Untold Tales of Spider-Man

From 1995 to 1997 Marvel tried an experiment in the life of Spider-Man, the company published a continuity-implant title into the life of our favorite Webbed-Wonder that told previously untold stories from when he was a teenager this comic was called Untold Tales of Spider-Man. (Incidentally, the company is attempting it again with a new comic entitled Spider-Man: With Great Power that tells stories that fall between when he received his powers from the bite of an irradiated Spider to when he really leaned what being Spider-Man was all about, with the death of his Uncle Ben (Amazing Fantasy #15).

Well, with Untold Tales, I had missed this entire run,as it fell into that black hole when I had stopped collecting comics. Once I restarted my collection in ‘01 I began to fill in the gaps by going to the back issue bins at collections (as it turns out I’ll probably be able to collect most of these books and pay less for them now than I would have paid for them if I had purchased them new). Anyway, I’ve almost completed my Untold Tales run, and as I was reading them recently, I suddenly realized a couple of things.

First of all, While I had never considered it prior to now, it had recently occurred to me that Betty Brant, JJJ’s original secretary must have been older than Peter (Peter bing 15 when he became Spidey). Well, if Betty was Jonah’s secretary then she had to be older than 15. As soon as I thought about it,I figured that she would have had to have been at least 18 for her to have been the secretary to the editor and publisher of a great metropolitan newspaper. I mean, it only made sense. Well, I just read Untold #12, where writer Kurt Busiek had penned a story explaining that while, yes, Betty was probably older than Peter, she was only a year or two (tops). (Apparently her mom was Jameson’s secretary, until an accident hospitalized her and when JJJ couldn’t keep another secretary, Betty naturally assumed the role,and Jameson, out of loyalty to her mom, kept her in the position.)

Great retcon storytelling, eh? Well, I thought so.

So, the other thing that struck me about Untold Tales (especially in light of the current retcon that Marvel editorial Joe Quesada is foisting up on us is based on the (misinformed) supposition that fans want to see a younger Spider-Man. Well, if that were the case, then why did Marvel stop publishing Untold Tales? I can only think of one reason. Low sales. (Marvel also tried to retcon the entire Spidey Mythos with John Byrne’s universally panned Chapter One.) Which again goes to prove my point. While some of this might appeal to the nostalgia in us, fans really don’t want to see a younger Spidey. They want to see the one we see now (or, art least saw right up until the closing moments of One More Day.

The Spider is Coming! The Spider is Coming!

I just wanted to remind everyone that Spidey 3 is coming soon (well, in three months), but soon enough. Anyway, today is Spider-Man Day in the New York Post day, and in today’s little episode, we are reintroduced to Spidey’s arch nemesis, Dr. Octopus. That’s right boys and girls, today we were treated to the first half of Amazing Spider-Man #11, wherein Peter Travels to Philadelphia, PA to track down the missing Betty Brant (secretary to grouchy old J. Jonah Jameson, publisher of The Daily Bugle.

Needless to say, this brought up an interesting point that I had never really considered until I began to reread these early Spidey episodes. According to official Marvel Cannon, Spidey began his career around the age of 15, which is about how old he is during most of these stories. Now, if Betty was working as a secretary for JJJ, then she was old enough to be employed (at lease 16), but I'm thinking that she was probably older than just 16 (why would the publisher of a great metropolitan newspaper have a 16-year-old as his secretary?) So I'm guessing that she was at least 18. Which kind of makes the relationship between these two somewhat creepy, if you get what I mean. (Plus, in this story Pete goes to Philly from NY by himself, what the hell was Aunt May thinking?)

Ah well, who knows, I guess that under the scrutiny of the modern era, the internal logic of these stories doesn’t hold up so well. Still, this doesn’t detract from the overall enjoyment of them in the slightest. So sit back, put your feet up, and enjoy the story of the Spider and the Octopus. I know that I did.