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Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man #24
Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 24
The rumors are true! Spider-Man came out swinging in 1984 in a new black costume that rocked the comics industry and changed the way Marvel viewed its most famous iconography! The Marvel Masterworks launches into this historic era of Spidey history with a collection that showcases top-shelf work from the creative team of Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz. They ask, who is the Rose and why has he picked Spidey as his target? Then, the Red Ghost and Jack O’Lantern return, while the Puma debuts. Meanwhile, the Hobgoblin goes on the hunt for Norman Osborn’s most dreaded secrets and has Liz and MJ in his sights. Plus: Stan Lee returns to script a double-sized Annual showdown with Scorpion!
COLLECTING: Amazing Spider-Man (1963) 252-262, Annual (1964) 18
COLLECTING: Amazing Spider-Man (1963) 252-262, Annual (1964) 18
376 pages, Hardcover
Published December 13, 2022
About the author
Tom DeFalco
2,541 books108 followersTom DeFalco is an American comics writer and editor, well-known for his association with Marvel Comics and Spider-Man.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 20, 2025
4.75 stars
May 27, 2025
Some peak Spidey right here.
I can imagine the behind the scenes chaos that Stern caused when he left the book and DeFalco picks it back up almost flawlessly.
The material in here has previously been reprinted in like a million other TPB and Omnis, but with good reason: this is some iconic Spider-Man stuff, not only do you get the introduction of the Symbiote into Spidey's mythos, but also an awesome exploration of MJ's character that shows why she’s the best love interest for Peter. Not to mention some solid and fun character work for Peter himself.
The introduction of The Rose and return of Hobgoblin are also super fun, even barring the behind the scenes mess that was Hobbie's identity after Stern left, but barring that, this is just purely uncut and utterly fun and awesome Spider-Man goodness.
My only real issue comes from the need to create artificial drama between MJ and Peter, it indulges in a lot of really lame characterization from Peter after MJ drops a bombshell regarding something she’s known for years, and also there’s some artificial and unnecessary drama between him and Black Cat (but I didn’t like that relationship anyways, so I at least like it as an excuse for them to break off, even if it’s cliché and just clumsy).
I’m also not the biggest fan of the Aunt May drama subplot, it feels like it’s getting dragged out too much without much of substance.
But overall, this is still Spider-Man at his peak still.
I can imagine the behind the scenes chaos that Stern caused when he left the book and DeFalco picks it back up almost flawlessly.
The material in here has previously been reprinted in like a million other TPB and Omnis, but with good reason: this is some iconic Spider-Man stuff, not only do you get the introduction of the Symbiote into Spidey's mythos, but also an awesome exploration of MJ's character that shows why she’s the best love interest for Peter. Not to mention some solid and fun character work for Peter himself.
The introduction of The Rose and return of Hobgoblin are also super fun, even barring the behind the scenes mess that was Hobbie's identity after Stern left, but barring that, this is just purely uncut and utterly fun and awesome Spider-Man goodness.
My only real issue comes from the need to create artificial drama between MJ and Peter, it indulges in a lot of really lame characterization from Peter after MJ drops a bombshell regarding something she’s known for years, and also there’s some artificial and unnecessary drama between him and Black Cat (but I didn’t like that relationship anyways, so I at least like it as an excuse for them to break off, even if it’s cliché and just clumsy).
I’m also not the biggest fan of the Aunt May drama subplot, it feels like it’s getting dragged out too much without much of substance.
But overall, this is still Spider-Man at his peak still.
October 26, 2026
De Falco takes over from Stern in this collection and Ron Frenz succeeds JRJ; for both a hard act to follow.
The scripting here is excellent, with great character work, plenty of foreshadowing, and some great villains (the Rose is excellent, Hobgoblin one of my favourites; Puma, was interesting ). The tumultuous love life makes for the best arc, with The Black Cat being the mainstay but with reservations about Peter vs her love of Spidey. The Mary Jane plot is brilliantly written, and shows the maturity the comic had embraced and I recall the reveal at the time and being surprised they just went with it rather than one of the 1970s contrived “get outs.” With Aunt May, I felt a little like they were stretching the drama out, but nonetheless it made for good ASM soap opera.
The symbiote storyline gains momentum, and I was surprised in retrospect how quickly the black suit was discarded (although these collections are over a year at a time, and of course we had the suit for an equal period in PPTSSM also).
Finally, Ron Frenz’s art was quite a departure from JRJs but really grew on me; I wasn’t as much of a fan in the day, but now I see the strong influences of both Ditko and (Sal) Buscema in his composition, which is no bad thing. The annual with Bob Layton inks is particularly good.
Overall, not quite the peak of the last Stern volume but still extremely good.
The scripting here is excellent, with great character work, plenty of foreshadowing, and some great villains (the Rose is excellent, Hobgoblin one of my favourites; Puma, was interesting ). The tumultuous love life makes for the best arc, with The Black Cat being the mainstay but with reservations about Peter vs her love of Spidey. The Mary Jane plot is brilliantly written, and shows the maturity the comic had embraced and I recall the reveal at the time and being surprised they just went with it rather than one of the 1970s contrived “get outs.” With Aunt May, I felt a little like they were stretching the drama out, but nonetheless it made for good ASM soap opera.
The symbiote storyline gains momentum, and I was surprised in retrospect how quickly the black suit was discarded (although these collections are over a year at a time, and of course we had the suit for an equal period in PPTSSM also).
Finally, Ron Frenz’s art was quite a departure from JRJs but really grew on me; I wasn’t as much of a fan in the day, but now I see the strong influences of both Ditko and (Sal) Buscema in his composition, which is no bad thing. The annual with Bob Layton inks is particularly good.
Overall, not quite the peak of the last Stern volume but still extremely good.
January 2, 2023
This is an excellent collection of stories that follow the events of Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars, and give us the continuation of the Hobgoblin, the mystery of The Rose, the birth of Harry & Liz’s son, the return of Mary Jane Watson, the Wedding of J. Jonah Jameson, and a lot of character development.
There was an editorial effort to make each issue a “complete unit of entertainment”, which is to say, each issue should be self-explanetory if not self-contained.
There are a great many editorial footnotes giving referrence to the companion titles Spectacular Spider-Man and Marvel Team-Up, as well as connecting to Fantastic Four.
The development of the Alien costume which leads to Venom is well-crafted here.
I read these stories originally in single-issue format back in 1984. The challenge was in compiling all the separate chapters from the multiple titles, when also following such dense stories as Uncanny X-Men, Fantastic Four, Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. It was a good year overall.
There was an editorial effort to make each issue a “complete unit of entertainment”, which is to say, each issue should be self-explanetory if not self-contained.
There are a great many editorial footnotes giving referrence to the companion titles Spectacular Spider-Man and Marvel Team-Up, as well as connecting to Fantastic Four.
The development of the Alien costume which leads to Venom is well-crafted here.
I read these stories originally in single-issue format back in 1984. The challenge was in compiling all the separate chapters from the multiple titles, when also following such dense stories as Uncanny X-Men, Fantastic Four, Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. It was a good year overall.
January 23, 2023
This one didn’t start off so good (bad artwork), but it quickly got back on track. Lots of interesting bad guys mixed in with the human side of Peter Parker.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews