Ressurection of What Spider-Man Comic Have You Read Lately? -- Possible Spoilers

[chicainery]

I just finished rereading the Spider-man: Spider-Island HC, and it was great reading it all together like that.

I wanted my wife to read Spider-Island because I enjoyed it so much when it was originally coming out, but when I started reading the hardcover I thought it seemed a bit too confusing for her to get into at first. Since she's not a big comic book reader I thought that she'd find it difficult to understand that some issues are taking place at the same time, even though it's obvious to me. However, after reading the entire book I've decided that the story is fun enough that if I answer a few simple questions for her, my wife will really enjoy it.

The Spider-Island Companion is up next!

[jdviant]

Just starting Essential 2. Haven't read most of these last Ditko issues before.

[chicainery]

The Spider-Island Companion is up next!

The Companion was pretty fun, but of course nothing happened that was essential to the main story. Still a good read, and I'm always a fan of Spider-woman and I like Anya as Spider-girl. I didn't see the Cloak and Dagger switch coming at all and it surprises me that it happened.

[Xenon]

Wolverine vs Spider-Man (that one by Larsen)
When did MJ date Flash?
When did Gwen date anyone but Pete?
At least I know who this Critical Mass Logan asks Spidey about in Web of Shadows. 4th grade bully turns kidnapper

Story is kinda messed up, but I liked it enough to grade it a 'B'
I know, I love it

MJ dated Flash for like two issues as a get back at Peter scheme pre-clone Saga. I think it was pre-clone saga. It might have been after, I but I think it was in the early 140's.

Gwen went out with Harry for moment, but even Mary Jane points out that her heart wasn't in it (Paraphrased: "she went with Harry cause Peter didn't ask her first"). It's not dating so much as going out on a date. Casual and stuff. Understandable why you missed it.

While I do agree with you that the way Venom was made an anti-hero was a bit forced and rushed, I have to disagree with you on the cannibal part. I mean, he looks like he's going to have you for dinner, so why not make threatening disembowlment part fo his schtick? It just removes him that much more from typical anti-heroes.

He didn't originally look that way though. And even when he first had teeth, he just was menacing. Only Larsen's....questionable....artwork made him look like Jaws crossed with Gene Simmons. I just don't think it works from either stand point. As a villain, it goes so overboadrd as to seem comical, and as an Anti-Hero, it robs him of any relatability. Meh. Just my take.


I have a big chunk to post, but probably not til later today or tommorrow. Next post will cover all the way from the end of Maximum Carnage to the beginning of the Clone Saga, and I have like an issue each of Spectacular, Web, and No Adjective to go.

[chicainery]

I just finished Ultimate Spider-man Volume 12 HC, which collects Ultimate Comics Spider-man #1-14.

I know it's been said many times, but USM reads better when you read a big chunk in a row like this. It was fun seeing Peter interact with MJ, Gwen, Kitty, Johnny, and Bobby...but kind of sad, knowing what comes soon after these issues. I've preordered Ultimate Comics Spider-man: Death of Spider-man Omnibus, so I'll have all of Ultimate Peter's time as Ultimate Spider-man in fabulous over-sized format soon. It's been great following your adventures Ultimate Spidey.

[Aziz Abbasi]

That Iron Man issue by Michillinie with Radioactive Man and Peter Parker after defeating Venom for the first time guest appearing in this title
Compared to the Untold Tales of Spider-Man issue with Radioactive Man that came out years later, the way Peter's radioactive blood reacts to Dr. Chen is inconsistent, which should I accept more? Being weak near RAM? Or just fighting him like there's no bad effect on him?

[Xenon]

Busy month is busy. Not a lot of time to read comics. But I have read some. well, a lot over all.

Since last post, I've read....

Amazing 381-393
Spectacular 204-216
Web 104-116
Spider-Man 38-50

Amazing Annual 1993-1994
Spectacular Annual 1993-1994
Web of Spider-Man Annual 1993-1994

That's 58 books. A lot until you consider I read almost 30 a week in April. =\

In Amazing....

Dividing it up by book like I usually do isn't quite sufficient, since there's a lot of crossover, but Amazing is generally the impetus, so this section will be bigger.

This section is probably what I would have to consider the decline of Micheline. Some would argue that happened after the beginning, but while that's probably technically true (after all, he started with Venom, and his BEST venom at that), I've been enjoying his stuff nonetheless the whole time. I think he has a good sense of Spdier-Man's character in general. However, the pre-cross book stuff here in amazing is meh at best, and the cross-book storylines are...well...not up to snuff.

Lifetheft is a storyline with a decent central premise torn down by the ongoing stuff in the book. It's also the story I've been waiting for since Amazing Spider-Man #2. As a relevant aside, you see, my first real significant exposure to Spider-Man was through the animated series (thought I was aware of the character prior to that somehow) in the 90s. For those unaware, when the vulture was introduced in that show, he was introduced with the lifetheft powers. He was a dude that flew and stole people's youth. And I have to admit, to my eight year old self, the youth stealing factor was his primary superpower. A guy that could fly was just not enough. In the 60s, perhaps, and I haven't hated the Vulture in his appearances. But I was waiting for this for a long time, and I have to say, even ignoring the parents crap, the animated show did this better too, by making it a part of his powers, as opposed to another random scientists invention. It also doesn't help that this is the Vulture story immediately following J.M. Dematteis' best Vulture story ever (Not HIS best vulture story ever, the best VULTURE story ever, period). I would have preferred they let him die and pass on his identity to someone else, or something. Instead we get lifetheft, an ok vulture story buried beneath a shitty retcon story.

And that's what the end of the parent's story really feels like. A bad retcon. It's not JUST the sudden-ness of it. It's not JUST the weirdness. It's not just the improbability. It's everything all mixed together. Like all of a sudeen, Richard and Mary Parker were persona non gratis and had to be removed immediately. So they made up the most ridiculous, most comic booky end for them imaginable this side of "he was the clone all along" (we'll get there). It's abrupt, it's improbable, and it's stupid. They were checked out by DOCTORS. When they first showed up, I wondered if Micheline had their end planned all along, after reading this, there's no way that's the case. I'll tell you what it made me feel like, and it's a little aside that sets the stage nicely for the clone saga coming up. In the 90s show, after initially disappearing (IIRC into a portal with the Green Goblin), Mary Jane shows up again with little memory of where she's been. After Peter and her get married...I think....or at least after a significant amount of time together has passed, it's revealed that she's a water clone all along, made by the Jackal out of Hydroman. Who was also a clone. I think. This time. THAT story is what instilled in me a hatred of clone stories and causes me to cringe to this day when I hear about it. It just....it just felt like the creators were ****ing with me (it's also the point where I basically stopped watching that show). THAT is what this story feel like. It feels like you were wasting my time. It's similar both to the idea of Ben being the original Spider-Man, and Jean Grey coming back after the Dark Phoenix Saga. Retcons aren't ALWAYS bad. Sometimes they're able to fit in nicely. Sometimes they fit ok even though you didn't need them at all (like that time it turned out the Green Goblin hired Kraven). But these kind...just FEEL tacked on in the weakest way possible, like when little kids tell competing stories and when one loses he like "and then the spaceship turned into a DRAGON THAT ATE THE PEOPLE WHO WON THE SHIP". Honestly, the more I think about this story, the more I don't like it, which led to.....

Pursuit. The first of the real cross-platform books, really, I didn't think this was all that bad. It wasn't good, exactly, but it made sense that Peter would be doggedly pursuing the man who hurt him so much. It also kinda feeds in nicely to where they were going with the whole "Spider" nonsense, especially by evoking Kraven. But Chameleon, in the end, it's strictly second tier, and this doesn't come across as him being any more than second tier. He's not really clever, he's not really dangerous, he's just sorta that speck that you gotta wash four times to get out. They do do some nice things with regards to getting into Chameleon's head, but that's all there is to say that's nice about it. Harry being behind the whole robot parents is clearly one of those moments were they're trying to make a stupid storyline not stupid, but instead just make it stupid in a different way.

Shrieking, on the other hand, I thought was decent. Most people don't remember the title, I think, but they do remember Spider-Man in this story "The Spider". I know, this is perhaps the single most pathetic moment in the series up until that point, but I thought that, in AMAZING, it was pulled off pretty well. DeMatteis does a good job of making Peter's decisions seem almost rational, or at least, rational to him. He KNOWS Mary Jane needs him, but he doesn't feel worthy. He doesn't feel like he is any help, he just feels like he's the problem. He pursues his cold outlook not because of pain (or so he tells himself), but because he thinks that's the best thing for everyone. He can't go home because there's too much to do. Too many crisis', too much work. I'll get into this more when we get to no Adjective, but with Matteis at the helm, I could feel for the guy and understand why he was doing what he was doing. Using Shriek (known to amplify negative emotions) was a clever move. And the ending is almost perfect, but then they had to make Mary Jane leave so as to draw him back down, and that's not something I really liked as much. It's still ok, just not what I wanted. I wanted them to make a clean break right there from the immediate previous era. Of course, since Ben was coming (and had been teased in all the books for some months now), they seem to have been going in a different direction.

Also worth noting, Cardiac has several back-ups in this part, as well as some other characters. These are kind of annoying to me, though they don't decrease the book's overall length. So, I can't really complain about them. But they're kinda boring still. Really don't care that much about Cardiac. =\

[Xenon]

In Spectacular....

Spectacular is the best book in this little mini-era, and it accomplishes this kinda surprisingly. This was a clearly tumultuous time for Spectacular, as it went through several writers in quick succession, with Mr. DeFalco even coming in to write the last bit. Perhaps because of that, it seems the least effective by the crap going on. We start with a pretty good Tombstone story that's good primarily because it's really about Flash and the Black Cat. It would take a couple issues to get there, but we're winding down that relationship, and Felicia is seemingly becoming her own character. They took this too far, I think, by giving her her own mini-series shortly there after, but as I've said before, they really don't know what to do with her. Tombstone acts all high and mighty here, but just gets the tar beaten out of him by Spider-Man in the end. Again, I've never been a fan of Tombstone. His new powers let him stay around, I guess, but he seems to small and petty for his powers. He very clearly does not belong on this level.

Not much to say about the next few issues until we get to Typhoid Mary. Not amazing, but not that bad either. Typhoid Mary was surprisingly decent as well, exploring the "Spider" angle in a way that both made Mary Jane more relevant and made Peter look like he was still trying to keep it together. Still not much to say about it, but interesting, none the less.

Finally, the run ends with a Tom DeFalco Scorpion story, and I'm reminded why I like him so much. These issues are Spectacular's connection to "the Spider", and DeFalco does a good job of making Peter realize the folly of his ways. He doesn't completely take him back to where he needs to be, of course, but Scorpion's reaction in the second part serves as a nice wake-up call to what Spider-Man is becoming, and it meets up nicely with what was happening in ASM. The key here is that Spider-Man is not conciously making all of these decisions, necessarily. He's letting his emotions get the better of him. He goes too far. And the tale does a good job of highlighting that.

In Web....

Web is the only book in this era that doesn't undergo a writer change. With Amazing going from Michelinie to DeMatteis (after 100+ issues) and both Spectacular and No Adjective going through three or four writers each. But Terry Kavanaugh wrote this entire run....except issue 109, for some reason. And it's mostly ok. We get some guest stars, we get a decent Lizard issue....oh, and we get FACADE.

I went into this in another topic (which I think has since been moved around), but FACADE is a dumb story.It's just badly done. There's not much else to say about it. You build your entire story around an identity mystery, only to never pay it off. And maybe it'd be one thing if you decided you were trying to bring him back later, but the FACADE character only existed because of happenstance. Some guy stole a hyper-advanced biosuit. And the suit got trashed. So he doesn't have that suit anymore and no access to a new one. He's just sort of there. What makes this worse is that Kavanaugh is the one who came up with the clone idea, so he KNEW he wasn't gonna come back to it. And the ending even SEEMS like they're not coming back to it. And what's frustrating is that if they had just revealed the identity, it could have been a neat little story. I'm not saying SPIDER-MAN had to know, but the READER should have gotten to find out. It truly brings the whole thing down. Outside of that, you could have had an interesting story where a guy wanted power, but wasted it because he kept having to cover up the fact that he GOT power. Instead, you just think "well who the **** was that guy?". Tiresome. Don't make a mystery story if you're not going to follow through.

[Xenon]

In No Adjective....

So, the start of this part is with an Electro story by J.M. DeMatteis. It's worth noting here that while I'm a huge fan of his at this point, and I really liked this story, it does seem like he hits this one recurring theme just a bit too much. "People would be good if they had better childhoods". Seemingly, he's mostly right, but the fact that we've hit that point with so many different characters by now is a little frustrating (Vermin, Harry, Electro, Shriek). Puma's was a little different, but even that comes back to how he was raised. Only his Vulture story (so far), really seems to stray far away from that. This Electro story isn't exactly by the numbers either, to be fair. Sure, his childhood is mentioned, but it's more about the story of how Electro is kinda overshadowed wherever he goes. And the ending, where Spider-Man has to save him from himself, is both funny and awesome. It's exactly the sort of brevity of ending that a story like this (and DeMatteis in general) needed.

We follow that with the strangely illustrated Storm Warnings by Terry Kavanaugh (who apparently is a writing machine =p). Pretty Standard fare. Well, it's a power suit story, so 90s fare. Really the only thing worth noting is the bizarre illustration style. I'm not saying it's BAD, necessarily, but it's way different. And it's not something I would want full time.

But then Mackie takes over. And at first, I'm not gonna complain. I thought his first issue, Anniversary Syndrome, was pretty good. And then he becomes like the third person to try and make people take Macendale seriously. As an aside, I kinda like Macendale. Not becaues he's competent. Because lord knows he's not. But because he's so incompetent and EVERYONE KNOWS IT. And most of his appearances are about him trying to be cool and get taken seriously. That's what led to him becoming part demon. That's what led to Demogoblin (because Macendale being a part at all wasn't good enough), that's what led to the last appearance where we open with Macendale going through a dangerous course killing Foreigner's men, and that's what leads to the Mackie story we have here. Personally, I think third-string villains are useful in their own right. You can throw them in to complicate things without things becoming super serious. But they needed their goblin, so Macendale had to be "rehabilitated" so to speak. This is probably the most effective one, with Macendale mixing in with Kraven to create a better Hobgoblin. And he certainly seems like he's smarter and more threatening in this one. But the story is dragged down by the same thing that drags down the next story, which we'll get to in a minute.

The Grim Hunter, could have been a worthy follow up to Kraven. Again, kill the old off, and replace them with a newer, sleeker version. And Vladimir seems like he's up to the task of being a Kraven replacement. Similar, but slightly different. It's barely noticeable, however, since, well, Peter Parker is "The Spider". It was this issue that let me pin-point my problems with the previous one, figure out why the "Spider" era is so mocked, and appreciate DeMatteis even more.

The idea that permeates all the books late in this era is that Peter Parker is leaving behind his life as Peter Parker, because it's too hard for him, or something. But reading it in all these books, the various writers handle this in different ways. DeMatteis, and to a lesser extent DeFalco, handle Peter's decent quite well, with the only real complaint being the trigger (which is too abrupt to work for me), which isn't even their fault. But they work hard at making it really seem like Peter is sort of subconsciously running away. It's hard to describe, exactly, but it's essentially rationalizing. He comes across less "woe is me", and more like "obviously I can't be Peter Parker because that guy's life sucks, why would I do that" "Mary Jane needs me but I'm not up to the job and would just make things worse". It's emotion covered by reason, which is a completely realistic trait. He's clearly depressed, but on some level he knows that, and so he avoids it. It is, exactly as Mary Jane says, him running away. But he also never quite gets away. He's struggling, he's fighting, but he doesn't know what to do, he doesn't know what will help, and he kinda hates himself for feeling that way and being weak, which just feeds back into the feelings of how inadequate he is, how inadequate Peter Parker is, so he avoids that. He just buries himself in work, because a person doing their isn't quite the same person outside of that job. Their professional self is different from their personal self. It's something that people do every single day. The difference is just that Peter's professional life is that of a super hero. By contrast, when Mackie writes this, it comes across as "waaaaah!!! I'm Spider-man, life's too hard! I can't take it! Why does this happen to me!? Why doesn't everyone else just die!!!!". Spider-Man in No Adjective is a ****ing emo. He's completely unlikeable. He comes across like a petulant, ungrateful, spoiled child, instead of a deeply wounded man running from his problems. He's not RUNNING from his problems in these issues, he's wallowing in them. And it just sucks. It makes you hate the storyline and want eagerly to move on.

But to be fair, that might have been the point. Obviously planning had started on the clone saga, with Ben Reilly showing up all shadowy and looking cool and nostalgic. We see him visit Gwen's grave (wasn't she so much better?), see him go visit midtown high (wasn't it awesome when Pete was in school?), and save some kid without thinking or worry (wasn't it cool when Spider-Man wasn't a whiny emo bitch?). And those parenthesis are the obvious lesson we're supposed to take away from these vignettes. That Ben Reilly is this cool, awesome, better person. Of course, at the time, Ben was still supposed to be the clone, but at the same time, I can't help but wonder if the idea that he was the original wasn't already in some of the team's heads. Perhaps Mackie was purposely making Peter unlkeable so we'd want to get rid of him. It's certainly not the best plan I've ever heard, but it's not the worst, I suppose, knowing that the alternative was only a few months away and already being teased. Perhaps this is giving him too much credit, but, well, yeah. There it is.


In the Annuals....

I separated these out because they really have nothing to do with the stories proper, and frankly, there's not much of value here. Over half of every single one is devoted to random assorted characters in Spider-Man's universe. The Spider-Man stories are generally decent though. Another fight against Carnage (that gives backstory even), random new villain in one, and a fairly good one about Harry's childhood in the Spectacular 1994 annual. But overall, certainly not much worth mentioning. I really miss the older annuals, which really felt like big stories you needed the special issue for. Whether that was tackling who Peter's parents were, or him possibly joining the avengers, or even facing the Sinister Six. And in those issues, while there was back-up material, it was useful back-up material (especially in a pre-internet day and age). Now, between the annuals and the Amazing back-ups, what it really feels like is that they're trying to sell you characters. And mostly really crappy ones to boot. One of the most recent ones I read was about Warrant, a dumb anti-hero that when he originally appeared in Spectacular, came off as one of those pseudo-villain types. But yet, they made a story for him, and at the end there was a "want to see more of Warrant? Let us know!", like he was supposed to be some kinda hero. Really, it's these back-ups that have taught me how screwed up comics got in the 90s, more than anything else.

Going forward....

So now we're to the clone saga. I gotta be honest, this is where my enthusiasm turns. Going into this, I was super pumped to read the first issues of Spider-Man. And they didn't disappoint. They were all fantastic. And I enjoy a lot of things, even bad things, I can squeeze some amusement out of. But as I was going into this, I was also reading a lot of secondary material about Spider-Man, like Life of Reilly, and to be honest, I've reached the point I've dreaded a long time, the point where my assumption turns from "this should be good!" to "oh this is gonna be bad". And I know it is. Next up is the clone saga, followed by a brief intermediate period that I know NOTHING about and seems to never be talked about, followed by the reboot era. Essentially, where I'm at now, I'm staring out at the vast chasm of bad. The worst era of Spider-History as far as the eye can see (six years worth of comics, at least). And the scary thing for me is that I'm not sure what's really on the other side. I know lots of people love JMS, but lots of people don't. I don't know what camp I'll fall into. And I know what happens after that. ON a certain level I think I look forward to BND, just because I've already dealt with the **** that I have with that. I think. I hope. Still, the fact that I am so much closer now (only 17 years back) and that I'll be finishing titles soon (Web has only 12 issues left =p) makes me more eager, since I can see my goal on the distant horizon.

Yes, that's right, I typed so much I needed THREE posts to fit it in. Just barely though. Only like 300 characters past 20000.

[Kevinroc]

The Post Clone-Saga? That's when I got into Spider-Man. There's... some good moments. Some bad moments. Some really goofy moments (Carnage vs. Silver Surfer). Of course since they had Norman back, they really decided to play with him again. But a lot of the subtext of the Peter vs. Norman narrative is now totally irrelevant since they brought Harry back.

A number of those stories tie together. And the reboot got so bad that I just plain walked away. (It gets REALLY frickin' bad. And it's really obvious that Mackie was just plain burnt out on Spider-Man by that point.)

But then Jenkins takes over Peter Parker, and JMS takes over Amazing. That was what the titles needed.

But you're entering The Clone Saga now. Good luck.

[Xenon]

Oh yes, one more thing.

Foreigner. There are other characters (like Warrant) whom I can't believe their pushing, but Foreigner is I think my favorite. And by favorite, I mean "what the ****ity **** **** **** were they thinking". So, Foreigner is not only in a team-up (an ok one) in Spectacular, but then he gets a back-up story in one of the annuals. And all I could think is "whyyyyyyyyyyyy?" I don't want to see Foreigner. I certainly don't want to see him do well or try and act cool. He's got nothign to him. He's a smug bastard who nailed Silver Sable and Felicia. That doesn't make me like him, that makes me want him dead. But even in the Spectacular team-up, where he loses his organization, he doesn't do so in a humiliating way. No, he still comes off as a smug competent bastard. WHHHHYYYYY? Why would I want the man Felicia betrayed Peter with to get any positive attention? Why would I want to follow a nobody with no powers in a world of Superheroes. I mean, I've had more than my fill of Kingpin, for largely the same reasons (only minus the nailing Felicia part), but I'll take him over Foreigner any day of the week. At least he's got a unique design and history. I mean, I thought his initial run was ok, but he still got his comeuppance at least there.

But then it hit me, Foreigner was just a symptom of the larger problem. The 90s. Now, I'd heard that the 90s were the era of the anti-hero, that things got really bad. But four years in, I didn't really see it. I didn't think it'd affect SPIDER-MAN. But the pieces have all really come together for me at this point. Deathklok, Venom the anti-hero, Warrant, Cardiac, Nightwatch, Foreigner, they were all seriously being pushed and considered to be their own properties. The market was at such a place that...well, these brainless meh heroes/villains were what the market wanted. DEAR GOD. The 90s must have been HORRIBLE. I mean, if Spider-Man can't even hold back the tide, I'd hate to see other books. I'm starting to think that they intended for Azrael to really permanently take over for Bruce in Batman. I thought the idea was ridiculous when I read Knightfall, but now....oh god.

And I still have six years of this stuff. =\

[Chris S.]

I recently filled in my gap from 200 to present. I was missing like 15 issues or something.

Thus I decided to start reading from 201 through as far as I got this summer (teacher). This is an interesting period in time because it is right when JRJR jumps on. The writer seems in flux though. I'm at 224 now, and the last few issues have been a crap shoot of creative teams. All the stories have also been stand alone issues with little sub plot development.

In the early 200s though there was a few different things going on:
-I found the Daily Bugle story with JJJ going crazy a bit odd. I think what was off was the sudden end to Peter working at the Daily Globe. I found myself trying to remember why he returned to the Daily Bugle, and then once I hit those issues I remembered why I forgot.

-Peter was an ass toward Deb Whitman. I had always read it in completion from the Spectacular side of the story, but never saw how he treated her in ASM. He really treated her like she was a piece of dirt.

-I'm about to hit the return of the Black Cat. I didn't know she built some crazy stalker shrine to Spider-Man. I'm amazed he ever got with that crazy.

One thing that I really do enjoy about these stories is how much face time Peter gets. The pacing and dialogue is a little dated and corny. However, I really like how most issues spend about a third of the issue, if not more, on Peter Parker. This is something I feel the book is missing right now.

[whiteshark]

I got The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man hardcover.
I read most of the stories in another format already,but this was a TPB i always wanted to have.
It is early Frank Miller stories and i am a fan of the stories of Spider-Man he wrote and illustrated.

[pinkfloydsound17]

I recently filled in my gap from 200 to present. I was missing like 15 issues or something.

Thus I decided to start reading from 201 through as far as I got this summer (teacher). This is an interesting period in time because it is right when JRJR jumps on. The writer seems in flux though. I'm at 224 now, and the last few issues have been a crap shoot of creative teams. All the stories have also been stand alone issues with little sub plot development.

In the early 200s though there was a few different things going on:
-I found the Daily Bugle story with JJJ going crazy a bit odd. I think what was off was the sudden end to Peter working at the Daily Globe. I found myself trying to remember why he returned to the Daily Bugle, and then once I hit those issues I remembered why I forgot.

-Peter was an ass toward Deb Whitman. I had always read it in completion from the Spectacular side of the story, but never saw how he treated her in ASM. He really treated her like she was a piece of dirt.

-I'm about to hit the return of the Black Cat. I didn't know she built some crazy stalker shrine to Spider-Man. I'm amazed he ever got with that crazy.

One thing that I really do enjoy about these stories is how much face time Peter gets. The pacing and dialogue is a little dated and corny. However, I really like how most issues spend about a third of the issue, if not more, on Peter Parker. This is something I feel the book is missing right now.

From about 205-225 or so, the stories are all stand alone-ish. Not bad but nothing amazing. You will also hit the Juggernaut storyline soon, a good one in my books. Then from there, you pretty much get the Hobgoblin stuff, which weaves in and out of the next 50 issues nicely. Some of the best stuff from the 80's right there. I recently read through some of these issues and love em.

[Chris N]

Been on a "reread" Spider-Man kick lately.
Alternating between three Spidey projects. Taking notes and rating things as I go.
-Read Spider-Man from the beginning. Just started this, read the first 7 issues, plus crossovers in Strange Tales annual 2 and FF annual 1. I realized I only have the Human Torch Strange Tales stories in Essential version. I broke down and ordered the hardcover masterworks, so I could read them in color. I figure I should at least have every Spider-Man appearance in a nice reprint if I don't have the original.
-Reading Peter Parker: Spider-Man by Jenkins/Buckingham. I think this is one of the best runs of Spider-Man ever and I am rereading to confirm said opinion. 9 issues in . I had forgotten how excellent the Robot Master arc from issues 27-28 was.
-Rereading Spider-Girl. I'd started this some time ago, but had to stop when I moved and the stack of issues I was about to read got lost in the shuffle. I just found them and restarted the project. The battle with Kaine from issues 14-17 where she and her dad team up was excellent. I'm up to issue 23 now, and reading the Buzz miniseries. It remains good, but has lost its initial momentum.