The Amazing Spider-Man Vol.1

I’ve very recently bought the MARVEL Epic Collection's The Amazing Spider-Man Volume 1, 'Great Power', and it is without question the single greatest addition to my collection in the last ten years. I bought it from Amazon for about £15 (link at the end of the article) and it’s worth every penny spent on it. This would probably be a good time to very clearly state that nothing said here is being sponsored or otherwise paid for.

It's an excellent collection of the books, covering the seminal first two years of the book's run, including the first 17 issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, as well as throwing in the first Annual.

The first thing I noticed was the striking cover.

It depicts our favourite Webbed Wonder fighting off against the original Sinister Six: Sandman, Dr. Octopus, Kraven the Hunter, Electro, Mysterio and the Vulture.

At first glance I thought it was a modern rendition – a contemporary artist aping the style of Ditko to produce that Ditko-esque ‘feel’ that his work engendered. Something seemed off about it. I thought for sure that at earliest it could possibly, maybe be a Kirby re-imagining of the Ditko style which, as many of you will know, would be very unusual for the late, great Jack. He didn’t imitate styles.

But, sure enough, the artist is credited clear as day.

Collection Cover Art: Steve Ditko.

OK, so, can’t dispute that. It’s not ‘Ditko-esque’. It is Ditko. So… why does it seem off?

The answer might be obvious if you’re quicker than I am – and doubly so if you read through the credits I’ve written above. Particularly the part that reads: ‘with colours by Paul Mounts’. There we go. There’s the answer.

The reason it looks so strange is because we’ve got a Ditko drawing from the early ‘60s that’s been digitally touched-up and remade in 2014.

It’s the colour.

It’s vibrant, it’s alive; it’s beautiful.

But with this beauty comes a slight disingenuousness. Or maybe I’m just being silly. Maybe not disingenuous, but perhaps lacking in a certain sincerity. It’s an old friend who got a face lift, and it’s nice, it’s beautiful, if anything they look better than ever – but it’s not the face you know.

I think this is what bothers me: it’s a modern colour palette. It’s modern ink and it doesn’t pretend it isn’t. The characters don’t look like they do in the book. They look modern and sleek, beautifully remade with the benefits of modern technology. But lacking in character. Lacking that ‘60s feel. Lacking that ‘certain something’ that makes early issues of Amazing Spider-Man jump off of the page.

It’s vibrant.

It’s alive.

It’s beautiful.

It’s the same as everything else...

I’ll get back to saying nice things now. This is a stunning work of art and I adore every inch of it. I’m just a bit of an ‘old head’ as people say now. But my issue with the cover leads nicely into precisely why I adore the actual pages of the book:

The colours are gorgeous.

This is it. This is what I wanted. This is the ‘60s, this is Lee and Ditko, this is Spider-Man.

Michael Keller is credited with the art restoration for the internals of the book, and by God did he do a job and a half. It’s outstanding. It looks exactly how you want it to look. Not a step missed, not a beat skipped; there’s no other word for it than ‘perfect’.

It’s perfect.

I have two very minor gripes regarding the actual physicality of the book:

1. The pages are thinner than your grandmother’s New Testament – having owned the book for approximately 45 minutes I’ve managed to put very small rips in two pages. Now, I’m a clumsy idiot, I’ll hold my hands up to that; but I’d have liked to be able to read the book without fearing for its longevity.
2. The art gets sucked into the centre of the book where the pages meet. Sometimes it’s a bit of art that’s ever so slightly edging into the crack and it’s a case of no-harm-done. But sometimes the speech bubble starts slipping into the dark and you’re spreading the book apart as far as it’ll go to see into the crevice. Now that I think about it, that isn’t really a minor gripe, is it…? But, it’s mercifully irregular. Every few issues at most.

Given the frankly rather admirable price tag, alongside the abundance of material provided, this is a must-have for any buyer. I don’t care if you’re a casual reader or a serious fan of Spidey, this is the book for you.

It’s the definitive collection; and it’s just Volume 1! The other Volumes stretch into the early ‘80s, meaning that no other collected works can provide you with the trajectory of the character quite like this one can (at least, not at this end of the price scale...).

From Burglar, to Goblin, to Venom – this is it. This is the one for me.

To be honest, it’d have been a bargain at twice the price. But don’t tell MARVEL that...