the Terrible Tinkerer. And his alien buddies.

Not to mention that Lee and Kirby's X-Men felt like it was their designated dumping ground for FF story ideas that were either retreads or half-baked... which is probably why that book got cancelled and would've remained the black sheep of the Marvel Family if not for Claremont and, to a lesser extent, Roy Thomas.

Roger Stern was great on Spidey. He's mostly known for creating Hobgoblin.

STORYTIME! It's a weird one!

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Anyone reading?

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Another flashback to Amazing Fantasy 15.

Now we get to the "aliens."

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Op here. Yes.

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Sweet! Hope you enjoy this bizarre tale.

Guess who?

It's one of my personal favorite Spidey foes. Fishbowl-head himself: MYSTERIO!

Ditko wanted to keep the comic a little more grounded in reality. He wasn't keen on the space shuttle plot in #1 because he felt that such an accident would get worldwide news attention and should've had more ramifications for Spider-Man's life.

Stan wanted to make the Green Goblin a mythological demon but Ditko refused because it would take away from Spider-Man's stories being a somewhat believable teenager's world. Notice that after Ditko left that's when you saw more comparitively outlandish stuff like that tablet with the youth formula that Silvermane wanted.

Forgot pic, unfortunately this is the only page seen online.

Let us continue!

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Kek just realized thats the joke from ASM2
Yeah, but without Silvermane we wouldnt have this legendary image

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What second book villains even lasted? Anyone seen the Vanisher?

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>Yeah, but without Silvermane we wouldnt have this legendary image

Hey, don't get me wrong, I still enjoy a lot of post-Ditko Spider-Man. It's just that something like the alien story would've been a one-time deal and gotten ignored, probably seems like Ditko started taking more control over the direction over time (leading to the point where Stan gave up arguing with him and told him to plot it himself) and it fits in with what said.

The Skrulls?

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>Anyone seen the Vanisher?

No, he vanished.

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Both people you replied to are me
>Mysterio getting pissed at the self narrating guy

I wonder if this story is what influenced Treyarch to give Mysterio the alien gimmick in the Spider-Man 2 game

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And I'm op

They must have gotten the idea for both the alien gimmick and the boss fight for Mysterio in the Spider-Man 2 game.

From this story, I mean. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this crazy retcon. There have certainly been crazier. This has always been a fun and silly story I have enjoyed over the years.

Here's another sample page (unfortunately there weren't any others so we don't know what Ditko's thoughts on the Tinkerer story were, but I suppose he wasn't pleased with the alien idea).

What I find notable is that Ditko said that Stan Lee felt the most effective villain was the heavyset model and suggested Sydney Greenstreet as an example... After Ditko left, Kingpin was introduced, and if you've seen pics of Greenstreet, the Kingpin's look seems very close to him.

Fantastic Four has surprising good canon for its early issues. It was Stan lee's baby, he put more thought and effort into it than other things.

>Seems really weird for Spider-Man to fight aliens in his second book

Everybody was fighting aliens; Marvel's stock-in-trade at the time was monster/alien comics, and they just overlaid supers on top of that.

Did Spider-Man ever smash Deb's pussy?

Bump

ll signs point to "NO".

Vulture is still around.

Vulture is C list at best, though.

Oh fuck off. All Ditko villains are in the A list range. Its insulting to assume otherwise.

However if u consider him to be the big bad then no. That mantle goes to the lovely Green Goblin, Doc Ock and Venom.