On the other end of the spectrum, we have one of the few panels on this list that doesn't involve extreme violence. See, we promised this was gonna happen right back at the start, didn't we? Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's original run on the Amazing Spider-Man remains unparalleled in superhero comics, even fifty years on, and that's partly down to this single, indelible image. The concluding part of a particularly gruelling storyline, The Final Chapter was where the really good stuff was to be found. The rest of the arc involved Peter Parker's belovedly frail Aunt Man being struck down with a mysterious disease which would prove to be fatal, unless he could somehow get his hands on an experimental radiation treatment codenamed ISO-36. Unfortunately that very serum got nabbed by shady new supervillain who, when Spidey finally managed to track him down, turned out to be Doctor Octopus in disguise. Trapping the wallcrawler beneath a huge piece of machinery and abandoning his base to be filled with water, the climactic pages of the story feature no epic battles, property destruction or bloodshed. Instead it's just Spider-Man's interior monologue, as he summons up the strength to triumph over these insurmountable odds, the tension building until the full-page release of him lifting this fantatiscally heavy weight - SYMBOLISM - and thus managing to save his aunt's life. Who knew rescuing an old lady by lifting things could be so spine-tingling, let alone legit badass?
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
