Recommend Spider-Man Comics

[Delicious Taffy]

My local collectibles shop recently got a ton of old comic books, and they're only $1 apiece. Two full bins are packed with various Spider-Man titles, but I'm not sure which ones are the "Good Ones", so to speak. If you could give me some issues, story lines, or runs to look for, I'd love to know.

Edit: I guess I should elaborate ever so slightly on what criteria I'm going to be basing my browsing on. I'll be looking for basically whichever books you enjoyed reading. If it's got a guest character you like in it, a favorite villain, a good plot, or even just really good art, I'll put it on my radar.

Age isn't going to be a factor, here, or at least not one I'm paying the slightest bit of attention to when I go through the bins. Spider-Man has too long of a history for me to get hung up on whether or not a specific issue is old enough to go on a pub crawl with.

[tomandtish]

Probably need more info. What is very old? If you can put a date range, that would help.

[Delicious Taffy]

Probably need more info. What is very old? If you can put a date range, that would help.

I didn't think to check the dates on them. I just saw a ton of loose issues in no particular order and was wondering which runs are good. If I had to guess, I'd say there are some properly ancient ones, because I saw what I think was Spidey's first encounter with the Punisher. I spied a few issues of both Civil Wars, the Gathering of Five, Identity Crisis, and Untold Tales, as well, if that helps.

I'm not especially concerned with sticking to or avoiding certain eras, or anything like that. This thread is more for folks to say which ones they like, so I have a little more direction than "Wow, look at the cover on this bad boy!".

[Ramza00]

I doubt they will have this old of comic books, but the Ultimate Universe spider line from the early to mid 00s are pretty good. Then the Ultimate Universe got bad for the upper management decided to make the Ultimate Universe edgy. But even during the worse hours of the Ultimate Universe line the spiderman line was pretty good. That said some arcs were better than others but do not quiz me on which is the best for I am a casual spiderman fan :smallwink:

[Delicious Taffy]

I doubt they will have this old of comic books, but the Ultimate Universe spider line from the early to mid 00s are pretty good. Then the Ultimate Universe got bad for the upper management decided to make the Ultimate Universe edgy. But even during the worse hours of the Ultimate Universe line the spiderman line was pretty good. That said some arcs were better than others but do not quiz me on which is the best for I am a casual spiderman fan :smallwink:

Like I said before, they have issues as far back as the first Punisher encounter. I've personally picked up two issues from 1998, and one from '99. According to Wikipedia, Ultimate Spider-Man started in 2000, so the idea that they wouldn't have issues that old is basically irrelevant.

That said, I've been eyeing a few of the Ultimate books I saw, so I'll take your post as an endorsement.

[Rater202]

Ultimate Spider-Man(Peter and Miles)are the only consistently good thing in the Ultimate Universe.

If you can find all six issues, Spider-Man and The X-Men is a great miniseries--Spider-Man, as a favor to the now dead Logan, becomes a teacher as the Jean Grey School for Mutants, teaching Superhuman Ethics and the Responsible Use of Super Powers to the special class--Hellion, Rockslide, Glob, Ernst, Shark Girl, and No-Girl--as cover for investigating them becuase Logan suspects that one of those six students is a mole hellping an unknown supervillain against the School.

On three separate occasions, Spidey and his students end up in a fight with a Team-Up of a Spider-Man villain and an X-Men villain who are themetically similar.

The Kids get more character development in six issues than they got in the hundred previous X-Men Issues.

[Metahuman1]

If they've got really old stuff, anything that says it was written by the Late, Great Steve Ditko or Jack Kirby is worth reading at least once. Even if it's a reprint form 20 years after initial publication.

And if it isn't, it's an original penned by one or the other, jump on that, that is worth some money.

[Lemmy]

Start with "One More Day"... That way, everything else will seem much better! :smallbiggrin:

[Rater202]

Start with "One More Day"... That way, everything else will seem much better! :smallbiggrin:

By the way, as of Amazing Spider-Man #1 Peter and Mj are officially back together and #2 opens confirming it.

[Lemmy]

By the way, as of Amazing Spider-Man #1 Peter and Mj are officially back together and #2 opens confirming it.
Yeah... It was about time too! Goddamn OMD screwed things up for over a decade!

[Rynjin]

Start with "One More Day"... That way, everything else will seem much better! :smallbiggrin:

Also make sure to read the entire Clone Saga.

[leafman]

One of my favorite runs was Avenging Spider-Man. It was only maybe 30 issues, but it was a fun team-up comic.

[Ramza00]

Also make sure to read the entire Clone Saga.

The Ultimate Version of the Clone Saga was actually decent. :smallwink: Some people say it is really good :smallsigh:.

[Tvtyrant]

My local collectibles shop recently got a ton of old comic books, and they're only $1 apiece. Two full bins are packed with various Spider-Man titles, but I'm not sure which ones are the "Good Ones", so to speak. If you could give me some issues, story lines, or runs to look for, I'd love to know.

Edit: I guess I should elaborate ever so slightly on what criteria I'm going to be basing my browsing on. I'll be looking for basically whichever books you enjoyed reading. If it's got a guest character you like in it, a favorite villain, a good plot, or even just really good art, I'll put it on my radar.

Age isn't going to be a factor, here, or at least not one I'm paying the slightest bit of attention to when I go through the bins. Spider-Man has too long of a history for me to get hung up on whether or not a specific issue is old enough to go on a pub crawl with.

Ultimate spiderman vols 1-30. It is largely the inspiration for the current Avengers Spiderman.

[Delicious Taffy]

I'm hearing a lot of Ultimate. If the comics are half as good as the game (which is the best one), I think I'm in for a treat. I'll also keep my eye out for And The X-Men, Avenging, and the Clone Saga. Does the Clone Saga stay to one title, or is it spread between a couple? If I need to look for issues from, like, Amazing and Spectacular to get the whole picture, I'd like to know what I'm in for.

Oh, one of the random issues I got picks up right after the Identity Crisis arc. I recognised two issues of that while I was browsing (Hornet and Prodigy). Is it generally decent? I was eyeballing it.

[Tvtyrant]

I'm hearing a lot of Ultimate. If the comics are half as good as the game (which is the best one), I think I'm in for a treat. I'll also keep my eye out for And The X-Men, Avenging, and the Clone Saga. Does the Clone Saga stay to one title, or is it spread between a couple? If I need to look for issues from, like, Amazing and Spectacular to get the whole picture, I'd like to know what I'm in for.

Oh, one of the random issues I got picks up right after the Identity Crisis arc. I recognised two issues of that while I was browsing (Hornet and Prodigy). Is it generally decent? I was eyeballing it.
I really enjoy the first 2 years of the Ultimates Universe through the different lines, then it breaks down hard.

[Ramza00]

Per Wikipedia (I assume it is accurate) the Ultimate Version of The Clone Saga is issues #97-105.

[Wraith]

I don't read a lot of Marvel, but for what I have read I very much enjoyed Spider-Man's arcs in Secret War (2004-5), Back In Black (2007) and quite a lot of his involvement in Civil War (2006-7), though that particular event was controversial itself and also spun-off into a lot of cross-overs of debatable quality.

[Metahuman1]

By the way, as of Amazing Spider-Man #1 Peter and Mj are officially back together and #2 opens confirming it.

Wait, They got it to happen and Quesada didn't rage quit the company? What the hell kind of black mail does the mouse have on him?!!!!






Note to OP: Ultimate Spiderman's Clone Saga might be good, I dunno, never read it. DO NOT FOR THE LOVE OF HUMANITY READ THE 90'S CLONE SAGA!!!!!!!!!!!!



I will say that up until Civil War and One More Day ruined EVERYTHING, Joe Michael Strazynsky (I am almost certainly butchering that name. JMS, who was also famous for creating the TV show Babylon 5 in the 90's. ) had a really good run on Spiderman that for the most part is also worth a read. Just, remember, Civil War starts to REALLY screw it over, and One More Day is an abomination against competent or worth while story's, and the characters and general logic of the marvel universe in particular.

Sin's Past is also a REALLY horrible story arc from this run that has no meaningful lasting repercussions and just defecates on a beloved classic character and also lessens a classic villain. It's entirely skippable, do so.

The other like, 50+ Issues of the run are really good though.

[Wraith]

...So by the sounds of it, almost everything between 1997 and 2007 is pretty good, Spider-Man wise. :smalltongue:

[MommaGoose505]

Spider-Man: Blue was a six issue series by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. Beautiful art and a clasic Spidey story.

[Delicious Taffy]

Note to OP: [...] FOR THE LOVE OF HUMANITY READ THE 90'S CLONE SAGA!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, that's a ringing endorsement if I've ever seen one. Scarlet Spider and Kaine seem like fascinating characters.

[tomandtish]

"Death of Jean DeWolfe" from the 80s is excellent!

[Rater202]

Wait, They got it to happen and Quesada didn't rage quit the company? What the hell kind of black mail does the mouse have on him?!!!!Well, they're not married and they don't rmemeber the pre OMD timeline.

Basically, in a time where PEter's life was going to hell even worse than usual, he admitted that Marry Jane Watson was the most important person in his life and that he needed her. To her face. To which she replied that of course she always loved him and that she couldn't stay away anymore.

This is consistent with Spider-Man/Deadpool, which had Mephisto taunt Spider-Man about there being something incredibly important in his life that was missing and that he'd never be truly happy without.

At this point, I don't think OMD is ever gonna get fixed, but I take what I can get.

[Delicious Taffy]

[UPDATE]
They apparently don't have even a single issue of Ultimate Spider-Man. Most of the issues are Sensational, Spectacular, Web Of, and 2099, with scattered Untold Tales here and there.

[Metahuman1]

Well, that's a ringing endorsement if I've ever seen one. Scarlet Spider and Kaine seem like fascinating characters.

Oh, your funny. Kaine's, not all that interesting honestly. Scarlet Spider is cool and I'm glad he's been allowed to come back, but the 90's clone saga did not do him well or justice at all.


The 2099 Comics for Spiderman actually aren't bad. They are there own thing, but for the most part, Spiderman, X-men and Doom 2099 work. Some of the other 2099 comics, not so much.



Rater202: You know, juuuuuuuust when I though I might be willing to cut them some slack, they can't even commit to the bit. *Sigh.*.

[Rater202]

Keep in mind that there are multible versions of Miguel O'Hara, so after a certain point Spider-Man 2099 shifts to another version and goes from there.

Though it's after a satisfying conclusion.

[Delicious Taffy]

Keep in mind that there are multible versions of Miguel O'Hara, so after a certain point Spider-Man 2099 shifts to another version and goes from there.

Though it's after a satisfying conclusion.

When you say "multiple versions", is that in terms of clones, or the usual "Earth-[###]" way? Either one is fine by me.

As an aside, I discovered that the shop has The Spider-Woman, Issue #1 for thirty bucks. I'm severely tempted to buy it.

[Rater202]

When you say "multiple versions", is that in terms of clones, or the usual "Earth-[###]" way? Either one is fine by me.

As an aside, I discovered that the shop has The Spider-Woman, Issue #1 for thirty bucks. I'm severely tempted to buy it.

Officially both versions of Miquel are the same person as the result of "the Future Changing" but that's inconsistent with how timelines normally work in Marvel(Scott "Cyclops" Summers has three or four mutually exclusive children from the future who all continue to exist unchanged despite all of their future timelines being rendered impossible by changes to the past)

Basically, the first volume of Spider-Man 2099 went in a certain direction and ha da satisfying conclusion.

Then a later volume of Spider-Man 2099 came out that started in the middle of the original run but went in a completely differant direction. All other Spider-Man 2099 stories go from this version of events.Volume 1:Ultimately becoems Thor, brings about World Peace using the fact that he's basically the only person who is Worthy for political clout, lives for over a thousand years.

Volume 2 onward: Gets stuck in the Modern Age of Earth 616, learns about how his post-apocalyptic dystopian society came to be.

[Delicious Taffy]

Officially both versions of Miquel are the same person as the result of "the Future Changing" but that's inconsistent with how timelines normally work in Marvel(Scott "Cyclops" Summers has three or four mutually exclusive children from the future who all continue to exist unchanged despite all of their future timelines being rendered impossible by changes to the past)

Basically, the first volume of Spider-Man 2099 went in a certain direction and ha da satisfying conclusion.

Then a later volume of Spider-Man 2099 came out that started in the middle of the original run but went in a completely differant direction. All other Spider-Man 2099 stories go from this version of events.Volume 1:Ultimately becoems Thor, brings about World Peace using the fact that he's basically the only person who is Worthy for political clout, lives for over a thousand years.

Volume 2 onward: Gets stuck in the Modern Age of Earth 616, learns about how his post-apocalyptic dystopian society came to be.

So, it's like a Zelda-style time fork? I can dig it.