Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #26, Amazing Spider-Man #27
Cover Date: Jul-Aug 65
Title: "The mystery of the man in the Crime-Master's mask!" / "Bring back my Goblin to me!"
Credits:
Steve Ditko - Plot
Stan Lee - Script
Steve Ditko - Penciler
Steve Ditko - Inker

Review/plot:
Spidey gets in the middle of the Green Goblin and the Crime Master's war for control of NYC's crime gangs.

The Crime Master eventually loses and is revealed as Lucky Lewis (Dear god, there's a Lucky Lewis and a Lucky Lobo?). He dies before he can give away the identity of the Green Goblin. Peter had been in Foswell's apartment earlier, and found a hidden panel, leading him to believe that Foswell was either the Crime Master or the Goblin, but he's actually Patch. The identity of the Green Goblin is still unrevealed.

Peter sells his photographs to Barney Bushkin at the Daily Globe for a change, but decides to stick with JJ in the long run because Barney asks too many questions about how he gets his shots.

Peter actually gets mad enough to attack Flash and some of his friends during their usual taunting session. He's having fights with Betty, too.

Peter's costume has been missing since he used it to distract the Spidey-Slayer, so he buys a Spider-Man costume at a costume store, but it doesn't fit very well. He uses his webbing to hold it in place.

This becomes an important plot point when Spidey is captured and his unmasking is prevented because the webbing is holding the mask in place.

Odd: starting this issue every once in a while a black person is depicted. They're usually just a character with a non-speaking part. The first one i noticed is in JJ's "most exclusive men's club". It's nice to see Marvel recognizing that not everyone is white, but i think adding diversity to a club for elite wealthy men probably wasn't the place to start. (Maybe it's Joe Robertson?)

Stan Lee makes one of his bizarre "sloppy seconds" references: Spider-Man is helping the police fight the crime gang, and he doesn't want their sloppy seconds.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 3

Chronological Placement Considerations: I've had to push a number of Spider-Man issues back in publication time so that Gwen Stacy's first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #31 takes place between Fantastic Four #40 and #44 (see the Considerations section in Spider-Man/Fantastic Four #1 for more).

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Tales #164, Marvel Tales #165

its probably more significant that one of the cops helping spidey was black

The original meaning of sloppy seconds was just leftover food.

Walter, that really puts my mind at ease considering Stan's almost obsessive use of the phrase.

Steve Gerber has a letter in #26.

You could have had a good betting line going at this point as to which face would be seen first - MJ's or the identity of the Goblin.

Probably my favorite storyline at the time I was reading comics in the mid-1980s. The Marvel Tales reprints of ASM was the equal of the stories I was reading modern day. I just loved the Crimemaster and Ditkos' Green Goblin. Absolute top notch comics.

Fnord, I think you're on the wrong track in complaining about the black character in the social club. If black people were only portrayed as blue collar types at this time would that be any better?
It's commendable of Lee and Ditko that they DIDN'T confine ethnic characters to just one social class. They absolutely should not be criticized for it. If that black guy was a plumber, you could have complained about that, too. What were they supposed to do?
It's best, especially at the time that these issues were published, to emphasize what different races had in common, and not say "A rich black guy? Yeah, right!"

And even from a character standpoint: A few years after this Lee would explicitly show Jameson to be disgusted by racism, so he probably wouldn't belong to a club that was "exclusive" in that way.

I wrote this entry years ago, but i think i agree with you now, JP. I think the idea of an exclusive men's club for wealthy people to sit around and smoke is such a weird and foreign idea to me that i associate it with racist country clubs and the like. In any event i think Lee and Ditko did really well with introducing Joe Robertson a couple years later.

Except Ditko had nothing to do with Robertson, that was Romita.

Yeah, I think they were pretty good about race, all things considered. Given the time period, I feel like Marvel made some noble strides wherever they could. It's just baby steps when you look at it fifty years later but you could tell they were trying, and just being subtle and not drawing attention to it was probably more effective in the long run.
Considering they got death threats for putting Gabe Jones in the Howling Commandos, I have to give them credit for continuing to try at all.
And of course in a few years they would just draw a line in the sand with the Black Panther.
I'm sure there are those who will say that it could have been done better, and they're probably right, but I'm just glad Marvel felt strongly enough about it to do anything at all.
(And I agree, Joe Robertson is a great character, probably the absolute best example of how to do it right.)

Oops, thanks Thanos!

Stan stole part of his #26 splash page patter by booglerphrasing Winston Churchill's quote, "...It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma..." To be fair, Stan may have actually stolen it from Allen Dulles, who stole it from Winnie over and over all the time.

It's a good thing Peter doesn't need money, or he might see potential in trademarking and selling Spider-Man costumes.

I used to wonder how Peter was able to sew such an intricate costume what with all the detailed web patterns and all. Now I'm starting to realize that it's a perfectly natural extension of his web-weaving spider abilities.

I agree that it was a good idea to include black characters or any minority characters for that matter. The only thing prior to this was on the Adventures of Superman radio show where they did along running serial in 1946 and 47 where Superman took on both the Klan and institutionalized racism exposing politicians' with secret racist agenda.

I did NOT see the patch twist coming!

Who came first, Robbie or Batman's Lucius Fox?

Well, Lucius Fox debuted in 1979 so I think Robbie wins.