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"The Essential Spider-Man" harkens us back to the early 60s, when an angst-ridden teenager first was bitten by a radioactive spider and learned that with great power comes great responsibility. Stan Lee is often ridiculed for his overwrought prose, but his Spider-Man tales remain extremely poignant and affecting some four decades after they were written, while their postmodern successors seem dated already.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about the amazing Spider-Man is that Lee creates a supporting, non-superpowered cast which is often more compelling than the heroes and villains. Flash Thompson, Peter Parker's archenemy, is also Spider-Man's biggest fan, willing to undertake reckless acts of courage to keep his hero's name from being dragged through the mud. Betty Brant, whose brother died after an ill-considered criminal career, loves Peter Parker but despises his alter ego, building a wall between her and Parker that neither can breach. "The Essential Spider-Man" is packed with such realistic contradictions.
The collection covers Amazing Fantasy # 15 (the first appearance of Spider-Man) through Amazing Spider-Man # 20 and Annual # 1. The tales feature some incredibly fluid artwork by Steve Ditko, Stan the Man's superlative writing, and the first appearances of such characters as Sandman, Kraven the Hunter, Dr. Octupus, and the Green Goblin. Lee and Ditko's creativity is to be marveled at, given the number of characters they created during these twenty issues which are still viable in 2000.
If you're sick of the gorgeous garbage that passes for comics today, pick up this collection and see what the medium is capable in the hands of men who love it.
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.
In Volume 1 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 begin at the beginning.
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