Reading The Amazing Spider-Man: Issue Number Two Part Two
As we continue reading The Amazing Spider-Man from the number one through number 500 in an effort to examine a modern mythology and explore how a storyworld and story franchise is built from the ground up, this week we pick up with the second story in issue number two: "The Uncanny Threat of the Terrible Tinkerer!"
This ten page story begins with another great splash page: In an underground passage, the amazing Spider-Man is blasted in the back a funky purple ray-gun brandished by an old man with an improbably long chin. Spider-Man thinks:
He looks so harmless — and yet the Tinkerer is one of the greatest menaces I've ever faced!
The caption in the lower right corner of the page teases at the action to come, once again in breathless past-tense:
Everybody loves a bargain! But sometimes it can be dangerous to accept a bargain which is too good to be true! Especially if the bargain is being offered by someone like the Tinkerer, who — but wait! Let's see how it all began — and how it took Spider-Man to finish it!
Man, but Stan Lee was wordy in those days. I'm itching to edit that baby down for brevity. I'll spare you that… let's get to the story.
SynopsisIt's the end of the school day at Midtown High (this is the first time Peter Parker's school is given a name) and the science lab teacher introduces our boy genius to Professor Cobbwell, the "most famous electronics expert in town." Cobbwell's looking for a bright lad to assist him with some urgent experiments over the weekend, and Peter's only too happy to help.
Cobbwell gives Peter his address and asks him to "stop at the radio repair shop to pick up a small radio" on his way. Cobbwell and the science teacher leave, bully Flash Thompson and Peter trade verbal jabs ("You're a teacher's pet!" "You're a dumbhead!"), and we jump to the next day.
Peter's getting the hang of being a teen super-hero. He slips his costume on under his clothes, because he never knows when he might need it and "I feel almost undressed without it!"
He heads into town and stops at "The Tinkerer Repair Shop," a quaint little brick building. Peter, talking to himself as he often does, remarks that it's an off-beat name and wonders what kind of kookie character runs the place. Considering that a tinkerer is someone who, well, tinkers with and, presumably, fixes things, it's not really that odd of a name… is it? What we have here is a bit of lazy telegraphing on the part of Stan Lee. He's telling us to expect weird things from this place… in case you missed the big splash page at the beginning of the story.
Inside, the Tinkerer (he announces himself with that name) is a gaunt, elderly man in a woolen sweater and green slacks who wouldn't look out of place in one of the horror comics Steve Ditko drew in the first two years of his career. He tells Peter to hang on a minute and goes to get the radio.
Peter's spider sense "picks up odd electrical impulses," but he brushes off the feeling, chalking it up to the Tinkerer's testing equipment and chiding himself for being suspicious of someone "about as dangerous as a second-hand creampuff!"
Observation: A second-hand creampuff might be dangerous. It might have spoiled! You could get sick!
Anyway, we follow the Tinkerer downstairs an into his stone-walled laboratory, where a scaly green alien dude in a too-small black tank-top lets the Tinkerer know that the "special device" is in the radio. Turns out the Tinkerer is in cahoots with these creatures and they've inserted devices into the electrical appliances of several "special" customers in anticipation of some secret plan.
The Tinkerer brings the radio back up to Peter, who is astonished to learn that the repair will only cost a dime! Dr. Cobbwell isn't surprised — he had heard the Tinkerer was a bargain; that's why he had the radio repaired there. Peter's bewildered, and try as he might to concentrate on helping the professor, he can't shake the feeling that something's wrong.
Before we get to that, though, I have to mention that we've already established that Dr. Cobbwell is an electronics expert. However, Peter is specifically shown mucking about with test tubes and chemistry equipment — the room is full of it. Shouldn't they be messing with circuit boards and vacuum tubes?
Anyway, Cobbwell leaves Peter alone to go "lecture at the Institute," (apparently the experiments aren't so urgent they can't be left in the hands of a teenager who has exhibited a tendency to be distracted) and that gives our hero a chance to act. He realizes he's sensing the electrical impulses he noticed back at the Tinkerer's shop. He pries open the radio and notices it's full of odd gadgets. Something's up!
Peter changes into the amazing Spider-Man and swings over to the Tinkerer's shop. It's closed, but he easily breaks in through a convenient skylight. Following the trail of the electrical impulses with his spider-sense, Spider-Man finds himself descending the stairs to the mysterious workroom below.
Inside, the Tinkerer and three green aliens reveal the whole dastardly plan in one panel. They've been learning about the strengths and weaknesses of Earth before they attack. One alien hushes the Tinkerer because:
Quiet! I am processing the latest pictures relayed back to us by our pin-point TV spy device which you planted in the radio of a military leader!
Spider-Man hears it all, but before he can absorb what should be the mind-numbing confirmation of intelligent life from other planets and their plan to conquer Earth, his spider-sense warns him of an ambush from behind.
Avoiding a ray-gun blast sends the amazing Spider-Man into the fray, where he begins to fight the aliens. They're astonished that he can climb walls (except for the Tinkerer, who knows the score) but use an "inverter device" to dislodge him. They try to dogpile him, but he's too strong. Finally, it's the Tinkerer himself who stuns the amazing Spider-Man with a cowardly shot from behind. It's the scene we've been waiting for since the splash page.
They stuff Spider-Man into a specimen cage made of "resisto-glass" and decide he must be destroyed lest he reveal their secret. They're going to asphyxiate him by forcing the air out of tiny holes in the cage.
Logic check: what are they using to force the air out of those holes? More… air..?
Never mind. Spider-Man's awake now, and he realizes he can use those holes to escape. He takes aim (with his left hand — is the amazing Spider-Man a southpaw?) and shoots his web in a thin line through the hole and onto the control panel that opens the cage. Nice shot; the bottom drops out of the cage and he's free.
The amazing Spider-Man punches one alien into another, and a ray gun discharges, destroying the control panel and starting a fire. The aliens turn tail — "Spider-Man is too powerful!" — leaving the Tinkerer behind.
The Tinkerer struggles with Spider-Man in the thickening smoke, and somehow the boy with the proportional strength of a spider — the same kid who tore the door off of a helicopter with one hand — can't hold on to one scrawny old man. Nearly overcome by smoke, Spider-Man webs away from the burning building (just in time for some bystanders to wonder if he started the blaze.)
The aliens decide to abandon their plan to invade. Not only do they leave in a spiffy blue spaceship, they destroy all their spy devices via remote control, despairing that
We can never again return to earth — they will be on guard from this day on!
Back at the lab, Peter's changed back into his civilian clothes in time to meet Dr. Cobbwell, who has just returned from his lecture. Cobbwell tells Peter he thought he saw a spaceship fading into the atmosphere, but after some thought, the good doctor decides he must have imagined it… "I have no proof!"
Peter has proof, though. As it turns out, he yanked a mask off the old man during their struggle in the burning building. A mask depicting… the face of the terrible Tinkerer! He keeps this to himself, since explaining how he came to have it might reveal his secret identity.
So ends what might be the first pure act of super-heroics by young master Parker. It's the first time we see him act as Spider-Man with no thought of reward or financial gain. Finally, he accepts, with no caveats, the responsibility that comes with his great power.
Thoughts On Issue Two Part Two of The Amazing Spider-ManThis is a pretty damn weak story. I submit that it was an idea Stan and Steve had filed for one of the Marvel monster or horror comics that was taken out of mothballs and freshened up with a little dash of the amazing Spider-Man. I'd love to know if I'm correct… but even if I'm not, it's still a lazy effort.
Stan Lee, and future stewards of the mythology of the amazing Spider-Man and the growing, rapidly intertwining Marvel Universe, must have recognized that this story was just plain silly, for they revised the the events of this issue — in particular the nature of the aliens (hint — they weren't really aliens) — and established the Tinkerer as an important and influential, if infrequently appearing, supporting character.
In the comics, that's an example of applying a "retcon," or "retroactive continuity." It's the kind of thing you should avoid as the steward of your own storyworld, as it damages the integrity of your creation and erodes the trust of your audience.
Granted, all the pre-planning in the world isn't going to keep you from making a few mis-steps with your creation. If avoiding a retcon will take your storyworld too far afield from what you want, or, conversely, you realize a ways down the path that you want your storyworld to be something other than what it is, at least take pains to not insult the intelligence of your audience when you tell them things were not quite what they were led to believe.
What are examples of poorly handled retcons from your favorite story franchises? Let's talk about it in the comments! Please avoid talking about comic books; though there are many, many examples to be had there, they might not be as familiar to a wider audience as instances from movies, television series, and book series. I'll proclaim now that the comments thread may contain spoilers, at least as necessary to explain the retcon in question.
Discuss!
The Amazing Spider-Man number two part two
"The Uncanny Threat of the Terrible Tinkerer!"
Cover Date: May, 1963
Script: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
Lettering: Art Simek
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Matthew Wayne Selznick - Telling stories with words, music, pictures and people.
