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Essential Spider-man: v. 1 (Amazing Spider-Man (Paperback)): v. 1 (Amazing Spider-Man (Paperback))Snagging.org In association with Amazon.co.ukOnline Shop | Property Guides | Kitchen & Home | Garden Tools | Power Tools | Consumer Electronics Get the Snagging Checklist Here! Essential Spider-man: v. 1 (Amazing Spider-Man (Paperback)): v. 1 (Amazing Spider-Man (Paperback)) by: Stan Lee  List Price: £12.99 Amazon.co.uk's Price: £8.49 You Save: £4.50 (35%)Prices subject to change. Availability: In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 741 EAN: 9780785121923 ISBN: 0785121927 Label: Marvel Comics Manufacturer: Marvel Comics Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 552 Publication Date: March 29, 2006 Publisher: Marvel Comics Studio: Marvel Comics Related Items:
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 Rating: - A Star is BornWhat is the secret of Spider-Man's success? Why has he continued to generate comics, fans, and lucrative movie deals when so many of his contemporaries in early-60s Marvel, such as Ant-Man, The Human Torch, and Dr Strange, have vanished into relative obscurity? The answer can be given in one word: context. Context is what Spider-Man has and most of the others lack. He has a social context: his high-school peer group. He has a family context: his Aunt May, and the ever-present shadow of his dead Uncle Ben. He has an economic context: his work for J. Jonah Jameson, his struggle to pay the bills and buy the medicines Aunt May needs to live. Each of these adds an additional dimension to his crime-fighting antics, keeping them grounded in reality no matter how fantastical they get. When Dr Strange says 'I must defeat Dormammu or the entire cosmos is doomed!', it doesn't really mean anything to us; we can't comprehend a threat that big. When Spider-Man says 'I have to get some pitures of this fight or Aunt May won't be able to pay the rent!' - that we can all empathise with. All the ground-work was laid out in these first issues of Spider-Man. Lee and Ditko could have made him yet another unattached adventurer; instead these first issues positively shower him with supporting characters, creating a social web which has sustained him ever since. (Compare and contrast to the contemporary Human Torch stories, which never have any human interest whatsoever.) Ditko's clear, slightly stylised artwork brilliantly communicates Spider-Man's angular world of webs and rooftops; he didn't quite have Kirby's knack for creating memorable-looking villains - it would take other artists to make the likes of The Scorpion, The Ox, and The Green Goblin look threatening - but his Doctor Octopus is a sinister masterpiece. Lee's dialogue is engaging, although it gets repetitive if you read too much of it at once. But the real stars here are the supporting cast members: cigar-chomping, over-acting J. Jonah Jameson; Flash Thompson, who hates Peter Parker but stands up for his alter-ego Spider-Man even when everyone else abandons him; Betty Brant, who loves Peter Parker but hates the danger that seems to follow him everywhere; and the rest. This volume shows how it all began, and laid the foundations for everything that was to come over the next 40+ years. It's a milestone in comics history, engaging, exciting, well-drawn, well-plotted, and occasionally even well-written, and deserves to be read by anyone with the slightest interest in Spider-Man. Rating: - The classic early Stan Lee & Steve Ditko years. I have been slowly making my way through the Marvel Essential's series, trying to stay to the actual timelines. Eventually I hit what is almost the mother lode of Marvel's original years, the early Spider-Man tales. Stan Lee's writing is at his best here, both jocular and entertaining, with plenty of adventure and Steve Ditko's artwork is first class, especially in the Sinister Six tale from Spider-man Annual # 1, the full page spreads are still effective in black&white. Stan Lee skilfully mixes Peter Parker's coming to terms with his new radioactive spider powers with being a 17 year old with all the problems, both financial and in relationships that entails. Marvel have never been afraid to show their leading characters as having flaws. Indeed in his origin tale Spider-Man is shown to be indirectly responsible for the death of his Uncle Ben so feels a special responsibilty for looking after his ailing Aunt May. Lee also has a knack for introducing characters who stand the test of time, especially J Jonah Jameson, Parker's boss at the Daily Bugle who admits he hates Spider-man as he is jealous of the attention. We meet JJJ's son John who will play a memorable role in later Spider-man tales. We meet Flash Thompson, and Liz Allen from his school. We meet Betty Brant, Parker's first girlfriend and we get a hint of the arrival of Mary Jane Watson. A superhero needs super villains and Lee dishes them up here big style, beautifully drawn by Ditko. They were so well based and well written they would serve Marvel well down the decades in various magazines. We meet The Chameleon, the Vulture, Doctor Octopus, the Sandman, the Lizard (similar to the movie The Alligator People), Electro, Mysterio, the Green Goblin (who would be involved in so many memorable story arcs through the decades), the Enforcers, Kraven the Hunter, and the Scorpion, The real sting in the Scorpion's tale is that he was created by JJJ to finish Spider-Man but developed psychotic behaviour and turned against JJJ. Spider-Man also gets a chance to fight Doctor Doom as well as an alien radio repair-man. He also gets to meet the Fantastic Four as well as the Human Torch individually, Marvel's teen heroes had plenty chances to bump into each other through school/college events. Daredevil also puts in a memorable show against the Ringmaster and his dodgy circus performers. These tales are the fore-runners of several classic Spidey story lines to follow and re-reading them brings back many happy memories. I have now got the Essential Daredevil #1 ready.  Try searching the Internet for "Essential Spider-man: v. 1 (Amazing Spider-Man (Paperback)): v. 1 (Amazing Spider-Man (Paperback))" or Ebay for "Essential Spider-man: v. 1 (Amazing Spider-Man (Paperback)): v. 1 (Amazing Spider-Man (Paperback))". You might also be interested in the following great products:
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