Customer Reviews

Marvel Masterworks: Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1

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I purchased this collection for my father as a gift. HE LOVES IT!!! He owned many of the original Spiderman comics when he was a child and living on a military base in Japan. When my grandfather was stationed back in the U.S. my grandmother made him leave them in Japan.
This is a great gift for any true Spideerman fans or anyone who wants to get familiar with the actual comics. :)

There isn't much about Spider-Man that the average earthling doesn't already know: nerd bitten by a radioactive spider, first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15, lost his uncle and, oh yeah, "with great power comes great responsibility".
But there IS more to know.
In the beginning Peter couldn't catch a break with a webbed mitt. He lost his job, his girl and his self respect almost every day. Ah, high school, remember? And if that wasn't enough, he blamed himself so much for his Uncle Ben's death that he HAD to go out there and beat up Doc Ock, the Lizard and an endless array of diverse villians - even if he had a test tomorrow!
The stories are legendary but so is the art. If you have never seen the work of Steve Ditko then I envy you the new experience. His quirky characterizations just fit the mood of our arachnid misfit. It is safe to say Spidey's adventures would never have touched so many of us geeks and outcasts had he not been rendered by Mr. Ditko.
If this is new to you then enjoy. The only way it could be better would be to be in high school again - but who needs that?!

This volume reprints Amazing Fantasy #15 from August 1962 and The Amazing Spider-Man issues 1-10 from March 1963 to March 1964 (issues 1-5 were bi-monthly). The stories are scripted by Stan Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko, with Jack Kirby pencilling the back-up story in #8.

The script and art combine flawlessly to whisk you along at a great pace through the stories; there are no extraneous caption boxes, as used by so many later writers as the art tells you everything you need to know, nor are there endless speech balloons to slow the flow [Roy Thomas and Chris Claremont, I'm looking at you], but that is how it was in Stan's day.

The contents are -
#1 - featuring the Chameleon
#2 - featuring the Vulture and the Tinkerer
#3 - featuring Dr Octopus
#4 - featuring the Sandman
#5 - featuring Dr Doom
#6 - featuring the Lizard
#7 - featuring the Vulture again
#8 - featuring the Human Torch
#9 - featuring Electro
#10 - featuring the Enforcers

How's that for a line up of some of Marvel's most famous villains - and you saw them here first. Well, 8 out of ten of them anyway, Dr Doom was already spoken for. This is where the Marvel Empire began (even if the Fantastic Four got top-billing as `The World's Greatest Comic Book' - Spider-Man was always the more `human' comic to me).

Spider-Man was created in the early 60's against all reasonable ideas. The character broke all of the rules of comics at the time, and continued to for many, many years to come. (The Comic-Code, the Wedding...)

This is a reprint of the first appearance of Spider-Man, the origin, and the first ten issues of the first title, The Amazing Spider-Man, which sets up a lot of the early story arcs and bad guy origins. This is a must-have if you claim to be a fan of Spider-Man. It is one thing to know the story, it is another to actually have read it and this book allows us to.

I know that these volumes are a bit pricey, but you can usually find reasonably priced used ones on here. I got this first edition, a little beat up, for just a couple of bucks. Well worth it for the early writings of Stan Lee as well as the great early work of Steve Ditko!

The artwork is early Ditko and Stan Lee hasn't hit his full stride yet, but this is classic early Marvel. Simply put: it was nothing like anything else in the drug store on the comic shelf. We all knew what to expect from a DC comic, but Stan Lee and Company surprised us issue after issue. DC comics all looked alike, but Marvel titles all had individual looks based on the artist--Kirby and Ditko and Heck and Wood and (later) Romita. Great stuff to look forward to each month. The colors reproduced here aren't the same, but today we wouldn't tolerate the crude printing we had then--rarely did colors stay within the "lines." If you want to see early comics at their best, pick this up.

This book is the foundation of Spider man. It begins with the very first Spiderman story form 1962. Superman and DC it ain't our man suffers form a lot of personal problems perscripted para previous posters. A sad and revelaing tale of a geek who unexpectedly obtains super powers which goes to his head until his irresponsibility causes his Uncle's murder ("With power comes responsibility.") We also get into the reasons for the bully Flash Thompson and hsi boss J. Jonah Jamerson's hatred of our webbed hero. it may seem like a delight for armchair analysis, but this really makes for good reading and was an early example of the transformaton of comic books from kid's stuff to graphic novels.

For people who love comic books this is a nice thing to have. See how the Amazing Stan Lee started out his most popular creation. This book begins with Amazing Fantasy # 15 where Spiderman made his first ever appearance then goes on to present Amazing Spiderman # 1 - # 10. It includes Spidermans origin and goes on into battle with some of Spideys' most enduring enemies from Doctor Octopus to the Lizard, to Electro, Dr Doom and the Sandman. Spiderman even battles the Fantastic Four. The book even includes a small introduction by Stan Lee. The Marvel Masterworks series sits really well on the bookshelf next to the DC Archives sets. Collect books from both publishers and build a nice library of Superhero Mythologies.

Got my product in a very timely fashion and I have no complaints. Seller contacted me to make sure this was what I wanted, which I thought was very helpful. - JB

An irradiated spider bite, a tragic twist of fate, a poignant proverb; over the years there have been numerous attempts to re-tell or re-interpret Spider-Man's origin. With some of them being successful and others not so much, any Spidey fan's best bet is to actually read the original Lee/Ditko comics in all their grandeur. The Marvel Masterworks series provides Spider-Man fans with this exact opportunity. Important to note - unlike some trades that compile these comics in black & white, in this collection, they are all in magnificent COLOR!

This particular volume, Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Vol.1 consists of Amazing Fantasy #15 (Spider-Man's first appearance) along with Amazing Spider-Man #1-10. This volume provides a great window to explore the original and definitive origin of Spider-Man with the introduction of his supporting cast, including: Uncle Ben, Aunt May, Flash Thompson, Liz Allen, Betty Bryant, and J.J. Jameson. We also see first appearances by classic villains, such as: Chameleon, Vulture, Doc Ock, Sandman, Lizard, and Electro, along with lesser known foes such as: the Fantastic Four's Doctor Doom, the Terrible Tinkerer, the Living Brain, and the Enforcers. Spider-Man also runs into some allies, with the Human Torch making multiple guest appearances as the webslinger's teenage foil.

Overall, the strength of these stories is Stan Lee's revolutionary concept in re-defining the traditional characteristics of a superhero. Unlike the morally perfect, father-figures that had dominated comic book pages for decades, Peter Parker was a socially awkward teenager who reflected his youth-oriented readers. Reading these early comics, we witness what is to become the trademark of Peter Parker's life: problems. From girl issues to money woes to his physically feeble Aunt May, it is Peter's personal life that remains the emotional core of his stories. While other heroes have the ability to retreat into their secret-identity, Peter's personal life is only more complicated by his newly earned powers and responsibilities. It is this aspect that made Spider-Man the most relatable superhero. Steve Ditko equally contributes to the success of the wallcrawler by making Spider-Man's world stand out with unique visuals, quirky costumes, and greatly depicted battles, particularly the classic showdown with Doctor Octopus.

Like all older comics, there is some dated dialogue that doesn't translate well into the vocabulary of the 21st century. There also is a tendency for Spider-Man and his villains to verbally narrate every action they engage in. However, the joyful and emotionally compelling nature of these stories diminishes these flaws entirely. This is a must have for any old or new Spider-Man fan!

That's what I call a great comic book collection! It just covers the earlier adventures of the Amazing Spider-man (#1-10 plus Amazing Fantasy #15) and the episodes'arts and scripts may not be as entertaining as some on the further issuses but still this collection remains a classic of its genre and is functional to the full understanding of the super-hero character Spider-Man.