Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #1

Spider-Man (collected editions)

by Stan Lee (Writer), John Romita Sr. (Illustrator), Jim Mooney (Illustrator)

The first issue featured a painted, color cover by men's adventure-magazine artist Harry Rosenbaum, in acrylic paint on illustration board, over layouts by The Amazing Spider-Man artist John Romita Sr. The 52-page black-and-white Spider-Man story, "Lo, This Monster!", was by writer Stan Lee, penciler Romita Sr. and inker Jim Mooney. A 10-page origin story, "In The Beginning!", was by Lee, penciler Larry Lieber and inker Bill Everett.

Genres: Comics, Spider Man, Graphic Novels, Marvel

Paperback

First published February 1, 2002

About the author

Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.

With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

Reviews

[Eddie B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was a very enjoyable issue. The main story was extra-long (with extraordinary body count) and the shorter one was a retelling of Spider-man's origin pencilled by Stan Lee's younger brother Larry Lieber. Both were presented in black and white with beautiful greyscale shading that made the panels look truly SPECTACULAR. Just look!

[Daniel Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a trade-paper "facsimile" of a black-and-white magazine from the 60s. I owned the original and read it to pieces. My opinion of the story itself hasn't changed: It's a decent introduction to the Spider-Man character for readers who might not have been following the color comics of the time. That's EXACTLY what I needed it to be, and it works. It's not great literature, but it doesn't pretend to be... Well, actually, thanks to Stan Lee's tongue-in-cheek style, it sort-of DOES pretend to be, but we're all in on the joke. If you like the John Romita Sr era of Spider-Man, this is an obscure gem you probably haven't seen, and you'll like it too.

This edition, though...

The original featured some lovely halftones and grey washes in lieu of color, which gave it a look and feel all its own. The spotty reproduction here doesn't do those washes justice. In addition, for reasons not given, they felt the need to redo the lettering throughout, eliminating most of the original hand-lettered text in favor of digital lettering with none of the flavor of the original. In addition, numerous awkward typographical errors were introduced that weren't present in the original, detracting from a book I really wanted to like for sentimental/nostalgic reasons. The package just says "cheaply made", and I would have rated it much higher but for these fresh flaws in a classic tale.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 2002 reprint of a 1968 black and white Spider-Man magazine.
As other reviewers have noticed,for some reason they decided to re-do the printing of the dialogue, and made several mistakes throughout the story.
But that doesn't take away from the enjoyment.(At least for me)
The first story has the web slinger fighting some kind of Man-Monster, while Peter is Wonder about the suddenly very popular candidate for mayor, who isn't what he seems. And we get to see Gwen as Peter's girlfriend here....
The second story is a quick retelling of Spider-Man's origin. The fight with the wrestler is missing, as is Uncle Ben's now iconic "Great Power/Great Responsibility" speech (Though here,Peter himself comes up with it) It's still a good version of the origin.

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

First I want to say John Romita and Larry Leiber's art has NEVER looked better than it does in the magazine. Probably because they knew their work would be on a higher priced magazine format that cost readers more money. Here you can tenses changing mid sentence... the spelling of Gwen's name changing three times.... and no line of dialogue more sums up why I was forced to give this otherwise great story a low rating more than this...
"The election is all but won... unless Spider-Man me."
There are so many lines like this that it was a disgrace people had to pay $2 for it in 1968... and even more embarrassing that I had to pay $8 for it in 2002.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

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