Spider-Man

[Fist and Faith]

There's no thread for him? I'm not a big fan, but with his popularity, I'm rather surprised. There have certainly been some worthy moments over the decades.

I just saw a list of important/pivotal/whatever Spider-Man stories. One was something I had never heard of. Coming home, by J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita Jr. That's a heck of a couple of good names, so I tried it. Interesting enough. Spider-Man is a totem of the spider. Bad guy, Morlun, kills spider totems, feeding off their power. Peter is way outmatched. Of course, hopeless fights are always fun. 😃

Romita does an excellent job. No surprise.

[aTOMiC]

Though I couldn't give even a quarter of a crap about Spider-Man issues newer than 1980 There were a few interesting stories that cropped up over the years that I have read. The MacFarlane and Romita Jr issues were decent. The Mark Bagley run was the main reason why I lost interest.

dANdeLION is the ultimate Spider-Man comic expert.

[Fist and Faith]

What's the best pre-1980? I started collecting comics in 1979, and never collected Spider-Man with any regularity.

[aTOMiC]

My personal favorite is the 1975 run of Amazing Spider-Man from about 140 to 164. Gerry Conway writer and Ross Andru art. Andru wasn't the best comic artist but he was very consistent and most of those issues had Gil Kane or John Romita covers. The underlying storyline is essentially the resurrection of Gwen. The cover of 144 says it all.
There are some great individual issues in that run. Sandman, The Shocker, Hammerhead, Nightcrawler, The Tarantula, Mysterio, Cyclone, Scorpion, The Punisher, Kingpin, Doc Ock, the return of the Spider mobile and of course The Jackal.

[Fist and Faith]

Sadly, I used to have those issues with Punisher. I think I bought them as back issues when he showed up in Daredevil. I sold them some time later, for what I thought was a decent profit at the time. Didn't realize they were going to go through the roof later on.

The Clone Saga was another story I enjoyed a lot. (Way too late for you, aTOMic.). I haven't looked at those issues in years, but I particularly remember the fight against Venom.

[aTOMiC]

I read and bought many of the clone saga issues.

I am allergic to sub par comic book art and with the exception of the two artists I mentioned earlier the art after issue 178 wasn't great for long stretches but I still bought many of them. I sold off quite a few but I still have a run from 138 to 174 with a few sprinkled before and after.

[Fist and Faith]

Ditko is my biggest allergy. I understand good historical importance to the genre. Legendary. But can't stand his art

You're right about stretches of good stuff not lasting. Very common, and very unfortunate.

[aTOMiC]

Heh. I used to hate Steve Ditko, Don Heck, Sal Buscema and for a time even Kirby. Romita, Gil Kane, George Perez, John Byrne, Neal Adams were my favorites among others. All great at proper proportions with excellent dynamics. Ditko's work seemed really odd to me to the point of being off putting. Don Heck looked like he drew with his pencil shoved up his butt and he gyrated over the paper. Sal Buscema had real issues with proportion, looking mostly like his style would appeal to toddlers. Wasn't a fan of Herb Trimpe unless Marie Severin was inking him. I now regard Ditko and Kirby with some respect. Funny how your tastes change as you mature and learn more about the process.

[Fist and Faith]

Denys Cowan is an odd one for me. Hated him when he was on PMIF. Horrible crap. Then he did The Question, which is incredible.

[High Lord Tolkien]

I started comic books with the Amazing Spider-Man 174 with the Punisher.

For some reason Big Wheel made such a good impression on my 10 year old mind that I'm still shocked he wasn't a major villian like Thanos or Dr. Doom.

[Fist and Faith]

The fools! Imagine not using a character of such potential!!

[High Lord Tolkien]

There are so many good Spider-Man stories.
I stopped collecting all comics in the mid-90's after I got married and had a mortgage.
Only half kidding.
The other reason was that the stories started getting too complicated (hello X-men, I'm looking at you).
A 2 or 3 issue story arc is fine but all the 12 issues and multiple crossovers were getting ridiculous.

So I call myself a Bronze Age Marvel fan.
I can pick up any Marvel book from that time, understand what's going on after the 1st or 2nd page and be entertained.

Loved Spider-Man the most though.
I thought it was interesting that there were two SM comics at that time.
Amazing and Spectacular (I feel like there was another as well?).
I don't know why but, to me, both had a different feeling or vibe.
Tough to explain.

Wasn't a fan of the black suit and had no interest in Venom.
The Clone story in the mid-90s was tiresome, the art was poor and probably why I stopped collecting.
I really liked the Black Cat character (and the costume!).
Whenever Felicia was in the story it was fun and usually let the writers bring out the best in Peter, imo.

I still check in from time to time and see some interesting and fun Spider-Man stuff.

[aTOMiC]

I agree with most of what you posted HLT.

When started collecting there were 4 Spider-man comics.
Amazing Spider-man
Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man (which we called PPTSS until they shortened it to just Spectacular Spider-Man)
Spidey Super Stories
Marvel Team-Up which admittedly had a handful of issues that featured the Human Torch but after the first year they became exclusively Spider-man team up comics.

The very first Spider-Man comic I bought of any kind was Amazing SM 159.

I had been given a few SM issues before that but this was my very first store bought issue. I pulled it off the carousel at the local 7-11 along with Marvel Two in One 18.

I remember it like it was last Tuesday. I wish I could somehow recapture the fun and excitement of those moments in time.

[High Lord Tolkien]

I loved those early comics.
As a kid it made perfect sense that Hammerhead could do everything he did.
His head was like a hammer, of course he could smash through walls and turn over cars!


Didn't he end up having a exo-skeleton thing that made him stronger or something.
And Doctor Octopus was always fantastic.

[Fist and Faith]

Although I have no problem with a maxi-series, I agree about the crossovers. If two titles want to have a crossover, that's a fun event. But having The Year's Big Event of a maxi-series, with every title having an issue or two dedicated to it... Just a way to force people to buy more than they otherwise would.

I also like one or two issue stories. There can be overall growth of the character(s) within that framework.