SPIDER-MAN

Tuesday, October 20, 2026Earth-616 canonStrange Tales Annual #2 (1963)

Today's Fact

Verified against four independent sources. Issue cited below.

Spidey's first-ever team-up was with the Human Torch — in someone else's comic!
The Featured Fact

Strange Tales Annual #2 (1963) — published the same year Spider-Man debuted — is the wall-crawler's first-ever superhero team-up and his first guest appearance in another hero's comic. Spidey was only on his fourth or fifth appearance ever when Stan Lee loaned him to the Human Torch's series. Script by Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Steve Ditko — the one and only Kirby/Ditko Spider-Man collaboration.

The set-up is pure Silver Age: an art thief called the Fox frames Spider-Man for stealing a Da Vinci painting. The Human Torch hunts the "menace" down, they fight through a misunderstanding — then join forces to catch the real crook. It kicked off the Spidey-Torch frenemy dynamic that would define both characters for the next sixty years.

And the famous cover goof: Kirby forgot to draw the spider on Spider-Man's chest. It's the only Marvel cover where Spidey's emblem is simply missing — and it survived into legend. The issue also debuted Spider-Man's "ice-silicone webbing," used exactly once and never seen again. Oh, and it was Marvel's first annual with superhero content — Fantastic Four Annual #1 came a month later.

Why It's Obscure

Everyone knows Spidey teams up with everybody — but the very first team-up is the one nobody talks about. It didn't happen in Amazing Spider-Man. It didn't even happen in a Spider-Man comic. A character less than a year old was already crossing over — and the issue is quietly one of the most historically important Marvel books ever printed, still undervalued compared to its siblings.

1962
Amazing Fantasy #15 — Spider-Man debuts. Barely ten months later he'd already be guest-starring in another hero's book — an unheard-of pace for a brand-new character. Lee & Ditko.
1963
Strange Tales Annual #2 — "The Dazzling Human Torch, on the Trail of the Amazing Spider-Man!" First crossover, first team-up, and the birth of the "best frenemies forever" dynamic. Lee / Kirby / Ditko.
1963
The Fox — the art thief who framed Spidey for the Da Vinci heist. A one-shot villain for 30 years, until Tom DeFalco dragged him back into the light in Spider-Man Unlimited #5 (1994).
Trivia
The Kirby cover goof: no chest spider. Kirby's legendary forgetfulness gave the hobby one of its most famous error covers — and collectors pay a premium for it anyway.
Trivia
Inside the story, Spider-Man appears on the cover of "Live" magazine — his first in-universe magazine cover, months into his existence. The kid was already famous.

Sources

Every claim above is verified against at least two of these independent sources.

Bullpen Bulletins

  1. Spider-Man and Human Torch in Strange Tales Annual #2 — Bleeding Cool"Fourth appearance of Spider-Man, his first crossover" — "first time the two teen heroes worked together."
  2. Greatest Spider-Man/Fantastic Four Stories: #10 — Amazing Spider-Talk"(Give or take) the fourth full appearance of Spider-Man and his first-ever superhero team-up," script by Lee, pencils by Kirby, inks by Ditko.
  3. Strange Tales Annual #2 — Heritage Auctions"Fourth appearance of Spider-Man, his first crossover... cover features Spider-Man drawn without his chest logo."
  4. Strange Tales Annual #2 Review — SpiderFan.orgMilestones: "First time Spider-Man guest-stars in another comic," first appearance of the Fox, first in-story "Live" magazine cover.