The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2

Though primarily known as the artist co-creator of Spider-Man, Steve Ditko was also the co-creator of Dr. Strange, and he always seemed to prefer the Master of the Mystic Arts over the Webslinger. A text box on the splash page pretty much confirms that this issue is throwing a bone to Ditko. Steve plots and draws the feature story, "The Wondrous Worlds of Dr. Strange!", and it should come as a surprise to no one that its really more of a Dr. Strange story guest starring Spider-Man than a Spider-Man story guest starring Dr. Strange. While that doesn't matter much to me as I like Dr. Strange as much or more than Spider-Man, I get the feeling that a lot of Spidey fans probably felt a little cheated here.

But then it's not a particularly great Dr. Strange story either. Xandu is one of the least compelling villains Dr. Strange has fought so far. In this story he's stolen half a generic magic item and uses two generic thugs to steal the other half of the generic item from Dr. Strange. Spider-Man intervenes and is temporarily banished to another dimension but grabs half the item so Xandu has to bring him back. It culminates in a generic magic battle (with none of the spells being particularly interesting or memorable) between Xandu and Strange with Spidey assisting.

The remainder of the issue contains reprints of Amazing Spider-Man #s 1, 2 and 5 (not the best stories in the series either), and some full page pinups of the Circus of Crime, The Scorpion, The Beetle, Jonah's Robot and The Crime Master - lesser canon foes rendered in workmanlike drawings. So on the whole, I cannot recommend this Annual, it's greatest strength being about 5 pages of surreal Ditko art.