Amazing Spider-man Epic Collection: Cosmic Adventures: 20

Any spidey comics from the late 70sVery early 90s and all 80s Marvel are great reads. Spiderman has been a consistantly great book since the start, minus the clone saga but even that had its moments.Book is great. New to spiderman, casual reader or comic fan.. buy it.Great how to draw the Marvel way panels and just an amazing book.

This is the first Spidey release in Marvel's new Epic Collections line: an attempt to collect the entire run's of their biggest characters in thick, affordable paperbacks. As with the other titles in the series, do not be alarmed that this initial book is Volume 20; they are not being released in chronological order, but will all be released eventually. The chunky trade contains 14 issues and three annuals from the period 1989-1990.The first half of the book concerns Spider-Man's acquisition of mysterious yet awesomely potent new powers, which is handy as the supervillains of the Marvel U have pooled their resources in order to conquer each other's deadliest enemies. So even as Peter struggles to learn about his new abilities, he faces showdowns with Graviton, the Trapster, Titania, Magneto, the Brothers Grimm, Goliath, the Hulk (!) and Dragon Man. It's a nonstop rollercoaster of action, mixed with the angst and soul-searching that the character excels at.Following that epic storyline, we have a couple of shorter stories in which Spidey aids the Punisher in tracking down mysterious drug shipments, and has to deal with the return of Venom even as Mary-Jane's crazed stalker sics a couple of super-hitmen on him. Rounding out the book are three Spidey annuals with an array of short stories as well as a longer tale running across all three, in which the webslinger is shrunk down to microscopic size.The bulk of the material is written by David Michelinie and Gerry Conway, both masters of webhead adventure, and illustrated by a dream lineup of artists that include, among others, Sal Buscema, Erik Larsen, Alex Saviuk (my personal favourite), Todd McFarlane and Steve Ditko. As a last surge on unalloyed fun before the title succumbed to the... excesses of the mid-nineties, it's great.I've really been enjoying the quality of these collections; it's a fantastic way to enjoy these past stories once again without breaking the bank (although they might eventually break your bookshelf!). Highly recommended.

This brought back memories. Every story is here. Though the paper is closer to magazine quality it would have been really great to be on news print like the essentials line.

could not be more happy with book and it came fast

This volume collects 14 stories from all three of his titles originally released in 1989-1990 and three annuals from 1990.After being royally trounced by Graviton and losing to The Trapster in the opening tales Spider-Man suddenly develops some impressive new powers after a lab experiment goes wrong. The timing is perfect as some of Marvel's best known villains including Dr Doom, Magneto, Kingpin, Wizard and the Red Skull have decided to form an odd alliance and attack each other's arch enemies assuming the element of surprise will favour them. They choose Spider-Man and in pretty quick succession he has a rematch with The Trapster followed by attacks from Titania, Magneto, the Brothers Grimm, Goliath, the Hulk, Rhino, Hydro-Man, Shocker, Dragon Man and a super Sentinel.After losing his cosmic powers he joins the Punisher in breaking a drug ring with a very sinister background, Venom escapes from prison and there is the odd pairing of Styx and Stone.The back third of the volume contains the 1990 annuals of his three titles which see him team up with Ant-Man but the exposure to his reduction gas sees him continue to shrink until he ends up in a microscopic world with Psycho-Man, the filler tales that are also included here were solo stories featuring Ant-Man, Aunt May, Mary Jane, Rocket Racer and a few others and they didn't do much for me and I just skimmed through them.As always there's plenty going on in the background with the supporting characters including Mary Jane being stalked by an ex, Felicia Hardy playing mind-games with both Flash Thompson and Spider-Man, and JJJ having lost control of the Daily Bugle trying to start up again.It's nowhere near the best collection but the opening stories rescue what could have been a fairly average volume and the extras are also less impressive including some very small scale reprints of original artwork. I'll be reading the Cosmic tales again but will leave most of the others alone.

This collection is a transitional one. McFarlane had just about finished his run, and Erik Larsen begins his, with some art by Colleen Doran and three annuals by various hands including Gil Kane and Steve Ditko. I've always felt that Erik was a better fit for Michelinie. The writing feels less corny, and the story telling is easier to read, plus I don't think there's a character Larsen draws badly. He's figuring out how to draw Venom in this collection and will do better work in the next collection but in many ways he cements the character's visual appeal.it's lovely to read stories with subplots. Nowadays it feels like writers give every plot the same weight and seeing things like MJ's stalker, or Nathan's deterioration running alongside the main story off Spider-Man gaining, and losing, cosmic powers, which is entertaining in itself. This collection features the Web of Spider-Man and Spectacular issues so you get the full Captain Universe saga. There is also a run of annuals were Spider-Man is shrunk. It does tie to the collection and showcases some incidental characters like Sandman, Rocket Racer and Prowler. Perhaps a bit of a hotch potch but it is a lot off fun and is part of an era of Spider-Man I really enjoy.

Lectura esencial para los amantes del trepamuros, de los cómics Marvel y del cómic en general. la EPIC COLLECTION recopila la serie AMAZING SPIDERMAN desde sus comienzos en los años 60. Imprescindible para coleccionistas. Los volúmenes son perfectos de tamaño, manejables y a buen precio.

Pour mon premier comics en anglais, j'ai opté pour la nouvelle gamme "marvel epic collection". 500 pages pour un peu plus de 20 euros, impression de qualité, donc excellent rapport qualité/prix. J'ai un niveau d'anglais correct, je comprends donc les grandes lignes mais le dictionnaire est nécessaire. Je ne mets pas 5 étoiles du fait de quelques histoires sans intérêt ainsi que le principe de parution (ce premier volume de spider man est en fait le numéro 20). Sinon une telle édition en France serait un rêve.

I couldn't be happier with this book. Not only does this carry the cosmic Spidey issues that crossed over through the three Spidey books of the time, Amazing, Spectacular, and Web of Spider-Man, but also the 1990 annuals of each book, which had our hero shrunken down to the size of an insect and smaller, fighting alongside Ant-Man against would be technology thieves and then through the Microverse. We have the full annuals so there's even stories featuring Mary Jane, Aunt May, and others in the Spidey universe.With the inclusion of the Punisher and Venom Amazing Spider-Man issues, it almost feels like three trades in one thick book of Spidey goodness. The art is fantastic also. From Sal Buscema's underrated Spectacular series, to Erik Larsen's Amazing series, and even Todd McFarlane's last Amazing Spider-Man issue where Spidey punches The Hulk so hard, he leaves him orbiting Earth!While this book has several writers and various other artists, I still find this to be a cohesive collection well worth the price of admission.

Unlike other reviewers of this book, I was sincerely underwhelmed by the quality of its' contents. The artwork was, with few exceptions, sub-par (especially Sal Buscema's parts) - and the writing wasn't really that much more impressive.The initial Acts of Vengeance storyline had a fine and entertaining premise, but was ruined by uninspired writing and a myriad of C-list enemies; and the big cosmic twist felt tacky and lacking.The annuals were the worst part though, as nearly the entire collection of those short stories were basically uninteresting filler stories and/or something straight out of the 1960's. And noone needs a story about a guy fighting redneck tech thiefs on a skateboard. Noone.The stories with Punisher and, especially, Venom were quite nice, but not enough to save the collection.

This book presents nearly 500 pages of Spidey Comics from 1989-90, Collecting Amazing Spider-man 326-333 and Annual #24, Spectacular Spider-man 158-160 and Annual #10, and Web of Spider-man 59-61 and Annual #6.The big event of this comic ties into the much larger Acts of Vengeance story arc. Several supervillains team together, realizing that they've been losing to the same people for 25-30 years. They come up with the idea of trading and going after each other's enemies, thinking that the heroes will not know how to react. (Apparently, it never occurs to them that they will also not really be able to respond to the heroes techniques.) Because Spidey at that point had three magazines a month, that met he'd be hit with three times the rivals.But after serving the first attack of Graviton, Spidey has an accident that ramps up his powers and makes all attacks on him go very badly for the villain with one villain even getting accidentally killed in the process.I have to admit that there was something wonderfully pleasing about Spidey knocking around the likes of Magneto and the Hulk like they were rag dolls. Seriously, the first nine issues in this book, are Spidey kicking one threat after another as he has power on par with the Silver Surfer.We don't learn until the last issue the real reason for the power and longtime readers had to be scared that this was another alien costume, and in a way it was, but if this was like the symbiote, it was a good force that bestowed the uni-power when it was needed. The whole thing has a pretty satisfying ending.Probably my chief complaint with this book is that the true core of the Cosmic Power ends on page 210, really, AS #329-333 have nothing to do with the Cosmic Powers story and the Annuals are very vaguely related.AS #329 and 330 is a somewhat violent (but not overly so by today's standards) crossover with the Punisher battling drug cartels and a US government plot to smuggle drugs. The story has some serious moments but ends with one of the goofiest concepts in comics ("Cocaine Standard" 'nuff said). Issues #331-333 is solid story of Eddie Brock/Venom escaping prison and it's interesting in its own right.There's a three part story spread across all three annuals in which Spider-man is shrinking. At first in the Amazing Spider-man Annual, it looks like it's because of inhaling Ant Man's shrinking gas but it's not that at all as we find out in the other two annuals. The story is decent enough, though Marvel's decision to make people buy all three annuals back in 1990 was somewhat chintzy, though defensible since the story runs 70 pages. For 70 pages, it was good but not great.However, Marvel actually reprinted everything in the annuals which is a bit of a mixed bag for readers. On one hand, you get the full Annuals with all the extras. On the other, it breaks up the "Spidey's Totally Tiny Adventure Story" and you get a very mixed bag of extras. My thoughts:"The Mercy Bomb"-A story told in part by Spider-man co-creator Steve Ditko. Seemed to have an anti-war message but didn't tie into anything and was just blah. Grade: D"A Time to Choose/The Choice":Whatever can be said for spreading the 70 page Spider-man story across three annuals. There was really no reason to break this story of a reformed Sandman facing a tough choice when he's offered a chance to go back to the old life of crime by the Trapster and the Wizard. It's an okay story but seems a little forced. Grade: C+"Pete and MJ's New Pad"-After the loss of their condo to an unethical real estate developer, Pete and MJ moved into a new apartment. This special feature took a look at the apartment revealing that it's an average apartment with nothing interesting in it. Grade: D"Amazing Fantasy"- A not so Amazing dream sequence filler. Grade: F"Pale Reflection"- Former Spider-man villain Hobie Brown goes on a job and learns that he can get beat up. Really? Grade: D-"What I Did on My Summer Vacation"-A ten page story featuring juvenile delinquent turned crimefighter Rocket Racer, who'd appear in Spider-man: TAS. An okay but not great story. Grade: B"Sales Day for a Shootout:" Aunt May helps the Punisher kill terrorists. Actually surprised at how positively the Punisher was portrayed in this. Grade: B+"Eleven Angry Men and One Angry Woman:" This take on Twelve Angry men as Mary Jane as the only hold out on a jury ready to acquit a defendant who claims Spider-man was a thief. There's some humor and a little bit of poignancy. Of course, the wife of Spider-man shouldn't be on this jury but it was a fun story. Grade: A-"Child Star"-One of the weirder stories in here involves a two year old getting the unipower that Spidey had because a couple summoned demons to help play the stock market. Grade: DThe book ends with material from the first Trade Paperback printing of the main 9 issue Cosmic story which means that you get to find out the background of the book after it's over.In addition, there's a lot of ongoing plots in this book that were dropped into the middle of because of comic continuity. Joe Robinson is in jail and we really don't know why. Aunt May's friend Nathan is dying but we don't know when she met him or how deep their friendship is. The Black Cat begins to get, well catty, about Peter having married Mary Jane and threatens to break Flash Thompson's (now Peter's best friend) heart out of spite. However, this is just the nature of jumping into an ongoing comic book story.That said, with all the things I've mentioned, I can't bring myself to rate this less than 4 stars. The core material is awesome and so are most of the actual Spidey stories outside of it, despite the uneven nature of the non-Spidey stories. What's particularly pleasing is seeing the Parker-Watson marriage for fans of that relationship that was abandoned with One More Day. It's not a perfect marriage, but it's clear that it's a positive in Peter's life and it's written way that's not glamorized but is appealing.If you can take the book's hiccups, this is a good book for teenagers and adults.