I re-read the Lee/Ditko Spider-Man run every other year or so. On the last re-reading, I was struck by what appears to be evidence of how Ditko planned to evolve the character. As we all know, #33 was the culmination of Pete's heroic progression, as he pushes himself beyond his limits and ends up saving Aunt May. Beyond just bringing her the needed serum, it looks like Ditko wanted to show that Peter, in Peter's own mind, finally "settled accounts" and would no longer have the compulsion to make up for his irresponsibility in letting the burgler run past the guard. What's my evidence? Two things: for the remainder of Ditko's run it seemed that Spidey went into action either for fun, to generate news pics or, as in #34, to clear his own name. Secondly, if you look at page 6 in #34, the issue immediately following his aforementioned triumph, the middle tier shows Pete consciously making the decision to not follow racing police cars and to focus on his studies instead. This, needless to say, is not how Stan would portray Pete once Ditko left. With that scene, Ditko's tale reaches completion. I know he told Marv Wolfman and others that Peter, if he was going to screw up all the time, shouldn't progress beyond 16 years of age, since (in Ditko's opinion) one is still learning at that age and, as the idealized hero that Ditko preferred, would become quite different once reaching maturity. With the decision to take Pete out of high school, it seems that Ditko wanted to make Peter something other than the guilt-ridden kid he'd been up til that point. I believe that Stan Lee most likely felt Ditko's intentions would take Peter away from the reader identification angle which was key to his popularity in Stan's mind. I think that Ditko would eventually have made Pete a cross between his Vic (Question) Sage and Jack (Creeper) Ryder, someone whose motivations would stem not from guilt but from both a drive to stand for Truth as well as the need to let loose. This is all just speculation, but those 3 panels in #34 really struck me as representing a deliberate move away from Stan's vision. In the Beach Boys, Mike Love resisted Brian Wilson's artistic leanings, telling him "Don't F*** with the formula". Ditko must've realized that though he was the plotter, Stan was the Editor and that the formula was there to stay. I came to this insight a few months ago, but reading Quesada's interview about making Pete single (on comicbookresources.com) brought it to the surface. Please tell me what you all think.
