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A review by ponch22
Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 4 by Steve Ditko, Stan Lee
4.0
And so ends my reading of the original Spider-Man comics written by [a:Stan Lee|10303|Stan Lee|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1206594565p2/10303.jpg] & drawn by [a:Steve Ditko|10298|Steve Ditko|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1204665020p2/10298.jpg] (which were all discussed by brothers Kevin & [a:Will Hines|3342295|Will Hines|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1468766402p2/3342295.jpg] in the podcast "Screw It We're Just Gonna Talk about Spider-Man").
Volume 4 collects ASM #31–#40, all originally published from September 1965 through June 1966. I read these stories slowly over two months to sort of keep up with the podcast (and I was busy working on my 2018 Reading Challenge). The collection starts off with a 3-story arc, called "The Master Planner Saga," often called one of the best Spidey stories ever written.
But unfortunately, the Hines brothers over-hyped it a bit and I wasn't a huge fan. Issue #31 is all set-up and no real adventure. #32 got a little better but it could have been great if it had held off revealing The Master Planner's secret identity until the end of the issue instead of revealing it on page two! But it is a nice cliffhanger with Spider-Man trapped in MP's lair underwater, but #33 starts out with way too many pages dedicated to Spidey struggling to escape with an internal debate about all of his struggles. Not to mention how Master Planner doesn't even appear in the wrap-up to his story—maybe if Spidey would have escaped in a page or two, there would have been room to have a big battle before the end of the story.
Looking back at the rest of Ditko's issues, there are a lot of easy-to-forget issues featuring Kraven, The Molten Man, some Looter who got his powers from a meteor, a couple of robots, and some loser named Joe.
But luckily, the collection ends with a two-issue story revealing who's behind The Green Goblin's mask! [a:John Romita|17336745|John Romita|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] came in as the new artist and actually made me curious to read the next collection just to see if Lee & Romita keep up the greatness that were these last two issues. After finishing the collection, I gave the whole thing 5 stars. However, I think that was really just a rating for the Green Goblin stories, because looking back at the eight stories before them, none really seem all that great. If I averaged out each of the stories, it'd probably be 3* or less, but I'm going to still consider the end a high note and round up to 4*
Volume 4 collects ASM #31–#40, all originally published from September 1965 through June 1966. I read these stories slowly over two months to sort of keep up with the podcast (and I was busy working on my 2018 Reading Challenge). The collection starts off with a 3-story arc, called "The Master Planner Saga," often called one of the best Spidey stories ever written.
But unfortunately, the Hines brothers over-hyped it a bit and I wasn't a huge fan. Issue #31 is all set-up and no real adventure. #32 got a little better but it could have been great if it had held off revealing The Master Planner's secret identity until the end of the issue instead of revealing it on page two! But it is a nice cliffhanger with Spider-Man trapped in MP's lair underwater, but #33 starts out with way too many pages dedicated to Spidey struggling to escape with an internal debate about all of his struggles. Not to mention how Master Planner doesn't even appear in the wrap-up to his story—maybe if Spidey would have escaped in a page or two, there would have been room to have a big battle before the end of the story.
Looking back at the rest of Ditko's issues, there are a lot of easy-to-forget issues featuring Kraven, The Molten Man, some Looter who got his powers from a meteor, a couple of robots, and some loser named Joe.
But luckily, the collection ends with a two-issue story revealing who's behind The Green Goblin's mask! [a:John Romita|17336745|John Romita|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] came in as the new artist and actually made me curious to read the next collection just to see if Lee & Romita keep up the greatness that were these last two issues. After finishing the collection, I gave the whole thing 5 stars. However, I think that was really just a rating for the Green Goblin stories, because looking back at the eight stories before them, none really seem all that great. If I averaged out each of the stories, it'd probably be 3* or less, but I'm going to still consider the end a high note and round up to 4*