Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Vol. 1 Regular Edition Cover

Vol. 1: Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Variant Edition Cover

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SPIDER-MAN AT SONY PICTURES
The official site of the Spider-Man movie franchise!

SPIDER-MAN HYPE
A fan site devoted to the Spider-Man movies.

SPIDER-FAN
This is the ultimate site for fans of the Spider-Man comic book! More info than you can shake a web at!

STEVE DITKO: LOOKED UP
This is an awesome site dedicated to legendary comics artist and co-creator of Spider-Man, Mr. Steve Ditko!

SPIDER-MAN THE MOVIE ON DVD
Buy the widescreen DVD edition of the all-time box office smash starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst!

SPIDER-MAN 2 ON DVD
Buy the widescreen DVD edition of the sequel to Spider-Man blockbuster!

SPIDER-MAN: The '67 Collection
This 6-disc DVD set collects the whole run of the 60s Spider-Man cartoon!

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On Sale: MASTERWORKS LIST

These are perfect comics.

Undeniable, in the pocket, beyond reproach perfection! Who would have thought anything would have amounted from the dying gasp of one of the several sci-fi/monster anthologies Marvel was printing at the time; that the contents of this Amazing Fantasy #15 would have been indeed so amazing, so fantastic!

Over forty years ago, Stan Lee whipped up the crazy notion of a geeky, bookish brainiac that receives a blessing/curse when the bite of a radioactive spider gives him "the proportionate strength and agility of a spider!" Over forty-five years ago, Steve Ditko labored over his art table, pencilling his sublime character designs for Peter Parker and his wall-crawling, super alter-ego. And over forty-five years ago, this risky venture stood every chance of winding up as yet another failed concept, another notation in a long list of forgotten and discarded heroes in the forgotten halls of comics history.

Ahhh...but what has forty-five years told us about this Amazing Spider-Man? Well, he was good enough to last, that's for sure. Such luminaries as John Romita, Sr., Gil Kane, Todd McFarlane (and John Romita, Jr.!) have all had a hand in telling us the long story of one Peter Parker, all the way up to modern days where he not only holds down several titles, spinoffs and mini-series a month, but has inspired one of the largest grossing film series of all time. So this character had staying power and cache to boot. But what of the first years, when this assertion was definitely not as clear?

In the first volume of Spider-Man Masterworks, one can read the story that started it all, Amazing Fantasy #15, as well as the first ten issues of his premiere title, The Amazing Spider-Man. One of the greatest (if not the greatest) origin stories in super-hero comics is in AF #15, wherein the legendary axiom "With great power there must also come great responsibility" is delivered unto young Peter Parker in a tragically stark and unyielding way that is still unsettling and epic in scope to this day.

Decades afterwards, the life and death of his Uncle Ben provides a constant renewal of the motives and principles for Peter. The first ten issues of Amazing Spider-Man sees our hero trying desperately to learn how to use his powers against an onslaught of villains like Electro, Dr. Octopus, the Vulture, the Lizard, the Enforcers, the Sandman and (from the pages of the FF) the sinister Doctor Doom!

Ditko and Lee were on fire here, balancing their inventive rogues gallery with the melodrama of teenage life as all who were just like Peter Parker knew it. In these pages, Peter's balancing act of life is established: Flash Thompson and the gang from Midtown High, the Daily Bugle staff of J. Jonah Jameson and Betty Brant, and the needs of his geriatric Aunt May, are all cast at odds with the needs of Spider-Man to fulfill his bargain with the ghost of his dead Uncle Ben. The "great responsibility" to protect society from the dangers that lie in every dark corner isn't just a hobby, it has become a life's mission. The resultant psychodrama is what has made these stories such a valuable part of comics history, and they had very humble beginnings that started in these very pages.

Steve Ditko fleshed out the character of Spider-Man, a lithe and sinewy creature who swung from building to building far more gracefully than Tarzan swung through the jungle. He found a lot to work with in this hero: here we have a fellow who can leap from wall to wall, or cling upside down to the ceiling. Peter's science-whiz mind invents "web-shooters", gadgets that attach to each wrist and produce a flow of super-sticky and resilient webbing; the webbing can take the form of anything, limited only by the Spider-Man's imagination. And Stan and Steve develop the "Spider Sense", Spider-Man's unique ability to sense the danger that lurks under every manhole, down every alley, and up on every rooftop.

What really set this comic apart from the others, and what allowed it to blossom from such humble beginnings, is the sense of humanity Stan and Steve poured into Peter Parker. Above all other characters, even more than Johnny Storm of the FF, they wanted Peter Parker to be the role model for their young readers. They wanted to paint the picture of a young man who has the power of the world at his finger tips, but the moral fabric to be able to wield that power in ways that help others, despite all the reasons the world gives a kid to not do that honorable thing. In Peter Parker, Stan and Steve made the "thought bubble" almost Shakespearean in stature, for that is where the real story is being told: Peter Parker's troubled mind, which is constantly in doubt, working things through and trying to do the right thing....and sometimes coming up short.

Like I said, these are perfect comics - it's all here.

-- by Gormuu

Issues Reprinted
Amazing Fantasy #15, Amazing Spider-Man #1-10

Click on cover image to learn more about each issue.

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