Noteworthy Issues: The Amazing Spider-Man #24 (May, 1965)

Man, why do so many of Spider-Man’s enemies have bad bowl cuts?  And by “so many,” I basically mean two.

Issue:  The Amazing Spider-Man #24, May 1965

Writer:  Stan Lee

Artist:  Steve Ditko

The Plot:  Spider-Man thinks he’s going insane, so he goes to see a psychiatrist.

Commentary:  Wait, Spidey almost went to a psychiatrist once before.  He backed out when he realized the man might figure out his secret identity despite the fact the guy was a stranger who would have no idea who Peter Parker was.  Why go see this new guy?  Well, he predicted in the Daily Bugle that Spidey was going to crack at any moment, and then Peter started seeing things, like his enemies that were appearing out of nowhere, being completely silent, and then disappearing after they seemed to be completely unfazed by whatever attack Spider-Man launched at them.

So, there’s a lot of fun things on display here, and I know Stan and Steve played pretty hard and fast with how things worked with Spider-Man, but shouldn’t Peter’s spider-sense alert him to whether or not he’s really under attack?

And should I make a note that I picked out Steve DItko was drawing a couple of stray animals into various panels?

Oh wait, Flash Thompson finally goes to confront J Jonah Jameson directly since Jolly Jonah was conducting what today we’d call a “push poll” to get certain responses from the general public, and Flash honestly thought that being captain of a random high school’s football team actually made him noteworthy off-campus?

Then again, Jameson published the opinions of a European psychiatrist without first checking the man’s credentials.  I get that Jonah is rather impulsive when someone shows up claiming to have dirt on Spider-Man, but even that seems irresponsible.

And I was impressed when Spidey went to see the doctor and discovered the man’s office was upside down, with the doctor sitting behind a desk on the ceiling.  Even his word balloons was upside down!

Anyway, finding both Flash and Jonah bursting in gets Peter to realize what his spider-sense should have been telling him all along, that he wasn’t seeing anything real and there could be only one person behind it all…Jimmy Impossible!

I mean Mysterio.

With the bowl haircut.

Yeah man, that was awfully trippy.

Grade:  A-