Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #28
Cover Date: Sep 65
Title: "The menace of the Molten Man!"
Credits:
Steve Ditko - Plot
Stan Lee - Script
Steve Ditko - Pencils
Steve Ditko - Inks

Review/plot: This issue follows the older formula of the earliest Spider-Man stories. It's got less of a soap opera plot and more of Spidey just trying to figure out how to beat the bad guy. The majority of the issue is a fight between Spidey and the Molten Man.

Spidey finally gets his costume back, after losing it to Smythe's robot. He goes back to Smythe's lab and swaps it with the Spidey suit he bought at the costume store last issue. He also brings along a big jar full of spiders ("I thought they might help you with your research!") so that when Smythe's robot attacks him, he can say it's because of that.

While Peter is at the lab, we meet Smythe's lab assistant (Mark) Raxton. Smythe and Raxton get into a scuffle over some alloy that they co-created, and the alloy gets all over Raxton's skin, turning him into the Molten Man.

Here he is ripping off his pants legs, as Mark notes in the comments.

Later the Molten Man becomes a non-villainous supporting character, and it is pretty clear from this issue that he's suffering from temporary insanity due to his transformation. Spidey beats him by using "extra-thick webbing" since the regular stuff slips right off.

Cool cover, too. It depicts the part where Spidey fights the Molten Man in the dark.

At the end of this issue, Peter graduates. He and Flash each get a scholarship to Empire State University (Flash for athletics, Peter for achieving the highest scholastic average in the school's history). JJ gives the graduation speech. Liz reveals that's she's had a crush on Peter but that he seemed to have too many other girlfriends and gave the impression that she was a ditzy blond so she never really approached him. This closes a chapter in Spider-Man's history as the setting of the high school is gone.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 8 - first Molten Man, Peter graduates high school

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:

• A reference to Betty Brant being mad at Peter is footnoted with Amazing Spider-Man #25 and Amazing Spider-Man #26.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Tales #166

There's a very weird panel that Ditko drew showing the Molten Man ripping off his lower pants legs for no apparent reason, and Stan has to cover for it by awkwardly stating that MM is doing it because Spider-Man is "in costume".

I understand nothing about this story, the scenes between the fight with Spider-Man and Molten Man, were very poorly there are no details about Mary Jane, young lyceans frequented Peter Parker.
And what about this unbearable Molten man ? I believed it was a greedy searching man doesn't want to part, glick with his siblings and after he becomes very mad. Molten Man is very cruel because he doesn't control himself, is bully would have his work on his chimist by force and money, also he seems remorseful however he doesn't make good, he attacks Spider-Man, is selfish to burn him. I think he is not good but not evil then. Just not an angel.
All criminals are like that.

at the end of the graduation while Aunt May is congratulating Peter over getting the science scholarship (shown in your last scan), Anna Watson refers to Mary Jane as her "daughter" instead of her "niece".

Ditko probably had the Molten Man ripping off his pant legs to get an advantage in the fight. His main power was supposed to be his slippery skin.
I'm sure Lee just didn't get it and came up with another explanation through dialogue.

Pete screws up and refers to "Liz Hilton" in this issue.

And yeah, that panel with the MM and his pants is weirdly scripted. I figure Ditko was having him tear them off because there was webbing stuck to them, and he was minimizing anything Spidey could hit.

But Stan got confused. The Marvel Method didn't always work.

This issue is notable for three reasons:

1. Peter Parker graduates High School.
2. First appearance of the Molten Man
3. First ever use of the word "Thwip"

Look at page 12 panel 1 and not only is it there, but it's used twice!

Molten Man is the last significant Spidey villain created during the Ditko/Lee run, which gave us the best rogues gallery for any Marvel hero. After this it's just returning villains plus forgettable characters like the Looter.

Rhino, Kingpin, Morbius, Black Cat, Punisher, Hopgoblin, Rose, Silver Sable, Venom- you think they're all forgettable?

Whereas Molten Man obviously became such an unforgettable villain that, after the Ditko run, he appeared in three Spider-Man stories in the 1970s, and in one in the 1980s.

Tuomas, I meant forgettable for the rest of this run not forever. Obviously many other great villains would come later.

I wonder how forgettable the Looter would be if 1) Stan had scripted the issue as if he were a threat rather than a joke (I suspect Stan was being a bit passive-aggressive here, upset about Ditko's personal interaction with him), and 2) Ditko had stayed longer with the book and possibly used him again (even the Molten Man comes back again before Ditko leaves). As written, the Looter is one of the more generic villains with typical powers and non-exotic look. His only real distinction is his own inventive prowess (dazzle gun and balloon pack).

It's amazing how many Ditko villains Stan Lee did not use in Amazing Spider-Man after Ditko left (although he used some in other books). The Molten Man and the Looter certainly weren't the only ones.

Joe...is one of the Ditko era villains that was improved by another writer much later and not one of a Bryne/Stern/Claremont/Simonson caliber either. That's just how plain Joe is.

Oh, sorry Robert, I misunderstood your comment.

Chris: Yeah, you're right. Sandman became a Fantastic Four villain as part of the Frightful Four; Scorpion appeared in a Lee-scripted Captain America issue (122), the Enforcers mostly disappeared, but Ox appeared in some Daredevil issues. Doc Ock, Vulture, Electro, Mysterio, Kraven, Chameleon, and Spencer Smythe all appeared again, but at the same time, non-Ditko villains like Rhino, Shocker and Kingpin started showing up.

Looter has become something of a novelty; occasionally he appears as a kitschy character every now and again, writer playing up the "part time nut" angle.

The Cat appeared to be a one-timer; heck he was caught by the cops, not Spidey. Stern brought him back as Prowler 2, but I don't think he did much, if anything, after that.

Stromm died, so Lee had a good excuse to not bring him back.

Joe Smith was no longer a villain at the end of his story.

In my reading order, I placed Web-Spinners#7-9 in a gap in this issue. It featured the Sandman as the violin.

Lol villain I meant to say.

Anybody else who started shipping parker/allen after this issue?

That would be hard, Roy, as Liz makes one appearance after this in Ditko's run and then not again until a hundred issues later!

If I remember correctly, Liz began to show interest in Peter after the boxing match with Flash in issue #8, and certainly after it was revealed he tried to "impersonate" Spider-Man in issue # 12 to save Betty from Doc Ock. After that, Liz was clearly a rival to Betty for Pete's attraction, but as Liz says in this issue, Peter never showed much interest.

Considering the hype the Vulture got for Spider-Man: Homecoming, I'm way more shocked that he was less the Vulture and more a fusion of him and Molten Man. It actually makes sense in a good way: Vulture's way more notable than him, but Molten Man has way more sympathy and the connection with Liz Allen. (plus that scene in the car between Tom Holland and Michael Keaton was just great and really worked because of it) While this probably means no LA version of him, I'm happy it did turn out this way for the movie.

It's amazing that Marvel let Peter graduate from high school given how much they make a big deal about Spider-Man being a teenage super hero nowadays.

In 1965 Marvel was still allowing change because everything was still being done by the original creators - Lee, Kirby, and Ditko. There was no "media property" for them to take care of because the property was whatever they did. Characters age, give birth, and even have replacements. It's not until the original creators leave and new creators are given the property that characters began to freeze into recognizable forms that would not change.

This issue was entirely plotted by Ditko who was no longer communicating with Stan, so I wonder whether Stan had any thoughts on Peter's ageing when the artwork arrived. He could still have got some of the artwork redrawn, though this would have been a few pages rather than a single panel, so it may have been thought worth the costs.

Some of the reader's letters from this period and later are interesting reading, from issue #39 on there's occasional debate on the letters pages from college-age/early '20s readers on what sort of adult Peter should grow into, & some other readers hoping he won't age too quickly. There are some letter writers who see Spider-Man's youth as the important part of the character, but more seem to be responding to the originality/realism of the character, & are disappointed by elements they see as unrealistic, or they see his realism as potential to keep growing into a truly original and "real" character with more real-world issues, hobbies & solutions. No-one was expecting Charlie Brown or "Brand X" DC characters to age, but responding to the "real" aspects of Spider-Man made some readers hope he continued to become more real, because that was what they liked about the character, to them his originality was more important than his youth. Some of those readers will presumably have been disappointed by the forever young media property he became.

*Oops, that should have been "may have been thought NOT worth the costs".

(The letters pages also prove that you can't please everyone, & they weren't afraid of printing negative letters sometimes, probably because they knew other readers would then write in to respond. Some readers think it went downhill after the first 6 or 10 issues, one guy thinks that there is too much of Peter's personal life, another writes in to complain about the cheesiness of the cliffhanger in the Master Planner trilogy, someone thinks Spider-Man is Marvel's worst comic...)