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| | | Location: Home » Books » General » Essential Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man, Vol. 1 (Marvel Essentials) | |
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| Essential Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man, Vol. 1 (Marvel Essentials) | 
| Authors: Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, Jim Shooter, Bill Mantlo, Chris Claremont, Elliot S Maggin, Sal Buscema, Jim Mooney
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Category: Book
List Price: $16.99
Buy New: $4.24
You Save: $12.75 (75%)
New (37) from $4.24
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 299876
Media: Paperback
Edition: Direct Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 568
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.8 x 6.4 x 1.5
ISBN: 0785116826
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN: 9780785116820
ASIN: 0785116826
Publication Date: February 2, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: new book, never been opened-great value
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| Customer Reviews:
 A new look at Spidey! March 19, 2008
When I found this entry in the Marvel Essential series, I had to have it. This is about the era when I started reading Spider-Man, and this is the version that has stuck with me over the past 30 years. In retrospect, this is not the best that Marvel put out and was obviously a ploy at making more money, but there is some good material in here and really focuses on Peter more, especially as he attempts to balance college with the rest of his hectic life.
 It's great to see reprints of these issues. June 16, 2005
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
I enjoyed these Spider-Man tales when they were new, and I'm happy to see them available again. Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man (PPtSSM) was fresh and new, and it invigorated Spider Man's character, bringing a younger group of readers to Spider Man's other titles.
Someone may be interested in this book to follow the development of the storyline of Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man (PPtSSM), or interested simply because it's Spider-Man. Particularly hot at the time were the Carrion issues.
A correction on the editorial description: The first issue of PPtSSM was dated December 1976 and this is when the title began, not 1968.
They have confused this title with two issues printed in 1968 called "The Spectacular Spider Man (tSSM)." Those two issues are rare collectibles and are not reprinted in the "Essential Peter Parker," but the second issue of tSSM is classic Spider-Man and Green Goblin - as well as Norman Osborn and Peter Parker at Thanksgiving dinner.
Some spectacular, though disjointed, Spidey stories. February 21, 2005
18 out of 22 found this review helpful
From out of Marvel's celebrated vault of past titles comes the Essential Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man Volume 1. As a fan of the Essential line, I had been looking forward to some more vintage web-slinging action, although future installments of the original Amazing Spider-Man (if numbers 5 and 6 are any indication) will probably only come out the same weeks as future movies. So imagine my surprise when I learned that January 2005 would see the release of the earliest issues of 1976's popular follow-up series (the first 31 in fact).
In his first spectacular outings, ol' web-head meets up with plenty of old foes (the pointy-toed Tarantula, the cadaverous Vulture, Kraven, Morbius, Scorpion, and even the long-not-really-awaited return of the Enforcers) as well as new ones like the photogenic Lightmaster, the psychedelic Hypno-Hustler (who has the 70's written all over him), and the trigger-happy Hitman (whose second and probably last appearance I had already seen in Essential Punisher). Some memorable storylines include Spidey teaming up with a neophyte hero from Arkansas in a pig costume (it's better than it sounds), assisting two former X-Men through the final chapter in the ill-fated history of the Champions supergroup (and why can't they have an Essential), a throwdown with the Maggia with the mysterious Moon Knight at his side, and a guest appearance by Daredevil who assists Spidey after the Masked Marauder blinds him (and how could horn-head POSSIBLY understand what he's going through?). The Spectacular series does a good job at keeping itself seperate from the Amazing series with unique story elements such as Flash Thompson's new romance with his savior from Vietnam, Sha Shan (see Essential Spider-Man 5) and the arrival of the White Tiger, a castoff from the discontinued black-and-white Deadly Hands of Kung Fu series (why doesn't it have an ... well you know).
At least I think that the storylines are seperate. The one thing that got in my way of totally enjoying these tales is that they constantly make reference to other series that I just don't know anything about. The only other Essential line in this time period currently is Howard the Duck and the X-Men (see reviews on this site for their fifth Essential for complaints about a similar problem) and many story threads just feel disconnected. The biggest offender by far is the climactic battle with Carrion, which spun from and basically spoils the ending to events from Amazing Spider-Man #'s 147-151, which I would imagine would be in the seventh Essential (so when's that third movie coming out?).
Nonetheless, these issues show the works of the best of Marvel's bullpen (Archie Goodwin, Bill Mantlo, Chris Claremont) and are known for being definite high points in an era that many have told me was fairly lean in good comic tales. Spidey fans will definitely want to swing on by the comic shop and pick this one up.
[Final note: I was finishing this book on a lunch break last week when one of my co-workers saw me and enquired about my latest, as he says, "phonebook of comics". I told him about the Amazing and the Spectacular series of Spider-Man and he asked me this question, "Why would they put out two different comics about the same character?". After much introspection I responded with my hypothesis: "Because Spider-Man's ... cool?".]
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