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Author:
Title: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN No. 37
Place Published:
Publisher:Marvel [Indicia: Non-Pareil Publishing Group]
Date Published: June, 1966
Description:

CGC certified: VG- (3.5). 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: Artie Simek. GPAnalysis: GPAnalysis: A 3.5 sold for $147 in 5/22.

After back-to-back so-so stories, Steve Ditko, plotter and master planner of the Spidey saga, is back in top form. The action sequences are great, and Ditko drops more hints regarding the Green Goblin's secret identity.

Some fans think that Lee and Ditko's partnership ended over a disagreement about the Green Goblin's true identity. They say Ditko wanted the Goblin to be a random nobody, but Lee wanted him to be an established character. Ditko shot this theory down: "I knew from Day One, from the first GG story, who the GG would be. I absolutely knew because I planted him in J. Jonah Jameson's businessman's club, it was where JJJ and the GG could be seen together. I planted them together in other stories where the GG would not appear in costume, action. I planted the GG's son (same distinctive hair style) in the college issues for more dramatic involvement and storyline consequences." – Robin Snyder, The Comics, 2009.

If a quarrel over the Goblin's secret identity wasn't to blame, then why did Ditko quit Marvel? Stan Lee claimed not to know: "He never told me why.... I really don't know." – Lee, quoted in Duin & Richardson's Comics Between the Panels. Dark Horse: 1998, p. 133.

Ditko set the stage in this ish for events meant to unfold months down the line. Why did he abruptly quit in the middle of his long-term plan? What caused the final rift that parted Ditko and Spidey forever? According to Ditko, "I know why I left Marvel, but no one else in this universe knew or knows why."

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