Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man, (vol 2), by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
Last June I reviewed volume 1 of this, what appears to be an on-going compilation of all the early Spider-Man comic books. In that review I mostly compared and contrasted with Superman, DC, and Smallville. While I'd still love it if DC put out a similar compendium of all the early Superman comics, I'm actually starting to enjoy Spidey more than Superman now that I've steeped myself in so much of the early story.
Volume 1 of this collection contains "Amazing Fantasy" (number 15), where Spider-Man is first introduced, along with "The Amazing Spider-Man" issues 1-10. Volume 2 contains "The Amazing Spider-Man" issues 11-19, along with "The Amazing Spider-Man" Annual number 1. These works were all originally published between August 1962 and December 1964. Reading historic comics like these more than 40 years after they were originally published is for me more entertaining than reading something contemporary because of all the interesting differences between that culture and ours today. Not only do the characters dress differently and have different hairstyles than would be fashionable today, but their attitudes towards dating, the sexes, computers, doctors, and technology is far more divergent from our own mores than one might first expect.
When I was a kid spending my meager allowance on comic books, I used to hate it when the story would refer me back to earlier issues I had not previously read. This series does that in abundance, but ironically I find it adds to the stories, giving them more depth. Especially when read back to back, this compilation doesn't seem nearly as episodic as volume 1, but almost reads like one continuing on-going story. Sure, Spidey fights all kinds of evil villains, but there are also more complex plot-lines exploring his relationships with the women in his life --Betty Brandt, Aunt May, and Liz Allen-- as well as how he interacts with rival schoolmate Flash Thompson and rival superhero The Torch.
Those whose primary exposure to Spider-Man may be the movie and not the comic books, you'll be interested to find that Mary Jane Watson gets hinted at near the middle of volume 2, although Peter and MJ have yet to even meet or go out on a date. Betty Brandt seems to be fading from the picture as Peter's love interest, although there is still plenty of room for developments here. Liz Allen, who Peter liked in volume 1, now seems to like Peter. So the classic love triangle that is present in Superman and Archie is also a part of the Spider-Man story. Finally, the Green Goblin is introduced in volume 2, although we do not yet know the Goblin's true identity.
Keep 'em coming, Marvel Masterworks! Re-printing these classic comics exposes them to a whole new pool of readers!
PUBLISHER: Marvel Comics, New York. ISBN: 0-7607-4957-4. Copyright 2003.
Showing posts with label compilations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label compilations. Show all posts
The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1
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15.6.03
Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man, (vol 1), by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
I've always been a bigger Superman fan than a Spider-Man fan. My only exposure to Spidey as a kid was PBS' The Electric Company along with the occasional comic book and the short-lived 1978 television series. When the Spider-Man movie came out in 2002 it answered many of the questions that I had concerning Spidey's origins. However, it took Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man to really get me interested in Spider-Man on a whole new level.
Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man is a collection of the first eleven comic books ever to feature Spider-Man. This series (from 1962-1964) reveals an astonishing level of psychological complexity, human interest, and a benchmark from which to measure how far the Spider-Man myth has evolved over the years. I think it was WB's Superman series Smallville that really started getting me interested in how the mythology of super-heroes evolve over time. In that series the life of teenage Clark Kent is examined, with all the typical angst of those years. What amazed me reading the early Spider-Man comics was that this "human interest" angle is there from the beginning!
Unlike Clark Kent, Peter Parker is a high school senior when the series begins --actually a nerdy science student who gets mercilessly bullied and teased by his classmates. You can really tell that these comics were written in the '60s --with all the contemporary focus on bullying in schools, and Columbine, this sort of interaction is not seen as funny anymore. Despite the bullying, however, I was reminded of Smallville with the way that Peter tries to balance a social life, high school, and his part-time job at the Daily Bugle.
Many details mirror Superman. Both heroes work at big city newspapers. Reminiscent of the Lois - Clark - Lana triangle, Peter Parker is torn between the dual love interests of Liz Allen and Betty Brandt. Peter Parker even sports Clark Kent-like glasses in first few issues, before they get destroyed by rival classmate Flash Thompson in a fight, never to be seen again.
One big surprise for me was that Mary Jane (MJ) doesn't appear in the early comic books. She must have been added later, although still early enough that some of my friends thought she had been there from the beginning. In the early series Liz Allen is the unattainable girlfriend of bully Flash Thompson, while Betty Brandt (J. Jonah Jameson's secretary at the Bugle) mysteriously leaves town in issue ten of the series --bemoaning the loss of Peter the whole time. It's as though both of these women are merged in the later character of MJ, with disdain and affection transformed into ambivalence.
This compilation is only volume one. I sincerely hope that Marvel continues to release later issues of these classic strips in graphic novel form. I, for one, am sold!
PUBLISHER: Marvel Comics, New York. ISBN: 0-7607-3793-2. Copyright 2003.
I've always been a bigger Superman fan than a Spider-Man fan. My only exposure to Spidey as a kid was PBS' The Electric Company along with the occasional comic book and the short-lived 1978 television series. When the Spider-Man movie came out in 2002 it answered many of the questions that I had concerning Spidey's origins. However, it took Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man to really get me interested in Spider-Man on a whole new level.
Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man is a collection of the first eleven comic books ever to feature Spider-Man. This series (from 1962-1964) reveals an astonishing level of psychological complexity, human interest, and a benchmark from which to measure how far the Spider-Man myth has evolved over the years. I think it was WB's Superman series Smallville that really started getting me interested in how the mythology of super-heroes evolve over time. In that series the life of teenage Clark Kent is examined, with all the typical angst of those years. What amazed me reading the early Spider-Man comics was that this "human interest" angle is there from the beginning!
Unlike Clark Kent, Peter Parker is a high school senior when the series begins --actually a nerdy science student who gets mercilessly bullied and teased by his classmates. You can really tell that these comics were written in the '60s --with all the contemporary focus on bullying in schools, and Columbine, this sort of interaction is not seen as funny anymore. Despite the bullying, however, I was reminded of Smallville with the way that Peter tries to balance a social life, high school, and his part-time job at the Daily Bugle.
Many details mirror Superman. Both heroes work at big city newspapers. Reminiscent of the Lois - Clark - Lana triangle, Peter Parker is torn between the dual love interests of Liz Allen and Betty Brandt. Peter Parker even sports Clark Kent-like glasses in first few issues, before they get destroyed by rival classmate Flash Thompson in a fight, never to be seen again.
One big surprise for me was that Mary Jane (MJ) doesn't appear in the early comic books. She must have been added later, although still early enough that some of my friends thought she had been there from the beginning. In the early series Liz Allen is the unattainable girlfriend of bully Flash Thompson, while Betty Brandt (J. Jonah Jameson's secretary at the Bugle) mysteriously leaves town in issue ten of the series --bemoaning the loss of Peter the whole time. It's as though both of these women are merged in the later character of MJ, with disdain and affection transformed into ambivalence.
This compilation is only volume one. I sincerely hope that Marvel continues to release later issues of these classic strips in graphic novel form. I, for one, am sold!
PUBLISHER: Marvel Comics, New York. ISBN: 0-7607-3793-2. Copyright 2003.
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