Reading guide · 1965–66
The Master Planner Saga: reading order and where to read it
Everything you need to read The Master Planner Saga: the issues in order, what it is about without spoilers, why it matters, and the books in print today.
Read Amazing Spider-Man #31, #32 and #33 (1965–66), by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. All three are in Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Great Responsibility, which also has the rest of Ditko's final year on the series.
- Published
- 1965–66
- Length
- 3 issues
- By
- Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
- Good for new readers?
- Yes. Three issues, and you only need to know that Peter Parker is Spider-Man and Aunt May is all the family he has.
- Start with
- Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Great Responsibility
Reading order
In this order. The notes are spoiler-free.
| # | Read | Year | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amazing Spider-Man #31 | 1965 | Peter starts college, Aunt May falls ill, and Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn appear for the first time. A gang working for someone called the Master Planner is stealing scientific equipment. |
| 2 | Amazing Spider-Man #32 | 1966 | Peter races to get May the one experimental serum that might save her, and runs straight into the Master Planner's plans. |
| 3 | Amazing Spider-Man #33 | 1966 | The famous one: trapped under tons of machinery in a flooding underwater base, with the serum just out of reach, Spider-Man lifts the weight off himself. |
What it's about
Aunt May is dying, and the only thing that can save her is a rare experimental serum. Peter, a broke college freshman, has to get it to her while a mysterious mastermind's gang does everything it can to take it. It is a three-part story about how much one ordinary person will carry for the people he loves, and it builds to a single image every Spider-Man fan knows.
Why it matters
The sequence in #33, stretched across five pages by Steve Ditko, is the most celebrated moment of the original run and the clearest picture of what makes Spider-Man different: he wins because he refuses to quit, not because he is the strongest. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) pays it tribute when Peter is trapped under rubble and lifts his way out. The same three issues also introduce Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn, two of the most important people in his life.
The big twist (spoilers)
Show the spoilers
The Master Planner is Doctor Octopus, back for revenge, and the underwater base is his.
Where to read it
The whole era
Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Great Responsibility
Collects: Amazing Spider-Man #18–38 and Annual #2
Paperback, 504 pages (2023 printing). The last two years of Lee and Ditko, including the Master Planner Saga.
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Who would win?
The characters at the heart of this story, rated one-on-one under this site's fight rules.
What to read before and after
Questions and answers
What issues are the Master Planner Saga?
Amazing Spider-Man #31, #32 and #33, published from late 1965 to early 1966, by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
Where can I read the Master Planner Saga?
All three issues are in Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Great Responsibility, which collects Amazing Spider-Man #18–38 and Annual #2. They are also on Marvel Unlimited, Marvel's digital subscription.
Who first appears in the Master Planner Saga?
Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn both make their first appearances in Amazing Spider-Man #31 (1965).
All Spider-Man reading guides · The essential Spider-Man comics, in order