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Too Many Comics! – Spider-Man

By | September 15th, 2010
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Welcome back to Too Many Comics! Last week I took apart the various Thor options and gave you my thoughts on what you should and should not get. This week I put my aims on one of my all time favorite characters: Spider-Man. We may complain about the different Deadpool books on the market, but let’s face it: Spidey alone has 5 on-goings and 4 guest starring roles, as well as characters from the Spider-family appearing in 3 additional minis. Not only that, but we’ve had books like Peter Parker, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Man 1602, and spin-offs dealing with Spider-Man characters like Jackpot, Anti-Venom, and American Son.

Let’s face it – we don’t need all these books. Do we? So grab your web shooters and let’s go for a swing through this week’s article.

Spider-Man’s Main Books

Amazing Spider-Man
Amazing Spider-Man represents the definitive Spider-Man story experience currently. Can you believe we used to have three-four Spider-Man ongoings that all told the canon tales of the webhead? Now it’s all boiled down to just one title, and the longest running one.

Right now the elements of Brand New Day are currently coming to a close with the “Origin of the Species” arc by Mark Waid. Following this, the franchise is once again going under a change, switching from a thrice monthly title with a team of rotating artists and writers to just one – Dan Slott. If you haven’t been keeping up with the book, you might as well just hop on when Slott takes over, because the change of pace and team will assuredly make the book easier to access. But if you want the official Spider-Man story to follow today, look no further.

Should We Get It?: Yes. The book is on and off in quality as the writers come and go, but with the status quo change right around the corner hopefully that will change. This is most assuredly essential for Spidey fans, though.

Web Of Spider-Man
This books last issue comes out the same day this article comes out, so perhaps it’s a tad irrelevant in mentioning. However, for fans curious on the title, I’ll elaborate a bit: this was the first “new” Spider-Man ongoing post-One More Day when it came out, but it never went anywhere really. It was supposed to be an anthology type book, with rotating stories. At first, it opened with a story dealing with whatever Villain was being highlighted that month in the Gauntlet written by Fred Van Lente, followed by a Spider-Girl story by DeFalco (which then jumped into it’s own mini), and then lastly some sort of goofy guest spot, usually with heavy comical overtones. However, the book never went anywhere, and once it tried to tell some new Spider-Man stories it was too late. With one issue left, I can’t say the book will be missed, nor is it really worth hunting down – unless you happen to be the world’s biggest Jackpot fan.

Should We Get It?: No, the book isn’t essential reading and is ending anyway.

Astonishing Spider-Man/Wolverine
The second entry into Marvel’s revamped “Astonishing line,” the Spider-Man/Wolverine team-up book has ended up being on of the most delightful books on the market. It’s just a mini-series, so it certainly won’t be overstaying it’s welcome, but it deals with Wolverine and Spidey being shot through time and space whilst attempting to stop a bank robbery. The book is written by current hot Marvel writer, Jason Aaron (who is also in charge of the Wolverine ongoing) with art by the fantastic Adam Kubert.

Should We Get It?: Yes, I highly recommend it. As a big Aaron fan, I’d recommend just about anything you see with his name on it. It’s not essential reading for the character, but it’s certainly one of the more entertaining stories with him in it on the market.

Continued below

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man
Marvel Adventures Spider-Man by Paul Tobin represents Marvel’s All-Age entry into the Spider-Man world, in the same way that Thor last week had The Mighty Avenger. The major difference between this and that, however, is that I hear universal praise for The Mighty Avenger and I haven’t heard anything at all about Marvel Adventures Spidey. I tend to really not read a lot of comics that are geared towards kids, if only that I already have my plate full of the comics geared towards folk like me. So I really can’t tell you if the comic is worth picking up. However, I can tell you one thing for sure:

Should We Get It?: It’s not an essential comic, so you don’t need it. I’ve seen a couple covers for upcoming stories, and I must say – the book does look entertaining. But if you’re just in this for a Spider-Man fix, Paul Tobin’s Spidey is unfortunately not one that you need to be reading.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
Oh, Ultimate Spidey. This is arguably one of the most important comics to comic fans in the past decade. Ultimate Spider-Man represented a reboot of a character, starting him at his very humble origins and focusing on his life as a teenager. The book was written by “up and comer” Brian Bendis, and this was definitively the book that made me decide I want to read a large variety of comics again as opposed to the select few. Currently rebooted itself after the events of Ultimatum, the book is arguably stronger and ever.

Should We Get It?: Yes. This is “our generations” Spider-Man assuredly. While not essential to the 616-Spidey’s life, it’s essential reading none the less.

Books Spider-Man Is Involved With

Ultimate Comics Enemy Trilogy (Enemy/Mystery/Doom)
Speaking of Ultimate Comics Spidey, we’ve got the Enemy Trilogy. This is the second big Ultimate trilogy, the first being Warren Ellis’ Galactus Trilogy. Enemy is written by Brian Bendis, featuring various unused characters in the Ultimate Universe. It’s sort of like an event, but in reality it’s more of a way to use characters whose lives were ruined in Ultimatum without giving a new series to the defunct Fantastic Four. In fact, the story opened with the death of Reed Richards, and the first part ended with Ben Grimm no longer being the Thing. It also picks up events that were created in Ultimate Origin, then forgotten and unused throughout Ultimatum (Origin was presented as a piece of the Road To Ultimatum puzzle, originally), then given new life during the second arc of Ultimate Spider-Man and the return of Rick Jones. We’re currently in the middle of the second part with Mystery, and although the villain is unclear, it’s strongly hinted at with the last part’s title.

Should We Get It?: If you’re a big Ultimate fan, then yes. When looking at the Ultimate universe and what’s essential, the books have been distilled down to so few now the little we have does feel more essential. The only regularly released Ultimate books are Spidey and Avengers, with New Ultimates and X both being bi-monthly. Mystery also happens to have great art by Rafa Sandoval and hilarious toungue-in-cheek dialouge by Bendis. It’s a really enjoyable comic.

Avengers/New Avengers
Spider-Man is on both Avengers teams by Bendis right now. I know, right? We originally just had adjectiveless Avengers for Spidey, but when New Avengers started soon after we had our wallcrawler spread between the books. How does it work timeline wise? Well, we assume that Spidey leaves after the current Avengers arc to do New Avengers full time, but for now he is both fighting time travel insanity as well as demon gateways to something similar to Hell as created by the Ancient One. Poor Spidey.

Continued below

Should We Get It?: Yes, at least New Avengers. New Avengers is very clearly Bendis’ baby, and he has having a ton of fun writing this book – it’s very apparent. Plus, this is the only 616-Spidey written by Bendis you’ll get, so while his true adventures lie elsewhere, you don’t want to miss out on Bendis putting hilarious words into Spidey’s mouth. As far as Avengers goes, Spider-Man has not had a big role aside from the occasional hilarious dialogue, but his interactions with Spider-Woman that carry on from their interactions in New Avengers is pretty great and worth reading.

Shadowland/Shadowland: Spider-Man
Spidey was billed as one of the bigger players in Shadowland somewhat through the teasers that came before, but as the event has started his role has been rather absent. He appeared at the end of the second issue and remained through the third, but so far he hasn’t really played a big part in the event at all – at least, not one worth mentioning for Spidey-specific fans. There will, however, be a one-shot written by Dan Slott that ties into Shadowland and Mr. Negative’s reaction to Daredevil’s push with the Hand.

Should We Get It?: Get the main event if you’re a Daredevil fan but not if you’re a Spider-Man fan. Get the tie-in if you’re looking forward to Slott’s upcoming run on Amazing Spider-Man. Is any of it essential, though? Not to Spidey, no. Somehow, despite the teaser images, I don’t see Spider-Man getting gut-shot by Punisher.

Avengers and the Infinity Gauntlet
This book is a reimagining of the original Infinity Gauntlet story, boiled down to four issues and turned into an All Ages/All Readers story. To many people, this is a “so what?” book. To Multiversity, this is a buy it and support it book. Why? Because this is Brian Clevinger’s first solo project in the Marvel Universe. Having just written the back-ups to one of the World War Hulks side stories, Clevinger’s name is now attached to the retelling of a classic story for a new audience who might not be able to get into the original. And wouldn’t you know it, Spider-Man’s a part of it.

Should We Get It?: It’s a tough decision for most of you, I’d imagine. Fans of Clevinger should support the title, even if you already have the Infinity Gauntlet. The first issue was really quite hilarious. It’s not an essential title for Spidey fans, though.

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Oof. That’s a lot of books! Of course, just like Thor, Spider-Man’s side cast do have their own books of note. Spider-Girl/Arana will be getting her own book and appearing in Young Allies, but I’m unsure as to if Spidey will become part of that. Young Allies has been a dodgy title at best, and one that I can’t fully recommend until I see how the first arc plays out. I won’t be picking up the new Spider-Girl title either, so I’ll refrain from commenting on that. One mini that the collective comic internet seems stoked about is Osborn, written by Kelly Sue DeConnick. It’ll show Norman Osborn’s time in jail, and somewhat assumedly it’ll feature his breakout or rise to power within the walls – one of the two. I imagine it might be slightly similar to Civil War: Front Line, but maybe not. It’ll also feature back ups by Warren Ellis and Jamie McKelvie, so it’s almost assuredly worth getting for fans of their work as well as fans of the villain in general.

So there you have it – every single comic that has Spider-Man in it (that I can think of). You have quite a lot here to pick and choose, and I will admit I’m a bit friendlier this week than I was in the Thor article because of my love of Spidey. There are plenty of books where you can find him, and I can only hope that you enjoy at least a few on this list.


//TAGS | Too Many Comics

Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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