sonotadream

Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #14-15, Annual #1 - Stan Lee/Steve Ditko

Finally, the Green Goblin is here! 😜

Interesting that he's real identity is being kept secret from the readers 🤔

The Green Goblin bursts into the scene and joins forces with the Enforcers to take down Spider-Man. The first step is to head to Hollywood and convince producer BJ Cosmos to make a movie starring the real Spider-Man.

Step two is get Spider-Man's attention. The Goblin accomplishes this by flying over Manhattan in his mechanical broom.

Peter

The story makes a point of keeping his identity secret, which is interesting 🤔 (apparently, there was some disagreement between Lee and Ditko on who should be the Green Goblin - a know entity or a random person; his identity only gets revealed after Ditko leaves the book). Lee first envisioned some kind of supernatural creature, but Ditko made him a regular person - just a weird mask that doesn’t look like a mask, a lot of gadgets and a mechanical broom.

The Green Goblin teams up with the Enforcers (can’t believe these guys are still around, lol) to destroy Spider-Man once and for all 🤷

The first step of the plan is to get Hollywood producer BJ Cosmos interested in a movie featuring both the real Spider-Man and the Enforcers. The second step is to get Spider-Man to sign up for the movie, not realizing that the villains are real.

The Green Goblin gets Spider-Man’s attention by flying over Manhattan. Once he catapults himself to the Goblin’s broom and learns of Cosmos’ offer, Peter is ready to accept - 50 000 dollars is nothing to sneeze at.

Antes the news about the movie deal come out, J. Jonah sends Peter on assignment to get pictures and he uses that to convince Aunt May to let him go.

Production starts in New Mexico and the Green Goblin suggests they rehearse the fight while the crew sets up.

He and the Enforcers treat this as the real thing, of course, but the element of surprise is not enough. Still, Peter retreats, hidden by one of the Goblin's smoke bombs, straight into the cave where the Hulk is hiding.

Peter tries to reason with him, but Hulk is not interested in dealing with people at the moment. He blasts the entrance of the cave open, allowing both Spider-Man and Green Goblin to escape, although Peter goes back for the unconscious Enforcers.

He returns to the producer's office to discover that, with his cast missing, he decided to change directions and make a movie with the Hulk instead.

Honestly, not a great first showing for the Green Goblin. He looks interesting, but his plan his needlessly convoluted and the Hulk is a tacked on.

Kraven the Hunter makes a better entrance. He’s called to New York by his buddy, the Chameleon, whose criminal career is being stymied by Spider-Man.

Kraven made his fame by hunting wild animals. He has some super-human powers that he acquired by drinking a potion he stole from an African shaman, which he demonstrates right there in the port, when a couple of gorillas get loose.

He also announces that he’s in New York to hunt Spider-Man, which gets him Jonah’s interest, although he reminds Kraven that hunting humans is illegal in the US.

Still, Kraven is undeterred. He stalks Spider-Man and fights him. Spider-Man is stronger, so Kraven injects him with one of his special potions, that makes Peter woozy and his hands tremble. Thinking taking down Kraven might be impossible, Peter decides to use one of his spider-trackers to avoid him.

Kraven manages to surprise him by using Chameleon as a decoy. He first traps Peter with a net, then with a special set of cuffs, but the adrenaline surge clears Kraven’s poison out of Peter’s system and he traps the Hunter in a web.

He and Chameleon get deported, but Kraven is back in the Annual, now as part of the Sinister Six.

The group is Doctor Octopus idea. He escapes prison because, despite being surgically separated from his arms, he’s know capable of controlling them mentally. He contacts other villains defeated by Spider-Man - Vulture, Electro, Mysterio, Sandman and Kraven - with a plan.

Each one of them is going to fight Spider-Man in a location chosen by Octavius to give the bad guy the advantage. If he wins, Spider-Man will get a card with the next location, all leading to the last lair, where Octavius is keeping Betty hostage - along, accidentally, with Aunt May.

(Aunt May is taken because she was meeting Betty to ask if she knew what was going with Peter. He was feeling down because his spider powers has disappeared, but that turn out to be psichosomatic - he was feeling guilty about Uncle Ben’s death. It’s unclear if Aunt May realized she was being kidnapped, btw)

So, two obvious flaws with this plan. Spider-Man has already defeated all of these guys individually - they should just storm him at the same time. And two, he doesn’t actually need to defeat them to get the card - he can just steal it, which he does with Kraven.

Meanwhile,Jonah - worried about Betty and tasked with contacting Spider-Man - keeps calling every other superhero in town, so everyone has its own cameo and the Human Torch even offers his help, but Peter feels he must act on his own. In distress, Jonah resorts to talking to spiders and gets scooped out, when every other paper puts out a special edition, except the Dayly Bugle.

Peter makes it to the final lair, where Doctor Octopus tries to surprise him with an underwater fight. Peter gets Octavius’ arms all tangled up in his web and escapes. He finds Betty and Aunt May - who thinks Spider-Man is horrible, compared to the fine gentleman Doctor - and gets away, in order to wait at home as Peter Parker for Aunt May.

Peter and Betty are on again, after Betty spent a couple of issues feeling jeaoulous of Liz Allen, who know thinks Peter could be a better date than Flash Thompson. Flash is not happy, and keeps trying to fight Peter, who keeps ignoring him. Also, Aunt May wants Peter to take out Mrs. Watson’s niece, but she has a convenient headache. (Unclear why Aunt May is trying to get Peter dates when she knows he’s going out with Betty, who she also seems to like.)