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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Touching and Tearful, July 28, 2001
How can you review perhaps one of the biggest feats in comic history. The most tragic event that shattered the belief of a hero and drew a new status quo unlike any other known in that character's history. With a title clearly telling you what will happen in the story and what events will transpire. What is it that you can say to recommend this book to anyone who has the plot written on the title?What you might ask??? PLENTY... . How Gwen Stacy fell to her death forever shattering the world of Peter Parker, Spider-Man. The five chaptered story can be divided in two parts. The first three chapters, written by Spidey co-creator, Stan Lee, paved the ground for the upcoming epic events and battle. In that part Lee ditches the long-established comics code (which is just what Marvel has done now), in order to bring out a great story about the effects of drugs and what people thought of them at the time. His take on that problem showed how comics could also be utilized for the benefit of the public, just like any other media form, which is a pioneering step in such a direction. Later themes dealt in other comics would come about AIDS and abortion. The Green Goblin, Spidey's greatest foe, and the one he'll be facing in next summer's movie, knows Spidey's secret identity. With every move he taunts the webslinger and clearly provoked him on every move. Terrorizing him and his family. The deranged Goblin is not swayed until he confronts the addiction of his only son, Harry. Throughout, Peter is in dismay over the disappearance of his first love, Gwen, which has skipped town after the death of her police captain father, blaming Spidey as the cause of it all. The first part ends ith Gwen's coming back into Peter's arms and all is well. Wrong... Peter gets sent away on a NEWS mission for the newspaper he works in, this time, him leaving the love of his life behind. That hiatus is not expressed in the TPB and the reader is brought back to NY as Peter arrives. Nothing has changed. Harry is still a drug addict, finally diagnosed with full blown schizophrenia. Norman Osborn, Harry's father and the Green Goblin, is hellbent on seeking revenge on Spidey. He does that with the only way he thinks possible, by kidnapping the love of his life. That's when the story is set through and breaks out as being one of the greatest ever told. You know,s he'll die in the end, but the pages succeed in showing you how much she meant to Peter. The memories that flood in as images and words in his mind create such a collage of some of the beautifully written lines ever found in comics. This was a story of substance. A story from the heart. A story seldom portrayed in today's comics. You feel Peter's pain and you truly feel the tragedy that befalls him. The ending of the story takes on the form of how Peter appreciates MJ, hwo later becomes his wife. It was during that moment of death and sorrow, that a stronger love was born. The epilogue in the end, drawn by legendary artist John Romita Sr., brings the past to the present, in a wonderful story that sums things and finds closure. The TPB as a whole may not necessary make you cry, but you will definitely feel the heart ache and anguish of, perhaps, one of the most enduring comic charcaters of all time. Peter Parker: Spider-Man.
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by Alan Moore
by Mark Millar
by Jerry Siegel
by J. M. DeMatteis
by Jeph Loeb
