Rating:  -
I've read the Ultimate Spidey comic. Don't get me wrong it was a smart move by Marvel to "refresh" their dated comic titles for the younger generation but c'mon you cannot re-write history. While I've thoroughly enjoyed reading the Ultimate Spider-Man comics it feels wrong somehow.
Go back and get the real story on Spidey with these awesome collections. Call me an old fashion comic geek but I'll take my heroes they way they started dated history and all.
Rating:  -
I'd love to give this collection of early Spider-man comics a higher rating, but I'm very disappointed in the physical construction of this thick paperback. About the third time I opened it, the entire glossy cover and spine popped off...leaving me with a sheaf of newsprint held together with a thin film of latex. Unfortunately, I've had the book for more than 30 days...so I'm stuck with it.
No complaints with the content or presentation...but don't expect the book to hold up for multiple readings.
Rating: -
This is the way to go - the essential series. Most of us can't afford these classics, and I don't mind not having color. It actually takes awhile to get through one issue, unlike most of today's fare. I want to get the entire run so I can share them with my kids!
Rating: -
This is the third version of the "Essential Spider-Man, Volume 1" trade paperback collection and the fact that it did not come out until March 1 of this year has given me a lot of headaches this semester. This is the one "textbook" in my Introduction to Popular Culture class and Spider-Man is usually the second unit and I had to shift it at the last minute to being the fourth unit to make sure everybody has copies. The cherubs are turning in their essays this week in which they argue what are the five most significant defining elements of Spider-Man comic books (e.g., spider-powers, JJJ out to get him, bookworm, worried about Aunt May), and it is always interesting to see how many of them were convinced they would hate having to read comic books and how much they end up loving Spidey.
When Spider-Man first appeared in "Amazing Fantasy" #15 (which now provides the cover art for Volume 1) the promise was that we would find the character to be "just a bit...different." Although there were similarities to those who had come before (e.g., the motivation of a loved one's death just like Batman, the use of radioactivity to provide superpowers), it was ultimately the difference that made Spider-Man so popular. However, the key element of that difference did not not emerge until issue #1 of "The Amazing Spider-Man," when J. Jonah Jameson begins his public crusade against the Spider-Man menace Ultimately, what made Spider-Man "different" was that he was considered to be a menace rather than a hero by the public, and usually neither Peter Parker nor his web-slinger alter-ego had any luck other than bad. Here was the comic book superhero as underdog.
What is amazing as you re-read these stories is how well these comics stand up (with the glaring exception of "Spider-Man" #1 where they drop a net to try and capture John Jameson's errant space capsule and Spidey catches a ride from a jet fighter using his webbing). I was never a big admirer of Steve Ditko's artwork, especially the stuff he did after he left Marvel, but in going over these early Spider-Man comics I am very impressed with his compositional skills. Maybe it is because these are in black & white rather than in color that this strength of Ditko's artwork really emerges, but Ditko deserves a lot more credit than I had given him the first time around. There is also a "Spider-Man" tackles the Human Torch story that is drawn by Jack Kirby and inked by Ditko, which only goes to affirm the choice of the latter to draw Spidey (Kirby does bulk him up too much).
As for Stan Lee's writing, well, I do not remember if he actually wrote "Millie the Model," but the soap opera elements of "Spider-Man" are superb as we go back to the ancient days of Liz Allen and Betty Bryant, well before the time of Gwen Stacy, and when Mary Jane Watson (sometimes "Watkins") was just the niece of Aunt May's best friend. Then there are the subtle twists on Superman, where the "Daily Bugle" is out to get Spider-Man and Spidey's biggest fan "Flash" Thompson is always picking on puny Peter Parker (cf. "Daily Planet" and Jimmy Olson), as Lee continued to play with the superhero genre. Finally, there is Aunt May, the beloved little old lady who was arguably the more unique and important supporting character Lee ever created at Marvel. No other superhero ever had a white-haired aunt who could never know the truth, who was terrified by the mere thought of Spider-Man, and who showed almost as much gumption during all those stays in the hospital on death's door as she did heart every day of her life. She was always Peter's best girl until the day she died.
Volume 1 collects "Amazing Fantasy" #15, "Amazing Spider-Man" #1-20, and "Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1" (with some Ditko artwork added at the back for this new edition). In these stories we have Spider-Man's first encounters with the Chameleon, the Vulture, Doctor Octopus, the Sandman, the Lizard, Electro, Mysterio, Ka-Zar the Hunter, the Scorpion, and, of course, the Green Goblin. Part of the fun in reading these stories is knowing what lies ahead for Spidey and some of these characters (the Green Golbin and Ka-Zar clearly heading that list). The lesson, as we all know, is that with great power comes great responsibility and once you start here you have to keep going because as good as this collection is I think you will find that the Volumes 2 and 3 of "The Essential Spider-Man," where Ditko is replace by John Romita (Sr.), represent the pinnacle of the series. However, you definitely have to start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.
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