Earlier this year I did a few short reviews for the comics that I thought were the start of where Marvel began. Turns out there were a few more that I things that I might have missed along the way, but my thoughts were along the correct path. You see Amazing Adult Fantasy started at issue 7 and continued till 15 where Stan and crew went with a rename (that of Amazing Fantasy). My initial thought was that I would do a mini review after completing issue 15 so I could fill you all in on my further Marvel endeavours. Turns out there is not all that much I can say that I have not done in issues 7-9. Stan wanted to treat kids to comics that dealt with current day issues while also leaving a little bit of space for the kids to ponder upon. I think that was the main reason that these comics were named Amazing Adult Fantasy. I think the intentions were pure. I had fun going through these historic magazines in digital format. Each issue was about 26 pages with “short story panels ranging from 3 to 4 pages long”. Lots of “what if Martians came to Earth, Giants existing, ghosts teaching people valuable life lessons, war tensions resolved by children from opposing forces becoming best friends” that sort of thing. I have a lot of respect for what Stan and Ditko were trying to do. Art wise this might have not been a lot to look at, but remembering that this came out in the sixties makes that thought in my brain invalid. I liked seeing how and where it began and I am glad with how far we have evolved from then. Another thing I saw within some story panels were possible inspirations that other writers and Stan himself would later draw upon to create the iconic heroes and villains we all love and hate today. It has been both educational and insightful, for me at least.
Here are issues 10-14:
I have kept issue 15 separate for a few reasons. Number 1 because of the fact that it was the issue where Stan decided to change the name to Amazing Fantasy. The funny story behind this was the fact that they got a lot of mail from a few concerned kids stating that it was starting to get a little uncomfortable to ask a store clerk for a book with the word Adult in it. Some shop owners refused to sell comics to kids back in the day as they thought it contained porn, hahaha, sounds funny I know but I can already see it all the way back then.
The second reason is for the fact that it featured the first ever iconic Jack Kirby image of Spiderman!
To quote GoodReads ” The landmark, industry-changing issue that introduced the Amazing Spider-Man! When high school wallflower Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider, his life is transformed — first for the better, then for the worse! With his new array of arachnid abilities — including speed, strength, agility and, thanks to his scientific know-how, spinning webs — Peter seeks fame as the costumed celebrity called Spider-Man! But his cavalier attitude soon comes back to haunt him, and shatter the lives of his beloved Uncle Ben and Aunt May! Peter Parker is about to learn a powerful lesson, one that has never been taught better than by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko: With great power there must also come great responsibility!”
With an intro like there is not an aweful lot I can say to make it more interesting. One thing that I walked away with after reading this (even though it was only six pages long) was how much character Stan, Ditko and Kirby could put into their work. This six page comic was basically the movie we got with Tobey Mcguire. I feel they stuck real close to the source material and knowing that just makes me happy that I was a fan of that Spiderman film so long. Might be weird for a 35 year old to be so infatuated with a comic book character, but I don’t care, its me.
I gave issues 10-14 three out of fives and 15 I gave a slightly higher score of four out of five just because I was so happy learning about a childhood superhero. You can all now expect to see a few more Spiderman reviews coming up in the future. Wont be as long as this one was not that this was really a review…
Thank you for sticking to the end if you made it this far. Do you have any favorite superheroes that still make the inner child come out at times?
Wordaholicanonymous 
6 pages? That’s it? That is amazing that those few pages have spawned thousands of comics and quite a few tv shows and movies 😀
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It was the start of it all man. I recently saw an old video where Stan spoke of where the idea of spiderman came from and how one of the higher ups shot his idea down, after this comic was released said higher up came storming in asking stan if he had more amazing ideas of the direction this spiderman was going to go as if it was his own idea
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Sounds like a manager all right. Get in the way then take all the credit when it actually works
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Stan will always be credited for the creation of Spiderman. It was within this comic as well that Hulk’s name was dropped here and there, hulk was not even created then. I love getting to learn this side of Marvel
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A nice write-up on an oddly obscure corner of Marvel’s history. Despite all of the Spider-Man comics I bought and still own (somewhere in boxes at my dad’s place) I’ve still never read AF#15. I may have to look up some digital comics at some stage again. 🙂
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Glad you liked it man, you have old comics just in storage? You might be sitting on a gold mine…
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You actually have a physical copy of AF#15?
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Oh no, nothing like AF#17. I do have a reeeeal old issue of The Avengers, but most of my comics are from the 80s through early 90’s. They’re worth a bit, but not an outstanding amount. I have a few things like 1st printing issues of the Watchmen series, but not heaps of that sort of thing. I wish I had more space and time to bring them here and read them all again.
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You and your dad stay that far apart from one another?
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