Spider-Man: Inside the World of Your Friendly Neighborhood Hero

by Matthew K. Manning

The ultimate web-slinger is back in this exciting and informative ultimate guide. Spider-Man: Inside the World of your Friendly Neighborhood Hero traces Spider-Man's entire career from his high-school beginnings as Peter Parker to his love affair with the enchanting Mary Jane. With foreword by Stan Lee and full details of Spidey's powers granted from the bite of an irradiated spider, as well as significant adventures, battles, loves, allies, and enemies, this all-inclusive book has a strong focus on storylines and conflicts within Spider-Man's world. Come to find out how your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man came to be created in 1962 and how the character has developed over the years. Full of interesting facts and dynamic comic book art, Spider-Man: Inside the World of your Friendly Neighborhood Hero is the tell-all to the famous Amazing Spider-Man.

TM & © 2012 Marvel & Subs.

Genres: Comics, Reference, Superheroes, Nonfiction, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Spider Man

200 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2012

About the author

Matthew K. Manning is the author of over eighty books and dozens of comic books. He has written books for Scholastic, Disney Press, Abrams, Amazon, Capstone, DK Publishing, Insight Editions, Andrews/McMeel, and Running Press, dividing his time between writing original chapter book series and coffee table books. His chapter books include the six-book series Xander and the Rainbow-Barfing Unicorns (Capstone), the four-book Drone Academy series (Capstone), Backstories: Batman and Backstories: Batgirl (Scholastic), and Artemis Fowl: How to be a LEPrecon (Disney Press), released in both paperback and on Audible. Many of his books have reached best-seller status on Amazon, including DC Comics: Anatomy of a Metahuman, DC Comics Encyclopedia, and Batman: A Visual History. In addition, Manning specializes in comic books, writing for the titles Beware the Batman, Teen Titans Go!, The Batman Strikes!, Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century, Justice League Adventures, Scooby-Doo, and Looney Tunes for DC Comics, Marvel Action: Avengers for IDW/Marvel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Amazing Adventures and TMNT: New Animated Adventures for IDW, and the top-selling Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures for DC/IDW, nominated by the Diamond Gem Awards for comic of the year. Manning’s work has received acclaim in Entertainment Weekly, People Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Publisher’s Weekly, and The Washington Times. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife Dorothy and his daughters Lillian and Gwendolyn.

Buy his books and support independent booksellers on Bookshop at https://bookshop.org/shop/matthewkman...

Reviews

[Darren Vincent · Rating 5 out of 5]

FIVE STARS!

As a fan of Spiderman that very rarely gets to actually read the comics, this book was immensely entertaining. I feel like I got a great cross-section of characters, story lines and artistic styles from all of the eras. I normally read just a few pages at a time when I have a few minutes to spare, but with this book I found myself setting time aside to read as much of it as I could.

Having read quite a few of these informational books, I can say that this is right up at the top with Wolverine and Iron Man books. I really didn't come across anything that I didn't like about the way the book was compiled and presented; it is exactly what this type of book should be.

[Izzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it! Great for art research actually.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is huge and good fun for Spider-man fans. If you're like me, you've popped into and out of the Spider-man comics for years. You've heard of the Clone Saga, The Other, The Spider-Verse, Kraven's Last Hunt and so on, but maybe you missed something or you forgot the details. This is the book for you! Tons of detail, laid out in an easy to follow format. A mix of key character bios, storylines and critical, must read issue/numbers.

I was very disappointed to find a couple printing issues. In one case the paper format/background was new (from the prior page) but the new page had no pictures and all the text of the prior page was re-printed on this page. Because the location of the text areas were different it was a real mess. There was one other minor thing where a picture was mislabeled or something. Given the cost, I would've liked to see better quality control.

Even with the printing issues, this is a must own coffee table book for Spider-man fans!

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

The back cover declares this "The Ultimate Guide," but it didn't live up to that. Even though the book covers 1962 to 2017, many of the descriptions of people and events are based on content produced after 2000. For example, Madame Web is Julia Carpenter, Flash Thompson is in a wheelchair, and the Future Foundation has replaced the Fantastic Four.

The book walks through the decades with highlights of events, landmark issues, and bios of heroes and villains. It covers a lot of ground.

There have always been far-fetched elements in Spider-Man, but the comics have gotten increasingly bizarre since 2000 (time travel, multiple dimensions, personality transfer, etc.). I understand that it's hard to keep creating stories year after year for decades without them getting weird.

Notes
Spider-Man can lift 10 tons and leap 3 stories. His reflexes are 40x faster than normal. He can heal in 1 day what would take a normal person weeks.

MJ saw Peter emerge from his house in his Spider-Man costume the night Uncle Ben died, and kept her knowledge secret.

[Adam Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 / 5 for 'Spider-Man: The Ultimate Guide' by Matthew K Manning

This is a very good reference guide to the history of Marvel's premier super-hero, Spider-Man, with background on Peter Parker himself as well as family and friends. Of, course the bulk of this book is dedicated to Spider-Man, his powers and history, his most important villains and ally's and some of his most important issues and stories

The text is well-written and interesting, with useful little stat-boxes here and there, and the book is pleasantly illustrated throughout, including lots of comic panels, splash pages and covers.

In my opinion, it could have done with a little more focus on the Spidey's early days in the 1960s, and there's a little too much credit given to Stan Lee, and not enough credit given to Steve Ditko, but that seems to be an issue in this world of MCU movies.
I also think the author has missed an opportunity to discuss many of the important creators who have worked on Spidey over the years, such as Romita, Buscema, Jr Jr, McFarlane and Larsen.

But, even so, an interesting, informative and enjoyable read with lots of great artwork on show. Another excellent DK guide.

4 / 5

[Mads · Rating 4 out of 5]

For what it is, it’s a really good book. Detailed and fun overview of the history of Spider-Man and its characters. Nice pictures and there’s a bunch of fun facts in there. Was nice to reacquaint myself with an old friend :)

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is really f*cking great. The images and information is awesome and it's such a great book to even flip through. It's that cool! I even bought a copy and gave it to one my friends as a graduation gift. He loved it!

[Abraham Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about Spider-Man!

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not much is missing in this overview/encyclopedia of all things Spider-Man and being a lifelong Spider-Man fan, I really enjoyed this.

[The Brothers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Asher (8yo) read. "It was really good, but I didn't read it all. It was getting really gross near the end."