By: Stan Lee Publisher: Marvel Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Marvel Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 552 Publication Date: March 15, 2006
The origin of one of comic's greatest! If you are interested in the origins of Spider-Man, his friends, Aunt May, and several of his oldest foes then this is a great book. Obviously some might be turned away by the lack of color, but the content of the book makes up for that to me. If you like stories that can be completed in one issue instead of the normal six issues these days, or you just like a good Lee/Kirby story. This is the book for you!
Naive yet sophisticated Even oh so many decades later these stories are still astounding for the complexity of character they have. Sure, some of the portrayal of the teenagers will seem naive now due to cultural changes over the years but the depth of story-telling is really superb.
We see the creation of Spiderman of course, as well as many of his premier rogues gallery, though to be fair we also see some pretty weak villains as well. Montana and Fancy Dan anyone?
What is interesting about the art is, excepting for the Annual, the complete lack of splash pages. This gives a general panel count of 6-9 per page which really allows the depth of story-telling that is the strength of this collection. There is ample room for exposition and character development. The strength of which is Peter Parker dealing with his real life, his relationships with Aunt May, Betty Brandt and the fellow students at his school. This is where the stories are elevated above bam-pow superhero action.
Though the lack of color is unfortunate, you get a really fair number of issues for the price. The lack of color also allows one to see the pencilling and inking better which may or may not be of interest to you.
On the whole a really good run of issues introducing a new archetype of superhero.
Your Friendly neiborhood spiderman in paperback This is an awsome collection of some of the early spiderman. It is the wed slinger in amazing action comics including his run in with the sinister 6 and the creation of SPIDER-MAN.
Great content; but..... as mentioned by a previous reviewer our cover started coming off as we opened the book. Very poor construction. As my son was excited to read the comics inside I did not send the book back. The comics are awesome. We have essentials #2 on its way (we tried to cancel deciding that Omnibus was the way to go. But it had already shipped). Great stories but terrible binding. Price is great for the content. Just don't expect these to be saved as collector items. That they are not.
Aged story but still the original 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.
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