Interesting how the world of Spider-Man has changed over the last approximately six decades since the web-slinger was launched. I joined the ranks of Spidey lovers when I picked up issue number seventeen of the Amazing Spider-Man, which saw him running from Sandman. I was part of his adventures until the early seventies, and although my comic buying days had waned, I never forget watching his trial and tribulations, as he fought so many evildoers and triumphed.
Now with MARVEL ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THE SPIDER-VERSE, we get to see many versions of Spider-Man. This most fascinating look at the web-slinger, is narrated by Gwen Stacy who is known as Ghost Spider. I recall she was killed in the late sixties, but obviously somehow reincarnated, and had not aged a day since then.
What we see in this book are approximately seventy versions of Spider-Man in the multiverse, where anything goes, and this alternate reality gives birth to so many variations of Spider-Man. There are radioactive spiders in this world as well, that gave birth to the super-hero, and some of the versions are most unique. There is Lady Spider, Cyborg Spider-Man, Madame Web, Web-Slinger, Arachnosaur, Zombie Spider-Man, Spider-Monkey, Spider-Cat, Spiders-Man, and dozens more.
The artists who have given us so many variations of Peter Parker aka Spider-Man, are to be commended for their visual representations. If you are a Spider-Man fanatic from the silver age of comics, or of the decidedly different more recent variety, then this book deserves a spot on your bookshelf. It gives us so many more reasons to be fascinated by one of the most memorable characters in comics history.