American Comics Update: Spider-Mania/Mighty Marvel Firsts: Face It, Tiger… Iconic ‘Reveal’ of Mary Jane Watson in Amazing #42
*Marvel: There are two great lines in Spider-Man history. The first – ‘with great power there must also come — great responsibility!’ was not original to Stan Lee, but as far as we know the second – ‘Face it tiger, you just hit the jackpot!’ is entirely Stan’s own work. Well, we’re not offering you the first this update (fresh out of Amazing Fantasy #15 for now), but we do have the second in the shape of Amazing Spider-man #42. In this issue, the astronaut offspring of J Jonah Jameson gained super-powers and posed a threat to Spider-Man… but let’s be honest, who really cares? Because the Big Deal this time was the revelation, finally, of Mary Jane Watson, the mysterious lady who’d been hovering in the odd panel, her face always obscured, for several previous issues! When Stan Lee and John Romita finally showed us the ‘Full MJ’, it was like all Peter’s Christmasses came at once, with one of the most famous intro lines in the history of comics! This is a superior cents copy (there was a UK dock strike on at the time, and for two months, no Marvels were imported through normal channels), with a strong reflective colour cover, tight, firm staples and supple white to off-white pages. Small amounts of edge wear and corner blunting, with tiny micro-creases across top and bottom right corners which break colour.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #42 FN/VF £175