10 Incredible Comic Book Panels That Changed Everything
7. Spidey Overcomes The Odds
Marvel Comics
We actually got to see the MCU pay homage to this classic Ditko panel in Spider-Man: Homecoming, so that should go some way in conveying the significance of this moment.
Anywho, in The Amazing Spider-Man #33 - written by Stan Lee and with Steve Ditko on art duties - Aunt May is close to meeting death's door, and the only thing that can save her is a serum lying just out of Spidey's reach. With the wall-crawler having been trapped by literally tonnes of steel, Pete resigns himself to failure, as no matter how hard he tries, he can't lift any of the debris on his back.
It stands up as a tense scene even to this day, and the moment that Spidey finally breaks free genuinely makes for one of the finest comic book moments of all time. Ditko's influence in crafting that tension, however, should not go overlooked.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
