SPIDER-MAN: BLUE

"MY FUNNY VALENTINE" | "LET'S FALL IN LOVE" | "ANYTHING GOES"
"AUTUMN IN NEW YORK" | "IF I HAD YOU" | "ALL OF ME"
By Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale
With Richard Starkings & Comicraft's Wes Abbott / Steve Buccellato
Comicraft's JG Roshell / Bronwyn Taggart / Nanci Dakesian / Joe Quesada / Bill Jemas
Dedicated to Stan Lee & Steve Ditko & John Romita, web-heads all!

It's hard for me to choose a favorite between DAREDEVIL: YELLOW and SPIDER-MAN: BLUE. Both are tremendous pieces of work, perhaps the finest retellings of these characters' earlier periods than anything else I've ever read. But in the end, BLUE edges out YELLOW by a slight margin, simply because it stars Spider-Man, my all-time favorite superhero character.

And it's not just any Spider-Man we're following here, either. This is the web-slinger as I love him best, as I was introduced to him via reprints of the Stan Lee/John Romita comics. This is Peter Parker, in college, rooming with Harry Osborn. He's moved past the formative high school years and become, in my opinion, the most iconic version of the character. There are those who prefer Spider-Man in high school. There are those who prefer him married, or as a single adult. But for me, there is absolutely no better status quo for the wall-crawler than as an undergraduate at Empire State University, and there is no better run of Spider-Man issues than roughly AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #40 - 100.

So it's no surprise that I love BLUE so much. It begins during AMAZING issue 40, immediately after the wall-crawler's most influential artist, John Romita, came onto the title (apologies to you Ditko-fans out there -- I like the guy, and I fully acknowledge that without him we would not have Spider-Man or most of his best enemies -- but taking that for granted, I much prefer the style Romita brought to the characters and the stories).

MARVEL BY JEPH LOEB & TIM SALE

As seems to be the case with many fans, I find a great deal of Jeph Loeb's writing pretty awful. But somehow, when partnered with artist Tim Sale, his work usually rises to the point that, if not brilliant, I would at least call it "very good". I love the duo's team-ups over at DC. BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN was probably the very first hardcover reprint I ever purchased, back in 2000 or so. I actually find its sequels, DARK VICTORY and CATWOMAN: WHEN IN ROME, even more enjoyable, and they reside right next THE LONG HALLOWEEN on my bookcase, along with SUPERMAN FOR ALL SEASONS.

But Loeb and Sale have done similarly good work at Marvel, and that's what I'm going to cover for the next few Fridays. We'll start with 1995's WOLVERINE & GAMBIT: VICTIMS, followed by HULK: GRAY, DAREDEVIL: YELLOW, and SPIDER-MAN: BLUE from 2001 - 2004. Please note that I'm covering those last three not in release order, but in order my preference, finishing with my favorite of the trio.