Avengers Classic #11
The Mighty Avengers Meet Spider-Man!
This is a reprint of Avengers #11.
Along Came a Spider
Spider-Man (Peter Parker) is in the middle of a battle against Electro (Max Dillon). As the two fight on the rooftops, Spidey injures his ankle. That’s when Captain America (Steve Rogers) arrives to help. Tossing his shield to take out the supports of a water tower causes it to collapse on Electro. The water shorts out his powers, knocking him out.
Captain America critiques Spider-Man’s fighting style as being rough-shod but admits he has potential. He pegs the wall-crawler as being a teenager and theorizes that he is a loner in school. He goes on to believe that he keeps his true identity a secret out of respect for his parents, making him a man of honor. He also notes that his web-shooters have no serial numbers, pointing to the fact that Spider-Man made them himself, revealing him to be a capable scientist. Spider-Man is impressed by the profile Cap, but denies any truth to them.[1][2]
Spider-Man figures that Cap must be after him for the reward being offered by the Daily Bugle.[3] Cap says that he has only come to talk, which delights Spider-Man because he admits that he is geeking out that he is in the presence of such a great hero.[4] Cap is getting use to his fame, one of the many things that he has had to adjust to since being revived from suspended animation.[5] Cap thinks of all the things he missed, like the desegregation of baseball, things he fought for to happen when he enlisted in World War II.
He is curious to know why Spider-Man decided to fight crime, and the web-head once again skirts the question. He notes that this younger crop of heroes — which include Spider-Man, Daredevil, and the Human Torch —[6] who go into a fight fist first. It is not unlike the raw recruits he saw in the military during the war not knowing the hell that they were getting themselves into. Spider-Man says that he kind of experienced a realization that was similar and that’s why he fights crime.
Without prompting, Captain America offers to shake his hand, telling Spidey that he is going to trust him to always do the right thing. He also promises if the wall-crawler fails in his duties as a hero, he will be the first person to take him down. As he gets hot dogs from a street vendor, Spider-Man tells Cap not to worry as his attempts at cashing in on being Spider-Man were utter failures. He relates to how he couldn’t cash a cheque written out to “Spider-Man” and admits it was embarassing.[7] Cap tells the wall-crawler that every hero has something embarrassing about their careers, mentioning how Iron Man sometimes uses little roller skates.[8]
When the idea of Spider-Man being Avengers material comes up, Giant-Man (Hank Pym) arrives and tells Cap that the Enchantress has returned and used her powers to hypnotize the Hulk into attacking the team.[9] When Spider-Man asks to join the fight, Giant-Man says that it is official Avengers business but suggests they should talk about making him a member.[10] The wall-crawler decides he doesn’t need to be on a team and watches the fight. When he yells at Iron Man to use his roller skates, he admits that they do look stupid.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Captain America, Giant-Man, Electro
Continuity Notes
Captain America’s assessment of Spider-Man is pretty on the mark. The only thing off is that he became Spider-Man to protect his family. Here, Cap says that he does it to protect his parents. As we saw in Amazing Fantasy #15, Peter was raised by his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. He first became Spider-Man for fame and fortune until a burglar killed his Uncle Ben. Peter then captured the crook and discovered that it was someone he could have stopped the day before. This was his motivating factor to becoming a superhero. Here.
Spider-Man quips by saying that Captain America’s parents were probably rich and shot in an alley. This is a reference to the origins of the DC Comics character Batman. First told in Detective Comics #33, Bruce Wayne was the son of Thomas and Martha Wayne, wealthy philanthropists who were murdered by a thief who tried to rob them. This was the inciting incident that led to his becoming the Batman.
At the time of this story, Spider-Man was the constant target of a smear campaign enacted by Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson who has viewed Spider-Man as a fame seeking and dangerous vigilante starting in Amazing Spider-Man #1.
At this point in time, Spider-Man has had very little interaction with Captain America. This story is framed as though this might be their first one-on-one meeting. However, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #37 tells a tale of their first meeting. Per the Official Index to the Marvel Universe books for Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, and the Avengers, that story takes place before this encounter. The reason why it isn’t brought up is that it was published 2 years after this one, hence the omission.
At the time of this story, Cap was only just recently revived as seen in Avengers #4.
At the time of this story, all three heroes would have just gotten their starts around the time of this story in Amazing Fantasy #15, Daredevil #1, and Fantastic Four #1 respectively.
As seen in Amazing Fantasy #15-18 and Spider-Man: With Great Power… #1-5, Spider-Man first sought fame as a professional wrestler and live television performances. The cheque cashing thing was totally a thing that happened. He attempts at fame ended shortly after his Uncle Ben was murdered.
Iron Man has had retractable skates built into his boots in many of his Iron Man designs. It was first employed in Tales of Suspense #40.
This fight mostly happens off panel and as of this writing (August, 2024) it has not been detailed further than here. If it was a by-the-numbers Stan Lee/Jack Kirby-esque story, the Hulk probably snapped out of it and bounded away forcing the Enchantress to flee. That’s how those things tended to go in the 60s.
Spider-Man becoming an Avenger becomes quite a long process. He will first be approached to join the group in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #3, but failed the test they gave him (to capture the Hulk). He’ll then refuse an offer in Avengers #211, be rejected for not being a team player in Avengers #236-237. He then joined in Avengers #315-318, but quit after battling Nebula, as cosmic level threats were really out of his wheelhouse. He was granted reserve status in Avengers #329. However, he was very sparingly called in to help on Avengers business. He wouldn’t become a proper member of the team until New Avengers #1-5.
Topical References
Here, Captain America mentions how, in the years since he was in suspended animation, since all of these references are historical in nature, they would not be considered topical references. He cites:
Cap mentions how the popular musical genre went from big bands to rock ‘n’ roll. Rock music derived from the Blues and rose to prominence in the late 40s and early 50s. Cap went into suspended animation in 1945, predating this cultural shift by a few years.
How the Giants and Dodgers were baseball teams and how this eventually evolved into the Mets. The Brooklyn Dodger and New York Giants were both formed in 1883. As Major League Baseball grew as a national sport, the two teams moved in 1957 and became the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants respectively.
The Mets filled the void, the team first forming in 1962 to fill the void. All of these teams still play in their respective cities since their publication. This is why referring to real world sports teams in the present tense (rather than historical as they are here) is because teams can move, or disband IRL.
“The Jackie Robinson thing” is another baseball reference. Jackie Robinson is credited as the first Black baseball player to play in Major League baseball when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. However, this is incorrect, the first black MLB player was actually Moses Walker who played 63 years earlier than Robinson, and only for a single season. That said, during this period the MLB was did not allow black players. Carver is mostly forgotten because of his problematic personal life and short time playing professional baseball.
Captain America also makes reference to actor John Wayne. Born in 1907, Wayne was an actor from 1926 until his death in 1979. He was famous for his roles in cowboy films where he played rough-and-tumble heroes and became the archetype of a manly man for the era. Captain America would have been around at the time Wayne was making a name for himself. John Wayne was also a bigoted piece of shit and a coward who was one of the few actors in Hollywood who avoided enlistment and the draft. Regardless of the fact that he was a garbage human being, Cap is referring to him based on his dated cultural knowledge, so reference to him wouldn’t be considered topical.