First is a trade paperback collecting SPIDER-MAN BY TODD DEZAGO AND MIKE WIERINGO. Some sources have labeled this as "volume 1" while others have not. It collects SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN #7 - 24, which is the bulk of the two creators' work on the web-slinger. A second installment would be very significantly shorter, as their run concluded with SENSANTIONAL #31. It'll be interesting to see how Marvel collects those remaining issues.
(Though it should be noted that SENSATIONAL #25 - 28 were collected in the SPIDER-MAN: SPIDER-HUNT and SPIDER-MAN: IDENTITY CRISIS trade paperbacks from a few years back, along with issues of the other ongoing Spider-titles of the time.)
(And it should be doubly noted that the Wieringo-free SENSATIONAL 32 and 33 can be found in the SPIDER-MAN: THE GATHERING OF FIVE trade, while the earlier Dan Jurgens-created SENSATIONAL #1 - 6 are avaialable in the various trades and Omnibuses containing the "Clone Saga" -- meaning that the SENSATIONAL entire series is currently collected aside from issues 29 - 31!)
I really like the era of Spider-Man comics represented in the Dezago/Wieringo collection. It gave us a sort of "back to basics" approach for the character across all his various series, and while sloppy editing mangled a lot of the inter-title continuity, I nonetheless have a huge soft spot for this post-Clone Saga, pre-relaunch period of 1996 - 1998, to the point that I would happily pick up trades collecting the full runs of the other core Spider-books of the time as well should Marvel eventually offer them.
(In particular, I'd love a book or two covering PETER PARKER, SPIDER-MAN from that time. Though many have issues with Howard Mackie's writing in those stories, I really liked them back when I read them as they came out while I was in high school/college -- but more importantly, I feel very strongly that those couple years on that title represented -- hands down -- the best artwork of John Romita, Jr.'s long career.)
Another Spider-era for which I have a ton of love is covered by this month's second book, the AMAZING SPIDER-MAN OMNIBUS volume 3. The book collects issues 68 - 104 of AMAZING, featuring the works of Stan Lee, John Romita, John Buscema, Jim Mooney, and Gil Kane.
I was born more than a decade after a lot of this material, but nonetheless, this stuff holds a massive nostalgic place in my heart, and is one of my all-time favorite stretches for Spider-Man. It opens up with the epic ten-part "stone tablet" storyline, which I owned in full via Marvel's digest reprints in the eighties. There's also AMAZING #80, an appearance by the Chameloen which was reprinted in a book I had called SPIDER-MAN: THE SECRET STORY OF MARVEL'S WORLD-FAMOUS WALL-CRAWLER, a sort of grade school-age primer on Spidey. The saga of Morbius and the six-armed Spider-Man, circa issue 100, was reprinted in MARVEL TALES when I was in my early teens. Along with the previous Omnibus, this stuff represents, for me, the definitive Spider-Man, and I've been waiting a long time for this book!
Quite honestly, it's going to be very hard for July to top June's Unboxing, but I look forward to seeing it try...
ReplyDelete// I really like the era of Spider-Man comics represented in the Dezago/Wieringo collection. //
This might be my favorite latter-day Spider-Man run — I know it was a couple of decades ago now, but (a) I’m old and (b) I’ve hardly read any since about 2001. (FWIW, I guess I’m using the mid ’80s as my demarcation point, even though that’s technically less than halfway through the character’s history.) After I moved in late 1996 away from a friend who freelanced for Marvel and passed along comps, I’m not sure how regularly I followed Amazing and I don’t think I cared for Spectacular, but I enjoyed the DeZago/Wieringo Sensational and I’m with you on JRJr.’s art on Peter Parker here looking his best by far.
I’d never seen that Spidey “primer” until it and a Hulk version showed up in a collection my LCS bought a few years ago. Encountering stuff that dates to my childhood but I’d only ever seen in advertisements or maybe glimpsed at a friend’s house carries an almost eerie thrill; coming across things of roughly the same vintage that I hadn’t even been aware of, like those books, is just weird. I got both since the price was right and my sister’s kids were a good age for them.
The late-’80s digests you mention barely registered with me, but I’m glad you remember them so fondly — and not surprised, looking them up now. Had I known they reprinted such choice material in a long, consistent chunk like that I’d probably have jumped at them.