Reddit reviews Amazing Spider-Man by JMS Ultimate Collection, Book 1
We found 16 Reddit comments about Amazing Spider-Man by JMS Ultimate Collection, Book 1. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
   Modern Essentials
      Ultimate Spider-Man | #1-160 | 2000-2008 | Bendis
      Spider-Man: Blue | #1-6 | 2002 | Loeb
      Amazing Spider-Man | #30-57, 500-545 | 2001-2007 | Straczynski
      Amazing Spider-Man (Brand New Day) | #546-647 | 2008-2010 | Slott, et al.
      Amazing Spider-Man (Big Time) | #648-700.5 | 2010-2013 | Slott, et al.
      Superior Spider-Man | #1-33 | 2013-2014 | Slott, et al.
So this then?
I guess I'll stop rereading ultimate and read this then.
Are there particular big stories you'd like to read? Don't be afraid to just jump in and discover things as they unfold.
One good choice for Spider-Man and the Avengers that lead up to a big event is the years just before the Civil War event. Spider-Man had one of the most acclaimed runs ever leading up to that, written by J Michael Straczynski. It's collected in 5 "Ultimate Collection" trade paperbacks starting here.
Around the same time, Captain America was being written by Ed Brubaker and was having one of that characters most acclaimed runs as well. That run involved the Winter Soldier story-line, and it's a great read. That would eventually lead into Civil War as well. It's collected in an "Ultimate Collection" series as well, starting here.
So the years leading up to Civil War had some really great stuff, and come together in a big event, it might be just what you're looking for.
edit: another option is to look at the Recommended Reading sidebar over at /r/comicbooks and just browse what interest you
You could start at one of the following places for Modern Spidey:
If you want a "from the beginning" run, you could go with the Epic Collections (link) or, for a more modern take, check out Ultimate Spider-man (link).
I'll give a crack at this:
Amazing Spider-Man is the primary comic that Spidey has appeared in and it has over 700 issues (damn close to 800 depending on how modern Marvel wants to count that) but it isn't the only one. His other titles and team-up books and team books put him in the thousands. So let's break this up.
Amazing Spider-Man
The first 150 issues of Spider-Man are some of the best. You can collect this a few different ways but I would check out:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Amazing-Spider-Man-Masterworks-Vol-1/0785112561
Why should you start here? You get to see the magic happen as Peter becomes the hero and you get introduced to the vast majority of supporting characters that will continue to show up. There is a tonal shift after Lee steps down from writing duties that I personally enjoyed because during this era the characters grow in a way that haven't been able to in other eras. I think the conclusion of this era is with the death of Gwen Stacy and how that effects Peter's life.
Amazing Spider-Man 200 to 400 are to be read when you are really ready to dive into the story. This is mid-80s (Secret Wars 1/2) to mid-90s (Clone Saga). I say this because it's around this time that the story is broken up where Story X Chapter 1 is in Amazing Spider-Man 312 and chapter 2 is in Web of Spider-Man 34 and Chapter 3 is in another comic. Aka it's confusing as hell. There are great stories here basically everything with Venom and Carnage but finding it is difficult. I would suggest a good reading list and Marvel Unlimited. For the Clone Saga check out: http://lifeofreillyarchives.blogspot.it/?m=1
If you are looking for a Spidey you are familiar with from the show I would read JMS's run. Personally it's not my favorite but the characterization will be very familiar to you here.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazing-Spider-Man-Ultimate-Collection-Graphic/dp/0785138935
A lot changes with Spidey at this story where he is basically soft rebooted. This pissed off a lot of people but oh well it's been over a decade. You can read this basically straight through but I will provide a few other jumping on points below.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spider-Man-One-More-Graphic-Novel/dp/0785126341
Slott's run has been going on for a while to the point that this is modern Spider-Man. The character growth is something I champion but I can see people's complaints about it. If you want to see Spider-Man as he is now start here.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Spider-Man-Big-Time-Ultimate-Collection-Dan-Slott/0785162178
Some modern highlights to not miss:
Avenging Spider-Man/Avenging Superior Spider-Man (that might not be right name exactly) are fantastic. It's a team up book that explores his relationship with other Avengers and it is wonderful.
Superior-Foes of Spider-Man is a classic and I don't want to say much more.
Agent Venom sprawls out of Slott's run and is also an amazing story. I don't want to give spoilers on this one too but keep it in mind.
Finally this takes us to the team books. Spider-Man joins the Avengers in New Avengers #1 and is on the team from here. Brian Michael Bendis who I'm going to go on about in a second wrote one to four concurrent Avengers titles between 2004 and 2011 that is a wild ride. I enjoyed them and I know they had some flaws but I think they are a must read.
Side note Spidey was made a probationary Avenger in Avengers Vol 3 which is arguably the best Avengers run (I would rate it number 2).
Finally the Ultimate universe ... Ultimate Spider-Man and the other Ultimate titles were some of the best comics Marvel has put out in a long time. BMB was able to capture the feel of the early era but maybe it completely his own. It is a work of art ... Until Ultimatum. This event destroyed the Ultimate universe. I hated it. The ultimate comics were still good to read after that but they lost something essential that they had when they first started.
Now I wrote all of this by memory so I'm sorry if something is off but this should be a good primer. Please consult comicbookherald.com for more (and better) commentary about comics.
But most importantly welcome and have fun on your journey.
Edit: forgot a link.
JMS is a writer (J. Michael Straczynski). His run started with issue #30 of volume 2 and has been collected in Ultimate Collection volumes.
I enjoyed the run on Amazing Spiderman by Romita JR and Straczynski
I only recently just got into comics so I can understand that it's an overwhelming experience.
> How important is it to read comics in order?
You should read story arcs and issues in order but don't be overly concerned with starting at the very very beginning for every character. One, because a lot of popular characters (including Spider-Man) go back decades and decades, and, two, not everything from the beginning is good reading or good for a newbie. Go back to the very start if you're curious but I don't think that's a good jumping on point. What's considered good comic writing now is very different from what was considered standard back in the 30s or 60s.
>Are there any that would be especially good for "newbie" readers?
This is kind of tough to say.
Talking about monthly comics: DC recently rebooted their whole line of comics a few years ago with The New 52, one of the reasons being to allow for new fans to jump on easier. Marvel hasn't rebooted but they did launch Marvel NOW whose goal was to make it easier for fans to jump on, so anything that says Marvel NOW might be a good place to start.
Here's what I did though. I've been reading comics for about two years and only just started reading monthly issues this May. Up until then I was reading trade paperbacks (TPBs), which are just collections of individual issues.
Basically all I did was pick a character I like, google "best [character] trade paperbacks", and pick up a few that looked interesting. While I was reading TPBs I would be on subreddits like /r/comicbooks, /r/Marvel, or /r/DCcomics, to see what people liked and when new series were starting to find good jumping on points. I found the first good jumping-on point with The Amazing Spider-Man #1 which launched in May.
So that's what I'd recommend.
As for individual books, Spider-Man is only on its fourth issue right now so it's pretty easy to get caught up and jump on board.
My personal favorite Spider-Man TPBs are Superior Spider-Man (this actually stars Doc Ock in Spidey's body; some people don't like it, I think it's great, just be warned), Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt, Amazing Spider-Man Ultimate Collection (a huge collection of J. Michael Straczynski's popular run of the book in the early 2000s; I don't love the art but it's still a good read) and Spider-Man: Dying Wish (which sets up Superior Spider-Man).
I also read Spider-Man: Birth of Venom and The Death of the Stacys to catch up on some important Spidey history.
Do some research before diving into a book or character and pay attention to stories and art that you like so you can follow creators.
Hope that helps. I'd be glad to answer questions if you have any.
Beginning of JMS Spider-Man:
https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Spider-Man-Ultimate-Collection-Book/dp/0785138935/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525318183&sr=1-3&keywords=spiderman+jms&dpID=61HmW5LivLL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch
Beginning of Simonson's Thor:
https://www.amazon.com/Thor-Walter-Simonson-1/dp/0785184600/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525318222&sr=1-1&keywords=thor+by+walter+simonson+volume+1
Beginning of Aaron's Thor:
https://www.amazon.com/Thor-God-Thunder-Butcher-Marvel/dp/0785166971/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525318248&sr=1-2&keywords=thor+aaron&dpID=512Y1c9S2TL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch
(I don't know how to shorten links).
I recommend you go back a fair bit to J. Michael Straczynski's work on the book. It's, for the most part, an extremely good run on the character that features both classic villains and supporting characters as well as introducing a bunch of new, more minor ones. It also introduces a lot of important mythology for the character that's often overlooked. It's a pretty long run, so I recommend you read it through two really big volumes here (http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Spider-Man-Ultimate-Collection-Book/dp/0785138935) and here (http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Spider-Man-JMS-Ultimate-Collection/dp/0785138943). There's three other volumes, but I suggest that you not bother with them, as they were done during a period where Marvel's editor mucked with the Spider-Man book a lot and effectively ruined the story; they contain some of the worst Spidey stories in recent times and the central plot of the run was effectively wrapped up by than anyways.
After that I suggest you skip ahead to Dan Slott's work; start with Brand New Day and end with Ends of the Earth, reading all the stories between there. It's overall not as good as JMS's work, but it's an excellent run on the story that captures everything great about Spider-Man while also introducing a new status quo. As for Superior Spider-Man, I don't really recommend it; it's not horrible, just not nearly as good as what came beforehand.
As for Iron Man, I suggest going back to Matt Fraction's Invincible Iron Man run. It's a great run on the character and pretty much all of Iron Man's cast appears, so it's a good primer on the series and it's mythology.
cracks knuckles
For Aquaman skip almost everything and start with the four Geoff Johns volumes from the new 52. These are called vols 1-4 and have the subtitles of The Trench, The Others, Throne of Atlantis, and Death of a King. They are excellent. I can also recommend the two Jeff Park volumes that come after (5 and 6). I can't speak for anything after that.
Green Arrow, the easiest spot to start is with Green Arrow Year One and then read Rebirth forward. There are a few other good runs(Kevin Smith, Metzler, Winnick, Lemire) but Year One and rebirth will be the easiest place to jump in.
The last three are the most complicated:
Superman has different places to start depending on what you are looking for.
If you want to read about the various Origin's superman has had then you can read: Superman for all seasons, Superman:Birthright, Superman: Secret Origin, Superman: American Alien (A greg miller rec).
If you want to read Superman as an established hero, there are two good places to jump on board: Geoff Johns run that starts with Last Son of Krypton is really good. Otherwise, start with Superman:rebirth which is a really great run so far.
And for some just overall good Superman stories: Kingdom Come, Superman:Secret Identity, All-Star Superman.
Batman...Oi.
Do you want to read older books or newer books?
For older books you have the always timeless Batman Year One, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Batman:The Long Halloween and it's sequel Dark Victory.
If you want to read more recent books, then it just depends how far back you want to start reading.
You can go all the way back, you can go back to the 90's and read Knightfall, you can go back to the early 00's and read Cataclysm/No Man's Land, or you can jump in 2006's Batman and Son when they introduced Damien Wayne. To do that, you'll just read the Batman books by Grant Morrison.
If you want to get got up to modern Batman the fastest, just start with the New 52 run as other's have mentioned that starts with Batman vol 1: The Court of Owls.
Spider-Man, you have to decide what kind of stories you want. Do you want Peter Parker in High School? Then read Ultimate Spider-man. It's a seperate universe from the normal marvel universe, but it is really good. It also leads to Miles Morales who is, in my humble opinion, the best Spider-Man ever.
Do you want to read crazy Peter Parker in his late 20's becoming a High School teacher? Read the run that starts here:
https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Spider-Man-Ultimate-Collection-Book/dp/0785138935/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502988383&sr=8-1&keywords=spider-man+by+jms
Do you want to start with Peter as an adult, but Single? Jump in with Spider-Man: Big Time.
I personally, think Big time is the best place in the normal continuity to start. Dan slott wrote some good stories and it feels the most like the pop culture Spider-Man people know.
Lastly two things. If you want to read about Miles Morales, you can just start with the Miles Morales Ultimate Collection:
https://www.amazon.com/Miles-Morales-Ultimate-Spider-Man-Collection/dp/0785197788/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502988492&sr=1-3&keywords=miles+morales
But if you really want a cool story, there is a Spider from another universe named Spider-Gwen who takes the spider-man story you know and twists it on it's head:
https://www.amazon.com/Spider-Gwen-Vol-0-Most-Wanted/dp/0785197737/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502988539&sr=8-1&keywords=Spider-Gwen+0
Spider-Gwen and Miles are my personal favorites.
And let us know if you want to read cool comics that aren't about Superheroes. Because that is where the really great writing is.
For most comics if you want print graphic novels, go with Amazon. If you want print issues, find a local store. If you want digital, go to Comixology.com which does not have the problem of if the given book or issue is in print.
The important thing to remember is that a lot of us comic readers that started before the movies made them mainstream, didn't have internet resources, so we just jumped into random stories that sounded interesting and filled in our knowledge gaps as we went forward. Even now I don't know everything and never will. And I've been reading comics for over ten years.
I started reading Ultimate Spider-Man back in the day which served as a good gateway to eventually reading the main Marvel universe books. As for those, I started with the Brand New Day stuff back in 08. It was a good primer for Spidey stuff. Lots of great writers and artists collaborated on ASM back then and the quality was high through Dan Slott's take over as head writer back in 2010. They just started collecting it in omnibuses so I'd recommend checking out the first one of those and if you dig it, going from there. I also have to highly recommend Amazing Spider-Man by J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita Jr. Their entire run together on that book is amazing, but I'd avoid reading the rest of JMS' run as it had some pretty bad arcs save some of the Avengers stuff and Back in Black. The early years are amazing though. One of the best written and most fun comics of all time.
https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Spider-Man-Ultimate-Collection-Book/dp/0785138935/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493385448&sr=1-5&keywords=j+michael+straczynski
https://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Brand-Complete-Collection-Amazing/dp/0785195610/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0/137-6450501-0632527?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=Z8N311DV2CDFTEEAK6X3
https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Spider-Man-Ultimate-Collection-Book/dp/0785138935
http://www.instocktrades.com/TP/Marvel/AMAZING-SPIDER-MAN-OMNIBUS-HC-VOL-01-NEW-PTG/NOV150933
http://www.instocktrades.com/TP/Marvel/AMAZING-SPIDER-MAN-OMNIBUS-HC-VOL-02-NEW-PTG/MAR160917
http://www.instocktrades.com/TP/Marvel/AMAZING-SPIDER-MAN-OMNIBUS-HC-VOL-03-MCKONE-CVR/NOV160951
http://www.instocktrades.com/TP/Marvel/SPIDER-MAN-NEXT-CHAPTER-TP-VOL-01/JUN110754
I started from J. Michael Straczynski's run on The Amazing Spider-Man and straight through Superior to now. Here's the reading order of J. Michael Straczynski to Big Time:
http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Spider-Man-Ultimate-Collection-Book/dp/0785138935/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1412858993&sr=8-4&keywords=amazing+spider-man+by+jms
http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Spider-Man-JMS-Ultimate-Collection/dp/0785138943/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y
http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Spider-Man-JMS-Ultimate-Collection/dp/0785138951/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y
http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Spider-Man-JMS-Ultimate-Collection/dp/078513896X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_z
http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Spider-Man-Ultimate-Collection-Book/dp/0785138978/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Brand-New-Day-Vol/dp/078512845X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412859490&sr=1-1&keywords=spider-man+brand+new+day
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Brand-New-Day-Vol/dp/0785128468/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Brand-New-Day-Vol/dp/0785132422/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Kravens-First-Marc-Guggenheim/dp/0785132430/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1PECDWKJMK0CSC91BRTN
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-New-Ways-Dan-Slott/dp/0785132449/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0F83QKBSVC3K2HGBCY9R
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Crime-Punisher-Zeb-Wells/dp/0785134174/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1QESJRKA46KTC3B8M4QD
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Death-Dating-Mark-Waid/dp/0785134182/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Election-Day-Marc-Guggenheim/dp/0785134190/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0M680NBFE1VSSRGJ6PTP
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-24-Fred-Van-Lente/dp/0785134204/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=13Q8Z1Z8J02K050KSX2T
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-American-Son-Joe-Kelly/dp/0785140832/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0263Y3F47GNY5SVPPEC9
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Died-Your-Arms-Tonight/dp/0785144854/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=16ZEYFXWXQXBYQS55A4V
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Red-Headed-Fred-Van-Lente/dp/0785138692/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0ZV0RZFH4QB32T1T8TS2
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Return-Black-Joe-Kelly/dp/0785138684/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1SKDCR7FV2FENPC43AWA
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Gauntlet-Vol-Electro-Sandman/dp/0785138714/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1FYM85KEFNYVS019SWBZ
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Gauntlet-Vol-Rhino-Mysterio/dp/0785138722/ref=pd_sim_b_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=08MTTJFRZKR1V30AGCNG
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Gauntlet-Vol-Vulture-Morbius/dp/0785146121/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=067V3YMN8DNQK9854QGD
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-The-Gauntlet-Vol-Juggernaut/dp/0785146148/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-The-Gauntlet-Vol-Lizard/dp/0785146164/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1WV4APRVGM83YTP6GPTD
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Grim-Hunt-Joe-Kelly/dp/0785146180/ref=pd_sim_b_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=0YAYC1092ZF1T6RBBYKD
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Moment-Time-Joe-Quesada/dp/0785146202/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0477052AA9CP2SF700ME
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Origin-Species-Mark-Waid/dp/0785146229/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0G9WSN56V9RN3K2M5K17
Since you enjoyed JMS I think the beginning of his time on The Amazing Spider-Man is a good place for you to start from: It's very easy to get your hands on too. Enjoy!
Would I be confused If I just read the collections authored by Straczynski and then picked up Big Time? There are several like this that look like a good way to pick up his stuff. Any thoughts?