In “When We First Met”, we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore. Today, we look at when Spider-Man first inexplicably lost his superpowers.

One of the biggest plot points in 2004’s Spider-Man 2 is that Peter Parker is inexplicably losing his superpowers at inorportune moments. This eventually leads to him deciding that he wants to quit being Spider-Man altogether, which leads to the film actually re-enacting the scene of Spider-Man leaving his costume in the garbage can, as he did in Amazing Spider-Man #50 way back when…

Obviously, eventually his powers return, and he is able to save the day against Doctor Octopus. The interesting thing is that while obviously the scene with the costume in the trash is a direct homage to Amazing Spider-Man #50, but the whole “Spider-Man inexplicably loses his powers” is ALSO something that really did use to happen in the old Spider-Man comic books.

Longtime reader Amy R. wanted to know when was the FIRST time that it happened in the comics, so let’s find out!

In their latest look at notable comic firsts, CSBG reveals when Aquaman first met his Justice League teammates

When did Spider-Man first lose his powers?

One of the most interesting things to me about re-reading the earliest issues of Amazing Spider-Man is seeing the unusual interactions between Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in the stories. You see, as I have noted before, Lee and Ditko initially plotted the series together, but Lee, as the Editor-in-Chief, had more of a say on the published plot. Ditko, though, would fight for what he wanted, and Lee would often concede to Ditko’s points, and over time, Lee obviously just let Ditko do more and more of the plotting because he trusted Ditko’s approach (and, of course, because Lee was busy with other things at the company).

It was Lee who came up with the brilliant twist in Spider-Man’s debut issue, Amazing Fantasy #15, of having a burglar that Spider-Man let get away early in the story turn out to then murderr Peter Parker’s beloved Uncle Ben. It might have even been Lee’s idea that Peter Parker should have been a bit of a loner (the tricky thing about this stuff is that Ditko spoke so infrequently about the past, and Lee could never remember these little details until he just started taking credit for everything in the 1970s), however, very quickly, Lee intended to take the book in a much more traditional and fantastical superhero direction, a direction that Ditko fought him heavily on. Once it happened, though, and the reader response was strong, Lee not only got into it, he got REALLY into it.

However, since Ditko was the one plotting the issues out and drawing him, he had to ALSO be in on these celebrations, and that is what amuses me, that Ditko went along with these over-the-top bits about how unique Spider-Man was as a character that Lee liked to pepper into the issues, like the opening page of Amazing Spider-Man #12…

It is kind of cool, really, to see how much Ditko was obviously into the series early on, in lock step with Lee. Obviously, over time, the two stopped speaking, and Ditko would just do whatever he wanted with the plot, but early on, the two talked, and it sure seemed like they were ENJOYING the work together.

In any event, in that issue, Peter is coming down with a cold…

Later on, Peter’s virus gets worse, and when he confronts Doctor Octopus, he suddenly no longer has his superpowers at all, and he is easily defeated, with Doctor Octopus exposing him as Peter Parker, which, in turn, actually helps protect Spider-Man’s secret identity, because no one can believe such a weakling would be Spider-Man, and they all assume Peter was just wearing the costume like a weirdo…

Luckily, after some rest, Peter’s powers come back…

So that’s the first time that Spider-Man lost his powers (this issue came out in February 1964), but obviously, as you can see, it really wasn’t INEXPLICABLE, right? So it is not the real answer. That means we have to go forward four more months…

In their latest look at notable comic firsts, CSBG reveals when Garfield’s owner, Jon, finally started dating Garfield’s vet, Liz

When did Spider-Man first INEXPLICABLY lose his powers?

No, the answer would come in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1, where Spider-Man was thinking back to his origin (this was one of the only times Peter even mentioned Uncle Ben in the early issues of the series), and he inexplicably lost his powers…

This was back when back issues really weren’t a thing, and Marvel hadn’t yet started to reprint everything they published, so readers of Spider-Man really HADN’T had his origins revisited in quite some itme, so this was a notable thing for the readers of the era.

The Sinister Six then kidnap Aunt May and Betty Brant, and powers or no, Peter decides that he has to save them, and luckily, his powers return just in the nick of time…

Spider-Man later notes that the power loss was just psychosomatic, so it was truly an unexplained loss of powers, and thus, the answer to our search!

Thanks to Amy R. for the suggestion! If anyone has a suggestion for a future When We First Met, drop me a line at [email protected]! If you e-mail me the suggestion, it has the extra bonus of being searchable later, so I can properly credit you if I take a while before I write about it!