World Famous Comics: The Ultimate Spider-Man (Spiderman)
The Ultimate Spider-Man (Spiderman)
By: Stan Lee Publisher: Berkley Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Berkley Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 347 Publication Date: February 01, 1996
Product Description: An action-packed anthology of original short stories chronicles the adventures and exploits of the popular superhero, from an account of the origins of Spider-Man through the events of his spectacular career. Reprint. LJ.
Super Reader An anthology of Spider-Man stories, taken from many periods in his career. One of the cool things about it is that there is an illustration to go with each story at the start, from Ditko and Romita right on through. There is also an introduction by Stan Lee, the editor.
The stories are generally of pretty good quality.
Ultimate Spider-Man : 01 Spider-Man - Stan Lee and Peter David Ultimate Spider-Man : 02 Suits - Tom De Haven and Dean Wesley Smith Ultimate Spider-Man : 03 Cool - Lawrence Watt-Evans Ultimate Spider-Man : 04 Blindspot - Ann Nocenti Ultimate Spider-Man : 05 Kraven the Hunter Is Dead Alas - Craig Shaw Gardner Ultimate Spider-Man : 06 Radically Both - Christopher Golden Ultimate Spider-Man : 07 Scoop! - David Michelinie Ultimate Spider-Man : 08 Tinker Tailor Soldier Courier - Robert L. Washington, III Ultimate Spider-Man : 09 Thunder on the Mountain - Richard Lee Byers Ultimate Spider-Man : 10 Cold Blood - Greg Cox Ultimate Spider-Man : 11 An Evening in the Bronx with Venom - John Gregory Betancourt and Keith R. A. DeCandido Ultimate Spider-Man : 12 Five Minutes - Peter David
A novella telling the origin of Spider-Man, with James rants and Doc Ock included.
3 out of 5
After getting beaten up by the Vulture, a young Spidey is thinking fo giving it away until a trip to Atlantic City with his aunt leads him to meet the Black Bee, a much older ex-hero with a similar story.
3.5 out of 5
A kid takes his hero worship of Spider-Man into gun wielding vigilante territory.
3.5 out of 5
Spidey finds an organlegger who apart from those crimes is making something nasty.
2.5 out of 5
Spidey would rather fight supervillains than have to go shopping with his wife and aunt, so he does. Luckily for him a cancer ridden Vulture and Mysterio, who has a magical mistake problem, are definitely available.
3.5 out of 5
Curt Connors latest transformation allows his consciousness to watch helplessly as the Lizard goes on rampage, threatening his own family.
3.5 out of 5
A small town reporter comes to the Bugle, and wants to work with Peter Parker. Why? To find out who Spidey is, of course. When they undercover your good old New York variety gangs of hoods with powered armour complications ensue.
3.5 out of 5
Spider-Man gets asked to transport a donor liver for a dying young girl, after its couriers get stuck in traffic. Unfortunately a super powered mercenary has been hired to retrieve it.
3 out of 5
Spidey has tracked a group of mercenaries, including the Rhino to a buried energy weapon. Unfortunately this is where a guy and his son have decided to do the mountain man thing.
4 out of 5
On a freezing night of too many snowstorms Spidey wonders why he is out, given there is no-one to help. Except one old man. Morbius the Living Vampire has the same problem. No bad guys outside, no-one to eat. Just one old man.
3.5 out of 5
A terrified man is running from Brock, and Spider-Man lends a hand. All is not as it seems, however.
3.5 out of 5
Decisions on when to go and when to stay cause arguments in the Parker household.
4 out of 5
A decent read for Spider-Man fans... This is a decent read for Spider-Man fans. All the stories are varied and use a good variety of villians. None of them are anything to write home about, but are good filler on a boring day. At least the book is enjoyable.
A Good Collection of Short Stories This book has been sitting away for about three years and upon the release of the movie, I decided to revisit my meager collection of Spidey novels. Some of the stories in this collection are quite good while others are placed in for filler. The story Spider-Man itself provides a new take on the origins of the web-slinger. How ironic is it that the same man who penned the novelization for the movie could put an entirely different spin on the spider bite while at the same time introduce one of our hero's most celebrated adversaries. "Suits" was also an insightful look into the workings of another superhero from the past who decided to hang up his tights and attempt to live a normal life. "An Evening in the Bronx with Venom" provided more details about Spidey's most mysterious villain. I did not realize that Venom had vowed to protect the innocent and only preyed on the criminal. I think my favorite story was "Five Minutes." The reader gets an inside glimpse at the married life of Peter and Mary Jane. We see what effects peter's double life has on his relationship with his wife. Although she knew going into the marriage that her husband would ot be a normal nine-to-fiver, MJ is a normal woman with feelings and it was nice to see how her mind works. What wife of a superhero would not long to have a normal life? Firefighter and police officers can't be everywhere at once so why must Spider-Man be expected to? All-in-all the stories in this anthology were quite enjoyable. Some of them were just too short to be memorable. But most were quite exceptinal.
Pretty entertaining read I should start off by saying that I'm not a Spider-Man collector. It's not that I don't enjoy the series (because I do), but I just don't buy it as regularly as I do the X-books. I do know the backstory extensively, though, having purchased anthologies of the early Amazing Spider-Man issues. But with everything else, I'm essentially a blank slate where this character is concerned, and I'm open to just about all possibilities.
So, without a lot of backhistory in my mind, I found this novel quite enjoyable. These stories work because they were written to BE stories. All too often, comic book novel adaptations are usually comic books without the art, and they fail for it. But the various writers here keep their medium in mind, and work with it.
The novel starts off with the necessary retelling of Spider-Man's origin. I quite disliked this, to be honest. It smacked of "Hey, here's some stuff we forgot to tell you the first time!" The revelation that Dok Ock was performing the radiation experiment that charged the spider that gave Peter Parker his powers was not in the original version of the story, so I'm guessing this came from the Untold Tales of Spider-Man series (and I still don't like it).
There are actually a few more stories in that vein (basically, they "fill in gaps" where there were no such gaps in the original comic books). One story has Peter Parker questioning his desire to be Spider-Man after a vicious encounter with the Vulture. He takes a vacation to Atlantic City, and there, a retired superhero by the name of the Black Bee convinces him not to give up. It was inspiring and very human, but I couldn't break away from the fact that it didn't appear in the original books.
Toward the end of the novel, though, there was more room for making new stories up - especially when they're not of major superhero import, but rather of human interest. For example, the last story, "Five Minutes," involves no major villains. It only involves Spider-Man anguishing over being five minutes too late to save a suicidal man, and David powerfully conveys Peter's inner torment.
On the other hand, there's one story that I just can't get into. It's a story by Ann Nocenti; she tells about Spider-Man's investigation into an organ-smuggling ring. It's a story that needs much more development than she has room for. It seems much more like a prologue for a full novel than a self-contained story. But it's the only weak part of the novel.
In essence, the Ultimate Spider-Man is as appropriate a title as you can give to this novel. It retells his origin, explains his emotional conflicts and inner motivations, and even includes some classic battles with the Vulture and Venom for people who want solid action. It's definitely perfect for people new to Spider-Man, and long-time fans should get something out of it, too.
The Ultimate Spider-Man Book Review "The Ultimate Spider-Man" Book Review If you are looking for a book filled with thrills, cliffhangers, action, and adventure, then "The Ultimate Spider-Man" by Stan Lee is the right book for you. Now, I know that you could be reading this and think: "Spider-Man? no way!", but it's not just an old comic book for kids. In this 336-page book, you will find 12 short episodes written in a humorous, adult-like way, so it's good for people of many ages. The book starts out with a young boy named Peter Parker who is somewhat of a dork, and he gets beaten up by bullies. Well, the story goes on and Peter hears all about Spider-man on the radio and that leads into the separate episodes of Spider-man's or Spidey (as he is called by Mr. Lee) adventures and encounters with villains such as the Vulture, Stuart (who is just more of a small problem), and Morbius.
Now, as for rating the book, I am going to have to say I give it a 4.5 out of 5. It's not a perfect book, but for me, it was really good and a lot better than I had anticipated. I have three good reasons why I give it this rating. The first is because of the description. If the book was rated merely on description, it would have a 6 out of 5 easily. Every page was filled with descriptive and interesting words and phrases. It's hard not to understand the book because the words and language lay it out for you so well. Even the introduction had me wanting to read more into the book.
The next element that I based my rating on was my how the book kept me wanting to read more. Some points in the book made me want to keep reading and I had a lot of trouble prying the book out of my hands for a minute. Then, there were other parts that seemed too boring and I didn't want to continue. The entire book is filled with dry humor and laugh to the point of crying humor. It's very mixed, and for some people that might be good, but that's not my personal favorite.
Unfortunately, there is a downfall to my rating. Even though I ended up enjoying the book, it wouldn't be my first choice. Everyone has a type of book they like to read and this wouldn't be mine. So my third reason for my rating, is my choice of reading book, or the genre of the book. The book did keep me interested, but I doubt that I would read it again, mostly because I am more into horror and mystery books and this had neither.
All in all, this was a pretty good book, and if you like adventure a monsters and fighting, then it's definitely the book for you.
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