5/5

“And a lean, silent figure slowly fades into the gathering darkness, aware at last that in this world, with great power there must also come—great responsibility!”

• Y’all this was SO MUCH FUN
• I’ve been interested in the history of superhero comics for a while, and this was such a fun ride through the original 1960s Spider-Man comic issues.
• Ben Saunders and Jason Reynold’s informational chapters are super educational, fascinating glimpses into the history of Marvel comics. Jason Reynolds’s beautiful foreword made me emotional :,)

• An incredible quote from Saunders’s introduction:

“These classic superhero stories can sustain intellectual scrutiny on multiple levels: as explorations of the relationship between power and responsibility; as intriguing metaphors for the experience of racial difference; as meditations on the pain of adolescence; as examinations of the meaning, and limits, of patriotism; as reflections on the joys and challenges of family life; as experiments in the juxtaposition of the cosmic and the quotidian; as the artistic working through of a variety of forms of trauma; as unexpected resources for the understanding of our political and social history; as revealing representations of our shifting attitudes toward various categories of identity; and as high aesthetic watermarks in the semiotically rich tradition of American cartooning.” - Ben Saunders

FINALLY got around to reading again (everyone applaud,) and what better thing to finish than a collection of classic comic books. my (partial) bias against older movies seems to carry over to books as well, i’ve discovered. this is good though! and im sure i would gas it up very much more if i were reading these comics in the past! as it stands, this is a fine and fun look into the beginning of the history of the best superhero. very interesting to see and analyze how these characters and stories were at the start, and it gives me a greater appreciation to the places we’ve gone since especially in regards to character and villain and story depth.

"Spider-Man - the super hero who could be YOU!"

I don't know how I became this way. I'm a web head. A spider-maniac. An arthropod connoisseur. That's right, I'm a Spider-Man fan.

Lets do this one last time.

My name is John Young. I like reading. And for around a year now, Ive been known on Goodreads as the one and only "harliscool123." I'm pretty sure you know the rest. Ive wrote video game reviews , read giant books in the inheritance cycle, wrote an article or my school newspaper again, again, and again. But after everything, I still love reading. There's only one harl, and you're looking at him.

Then this weird thing happened.

And I gotta say, weird things happen a lot, but this was real weird. I wanted to watch Spider-Man (2002). My previous experiences with Spider-Man have been very positive. I watched Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse and had a great time with both. I started playing some of Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered on my brand new computer and once I got used to the controls, I realized it was incredible. But I didn't become a real web-head until I watched the first movie in the Sam Raimi trilogy. Then I watched Spider-man 2. Then Spider-man 3. Then I played more of Marvels Spider-man Remastered. Then I read some of the newer comics. And finally, my curiosity got the best of me and I got this book.

Let's rewind...

I was at Barns and Noble for a school field trip and picked out a couple books, one of them being a big collection of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles original comic books. But oops! I left my money at school. Thankfully around a week later, my mom drove me and my brother to barns and noble to pick out the books I didn't get. But then I saw this book, The Amazing Spider-Man (Penguin Classics Marvel Collection), and I knew I had to get this over TMNT. I mean, how could I not? I was really into Spider-Man at this point, and I wanted to see his origins.

So why do I love Spider-Man? Well first of all, he is just plain awesome. I mean, shoot webs from his wrists to swing across building to building? How awesome is that! But most superheros should be cool. What really sets him apart from the bunch is that he is human. Peter Parker isn't a rich guy. Hes not an alien, or a monster, or anything in between. He is a normal, smart high schooler that gets bullied.

This is the first piece of the spider-man puzzle; he's relatable. You can put yourself in his shoes. He has strengths and weaknesses like all of us. Lots of superheros struggle with this aspect. I mean Superman seems practically invincible. Hes got super strength, laser eyes, frost breath, anything a superhero needs. But that's no fun. If you never see him fail, what's the point? What's his character growth? This is why Superman is my least favorite superhero.

The second and final piece to the Spider-Man puzzle that I made up is that he is responsible. In an alternate timeline without Uncle Bens death, Spider-Man could have just been an entertainer for T.V. or perhaps even a villain. But in order to be Spider-Man, you need to follow the golden rule: "With great power comes great responsibility"

I feel like this can apply to all of us. I mean, if you are seeing this review, you have a computing device of some sort, right? That's a lot of power even right there. So much good can come out of a computer as long as we use them responsibly. What I'm trying to say is that if you can do good for others, it is your duty, your moral responsibility, to do so. That's what being Spider-Man really means to me, and it's what inspires me to write these kinds of reviews in the first place.

On to the book itself. Both the writing by Stan Lee and the Art by Steve Ditko hold up incredibly well. Sure, the writing can be corny at times, but I thought it was great over all. Now, I'm going to be honest, I skipped the parts that weren't just the comics. I might go back to them but as of right now, all I wanted to read were the comics.

My only complaints for the original comics are that there was a bit too much Fantastic 4. I guess I understand this from an economic perspective since this will get readers curious about them and buy their comics, but now-a-days its just a little annoying. And if there was too much Fantastic 4, there is way too much of "the enforcers." These guys are just lame. There are four of them. Big man, who wears a mask, the ox, who is big and strong, Montana who has a lasso, and Fancy Dan, whose small but fast. That's it. They don't really have a backstory, any relation to Spider-Man, or any powers remotely interesting. And they appear in three whole issues!

As for complaints with the collection it doesn't include all comics 1-19, just the "important" ones I guess I understand this, but I also want to see other villains like Kraven the Hunter and Dr. Doom.

I am excited for the future because I can read more Spider-Man comics. I am thinking about reading The Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection Volume 2 next.

Anyone can wear the mask, but it's how you wear the mask that matters.

I've been a Spider-Man fan basically my whole life but I never really read comics up until now. I honestly just happened to come across this while in a Barnes and Noble after my graduation and figured that I must read it and I am so glad I did.

I absolutely loved reading the first few Spidey comics and I think that the selection of these comics were a good bunch. I do wish that some of the comics weren't omitted from this collection as I would have liked to read them. But it's fine, I got hooked enough from just this that I think I'll continue reading Spider-Man comics. Might just become one of those annoying, avid comic readers now. Who knows.

Reading this collection almost feels like reading a history book. Spider-Man is, after all, the world's most popular superhero (along with Batman), and diving into his origins was a real treat. I've only recently become interested in Spider-Man comics after watching the incredible sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, and I'm already kind of hooked. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the writing in these stories—I didn't think I'd enjoy it all that much because I really dislike Chris Claremont's writing, and I thought all old comics were written in a style similar to Claremont's. While Lee's writing does share similarities with Claremont's and is frankly ridiculous at times, it's also really good fun and very light. The "feel" of Spider-Man originates in Lee's lighthearted tone, and I have to say, I'm a fan. And of course, Ditko's art is iconic. Not much else to say on that front.

Of course, I didn't love everything about the stories in this early collection. The Betty Brant plotline was tiresome, and I can see why her character was basically scrapped later. The Enforcers were lame. And a lot of the plots repeated themselves, but I think that was pretty normal for comics at this time—not unique to the Lee/Ditko team. Nevertheless, I wasn't expecting to love the actual plots; like I said, I was more looking to get into the history of Spider-Man and seeing how the character started out, and the enjoyment I got from reading these stories was just the cherry on top of that learning experience. Next, I'll probably read some of the Epic Collections to meet the rest of the main Spidey cast—MJ Watson, Gwen Stacy, etc.