Customer Reviews

Marvel Masterworks: Amazing Spider Man Vol. 6 (v. 6)

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Marvel Masterworks: Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 6 picks up where we last left our hero in Vol. 5 - back in costume and ready to go after the Kingpin of Crime himself. While I much prefer this character when Frank Miller got his hands on him years later during his incredible Daredevil run, it was fun to see the first few stories of the Kingpin unravel in this TPB.

Another villain who appears a lot in this trade is Doctor Octopus, who, at this point in history, is neck and neck with the Green Goblin as the Web-head's greatest foe. This four-part story arc has some very Silver Age twists in it, including the good doctor becoming Aunt May's new boarder and Spidey turning to crime. I won't reveal how these twists work themselves out - it's more entertaining to experience them for yourself.

Other villains in this collection are Professor Smythe with a new and improved Spider Slayer, an encounter with Ka-Zar and his pet saber-tooth tiger Zabu, the Brainwasher, and the annual's two surprise villains (one of which is a personal favorite of mine), who go up against Spidey and the Fantastic Four's Human Torch.

In this collection, we are also introduced to two important characters in Spider-Man's supporting cast - Joe "Robbie" Robertson, editor of the Daily Bugle, and George Stacy, a former police captain and the father of Gwen Stacy. We also see Peter and Gwen's relationship start to get more romantic, though, in true Spider-Man fashion, is not yet fully formed due to a misunderstanding you'll have to find out for yourself. It's bitter sweet seeing these two together knowing the fate of this relationship and the impact it'll have on our hero.

Really, at this point, there is nothing I could say about the writing and the art that you don't already know - Stan Lee IS the definitive Spider-Man writer and John Romita draws the most gorgeous girls, the most heroic heroes, and the most vile villains. Don Heck is also here to finish Romita's penciling, as well as Larry Lieber, who handled this volume's annual.

Overall, this is another great volume jam-packed with pure fun that any Spidey fan should have on their shelf. I only wish that Marvel would just release the Masterworks volumes biannually, because waiting another year to read the next set of stories by this team bites.

This trade collects The Amazing Spider-Man issues #51-61 and Annual #4. Along with an introduction written by John Romita himself (very insightful), this trade comes with all the covers to the aforementioned issues, as well as a few of John's photostats and some layouts done by Larry Lieber.

It's amazing when you read these early volumes--Stan Lee's ideas come rapid fire. One after another, they're all themes and characters still being used (and recycled) today. Great stuff. This is the first post-Steve Ditko volume, and seeing John Romita Sr.'s work is terrific. He's very different from Ditko. His beefier bodies and more muscular style made the book a little more mature-looking--less High School, more college.

Great stuff.

OK first I love the masterworks series they are high quality,well printed books.As for reading comics on a computer,please.That does not even give regular books justice.Now don't get me wrong the idea of having all the issues on a CD sounds swell,but it ruins the whole concept of holding the art and stories in your hands and turning the crisp pages.So get the books!,but first check the Tales of Wonder web site and see if they have the book in stock before you pay a crazy price for your copy.Peace and love!