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Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1

Sep 1964
Stan Lee, Steve Ditko

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 cover

Story Name:

The Sinister Six!


Synopsis

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 synopsis by Anthony Silvestro
Rating: 4.5 stars

Our story begins in a state prison, where we find that a team of specialists have finally managed to remove the mechanical arms of Doctor Octopus from his body! Little do the guards know, Doc Ock has the ability to control his arms, even when they’re not connected to him! Doc Ock uses this ability to call his arms to him from the storage area and easily escape the prison. The next day, Spider-Man stops in on the office of J. Jonah Jameson, snagging a newspaper, and learns that Doc Ock has escaped. Just then, Spidey is thrown for a loop, as Thor goes zooming by, as Spidey wonders where he’s in a hurry to.

Meanwhile, at a secret hideout, Doctor Octopus is gathering a meeting of various supervillains. We find him with Electro and Kraven the Hunter already present, as Mysterio suddenly also arrives! Doctor Octopus states that they only need wait for two more before he can unveil his plan. The next day, back with Peter, his spider sense suddenly reacts to a passing figure, but before Peter can follow him, Flash Thompson chooses that moment to pick a fight. As he takes a swing at Peter, Peter ducks out of the way, and Flash goes hurtling into Doctor Strange, just walking by. Flash passes right through him, with Strange revealing that this is merely his astral form, and Flash and the other students marvel at actually seeing Doctor Strange up close! Peter uses the chaos to slip away and chase down the suspicious figure as Spider-Man. Spidey spots him, but when he jumps down to grab the man, he finds a bunch of empty clothes! Down in the sewer, just below, we find that the man was Sandman, now reforming himself, as he makes his way to Doc Ock’s meeting.

Having lost him in the sewers, Spidey heads back home, where he notes that the attic light is on. He peeks in the window, and spots Aunt May crying over old pictures of Uncle Ben. Peter realizes that Aunt May never quite got over his death, and that maybe he hasn’t either, as he reminisces about Uncle Ben and the guilt he feels over his death. Peter thinks of how much trouble his spider powers have brought him, and at that moment, Spidey suddenly trips and falls off the roof! Spidey manages to grab onto a flagpole below, stopping his fall, in complete disbelief to the fact that he seems to have suddenly lost his spider powers! As he dangles from the pole, the Fantastic Four pass by in their Fantasticar, but they think that Spidey’s just goofing off, and Mr. Fantastic says they should leave him be.

Peter carefully makes his way back to the ledge and makes the arduous journey home, taking much longer than usual due the loss of his powers. Back at home, Peter ponders what he’s going to do with his life now that he can no longer be Spider-Man. Back at Doc Ock’s hideout, the Vulture suddenly appears, along with Sandman having arrived earlier, completing the group of six villains. With all of them now present, Doctor Octopus presents his plan for the six of them to band together to vanquish Spider-Man once and for all! Not all of the villains are eager to work in a group, but Doc Ock gives each of them a random number, and says that they will each confront Spider-Man in turn. This way, each one will wear Spider-Man down a little more, increasing the odds of his defeat each time! Not only that, each card also has a location, with each best suited for that particular villain!

The next day, Peter is still lulling at home, before deciding to go for a walk to clear his mind. Aunt May ponders about what could be bothering Peter so and wonders if things could be going poorly between him and Betty Brant. At school, the other students note it odd that Peter isn’t there, with Flash boasting that he must have scared him off, which earns him a verbal lashing from Liz Allan. We find that Peter was so absorbed in his thoughts that he forgot about everything else entirely, including school. Peter, still wrapped up in his thoughts, walks right by a group of criminals that had just been stopped by Giant-Man and the Wasp! At the Daily Bugle, Aunt May confronts Betty, before both are captured by Sandman and Electro, which Jameson witnesses from his window, shocked!

Jameson calls Peter to his office, telling him about the ordeal, as the Vulture suddenly appears at the window! The Vulture tells Jameson to print a message for Spider-Man that their group, calling themselves the Sinister Six, have captured Betty Brant, and that if he wants to save her, he must first go to the Stark Electric Plant. Peter worries what he can possibly do without his powers. Jameson tries calling the Fantastic Four, as he figures all superheroes know each other, but Mr. Fantastic says they have no idea where Spider-Man is. Mr. Fantastic in turn tries calling the Avengers, and Captain America answers, who says he’s never even met Spider-Man. Finally, the Human Torch tries leaving a message for the X-Men (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman, and Angel), but Professor X tells them to ignore it, as it has nothing to do with them!

At home, Peter still agonizes about what to do, knowing he doesn’t stand a chance without his powers. He resolves that he has to face the Sinister Six, and that if this is to be his end, that he’ll face it like a man! He heads to the Stark Electric Plant, where he finds the first of his opponents, Electro! Electro reveals that he has a card with the next location on it, and that Spider-Man will have to defeat him to get it! Electro hurls an electric bolt at Spider-Man and when the dust clears, Spidey has realized that he dodged it, meaning that his powers have returned! Spider-Man continues to dodge around, as Electro recharges himself with the generators at the plant. Spider-Man devises a plan, by tying cables around his ankles to ground himself, and shutting off the power, he is able to take the next bolt Electro hurls at him and deliver a devastating knockout punch to the villain!

With Electro defeated, Spider-Man departs, running into Iron Man on the way out, as he heads for the next location. Jameson once again tries calling the Fantastic Four, and Invisible Woman and Thing tell him to try the police. Spider-Man arrives at the next area, where he finds Kraven the Hunter, accompanied by two ferocious leopards! Spidey keeps the leopards at bay with his webs as he dodges around Kraven. Spidey manages to grab the card with the next location on it and swings away, leaving Kraven there. Spidey realizes that losing his powers was all psychosomatic, brought on by his guilt over Uncle Ben. The Human Torch suddenly appears, offering Spidey his assistance, but Spidey says that this gauntlet is pretty personal and that he’ll handle it alone.

Spidey arrives at the next location and seemingly runs into Cyclops, Beast, and Angel of the X-Men. Spidey quickly discovers that they’re only robots, as he smashes the Beast and Angel bots. He manages to trip the Cyclops bot, taking it out of commission, while his spider sense alerts him to the fact that one of the walls of the room is camouflaged! Spidey smashes through, revealing Mysterio, who tries to escape via his smokescreen to no avail. Back at the Bugle, Jameson sees an errant spider hanging from his window and tries to send Spider-Man a message through it, while his staff thinks he’s cracking up. Spidey then arrives at the next location to find the card he needs just sitting there. At that moment though, Sandman reforms himself from his sandpile on the floor to challenge Spidey. Spider-Man dives through Sandman, in order to grab the card, which causes the room to be enclosed, trapping the two inside together. Sandman tries to flatten Spidey but after failing to tag Spider-Man, Sandman suddenly slumps forward, gasping for air. Spider-Man realizes that Sandman accidentally made their enclosure airtight, causing Sandman, who needs a normal amount of air, to pass out before Spider-Man, saved by his stronger lungs.

Back at the Bugle, Jameson discovers to his dismay, that they’re the only paper not to get coverage on Spider-Man facing the Sinister Six, as he’s been too preoccupied with contacting Spider-Man. Spider-Man finds his fifth opponent, the Vulture, atop a high platform. Vulture tells Spider-Man to remove his web-shooters, or else he’ll simply fly off, leaving Spider-Man with no way to find Betty. Vulture squirts some oil under Spidey’s feet in order to knock him from his perch, and lassos Spidey’s legs as he falls. Spidey manages to turn the Vulture’s trap against him, freeing his leg, and using the same rope to ensnare the Vulture, leaving him webbed to a flagpole, as Spidey heads for the final challenge. Back at Ock’s lair, he prepares for Spider-Man’s arrival, as Betty continues to worry and Aunt May remains blissfully unaware that anything is wrong, seeing Doc Ock as charming and gentlemanly.

Spider-Man arrives at the final location, an old castle, and sneaks in, finding Ock without his arms. Suddenly, Spider-Man’s spider sense alerts him just too late to avoid getting grabbed by Doc Ock’s separated tentacles. Spidey manages to stun Ock as the tentacles chase after him, before they are suddenly recalled. As Spider-Man makes his way further into the lair, a trapdoor opens under him, dropping him into a giant fishbowl. Doc Ock dons some scuba gear in order to attack Spider-Man while he’s underwater and more vulnerable. Spider-Man finds it more difficult than usual to avoid Ock’s tentacle but has the idea to unload the entire contents of his web-shooters, tangling Ock and his tentacles up completely, as Spider-Man escapes the fishbowl, dragging an incapacitated Doc Ock out as well.

After searching through the lair, Spider-Man finally finds Betty and Aunt May in one of the rooms. While Betty is elated to see Spider-Man, Aunt May finds him rather ghastly looking, and has no idea anything was wrong in the first place. After leaving the two for the police to find them, Spidey quickly changes back to Peter and rushes to them, relieved that they’re alright. As Peter celebrates his long journey, we end the issue with the Sinister Six now in jail. Doc Ock attempts to corral the others for his next plan, but the others just want to sulk in their defeat.

*Issue also contains a gallery of pinups of all of the villains Spidey has fought so far, in addition to little galleries of Spidey's powers and costume.

*Issue also contains a three page comedy piece about how Stan and Steve make a Spider-Man comic.


 

Review / Commentaries


Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 Review by (January 10, 2024)

Review: The time has come for the first Spider-Man annual and the first formation of the Sinister Six! Banding together most of the major villains Spidey has fought up to this point makes for one heck of a cool, dynamic story. Sure, it’s a little gimmicky with Spidey fighting each of them one by one instead them all just jumping him, but it’s justified by each villain wanting the credit for defeating Spidey. Besides, it makes for such a cool story that it’s hard to care that it’s set up like a video game. Steve Ditko’s art is firing on all cylinders this time, with the most knockout parts being the full page action shots that are worked in to each fight. Each one would make for a cool poster, or a dynamic splash page and we get six of them!

This story moves a mile a minute, with tons of guest stars, who mostly seem there to advertise the various other Marvel comics, but it makes for a good showing of the still relatively new, interconnected universe idea. The various fights against the Sinister Six members also vary in quality. Most of Spidey’s victories are pretty cool and clever, such as grounding himself against Electro or finding a hiding Mysterio. However, I always found two fights in particular to be a little lacking. For one, Spidey basically doesn’t even fight Kraven. He just snags the card and swings away, leading you to wonder how Kraven is captured at the end with the others. The other questionable fight is Sandman’s which comes as a result of Sandman being an idiot and cutting off his own air supply. You’d think that a guy made out of sand wouldn’t need to breathe, as is the case in later years, and it just feels like Stan couldn’t think of another way for Spidey to win.

Surprisingly, the Sinister Six would not be formed again for another 25 to 30 years, making this Spidey’s only battle against them for quite a long time. Betty and Aunt May act as little more than motivation for Spidey in this story, but I like the amusing twist that Aunt May never even finds out she was in danger. Not to mention, this sets the stage for Aunt May and Doc Ock’s numerous interactions down the line, even the infamous ones. Biggest question, why do the Sinister Six all get put in a single large cell at the end? Not only that, they take Ock’s tentacles and Vulture’s wings, but there’s nothing to prevent Sandman or Electro’s escapes, for example. Ah well, it doesn’t really matter, just makes for an amusing final panel. It may be a little bit of style over substance, but it still makes for a classic, daring Spider-Man adventure! Overall, a wickedly fun story, with bad guys and guests stars galore!

Comments: First formation of the Sinister Six. First time Doctor Octopus’ real name, Otto Octavius, is revealed, spelled Octavious here. First time Doc Ock controls his arms when they are separated from his body. First meeting between Doc Ock and Aunt May, who will have numerous more memorable interactions in the years to follow.



> Amazing Spider-Man Annual comic book info and issue index

Elektra

This comic is in the following collection:
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Collects Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #11-19, Amazing Spider-Man Annual (1964) #1.

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Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Steve Ditko
Steve Ditko
Stan Goldberg
Steve Ditko (Cover Penciler)
Steve Ditko (Cover Inker)
Stan Goldberg (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Sam Rosen.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steven Rogers)
Doctor Octopus
Doctor Octopus

(Otto Octavius)
Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange

(Stephen Strange)
Electro
Electro

(Maxwell Dillon)
Giant-Man
Giant-Man

(Hank Pym)
Human Torch
Human Torch

(Jonathan Storm)
Invisible Woman
Invisible Woman

(Sue Storm)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Anthony Stark)
J. Jonah Jameson
J. Jonah Jameson

(JJ Jameson)
Kraven
Kraven

(Kraven the Hunter)
May Parker
May Parker

(Aunt May)
Mr. Fantastic
Mr. Fantastic

(Reed Richards)
Mysterio
Mysterio

(Quentin Beck)
Sandman
Sandman

(William Baker)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)
Thing
Thing

(Ben Grimm)
Thor
Thor

(Odinson)
Vulture
Vulture

(Adrian Toomes)
Wasp
Wasp

(Janet Van Dyne)

Plus: Liz Allan (Liz Osborn).

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