Good Spider-Man Arcs

[pieman3g]

What are some good spider-man story arcs? I'm preferably looking for a little bit older anything before 2000.

[ChrisIII]

I liked J.m Dematteis's story arcs from the late 80s/early 90s a lot mainly from Spectacular Spider-man. They're kind of darker Spider-Man stories but are still very entertaining. Kraven's Last Hunt, Death of Vermin, all the storylines with Harry's Green Goblin culminating in issue #200 of Spectacular Spider-Man (An issue which of course has been retconned a bit). There's also some good Sal Buscema artwork, his work may not be the most detailed, but a lot of the storytelling is real good. Dematteis did return to Spectacular in the late 90s after the Clone Saga, but I didn't think it was good as before.

[Cheesedique]

Off the top of my head

Origin Of The Hobgoblin
Owl / Octopus War (in Spec Spidey)
Death Of Jean DeWolff
Black Cat / Foreigner saga (Peter David / Spec Spidey)
Saga of the black costume
Birth Of Venom (and basically all Venom appearances pre-ASM #350)
Kraven's Last Hunt
Return / Revenge Of Sinister Six
First appearance of Carnage
Sensational Spider-man starring Ben Reilly (Dan Jurgens)
Hobgoblin Lives
Identity Crisis
Revenge Of The Green Goblin

[Maestro]

A lot of the good stories happened after 2000, IMO. The 90's sucked for the most part

[Cheesedique]

A lot of the good stories happened after 2000, IMO. The 90's sucked for the most part

Plenty of crap in the 2000's too.

[Maestro]

^ The ratio is better in the 2000's than the 90's

[SpideyCzar]

Most of what i will list will be availble in tpb or hardcover

Kraven's Last Hunt
Revenger of the Sinister Six
Origin of the Hobgoblin
Hobgoblin Lives
Death of the Stacy's
Original Clone Saga
Death of Jean De Wolfe

Are a few worth checking out

[Billium 3]

^ The ratio is better in the 2000's than the 90's

I dunno about that. I'd argue there are more 90's Spider-Man stories I'd rather read than 00's Spidey stories. Anywho, here are some good must reads:

Spider-Man: Origin of the Hobgoblin
Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives
The Owl/Octopus Gang War (Spectacular Spider-Man #s 72-79)
Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut! (Amazing Spider-Man #s 229-230)
Any Venom story written by David Michelinie (For starters: Amazing Spider-Man #s 298-300, 315-317, 330-333, 345-347, 360-363, 373-375)
Death of the Stacys
Death of Jean DeWolff
Cobra and Mr.Hyde (ASM #231-232)
The Brand Corporation Saga (ASM #233-236)
Amazing Spider-Man # 259-261 (Hobgoblin and the Rose)
Spider-Man: The Original Clone Saga (from the 70s)
Parts of the 90s Clone Saga (Like Spider-Man: The Lost years)
Spider-Man vs Firelord (ASM #s 269-270)
"Wings of Vengeance" (ASM #s 240-241)
Spider-Man: The Final Chapter (ASM vol.1 #s 30-33)
Return AND Revenge of the Sinister Six
Kraven's Last Hunt
Funeral Arrangements (Spectacular Spider-Man #186-188)

[Spidey_Legend]

My favourites that I can remember now:

The Death of Jean Wolffe.
The Return of Sin Eater.
The Owl/Octopus Gang War.
Hobgoblin Lives.
Assassin Nation Plot.
Shrieking.
The Parker Legacy
Gang War (The first one)
Marvel Team 82-85 (Spidey Team up with the amnesiac Black Widow)

That's all for now, xD

[Minerboh]

Death of Gwen Stacy
First appearance of Carrion
Death of Jean Dewolf
Nothing can stop the Juggernaut
Kraven's last hunt (Marvel's answer to DC's Killing Joke)
Shrieking
Power and Responsibility
All the stories featuring Harry as Green Goblin
Pursuit
Carnage's debut
Scarlet Spider's first issues
The kid who collects Spider-Man
Spider Island
Gaunlet and Grim Hunt
Dan Slott's so far run!

[Selphy]

Sorry to hijack your thread TC but I didn't want to create another thread about good arcs when there is this one.

I'm also looking for good Spider-Man arcs but I'm looking for stuff that challenges the conventional norm of the Spider universe. Are there any stories that attack the idea of Spider-Man? Or make Peter question why he's doing this? I'm looking for really psychological arcs, not the run of the mill, rogues gallery "Villain shows up, threatens the world/NYC, Spider-Man beats him up, everyone's happy, the end."

I'm really digging what could be an awesome end to the Ends of the Earth arc going on right now. Depending on how it turns out, it could be something I'm really looking for in terms of different stories. I'm hoping that the Sinister Six are really trying to save the Earth and Spidey and the Avengers are going to look like villains. Then they'll have to deal with the flak of the entire population being against them and will have to consider whether Doc Ock is a necessary evil. If they let Doc Ock do what he wants to do and he dies, he'll die a hero in the eyes of the world and will have defeated Spider-Man. That, in my opinion, would be a crazy ending.

If the Sinister Six end up trying to destroy the world then it will just be another typical, generic arc.

[Duze]

Sorry to hijack your thread TC but I didn't want to create another thread about good arcs when there is this one.

I'm also looking for good Spider-Man arcs but I'm looking for stuff that challenges the conventional norm of the Spider universe. Are there any stories that attack the idea of Spider-Man? Or make Peter question why he's doing this? I'm looking for really psychological arcs, not the run of the mill, rogues gallery "Villain shows up, threatens the world/NYC, Spider-Man beats him up, everyone's happy, the end."

I'm really digging what could be an awesome end to the Ends of the Earth arc going on right now. Depending on how it turns out, it could be something I'm really looking for in terms of different stories. I'm hoping that the Sinister Six are really trying to save the Earth and Spidey and the Avengers are going to look like villains. Then they'll have to deal with the flak of the entire population being against them and will have to consider whether Doc Ock is a necessary evil. If they let Doc Ock do what he wants to do and he dies, he'll die a hero in the eyes of the world and will have defeated Spider-Man. That, in my opinion, would be a crazy ending.

If the Sinister Six end up trying to destroy the world then it will just be another typical, generic arc.

I don't know if people agree with me, but pretty much every arc with Osborn since the midnineties has been somewhat like this. Osborn has been continuously pushing Peter, trying to get him to break in some way. I don't know if I look at it differently because I grew up with it, but the end of the clone saga was really mindblowing to me:)