Need help, where do i start?

[Joe-Dono]

Ok i had a day off today and i went down to my local comic shop, i was gonna get some spiderman comics but i got confused.

What is a good series to start on? i like the look of ultimate spider-man but that was at #77 (back issuses £20 for 10 comice in a hard back book)

Then there was the Amazing Spiderman and Marvel Knights and such, what would be a good one to start with?

I kinda felt a bit overwelmed by the whole selection, i dont have enough to buy all the titles and find out for myself so please help out.

One last question, whats the 616 universe mean? i have heard people make referance to it but it goes over my head.

[Expletive Deleted]

616 is the Marvel Universe. That's where AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN, and FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN take place. It's used to distinguish between the main Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Marvel Universe, where ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN takes place. The "regular" version is an adult, married, and a member of the Avengers. The "ultimate" version is a teenager, dating, and still in high school.

Personally, I tend to think that ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN in trade paperbacks or hardcovers is the way to go. It's a decent value, the stories read better in that format, and it's pretty new-reader accessible. If you'd prefer the singles, I think there are two issues left on the current storyline, but it's not hard to figure out what's going on. The pacing tends to be on the slow side, though.

In terms of the main MU titles, this is kind of a wierd time. Starting fairly soon, they'll be having a big, multimonth crossover event. So if you're interested in one, you need to get the lot. Once that's over, things should settle back to normal, though.

Really, it's just down to the type of Spider-Man and the specific creative team you prefer.

[creep]

Ok i had a day off today and i went down to my local comic shop, i was gonna get some spiderman comics but i got confused.

What is a good series to start on? i like the look of ultimate spider-man but that was at #77 (back issuses £20 for 10 comice in a hard back book)

Then there was the Amazing Spiderman and Marvel Knights and such, what would be a good one to start with?

I kinda felt a bit overwelmed by the whole selection, i dont have enough to buy all the titles and find out for myself so please help out.

I'd simply suggest picking something that looks appealing to you personally and just going from there. You'll probably want to start where a new storyline begins obviously, but for the most part the vast majority of Spider-Man comics have been written to be understood on their own, while its nice to read the stories in order, its not absolutely necessary, and its easy enough to fill in the blanks on anything you missed as you go along.

MK Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man don't refer to each other for the most part, so take those however you want. If its Ultimate Spider-Man your interested in, collections of the earlier issues are widely available and reasonabley priced in relation to the individual issues, so you may want to start there.

One last question, whats the 616 universe mean? i have heard people make referance to it but it goes over my head.

The term 616 refers to the mainline Marvel Universe, which is where most of its comics take place, and is distinguished from the likes of the Ultimate line of comics which takes place in a seperate continuity. As to where they got the term "616", i have no idea.

[Expletive Deleted]

As to where they got the term "616", i have no idea.It was a throwaway reference from Alan Moore's CAPTAIN BRITAIN that certain sectors of fandom picked up and ran with.

I much prefer "MU" or "Core" when talking about the main continuity, but I think "616" is probably here to stay.

[tricksterpup]

It was a throwaway reference from Alan Moore's CAPTAIN BRITAIN that certain sectors of fandom picked up and ran with.

I much prefer "MU" or "Core" when talking about the main continuity, but I think "616" is probably here to stay.
I am with you Expletive, I prefer refering to regular Marvel books as MU and the others as Ultimate.

[Joe-Dono]

Thanks guys, i think i will start with Ultimate Spider-man, i can get a Barns & Noble collectors Edition that has hard back Vol's 1-3 in it for £40.

[Mideon]

heh I remember when I bought my first Spider-Man comic. I got it right after I played the Spider-Man/X-Men game for SNES. I was in the grocery store and saw issue #198 of Spectacular Spider-Man and it featured the X-Men. That story led right into Spec #200 which was a masterpiece so I stuck with Spec all the way until the first issue of Back From the Edge. Of course DeMatteis left right after #200 but I was 8 so I didn't really notice a dip in the storytelling heh

This really isn't all that relevant now that I think about it.