Spider-Man

As somebody who knows the origins of these classic Spider-Man villains, I very much enjoyed the updating in this book by Daniel Quantz, Mark Brooks and JonBoy Meyers.The Doctor Octopus story is a real standout, with a very cool confrontation between Spidey and Dock Ock where Ock almost unmasks Peter Parker. Then, in the Sandman story that follows (with neat, cartoony art by Meyers), Spidey's misk is ripped in battle and again, and his identity is nearly revealed. The genius part is when Spidey faces Dr. Doom (the one villain who is smart enough to actually unmask Spidey) who is infuriated when it turns out it's only Flash Thompson in a homemade Spidey suit. (Long, funny story.) Mark Brooks draws a very cool looking Human Torch and Fantastic Four in guest appearances and his action sequences feel like a big budget movie. Quantz brings some laugh out loud funny moments to these old tales, and does the J. Jonah Jameson/Peter Parker interactions with style and humor (at one point JJJ smashes a cupcake over Peter Parker's head, elsewhere, one of his inventions erases his science teacher's harddrive)These aren't the talky, boring multi-part sagas of Ultimate Spider-Man, these are punchy, funny little episodes of a very young Spidey struggling to learn the limits and advantages of his powers. If you liked the first hour of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie, you'll love this cool little collection!

"Marvel Age Spider-Man" takes a different approach as a Spider-Man comic book. In an attempt to cater to "new readers," scripter Daniel Quantz and artist Mark Brooks are working from the original stories of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko from the first issues of "The Amazing Spider-Man" and retelling (not to mention redrawing) them. This volume collects the first four issues of "Marvel Age Spider-Man" and while they might be of more interest to those of us who remember the webhead's first few adventures, neophytes and others should find them interesting as well. The Vulture and Terrible Tinkerer stories in the first issue are the weakest of the bunch, just as they were way back when. The best is a toss up between the origin of Doctor Octopus and Spidey having to deal with the Lord of Latvaria when Dr. Doom tries to recruit him to take down the Fantastic Four.It is assumed that you know the basic origin of Spider-Man, either from the comic books or the theatrical film (bit by radioactive spider, gets powers of a spider, learns from death of Uncle Ben that "with great power comes great responsibility"). Then we start meeting Spider-Man's earliest villains: #1 "Duel to the Death with the Vulture" and "The Uncanny Threat fo the Terrible Tinkerer," #2 "Spider-Man versus Doctor Octopus," #3 "Nothing Can Stop the Sandman," and #4 "Marked for Destruction by Dr. Doom." Actually, issues #1-4 of "Marvel Age Spider-Man" follow issues #2-5 of "The Amazing Spider-Man." That certainly makes sense to me because it allows Quantz and Brooks to avoid trying to carry off Spider-Man using his webbing to hitch a ride on a space capsule. I was surprised to see that these stories were 21-pages long, which is what they were back in the early 1960s when Lee and Ditko first told them. However, by reading these stories in this paperback collection you avoid dealing with all those adds in the comic books (they do not want to have you ever see two pages of ads so almost half the pages of art are opposite ads, which gets a bit annoying).There is a place for "Marvel Age Spider-Man" in the Marvel universe, because it takes us back to the time when Peter Parker was in high school without all the changes and complications we have in "Ultimate Spider-Man." Of course by retelling and redrawing the Lee and Ditko stories you are getting back to the basics of Spider-Man, worried abut frail Aunt May finding out what he is up to and having to dealing with J. Jonah Jameson and Flash Thompson as well as Doctor Octopus and the rest of these villains. But hopefully new readers will be inspired to go back and check out the Lee and Dikto stories in "The Essential Spider-Man" or "Marvel Masterworks" so they can really check out the original Spider-Man.