Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection. Kosmiczne przygody

Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection

by David Michelinie, Stan Lee, Gerry Conway

Podczas nieudanego eksperymentu naukowego pajęcze moce Petera Parkera zostają niewiarygodnie spotęgowane! I w samą porę, bo klika groźnych łotrów rozpoczęła serię zaskakujących ataków na bohaterów Marvela. Nowe umiejętności Spider-Mana mogą ocalić mu życie! A czym naprawdę jest tajemnicza kosmiczna siła, która wzmocniła Pajączka? I jaka bitwa jest mu przeznaczona? Dodatkowo: Spider-Man łączy siły z Punisherem, musi uporać się z powrotem Venoma i stawić czoło pomniejszonemu Psycho-Manowi w tyciej opowiastce! Gościnnie wystąpią Hulk, Magneto, Doktor Doom, Przerażająca Czwórka i inni!
Scenariusze napisali m.in. David Michelinie, Gerry Conway, Tony Isabella, Stan Lee, a rysunki przygotowali Colleen Doran, Sal Buscema, Alex Saviuk, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Gil Kane, Steve Ditko, Rich Buckler i inni.

Album zawiera materiały opublikowane pierwotnie w „The Amazing Spider-Man” #326–333 i „Annual” #10 oraz w „Web of Spider-Man” #59–61 i „Annual” #6, a następnie zebrane w „The Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Cosmic Adventures”.

Genres: Comics, Spider Man, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

504 pages, Hardcover

First published November 20, 2013

Reviews

[Sean Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t say that giving Spidey Silver Surfer-level powers is my favorite story conceit ever, given that it’s a lot harder to have a, “Peter can’t afford a present for MJ because he hasn’t gotten any good pics for the Bugle lately!” subplot when he’s a galactic-level entity who can engage in interstellar travel. You’re telling me he couldn’t just blickety-blip* up some fantastical piece of technology, patent the crap out of it, and solve his money woes forever?

That said, it’s a finite arc that’s fairly well executed, and while there are some issues with a married Spider-Man in terms of personal life-related subplots (“Don’t miss the resolution to this month’s epic cliffhanger…WAS IT PETER OR MJ WHO FORGOT TO WASH THE DISHES IN THE SINK?!”), the overall entertainment value is consistently high.

*“Blickety-blip” is the sound that’s made when cosmic-level entities use their powers to create bestselling consumer products out of thin air. Everyone knows that. Duh.

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beginning with the infamous Acts of Vengeance (dubbed so because I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I thought I would).

Though, it did coincide with the slightly more entertaining story of the Cosmic Spidey!

While I enjoyed Peter’s existential crisis at the time, it also felt like something we’d gone through before with this guy.

And sadly, I did feel like the ending was a little anti-climactic. He just used a lot of power on this one bad guy and then all the powers were just gone.

It was fun seeing him go up against the (grey) Hulk. If only briefly.

While it was an interesting dynamic between Punisher and Spider-Man, it did feel a little like filler.

I liked this Venom story, a quick hint he might actually have some sort of honour.

I also really liked MJ in that story. She’s determined not to let fear or trauma keep her from trying to protect the one she loves.

The end stories in the annuals really dragged down this EC. At least the main one with Ant-Man. It really wasn’t a team up.
It was the heroes briefly interacting so Spider-Man finds himself in a different situation than normal.

I enjoyed seeing Flit’s story of him trying to get away from his past and take a different path.

I can’t say if this collection is worth it, just because there were so many stories that I didn’t enjoy.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much, much better than the McFarlane Spidey! A very fun collection capped off with a fun trio of annuals with artists Gil Kane, Steve Ditko and Ross Andru and guest-starring Ant-man. Really enjoyed the cosmic powered Spidey storyline. All of this book was new to me and I wolfed it down. Terrific entertainment.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun but lengthy collection that is recommended only for those with a special place in their hearts for the Spidey titles of the late '80s and very early '90s. If you're not a fan you should definitely spend your time and money elsewhere.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty good up until the 3 Annuals that closed out the book. They were rather hard to get through

[Adam Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

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: D

The 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.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spidey gains the Enigma Force and battles the Acts of Vengeance in this collection, also including a team-up with the Punisher and a battle against Venom for good measure. As the first volume of the Epic Collections, I was impressed with the amount contained in this volume, and whilst it's nothing spectacular overall storywise, it's solid reading full of nice subplots and good character moments as Peter battles with the new power he has obtained and the notion that he might not be good enough to wield it. The hodge-podge annuals at the end of the book drag it down for the most part; some of the stories here are good, but most of them are a waste of space, which brings this collection down from 4 stars to 3.

[Adam Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

These Epic Collections of Spider-Man are just packed. This volume has the brief bit where Spidey's powers get enhanced to a ridiculous degree in order to fight the billions of villains who are always showing up, teaming up, and splitting up to take him down. There's appearances of Doctor Doom, Magneto, Hulk (when he was grey), the frightful Four, and The Punisher.

I'm reading this as part of my attempt to read all the Venom books, and once again, the Venom story is a very small part of the collection, but it's a fun one. While Spidey is teaming up with The Punisher to take down a drug lord (who turns out to be the US Government! telling Frank and Peter that gold will soon be worthless , so the US Government is going to make cocaine the new money standard!), Venom is in the background escaping from prison again, and getting ready for a Spider-rematch.

Michelinie's long run on Spider-Man was a really cool evolution in Spidey stories as there were always B and C storylines that weren't just background fodder, but most of them were future A storylines building up tension, so that it wasn't the classic "This Month Spidey battles Hobgoblin, but next month it's The Kingpin, who we haven't seen in a while." There seems to always be about two or three issues worth of villains in the background while Spidery fights someone else, and they make their way to be the spotlight villain before shuffling into prison for a while. It really does help the Marvel Universe feel more realistic.

The Venom story itself is better than the previous two, as Spidey is also battling a Mary Jane stalker and his two henchmen (prolonged sigh) Styx and Stone. As with the previous stories, you get no information about what the symbiote is, or why it cares about Peter except that it is sad(?), angry(?), disappointed(?) that Peter will no longer be its host. And it is nice to see that, for the third time, Spidey uses a different means to defeat Venom, so it's not the same, tired storyline.

I also preferred Erik Larsen's art here to the Todd McFarlane art in the last volume, but only slightly. The anatomy and faces were similar to McFarlane's, which is odd when you look at their disparate work now.

If you liked Spidey stories as comic moved from the 80s to the 90s, this is definitely a collection you want to pick up. Also if you like the evolving storyline concept that I talkes about a few paragraphs above.

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kolejny już zbiór nieco starszych przygód Pajęczaka, ale zapodany z odpowiednim tempem, przez co całość nie nuży jak w poprzedniku, w dodatku jest wypełnione po brzegi akcją.

A zaczyna się od małego wydarzenia zwanego Aktami Zemsty. Polega to na tym, że kilkoro flagowych złoczyńców Marvela, w tym Kingpin czy Dr. Doom nasyłają na swoich 'podręcznikowych' prawych przeciwników własnych popleczników, którzy do tej pory z bohaterami nie walczyli. Ma to zwiększyć szansę na atak z zaskoczenia i wyeliminowania herosa.

I tak na Spider-Mana parol zagina cała gama złoczyńców. A to naskoczy na niego Gravitron, Magneto, szary Hulk czy mniej znane persony, takie jak Goliath, bracia Grimm czy Tytania. Na szczęście w skutek małego wypadku Peter będzie mógł liczyć na małe kosmiczne wzmocnienie swoich mocy, co skutecznie nie omieszka wykorzystać.

Nieco dalej sprzymierzy się na kilka zeszytów z Punisherem, czyniąc naprawdę sporą rozróbę. Stanie do walki z powracającym Venomem (który stał się zaskakująco honorowy, no może poza chęcią pożarcia Pająka) czy też po kontakcie z Ant-manem trafi do Mikrowersum, gdzie napotka zaskakującego przeciwnika.

Dodajcie do tego sporą dozę wątku obyczajowego, bo w życiu uczuciowy i zawodowym Pete'a dzieje się tu sporo, tak otrzymacie niezła mieszankę do przeczytania. A to nie koniec, bowiem na deser dostajemy szereg pomniejszych historii dotyczących postaci z dalszego planu w jakiś sposób powiązanych z Pajęczakiem, jak chociażby Sandmana.

Akcji jest tu co nie miara i jest ona naprawdę niezła. Poprzednio zdarzały się momenty nużące, ale tu tego nie doświadczyłem. Co do warstwy wizualnej - może nie jest to poziom wieku 'paliw kopalnych' w tej dziedzinie kultury, ale czuć że mamy do czynienia ze starszą, nie tak już efektywną kreską. Niemniej nadal ma to swój urok, który tkwi w nie przekombinowanej prostocie.

Zdecydowanie jeden z lepszych, starszych zbiorów opisujących przygody Spider-Mana, jakie są dostępne na rynku. Dla miłośników marki wydaje się to obowiązkowa lektura.

[Marcelo Soares · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuamos na noventeira teiosa que foi a fase do Micheline no Amigão da Vizinhança; começamos com o Aranha apanhando mais que tapete em dia de faxina do Graviton. Por quê? Ora, porque é o momento dos Atos de Vingança.
Logo depois disso, a ciência maluca dos quadrinhos, através de um acidente, dá poderes cósmicos para o Aranhoso, que sai solando todo mundo que os Vinganceiros mandam contra ele, desde o Magneto e o Hulk até o Pete-Pote-de-Pasta; são umas 8 ou 9 edições bem divertidas com o Aranha passando o rodo na vilania da Marvel e, coincidentemente, na última edição do evento ele perde os poderes cósmicos enfrentando um tal de Sentinela Triplo, cortesia do Sebastian Shaw.
Temos um história bem maluca do Aranha e do Justiceiro contra um cartel de drogas que vende cocaína para o governo, "o padrão cocaína" é o conceito econômico mais sem noção que eu já li na vida. Temos a escapada anual do Venom da prisão de segurança nem tão máxima da Marvel, alguma continuação da história do vizinho taradão. Eu já achava o Venom um vilão insuportável nessa época, e continuo achando, não faz sentido nenhum depois de tudo que já aconteceu, o sentido de aranha não registrar o psicopata assassino em simbiose com um alienígena ciumento que passa tentando te matar; já sobre o vizinho taradão, acho que a solução mais fácil, seria o Parker pega emprestado os colhões do Frank Castle e baixar o cacete no taradão, mas entendo que falta desenvolver a questão pelo lado da MJ ainda mais no status de subcelebridade que ela parece ter.
Depois, encerramos com três anuais sobre o Homem Aranha encolhendo, devido a um plano psicodélico do Psycho Man e o descaso do Homem-Formiga, e, claro, uma edição que vê Frank Castle, o Justiceiro, unindo forças com May Parker, a tiazinha imortal do Peter.

[April Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

This Spider-Man book is by far the worst one. And it all comes down to Erik Larson’s art. He Disneyfied the “good” characters to a point where their expressions were beyond saccharine. Additionally, most of the stories in this collection weren’t that good. Oh, and what’s up with Spider-Man just letting Punisher kill a bunch of people without even trying to stop him? Not to mention that fact that the Punisher said that kids were going to put cocaine in their veins, which shows how little he knows about drugs, lol. It’s just overall a very weak point in The Amazing Spider-Man series.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gems include Spidey v. Gravity, Trapster gives Spidey a Phoenix moment, Puma v. Titania, Spidey v. Magneto, Brothers Grimm, & Goliath, Spidey punches Joe Fixit into orbit, Spidey v. Terrible Trio, Dragon Man, & Tri-Sentinel, Felicia dates Flash, Black Cat v. MJ, Venom on a horse, Venom v. Styx & Stone, Ditko draws Ant-Man, Sandman refuses Wizard & Trapster, & Frank & May tram-up

[Molly Mortensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

326 ★★★★
Peter and MJ's housewarming party. Puma bought the Bugle. Peter fights Graviton, who made the Bugle building float.

Spectacular 158 (Conway) ★★★★
Acts of Vengeance tie in.
Spidey gets his butt handed to him by Paste Pot Pete. Robbie's appeal. Peter is hit by an experiment at ESU and super charged.

Web 59 (Conway) ★★★★
Acts of Vengeance. Doom sends Titania after Spidey. All one action scene.

327 ★★★★
Flash has become a boxer. Spidey tests his new powers. MJ got a part on a soap opera. And Spidey faces Magneto.

Spectacular 159 ★★★★
Vs the Brothers Grimm. Progress on Robbie's pardon. Jameson trying to start his own News Magazine.

Web 60 ★★★★
Vs Goliath. Peter asks May's advice about his new powers. He speaks to Fireheart (Puma) and asks him to stop with the puff pieces. Fisk sets up Spidey.

328 ★★★★
Sebastian Shaw sets Hulk against Spidey. Terrorists at the statue of Liberty. Double date with Flash and his latest terrible girlfriend.

Spectacular 160 ★★★
Doom aquires an anti super hero robot. Spidey stops villains who are attacking each other. The public hates super heroes, including Spidey. Photographer Nick goes to Jameson. Peter fights with MJ.

Web 61 ★★★★
Spidey quits. Mr Wizard sends Dragon Man after Spidey using his discarded mask to give it Spidey's scent. Doom is trying to steal Spidey's new powers.

329 ★★★★
Acts of Vengeance is over. Graviton wants revenge on Spidey. Loki zaps Shaw's sentinels creating a Tri-sentinel. Shaw tries to depower Spidey and winds up awakening him as Captain Universe. Spidey loses his Cosmic powers after defeating the Tri-sentinel. Last page Cameo, Black Cat is Flash's new girlfriend!

330-331 ★★★★★
Peter is investigating where all of the illegal drugs have gone. Punisher is also on the case. MJ and Peter have an awkward dinner party with Flash and Black Cat. Later Cat threatens Cat. Eddie Brock is dead? Venom escapes prison. Nathan hospitalized. MJ's kidnapper Cesar is out of bail.

332-333 ★★★★★
Styx and Stone attack Spidey. MJ visits Caesar to get him to back off on Spidey. Venom visits Aunt May, fights Spidey in the Park and saves a baby! / Venom swears he wouldn't hurt Aunt May. MJ signs no contest in the lawsuit, meaning she won't get her money back from the condo. Spidey fights Venom in a fallout shelter. They're attached by Styx and Stone and the symbiote is killed?!

Annual 24 / Spectacular Annual 10 / Web Annual 6 ★★★ / ★★ / ★★★

Peter's at a science expo. Scott Lang was running late and missed the expo. Spidey is changing to go home, as Ant Man is changing to sneak in to see the expo. Spidey gets shrunk. He battles experimens and helps Ant Man fight robbers. / Harry can't fix Spidey and he keeps shrinking. / Psycho Man captured Spidey. He wants the Cosmic power. Spidey teams up with the other unusual looking prisoners to escape.

[Matt Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spider-Man becomes OP and teams up with a crap ton of characters some were hits like the one with the Punisher but others like Ant Man were just ok. Mostly fun but inconsequential time for the character. Covers 1989/1990.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. The first portion with the Cosmic stuff is a ton of fun, but the back part with all the Annuals is a total snore.

[ReyReyPod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let down but some average art towards the end in the annuals...but overall one of my favourite eras for Spidey!

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 12yrold loved it, and it was really long so kept him busy longer than most comic books.

[Mirosław Arka Gier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spiderowy udział w evencie "Acts of Vengeance" bombowy. Pajączek z mocą Captain Universe - megamocny.

[Mateusz Nowowiejski · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Donavon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cosmic Spider-Man story is only about half of book, which was great but very brief.

The Venom & Punisher storylines were okay, but rest were not great.

[Gav451 · Rating 2 out of 5]

80s Spiderman was interesting to see. Those huuuge shoulder pads, Pete and his beau moving in together and lots of references to plot points I had not seen.

Kudos to the writers for moving the character forwards and letting him (slowly) grow up. Its a brave move and good to see. I think they could have let the teenage angst slip a little more and acknowledged that he is both the really clever and really powerful. That could have been done.

What really took me out of this however were the powers. It is clear from this collection that Spiderman should never be given cosmic powers because they just don't work. He was too powerful. it was too easy and while they can try Marvel didn't need to turn Spiderman into a Superman. Not even a little bit.

I liked the story best in the smaller stories. I liked it when he was genuinely having troubles. The action was OK but not awe inspiring. That is probably because he was OP and it detracted from some of the tension.

The art was good in places and the writing OK but this whole saga did not work. The miniaturisation story at the end was not great either. As I have not followed all of the comics it just wasn't for me.

Mind you, having said all that I did read it to the end so it wasn't awful. Just not high on my ranked list of best Spiderman Graphic novels.

[Viridian5 · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with any anthology, quality varies in what's included. I gave this higher points than I would have otherwise from nostalgia, since these stories were published from 1989-1990. The art generally isn't very good, and some of the stories seem very random.

While I found the Acts of Vengeance arc mostly held the most interesting stories, it does have some clunker elements. It annoyed me that the writer gave Spidey a vast power boost just as heavy-duty criminals started coming after him. While I appreciate that Peter's response to getting that kind of power gave him major misgivings since that's very him--plus the power amped his spider sense up to an unbearable degree that made it nearly useless since almost everything screamed danger--but I would've appreciated him dealing with that storyline during a different arc. Also, at least one villain an issue has to say the phrase "acts of vengeance" in boldface even when it doesn't seem natural.

I also enjoyed the story where Aunt May ends up helping out the Punisher and the sections dealing with the Sandman trying to get off the villain track and turn his life around.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

An uneven collection as Spider-man begins to turn toward the nineties, but not quite as terrible as I thought it'd be. The Cosmic Arc was fun, though the conclusion is missing from this arc. Spidey faces a variety of other people's villains who secretly serve the purposes of Dr. Doom. Then the content takes a bit of a dive with the Punisher and Venom arcs, which preview some of the extreme 90s-ness that peaks in violence with Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage and in stupidity with The Amazing Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga Epic, Vol. 1. These stories are at least readable with some art by Savage Dragon's Erik Larsen that isn't great, but isn't terrible either. The final three annuals have another silly Micro-Spider-man arc with some forgettable backup stories. This set is more for completionists or 90s fans than casual Spider-man readers.

[Zack! Empire · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would say this book is good, but it tends to be a bit uneven. The stories all have their good points, but also some bad ones. The "Cosmic Spider-Man" story is good, and I didn't mind that it happens just as a group of villains begins to target Spidey, but I felt the ending was pretty lacking. Spidey gets these awesome powers so he can fight some HUGE threat, and it didn't seem all that threating.
I was a big Savage Dragon fan back in the day, but I missed Eric Larsen working on Spider-Man by a few years. This is actually the first time I've seen his Spidey work, so that was a treat. You can already see all the things I think of when I picture his art, from the way he draws fist, to his page layouts.
The story with the Punisher was interesting, but like the Cosmic story, I thought the ending was a little weak.
The annuals are kind of a mixed bag. I have to say I didn't really find the story that interesting. In fact, I actually thought the stories about Sandman were the best part!
Overall, there is some good stuff, but unless you're a Spidey fan, or trying to read all the Epic Collections of his, I don't think you would miss much by not reading it.

[Crazed8J8 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would give this collection a solid 3.5 stars.
Cosmic Spidey stories were great (I remember them from when they originally came out), epic battles, but kind of repetitive, and some of the Acts of Vengeance team were fairly weak contenders for Spidey (some were B-listers or worse), but still a great story. Plus, I've always loved Buscema and Larsen's Spider-Man.
The Venom story was great too, but too short.
The rest (Shrinking Spidey) was subpar, dragging the collection down a bit, although the Shrinking Spidey did get a little better, it was still weird and not great.
The Punisher/Aunt May story was neat though.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The "Cosmic Spidey" story was kind of fun, but the stories following it with the Punisher and Venom are almost painful to read. The volume ends with a group of annuals featuring Spidey shrinking smaller and smaller. The do feature some Gil Kane art work, so that was kind of fun to see him go back 20 years after his classic run started. The annuals also feature some back up, featuring creators like Todd McFarline, Peter David, Mike Zeck, and Steve Ditko.

An uneven collection, but an interesting snapshot of late 80s early 90s marvel.

[Gerky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good value, and a fairly decent book with stories that I hadn't read before, but if I'm going to be honest I didn't particularly enjoy the Annuals written by Lee or the art by long time Spidey artists just seemed out of place. I didn't want it to be filled entirely by MacFarlane and Larsen is a bit rough around the edges but I will get the next few releases. A strange straddling of old style and new style but, hey, many points for MJ and Peter being married as they were from when I could first read.

[Harrison Delahunty · Rating 3 out of 5]

No story here really stretches beyond fine. Larsen’s art is a bit rough to start, especially some of his faces. Buscema’s work is probably the strongest of the myriad pencillers here, though Saviuk and Buckler also deliver some strong compositions.