Scan barcode
A review by hisabelbide
Essential Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 1 by Steve Ditko, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby
5.0
The fascinating thing about Spider-man is how functional his drama is right from the start. Amazing Fantasy #15 doesn't even have him fight a villain, playing out more a horror story of a teenager learning the grave cost of greed.
But when it does become a villain of the month rag, it's the best to ever do it. Many heroes had reboots in the 80s, Amazing Spider-Man just piled on plot with arcs like Kraven's Last Hunt and Venom, Marriages and melodrama. All the way here at the start, in the 60s, there are constant character hooks left hanging issue to issue, building and complicating and convoluting the personal lives of these characters. It is invisible here in these first twenty issues, where villains like Doc Ock, Electro, Vulture, Kraven, Sandman, Green Goblin, The Lizard, Chameleon, all steal the show with their iconic looks and legitimate logic challenges to Spidey's skillset, but down the line as you get your lesser known Molten Man or Kangaroo those character hooks will keep you from skipping stories. Tarantula may inspire little curiosity, but you'll be glad you checked in on the JJ subplot, which builds towards a cooler complication in two issues. Camp and all it's just extremely digestible writing, worth study and admiration.
But when it does become a villain of the month rag, it's the best to ever do it. Many heroes had reboots in the 80s, Amazing Spider-Man just piled on plot with arcs like Kraven's Last Hunt and Venom, Marriages and melodrama. All the way here at the start, in the 60s, there are constant character hooks left hanging issue to issue, building and complicating and convoluting the personal lives of these characters. It is invisible here in these first twenty issues, where villains like Doc Ock, Electro, Vulture, Kraven, Sandman, Green Goblin, The Lizard, Chameleon, all steal the show with their iconic looks and legitimate logic challenges to Spidey's skillset, but down the line as you get your lesser known Molten Man or Kangaroo those character hooks will keep you from skipping stories. Tarantula may inspire little curiosity, but you'll be glad you checked in on the JJ subplot, which builds towards a cooler complication in two issues. Camp and all it's just extremely digestible writing, worth study and admiration.