Spider-Man by David Michelinie and Erik Larsen Omnibus

Spider-Man Omnibus Collection

by David Michelinie, Erik Larsen, Jim Owsley (Pseudonym)

Every Spider-Man story featuring the action-packed art of Erik Larsen - including his fan-favorite collaboration with writer David Michelinie! These two top-notch creators pitted Spidey against heavyweights like Magneto, the Tri-Sentinel and the Punisher - but that was just a warm-up for the main events: The return of the Sinister Six! A deadlier-than-ever Venom! In this seminal run, Spider-Man gains cosmic abilities, loses his spider-powers, battles Styx & Stone and the Black Fox, and fights alongside... Sandman and the Avengers? Plus, a latter-day showdown with the Spider-Slayers - and Larsen doubles up as writer to team Spider-Man with Wolverine and deliver the shocking sequel, Revenge of the Sinister Six!

COLLECTING: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1963) 287, 324, 327, 329-350; SPIDER-MAN (1990) 15, 18, 21-23; AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1999) 19-21; MATERIAL FROM MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS (1988) 48-50, SPIDER-MAN (1990) 19-20

Genres: Comics, Spider Man, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Fiction

888 pages, Hardcover

First published June 20, 2017

Reviews

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun slice of life type spidy Omnibus with the Sinister Six being the big appeal. When David Michelinie is writing and Erik Larsen is on art, it's a pretty solid fun series. When it's just Erik Larsen writing and drawing...not so much. A 3 out of 5.

[Rumi Bossche · Rating 3 out of 5]

So 90s that it hurts some times. I am not a big fan of Erik Larsons artwork, but i am a fan of David Michelinie's writing and loved the previous Omnibus whith Todd McFarlane, this is the follow up to that omnibus. It gots lots of appearances by other Marvel characters thats cool, and its an easy read. There are a couple issues that Larsen wrote, again not a big fan. But its spidey, you know what you get, its wacky at times but also something you still love after those years. Also dig that between parts they explain the skipping between issues and making everything clear.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories aren't great, but the art is quite good. Peter and MJ's marriage dynamic is entertaining at times. Heroes include Captain America, Punisher, Wolverine, Thor, Beast, Hulk, Fantastic Four. Villains include Magneto, Venom, Electro, Doc Ock, Hobgoblin, Shocker, Mysterio, Vulture, Sandman, Scorpio, Doctor Doom, Kingpin. It's a thick book—over 850 pages.

Issues I liked
• Sunday in the Park with Venom
• Venom's Back
• Stalking Feat
• Powerless Part 2: The Jonah Trade
• Powerless Part 3: The War Garden
• The Boneyard Hop
• Revenge of the Sinister Six Part Two

[Jordan Schroeder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty cool stories… you can see Tod M. Art still in this run. Want the next run from David Michelinie. :) read most of this in Florida

[Harrison Delahunty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat disjointed collection of Spider-Man stories, spanning some better early-90's material all the way to some rather poor late-90s to early-00s stuff.

Each story in this collection is either written by David Michelinie or Erik Larsen, and (with the exception of only one issue) is penciled by Larsen. That means that the writing quality ranges from good to mediocre (the latter of which is mostly in the Larsen-written issues), and the art ranges from good-for-the-90s to absolutely abysmal. The bulk of the book, being Amazing Spider-Man issues 324 through 350 and Marvel Comics Presents 49 and 50, is genuinely solid. Michelinie's writing is consistently fun and well-paced, and Larsen's pencils were much more decent here.

The omnibus falls apart a little bit, however, as soon as you get to the issues where Larsen handles writing duties on top of pencils. The first of these, Spider-Man issue 15, sets the stage for some really unsatisfying and ultimately pointless stories that feel circular and insulated to a fault--none of them seem particularly important or engaging. We get a lot of Peter's whinging about marital problems that ring hollow and petty (from both the side of Peter and MJ) and none of it ever really seems to get resolved. We get a lot of 90s-tastic flashy crossovers and absurdly-ripped musclemen beating the crap out of each other, and all of it feels so--frankly--dumb. It is rather clear to me that Larsen has very specific strengths to his work, and they involve but two things: unrealistic women, and big musclemen punching each other.

Unfortunately, the Larsen-centric stuff brings down what was already an only decent collection of stories. While I did purchase the book almost entirely because it is one of the few places I have seen Spider Man numbers 15, 18-23 and Amazing numbers 460-462 (numbered here as 19-21), they are easily some of the weakest issues ever done for the character.

I would recommend this omnibus to completists only. There are other, much less expensive alternatives to get the stuff here that's really worth reading.

[Johari Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5. Brings back memories of my early Spidey reading days. Started with McFarlane with issue #314, and after Todd left Larsen took over. His Spidey evolved to his own after initially looking a lot like McFarlane's, and personally I prefer Larsen's own compared to McFarlane's. In terms of stories, these are pretty good for the most part, although Michelinie is definitely a better writer than Larsen's early stuff as per his run on Spider-Man.