AMAZING FANTASY 23
volume of Amazing Fantasy was published (2004–6, #1–20), essentially as a plat-
form for introducing new superheroes into the Marvel universe.
Th e short stories of the early 1960s featured endings with a twist and a moral message,
often refl ecting wider societal issues through allegory. One of the most common themes
was that of an unscrupulous fi gure becoming the victim of fantastic poetic justice, such
as a hypnotist who seeks to use his power to rob people but instead ends up hypnotizing
himself into amnesia, or a cheating gambler who, after seeking to learn from a Martian
how best to swindle others, ends up becoming an interplanetary zoo exhibit. Th e initial
story of Peter Parker fi ts into this pattern—with a notable exception. Seeking personal
fame and fortune, Spider-Man fails to stop an escaping burglar, who later that night goes
on to kill Peter’s uncle. Having been spared a grisly fate, but being responsible for the
demise of his uncle, Peter Parker learns that “with great power there must also come—
great responsibility!” Th is marks the turning point after which a legend was born.
Th e trope of extraterrestrial alien encounter was also especially prominent in Amaz-
ing Fantasy. Mostly, aliens were hostile beings looking to conquer the planet (inevitably
beginning their would-be conquests in the United States); they were then thwarted
from their designs by often clever and sometimes completely unsuspecting Americans.
Often, these hostile aliens shape-shift or otherwise disguise themselves as humans. In
a few cases, however, the aliens would come in peace (again, inevitably to the United
States) to expand mutual understanding and to benevolently impart their superior
technology—yet often the fear, intolerance or indiff erence of Americans would drive
them away. Th e tension between an American populace that had to be ever-vigilant
against hostile takeover and that yet should not put forward a blanket refusal of all
things foreign was clearly an allusion to the Cold War : on one hand the threat of com-
munism, and in particular the threat of communists infi ltrating American society from
within, and on the other the increased interactions with various nations as a result of
increasing U.S. interventions in global aff airs.
Th e Cold War is also addressed directly in AAF #13, where a belligerent and liter-
ally red-faced ruler of the Soviet Union (who resembles then Soviet premier Nikita
Khrushchev) is humbled when the ingenuity of American scientists leads to a nonvio-
lent defeat of the Communist Bloc. In AAF #12, the ruthless criminal Ramon Corbo
(a pastiche of Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro) becomes the military dictator
of his Th ird World country, spurning aid from the United States because he would
have to prove that it would be used for the benefi t of his people. True to the poetic
justice motif, he dies of a heart attack after shooting down a U.S. aid plane. Th e lat-
ter story is especially ironic considering the United States’ support—in the name of
anticommunism—for brutal, anti-egalitarian and authoritarian dictators in much of
Latin America throughout the postwar period.
Th e 1960s series is also remarkable for completely ignoring the issues of race and
racism despite the upsurge in the Civil Rights Movement, except for the various refer-
ences to mankind (Americans in particular) being unready to accept those who are
diff erent, such as scary-looking aliens or mutants with special powers (introduced in
