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The Amazing Spider-Man (1963-1998) #4,50,122,195,243,290,363,415
Spider-Man Through The Decades
Spider-Man: a hero in every age! Watch as Spidey matures from a high-school student fighting Sandman to a desperate hero battling the Green Goblin to the death! Witness threats ranging from underworld thugs to giant robots to alien symbiotes! And see some of the key moments in his personal life, including his proposal to Mary Jane Watson! It's a glimpse of classic Spidey from every era of his life - accompanied by thoughtful text pieces highlighting Spidey's growth and evolution, and featuring an all-new set of Spidey-centric OHOTMU profiles! Collecting AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1963) #4, #50, #122, #195, #243, #290, #363 and #415; and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1999) #2, #40 and #546.
264 pages, Paperback
First published December 21, 2011
9 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
Stan Lee
7,561 books2,350 followersStan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 7, 2019
An underwhelming collection of 11 issues published between 1963 and 2008. I can't imagine these are the best representations of their respective time periods. The book briefly tells what happened in the comics in the months and years between each featured issue. Between the issues are bios of obscure villains and heroes. I don't know why they chose them. The cover shows 6 costumes, but 2 of them aren't even shown in the book! It seems like the book was assembled without a plan and by people who weren't communicating with each other.
Of the issues included, I liked Amazing Spider-Man #122 ("The Goblin's Last Stand"), #195 ("Nine Lives has the Black Cat"), and #363 ("Savage Grace") with Venom and Carnage.
Of the issues included, I liked Amazing Spider-Man #122 ("The Goblin's Last Stand"), #195 ("Nine Lives has the Black Cat"), and #363 ("Savage Grace") with Venom and Carnage.
August 7, 2017
A fun sampler of the web of Spider-Man stories from the early Sixties to 2011. The Wall Crawler is spectacular in some, merely amazing in others. A favorite Marvel character of mine, it appears the Web Slinger may have jumped the shark at some point in the last 15 years.
March 30, 2023
Travelling Through Time...
I liked the different takes on the characters. The storylines are good too. Very creative. Spider-Man fans will lap this up.
I liked the different takes on the characters. The storylines are good too. Very creative. Spider-Man fans will lap this up.
November 10, 2012
This book is a huge disappointment. I hate to say it, because I am a huge Spider-man geek, but it's painfully bad.
It is a collection of Spider-man stories from over the years. It's not all bad, the earlier stories are, in fact, outstanding. It's just, tragically, as time goes by we get to see how the Spider-man mythos has decayed into a painful and pointless garbage heap that no one should be reading - or writing!
Somewhere in the 80s we begin to see Spider-man slide downhill into comics that are an utter betrayal of the earlier classic stories. Gone is the real-life, moral hero with a gift for witticisms. Instead we are cursed with a repeating grind of depressing stories about an unfathomable character (unfathomable not because he is alien, but because the writers are so abysmally bad at depicting realistic characters) who whines constantly. It is all massively disappointing. I don't know what went wrong with the people making the comic, but the stories eventually became so bad that just thinking about the earlier comics is painful!
Later stories are not just bad, but the choice of them is outright baffling. The best of the later stories is one by J. Michael Straczynski, but it's a story that is not a major point in Spider-man's life, and it doesn't even stand alone well! WHY was it the story picked for inclusion in this book? Other stories are even worse! One story references the universally reviled Clone Saga (bless you if you're fortunate enough not to know this black spot in Spider-man history) AND the equally detested Onslaught Saga. That's TWO comic book cross-overs combining in one story, so if you're not familiar with BOTH of them the story will be more or less incomprehensible. Oh, and, I reiterate, both "sagas" were critically panned by the comic book world.
I hate to do it but I admit - after the 70s most Spider-man comics were awful. Juvenile pandering attempts at grittiness and self-pity, with incomprehensible characters, horribly drawn out stories, and absolutely miserable attempts at humor. What drags this book from two stars down to one star is that the later comics they use are not even the most tolerable of the bunch! Instead, they use a tragic hodgepodge of repugnant stories that can not stand alone and are not about anything original or relevant in Spider-man's life.
There are collections of the early story's of Spider-man out there that are FAR more meaningful than this book. Give it a pass, and let this tome of collected dung rest in peace in the compost where it belongs.
It is a collection of Spider-man stories from over the years. It's not all bad, the earlier stories are, in fact, outstanding. It's just, tragically, as time goes by we get to see how the Spider-man mythos has decayed into a painful and pointless garbage heap that no one should be reading - or writing!
Somewhere in the 80s we begin to see Spider-man slide downhill into comics that are an utter betrayal of the earlier classic stories. Gone is the real-life, moral hero with a gift for witticisms. Instead we are cursed with a repeating grind of depressing stories about an unfathomable character (unfathomable not because he is alien, but because the writers are so abysmally bad at depicting realistic characters) who whines constantly. It is all massively disappointing. I don't know what went wrong with the people making the comic, but the stories eventually became so bad that just thinking about the earlier comics is painful!
Later stories are not just bad, but the choice of them is outright baffling. The best of the later stories is one by J. Michael Straczynski, but it's a story that is not a major point in Spider-man's life, and it doesn't even stand alone well! WHY was it the story picked for inclusion in this book? Other stories are even worse! One story references the universally reviled Clone Saga (bless you if you're fortunate enough not to know this black spot in Spider-man history) AND the equally detested Onslaught Saga. That's TWO comic book cross-overs combining in one story, so if you're not familiar with BOTH of them the story will be more or less incomprehensible. Oh, and, I reiterate, both "sagas" were critically panned by the comic book world.
I hate to do it but I admit - after the 70s most Spider-man comics were awful. Juvenile pandering attempts at grittiness and self-pity, with incomprehensible characters, horribly drawn out stories, and absolutely miserable attempts at humor. What drags this book from two stars down to one star is that the later comics they use are not even the most tolerable of the bunch! Instead, they use a tragic hodgepodge of repugnant stories that can not stand alone and are not about anything original or relevant in Spider-man's life.
There are collections of the early story's of Spider-man out there that are FAR more meaningful than this book. Give it a pass, and let this tome of collected dung rest in peace in the compost where it belongs.
July 27, 2015
This is a collection of random comics throughout Spider-Man's history. The comics chosen come specifically from "Amazing Spider-Man" rather than any of the many other titles that Spider-Man starred in. Here are the issues included in this collection:
Amazing Spider-Man #4: First appearance of the Sandman
Amazing Spider-Man #50: "Spider-Man No More!"
Amazing Spider-Man #122: The issue after Gwen Stacy was killed
Amazing Spider-Man #195: An issue heavily featuring the Black Cat
Amazing Spider-Man #243: An issue heavily focusing on Peter's personal life
Amazing Spider-Man #290: Peter proposes to Mary Jane!
Amazing Spider-Man #363: Featuring the conclusion of the first Carnage storyline
Amazing Spider-Man #415: Featuring Ben Reilly as Spider-Man, but Peter is also around
Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #2: A random issue from John Byrne's run
Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #40: A random issue from J. Michael Straczynski's run
Amazing Spider-Man #546: The first issue in the "Brand New Day" era
This collection doesn't feature any ongoing stories, but it does give you a bunch of random snapshots of Spider-Man's many adventures. I was super excited to see Ben Reilly featured in this collection because I was a huge fan of the "Clone Saga" from the 1990's (even though it appears that I'm the only fan of this storyline). There were also some random inserts from the Marvel Handbook, spotlighting a few of Spider-Man's villains (but not the most well-known ones). The best part about this book for me was that before every issue we were given one page of text explaining what was happening in Spider-Man history from around the time of the next comic, as well as what was happening in real-life, world history.
Amazing Spider-Man #4: First appearance of the Sandman
Amazing Spider-Man #50: "Spider-Man No More!"
Amazing Spider-Man #122: The issue after Gwen Stacy was killed
Amazing Spider-Man #195: An issue heavily featuring the Black Cat
Amazing Spider-Man #243: An issue heavily focusing on Peter's personal life
Amazing Spider-Man #290: Peter proposes to Mary Jane!
Amazing Spider-Man #363: Featuring the conclusion of the first Carnage storyline
Amazing Spider-Man #415: Featuring Ben Reilly as Spider-Man, but Peter is also around
Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #2: A random issue from John Byrne's run
Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #40: A random issue from J. Michael Straczynski's run
Amazing Spider-Man #546: The first issue in the "Brand New Day" era
This collection doesn't feature any ongoing stories, but it does give you a bunch of random snapshots of Spider-Man's many adventures. I was super excited to see Ben Reilly featured in this collection because I was a huge fan of the "Clone Saga" from the 1990's (even though it appears that I'm the only fan of this storyline). There were also some random inserts from the Marvel Handbook, spotlighting a few of Spider-Man's villains (but not the most well-known ones). The best part about this book for me was that before every issue we were given one page of text explaining what was happening in Spider-Man history from around the time of the next comic, as well as what was happening in real-life, world history.
January 28, 2016
I hadn't read the later ones and it was a nice way to catch up with Spidey's newer adventures.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews