ALONG CAME A SPIDER

AS SPIDER-MAN CELEBRATES HIS 60TH BIRTHDAY, SFX CRAWLS THE WALLS OF COMIC BOOK HISTORY

- NICK SETCHFIELD

JUST WHO IS THIS WEIRD FIGURE swinging through the shadows of a city skyline? There's no hint of a face and the eyes are blank, almost alien in shape. Wait - are those actual cobwebs clinging to his armpits?

He's a hero, right? Only a hero gets their own comic book cover. But this is the final issue of an anthology title, so all bets are off. And previous covers have showcased such existential threats as the Living Statues and The Terror of Tim Boo Ba while asking the eternally pressing question "Do Sinister Creatures Walk Among Us... In Human Form?"

If he is a hero, shouldn't he be clutching a swooning damsel, not some craggy average Joe who's clearly not enjoying the ride? "Though the world may mock Peter Parker, the timid teenager... it will soon marvel at the awesome might of Spider-Man!" declares the masked oddity. Consider the cadence of those speech balloons. These are the vain, planet-threatening boasts of a supervillain, surely?

No wonder that average Joe looks terrified. He's just been told this freak's secret identity, which makes him a liability. How long before he succumbs to the venomous fangs of the malevolent man-spider?

If first impressions count for anything it's a miracle this character became one of the biggest pop-culture icons on Earth. But that's how the world met Spider-Man, on the cover of August 1962's Amazing Fantasy 15.