ABSTRACT
An excellent route into the definition of an American identity through comic-books is to consider how the Comics Code Authority, through interaction between government and the industry, shaped what could and could not be shown. Stan Lee wrote the story, and submitted The Amazing Spider-Man #96 to the Comics Code Authority for authorisation, which it did not receive. The issue of drugs was inserted into the continuing narrative in The Amazing Spider-Man, with its first being introduced when Spider-Man saves a teenager who, while "stoned right out of his mind", attempts to demonstrate that he can fly by jumping off a building. The Amazing Spider-Man #97 expanded those threatened by drugs from poor African Americans to rich whites when it was revealed that Harry Osborn, Norman Osborn's son, was addicted to a range of pills. Comic-books were becoming less widely available in the early 1970s as the move to direct market distribution began.
