Amazing Spider-Man #103 Shows How Wild That the Wall-Crawler’s Adventures Can Get

Spider-Man is Marvel Comics‘ most popular character. Sure, Wolverine and Hulk are massively popular and the MCU has made Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor into superstars. However, Spidey has been a massive part of pop culture over the decades and was the true reason Silver Age Marvel became so popular. The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, the Hulk, and Thor were all amazing, but they were going up against the biggest icons in comics. Spider-Man took everything that fans loved about the other Marvel characters and took it to the next level. The House of Ideas created heroes with feet of clay, and Peter Parker was the ultimate example of this, with an added wrinkle – he was the same age as the teenage readers of Marvel Comics.

Spider-Man became Marvel’s most relatable hero and paved the way for the trials and tribulations that would define the House of Ideas’ characters. His early adventures had everything you could want from a superhero comic starring a teenager and fans got to watch him grow and change along with them. His supporting cast was amazing and it all added up to create a comic that every fan read. The Amazing Spider-Man gave readers all kinds of stories over the decades and one of the most different kicked off in The Amazing Spider-Man #103. This issue took Peter and his girlfriend on the worst work vacation ever, taking readers to Marvel’s most savage locale. Spider-Man has starred in brilliant stories from the best creators ever; this issue is a perfect example of everything that made his book amazing and it can be yours from the ComicBook Vending Machine.

The Amazing Spider-Man #103 Took Spidey and Gwen to Marvel’s Most Savage Land

The history of The Amazing Spider-Man has always been rather interesting. There’s the controversy of who actually created the character (I watched the Strange Brain Parts video about that today) – Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, or Steve Ditko. There’s the grudge between Ditko and Lee that would see the artist take over everything about the book until he was fired with issue #38 and John Romita Sr.’s legendary run with Lee (although he still did most of the work). By the ’70s, Lee was gone from Amazing and eventually, as was normal with Marvel books in the decade, Roy Thomas would come onboard for a few issues before Gerry Conway joined the title, leading inexorably to the deaths of Gwen Stacy and Green Goblin.

Thomas only wrote four issues of Amazing, and issue #103 was his penultimate issue. Joining him was Gil Kane. Kane had played a huge role in the development of Silver Age DC, co-creating Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern and Ray Palmer as the Atom. He was one of the great artists of the day, his simple, detailed linework giving readers some amazing sci-fi thrills and chills with Hal and Ray. At Marvel, he worked a lot with Thomas, co-creating Adam Warlock and Iron First. He drew the anti-drug story from The Amazing Spider-Man #96-98 and his work on the Wall-Crawler was amazing. Thomas decided to put Kane through his paces with their four issues and issue #103 is a huge part of that.

This issue kicks off with Spidey foiling a bank robbery and then takes readers to The Daily Bugle, where J. Jonah Jameson is trying to figure out how to sell more papers. An expedition to the Savage Land catches his eye and he decides to send some reporters down there, with Peter being chosen as the photographer and bringing Gwen Stacy with him. The Savage Land is one of Marvel’s most dangerous locations; it first appeared as the Land Where Time Stands Still in 1941’s Marvel Mystery Comics #22 and gained its other name in X-Men (Vol. 1) #10 in 1965. It’s a land of dinosaurs and primitive humans, sometimes used by Magneto as a base, and always a fun place to drop characters into.

This issue is all about hunting down Gog, a massive monster that had been sighted in the land, bringing Kraven out of the woodwork. Gwen hated Spider-Man, so Peter had to stay on his toes to protect the expedition with his powers, keeping out of costume until the very end of the issue to find a missing Gwen. It’s a cliffhanger ending for a comic that can best be described as an action-packed romp. Thomas was a marvel at stories like this, taking readers from the mundane to the fantastic constantly in his work. Spider-Man in the Savage Land wasn’t anything anyone expected, which was Thomas in a nutshell; he always gives you what you don’t expect. Meanwhile, Kane knocked it out of park, his detailed action scenes and tight figurework giving readers some awesome imagery. This is a comic from two masters of the medium and the ComicBook Vending Machine gives you a chance to own it.

Spider-Man and the Savage Land Go Beautifully Together

The Amazing Spider-Man has always been one of those books that gave you the unexpected and issue #103 is a perfect example of a time when that worked better than it has any right to. Spider-Man in the Savage Land isn’t weird in 2026; we’ve seen him go there numerous times over the decades. However, back in 1971, it wasn’t a normal thing. His adventures were a bit more grounded back then – or as grounded as they could be – and this type of story wasn’t the norm. Even today, where we’re more used to this sort of thing, it’s still not normal. However, from a Roy Thomas/Gil Kane comic, it was just par for the course.

This issue doesn’t have any big stories or massive introductions. It’s just a fun story that takes the main character somewhere you’d never expect by two of the best creators of the day. It’s one of those books that show just how bad Gwen Stacy was for Peter, so it’s definitely a book that all of this us Gwen haters would enjoy. It’s a fun but forgotten piece of Spider-Man history and it’s one of many great books from the ComicBook Vending Machine.

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