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Lee's involvement in Spider-Man Patrick Ford 4 September 2016 The letters page in issue #21 spend a good deal of space discussing fan interest in crossovers. A dislike of crossovers is something Ditko has written about frequently in his essays. There is a good possibility Lee's continuous demands for crossovers was a point of contention between Lee and Ditko. In my opinion it is very likely Lee stopped speaking to Ditko during the production of issue #21 (the Torch, the Beetle) or issue #22 (the Ring Master). These are the last issues which contain crossovers. Patrick Ford 4 September 2016 Patrick Ford AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #23 contains a plot intensive story featuring the Green Goblin. This is almost certainly another issue plotted completely by Ditko. There are no crossovers and again on the letters page Lee brings up the topic of crossovers. "Spider-Man Goes Mad" is the very Ditko-esque story in issue #24 and issues #25 is the first story where Ditko is credited with the plot. Mark Ricard: I am sort of disappointed in issue 24. The concept really had potential. But it got silly near the end with Thompson and Jameson. Even Peter being taken so soon that there might be something wrong with him. But it got way too silly. Assuming he plotted all of the issues 18 on then it is the one piece of evidence against my Ditko=Respect for Peter and Lee=Silly comedy. Patrick Ford: Even when Ditko was plotting without any communication from Lee that does not mean the published story escaped Lee. We know for a fact that in the Looter story Lee made changes so extensive than Carl Hubble was ordered to redraw a figure of the Looter as Spider-Man. Patrick Ford 4 September 2016 The letter column in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #17 contains an announcement that the following issue was completely plotted by Steve Ditko. Likely many prior issues were entirely or largely plotted by Ditko and I assume the announcement does not mark any new role being played by Ditko. More likely it is the first sign of Ditko insisting on pay and credit for writing. Mark Ricard: He said Lee suggested the Green Goblin but in a very different form. A supernatural ghost. Ditko thought that was the wrong fit for the series. Very good call. Patrick Ford: Many of Lee's ideas for Ditko sound suspiciously like ideas that would be associated with Kirby. Tim Bateman: This particular idea of 'Lee's' sound suspiciously like Lee did not have a clue about what Spider-Man was about. Patrick Ford: According to Ditko another of Lee's "ideas" was simply, "Let's do a Spider-Woman." That was the sum of Lee's "plot idea" for issue #3 of ASM. Ditko convinced Lee to instead use Ditko's Dr. Octopus idea. Dave Rawlins: Several years ago I saw a segment of Biography devoted to Stan Lee. In the program Lee is given credit for Dr. Octopus via comments made by his brother, Larry Leiber. Patrick Ford: Well according to Ditko, Lee did add the name. Dave Rawlins: In Genesis, God allowed man to name all the animals he had created, too! ;)

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