Sunday Splash Page #38

"Then What Should You Stop Doing, Ray?" in The Atom #35, by Gardner Fox (writer), Gil Kane (penciler), Sid Greene (inker), Gaspar Saladino (letterer), and ??? (colorist)

One of the holdovers from my father's collection. I was positive I had issue #29, where the Atoms of Earths 1 and 2 team up to fight The Thinker, but it's gone missing somewhere along the way.

The time travel adventure is the second of two stories in this issue, the other involving the Atom trying to stop some crooks who are stealing random collectible crap for an obsessive compulsive genius so he'll plan out their heists for them. Ray gets temporarily defeated in that story by a vacuum cleaner, but it did teach me that his primary size control device is in his belt, not his gloves. Even though he uses the controls in his gloves all the time. OK Ray, whatever.

The time travel story is mostly a history lesson about what its title suggests, although there's also a bit in there where Ray defends the colonel from some hoodlums calling themselves "Mohawks", and Ray musing that since fisticuffs haven't been invented yet, he should have an easy fight against these guys. Sure, that's what'll make it a breeze, not the fact these guys have no idea what to do against a tiny opponent they can't even see. Feels like Gardner Fox read that somewhere and was like, "That's goin' in a story!' At least I learned something, and it gave Gil Kane more opportunities to show people getting socked in the face, which he is very good at drawing, as I'm sure most of you know.

Sunday Splash Page #11

"Doc Ock Teams Up With The Overwhelming Title Banner", in Amazing Spider-Man #90, by Stan Lee (writer), Gil Kane (penciler), John Romita Sr. (inker), Sam Rosen (letterer), colorist unknown

I hope you're ready for several weeks of Amazing Spider-Man, but we're going to be hitting several different eras and creative teams.

This is the only Spider-Man comic that was in my father's collection by the time I found it in my grandmother's basement. It's most known as the issue that kills off Captain Stacy, Gwen's father. In my younger, stupider days, I would look at the price guide in the back of Wizard Magazine and get excited when it listed this comic as being worth $90. Of course, I was entirely ignoring that being the mind condition, best-case scenario price, while the copy I have doesn't even have covers.

The issue itself has Spidey narrowly escape Ock in the first half of the issue, then come up with some way his webbing can jam the signals from Ock's brain to the tentacles, which causes them to go berserk, leading to Stacy's death (which explains why he doesn't just try that every time, having multiple super-strong metal tentacles flailing around wildly is dangerous!). There's also a brief section where Peter declines to attend a protest rally on campus about pollution, to the disgust of Randy Robertson and his friends, who decide Parker is just a self-interested tool.

The issue is no great shakes; I keep for the sentimental value as much as anything.