Heading:
Author:
Title: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN No. 2
Place Published:
Publisher:Marvel [Indicia: Non-Pareil Publishing Group]
Date Published: May, 1963
Description:

CGC certified: Fine (6.0). Off-white to white pages. Not cleaned and pressed. Cover: Steve Ditko pencils and inks, Stan Goldberg colors. Story: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Art: Steve Ditko. Colors: Stan Goldberg. Lettering: John Duffy, Artie Simek. First appearance: The Vulture. GPAnalysis: A 6.0 sold for $5280 in 7/22.

A grizzled gaffer sporting mechanical wings goes on a crime spree, robbing banks and stores with a vigor borne of desperation. His nom de "plume," the Vulture, marks him as a scavenger, foraging for scraps in an urban jungle inhospitable to old buzzards. Spidey, like a Darwinian force of nature, clips the Vulture's wings, enabling the cops to cage the old bird. Soon, the crafty codger will subsist on prison mush and fantasies of revenge. All the while, Spidey and Jameson circle each other in a bizarre holding pattern of dysfunction, with Parker selling Jameson the news photos that Jameson uses to rip Spidey's rep – all of which begs the question of who's scavenging who?

"The episode is still all about fame. The Vulture is supplanting Spider-Man as the celeb who shifts copies of Jameson's papers. Spider-Man was a TV hit because he seemed to be more spider than human; today, the crowds are looking at the Vulture because he is 'more bird of prey than human.' Jameson, who was obsessed with Spider-Man, now wants to fill whole issues of his magazine with pictures of the Vulture. The Vulture actively courts publicity, announcing in advance where his crimes are going to be committed. And so Parker makes a Faustian pact to keep himself in the public eye. He is going to sell pictures of himself to Jameson, knowing full well what Jameson is will

do with them." – Andrew Rilstone, Listen Bud: The First Great Graphic Novel in American Literature. Unpublished manuscript, p. 51.

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