Book Nineteen-Day Nineteen

[Tnerb]

Amazing Spider-Man #181

 

Is Ben alive? No seriously, is he alive? We all know the mythos behind Spider-Man. "With great power comes great responsibility". This was taught to Peter by his iconic Uncle Ben. Many of us read those words, but chances are, we didn't read them when they originally saw print.

 

I love the Marvel Tales series. I was able to read many of Spider-Man's earliest adventures, but it was Amazing Spider-Man #181 that taught me who Spider-Man was. In one issue I learned who he was, notice this was not a first issue.

 

Bill Mantlo gave me all I needed to know about Spider-Man in one issue. The art by Sal Buscema is possibly what I noticed years later in The New Mutants #15. This book was part of my pre-collecting days and issue #183, another one I owned, with the Rocket Racer were from my earliest adventures of the Amazing Spider-Man. And it was on the last page of #181 where Peter left his prize possession on top of his beloved Ben's grave. It's the last panel when you see a graveyard caretaker that looks amazingly like Ben Parker.

 

Thanks for Reading

 

Tnerb

 

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[bagofleas]

I was thrilled to see the signed book come back for the way it did last year at Baltimore. I thought that having Sal sign it up the side of the gravestone was the way to go, and apparently he did too, because that's exactly what he did.

 

It's a very cool copy, signed by a tough-to-get Sal Buscema!! I liked it when Marvel and DC would do reprisal-storyline/origin issues, since like you, I didn't have the opportunity to have or read the early Silver Age books. These issues gave us the opportunity to see what had led up to now for the most part and get a better feel for the mindset of the characters we loved.