The book was better. Anyone who has ever seen a movie that was based on a book has certainly heard, “the book was better” by some friend or critic that wanted to sound like they discovered it first. Superheroes are unique to this because they have so many stories that catch-all phrase is more difficult to attribute to one book. With comic books it’s more of a story arc and there are some amazing stories for superheroes out there. That’s the benefit of reading or collecting graphic novels, in that the collection process of being able to read the entire story arc has been done. The Amazing Spider-Man, Web-Slinger, Hero, Icon is by Rich Johnson and is a coffee table style book whose beauty and collected works demand to be seen by webhead fans.
Since 1963 Spider-Man has been one of the world’s most popular superheroes. Since the 1970s he’s been in animated form or on television to some degree and between the movies, marketing, and cultural awareness he’s been every kid’s favorite superhero for some moment. As a teacher and fan, I love comic books as a medium for kids to learn to love to read. However, as a way to tell a complete story, I understand why comic book lines may reboot from time to time or set issues back to zero.
The stories that they tell over a number of different issues are amazing, no pun intended. However, if you miss an issue then there might be a lack of continuity in the story, thus the benefit of graphic novels. That fact did require being repeated.
The Amazing Spider-Man, Web-Slinger, Hero, Icon is a beautiful, bigger-than-comic-book-sized, reference book on a couple dozen of the truly excellent storylines in Spider-Man history. That is a tall order. It lists all of the story arcs that we grew up on and have recommended to our kids. Maximum Carnage is fabulous and The Clone Sage has aged much better than I remember. Torment from 1990 looks beautiful and was the start of the Todd McFarlane run. These are issues that I remember seeing in stores but didn’t read when they were initially released.
However, even if you hadn’t seen them in comic book stores, the story will pull you in. Coming Home from 1999 does that, some of the art from the panels is absolutely stunning and the story was one that still has echoes in today’s movies and comic books.
There are 28 stories that are presented in the book. Some of them are from earlier years, while a couple more are from more recent years. Each story is accompanied by real art from the comic book. Some of the art is in panel form and others are full pages in their spider glory. They’re presented in a well-shaken-up formula without regard to their initial release date or the characters involved in them.
Each overview shows how important it is in the canon of Spider-Man’s life and story. The Birth of Venom happened in 1984 and tells readers how the black and white costume was great for Spidey at first, but become problematic as the suit began to call the shots without Parker’s permission. It only gets worse for him when the suit starts to bond with him. Thankfully, Reed Richards has had some dealings with alien technology and has a solution. That’s only the tip of the Venom iceberg, you’ll get a more thorough telling when you dig into the book.
That is what The Amazing Spider-Man, Web-Slinger, Hero, Icon does, it reminds you of all of the amazing stories that Spider-Man has had, and tells you what graphic novel to look for in order to read it. The odds of you reading all of those collected works are low. However, you’ll get a great overview of them just by reading this book. It is a near impossibility that you won’t find any new stories that you’ll want to read. The stories are listed in the front of the book and the individual comic books that they’re created from are listed in the back.
The book’s glossy pages will remind older Spider-Man fans why they’ve read the series for so long. Those same pages will encourage new fans to discover a story that they might’ve heard of, but didn’t know all of the details. This is a book for fans of pop culture, as well as, those diehard web heads who can’t get enough of the MCU multi-verse and where it all started.
The Amazing Spider-Man, Web-Slinger, Hero, Icon is by Rich Johnson and available on Universe Publishing a division of Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.
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