Amazing Reads: Amazing Spider-Man #3

Welcome to Amazing Reads. This time we look at Amazing Spider-Man #3. We finally get a really good issue. This is the first issue with one story. And it's our first story with Doc Ock. Let us dive into our first real villain! Oh, and Human Torch is here somewhere.

I love me some Doc Ock.

A brief introduction. While I will always contend my favorite villains are Venom and Carnage, both for the complexity, and lack of complexity, if I were to choose an old school Villain that wasn't the result of dark age of comics, it would be Doc Ock. I love this character. One of the most evil, and interesting characters in Spider-Man. He is a genuine threat. Unlike Vulture or Chameleon, who punching them once will take them out, we have a character who can through around our web crawler here like it was nothing.

So let us begin what I think is the first good book of this comic. Don't worry, I'll still make jokes. Just not as many...and my panels will be more arty. We open with some random thieves stealing a safe, they put it on a dolly and everything. We get the Spider-Symbol, a light that is projected from Spider-Man's crotch. We get a brief one panel fight, and the small time crooks are captured.

See, crotch

And we cut away. We are at the Atomic Research Center, where a doctor who has no name, but our helpful chorus of morons call him Doctor Octopus. I'll give you three guesses. He has developed a device that by tweaky metal dials on his chest. We get to see him doing science-y things, in a plastic box, which may or may not cover him, the art is a little weird.

The only problem I with the art.

We get the magnificent science goes on and explodes. Radiation explosions in comics do marvelous wondrous things. Or terrible horrible things. Never death or cancer though. Go figure. So our doc survives being at ground zero, but those arms are fused to his body. He's also gone insane. Add another thing to the things radiation does to people.

I just think this is creepy.

Doc notices the bars on his windows, and in his insane rage wants to tear them from the wall. He finds that the arms respond to his thoughts, and they lash out and tear the bars from the windows. We see him going into full villain mode, gloating, and trapping some unnamed person into his room. And we cut to Now Magazine The Daily Bugle, is that what we're calling it now?

I have no comment, besides Parker is an idiot.

So J.J. wants Peter to go get pics of the injured Doc Ock, and we see that just like J.J., Peter is more concerned with making a buck, than by the horrible tragedy, and how lacking of ethics it is for him to sneak photos of this injured man. Oh, and his thought bubbles gloat about being Spider-Man.

So we get a quick change and Spider-Man gives us a break down of his powers for a page as he climbs up the hospital. When he arrives he sees that Doc Ock is threatening some old man in a green suit. Doc has science things in the room, because...I don't know. The man in green gets annoyed, and Doc grabs him with the tentacle arms, and we get our hero jumping in to save the man.

It's been near on two and a half pages, so...we deserve a new one.

And we get treated to the best fight scene so far. We have a threat like Doc Ock. As Spider-Man leaps out of the way of two arms, a third swings in and clips his jaw. So Spidey webs up two of the arms, and Doc attacks with his remaining two. Spider-Man tries to hold off the arms, but they are two strong for him. As he is struggling, Doc breaks free of the webbing, surprising Spider-Man. He is then easily grabbed and pulled in close.

My avatar. I love this panel.

So our Doc who throws Spidey from the window. Our hero lies beaten on the ground, and we get to see my other favorite panel of the comic. I try not to have them so close together, but this is a great moody panel, I can't not show it.

This is great Art.

And so our villain leaves the hospital, empowered by his defeat of Spider-Man. He goes and attacks his former employers, and through a beautiful sequence he takes over the facility. He grabs the scientists, and throws them out. He causes machines to go out of control and explodes part of the facilities. He blocks himself inside, and is finally left alone.

Creepy evil bastard.

And so the military has given up trying to get to the man, and Peter has become a sad sack who has given up on life. But, I hear you asking, what about Marvel's other wonderful menagerie of Super Heroes. Well, they've all ante'd up and decided to send the other teen annoyance, Johnny Storm should go take on the Doc. Maybe they'll hope he'll die. Well a problem in their plans. He's under the weather, and can't do much of his Human Torching.

Oh, come on. Thing had nothing to do with that answer.

Johnny gives a speech about not giving up, and Peter is inspired. He thanks Johnny and runs off to change. He sneaks into the research facility. The guards are morons, and don't see him. But Doc Ock is not. He sees Spider-Man on the screens, and goes to his machines. All sorts of traps go off and strike out our hero, nearly destroying him. He figures out how that the good Doctor is watching him through cameras, and starts to hide from them. So Doc goes after him, personally.

Ack! Don't kill me Doc. I love you, I do.

Spidey takes a break from evading cameras to sneak into a chem lab, and starts mixing things up. What they do, we shall see shortly. But we get to finally see Spider-Man as a tactical fighter, not just a brawler, but someone who can go gadget-y. Kinda like Batman.

Spider-Man has prepared his weapons, and goes off to confront the Doctor. But our villainous friend has sneaks up behind our hero. They two tussle for a brief moment, and Spider-Man splashes the chemical onto Doc Ock's metal arms, fusing two together, permanently, or until his next appearance.

This doesn't slow down our Doctor. He slams those fused arms around, trying to beat up our Hero. Spider-Man jumps through the arms, using acrobatics properly, and fires a shot of web into Doc's eyes. 

I really can't make a clean comment about this one.

As Spider-Man is pulled closer, Doc tries to hit him with his human arms, finally dragging Spidey into arms reach. So our Hero gives Doctor Octopus a classic solid punch to his glass jaw. With the man out cold, our Hero ties him up five ways from Sunday and leaves him for the military.

Hey, he has a calling card. Cool, I want one.

So Spider-Man goes to see the Human Torch and thanks him for being an awesome inspirational guy.

His Stalker Sense is tingling.

The Human Torch is confused, and bids the Spider-Man fare well, and gives a show for the teens of Mid-Town High. In case it's not obvious, I'm not a particular fan of the Human Torch.

I will rule the world one day, I will.

And so our long rambling forway into the first good story of Amazing Spider-Man. Doc Ock is a credibly threat, and Human Torch is a moron. I can't be happier. Here's a ranking. It's obvious, of course.