ASM - volume 2

This will be my last entry for this series of journals.

To start this off, I should explain that from late 1991 to late 2001 I did not collect comics of any kind.

The terrible quality (and quantity) of what Marvel was pumping out in the early 90s destroyed my desire to read anything they made. The comics I had were in storage and forgotten, never to be looked at again.

Needless to say, I was in a very bad place in regards to comics and comic collecting, and as far as I was concerned, I would never buy or read another comic again...

SET DESCRIPTION:

This set is very important to me, and here's why:

I had been collecting Spider-Man comics for about 9 and a half years when I decided to call it quits in late 1991. I had been collecting every Spider-Man title up to early 1991, and by mid-1991, Web and Spectacular were going straight into a comic box without being read (they were sooooo bad), and ASM was getting worse and worse with every issue that came out.

So, I finally decided to call it quits, and I swore that I would never buy or read another Spider-Man comic ever again.

Until...

...One day, about 10 years later, a friend of mine at work shoved a comic in my face and said that I had to read it. He knew that I had been an avid Spider-Man fan but that I had soured on the whole experience and stopped collecting.

I looked at the book he put on my desk and I saw that the title said Amazing Spider-Man, but the cover was all black and the issue was #36.

I asked him what the hell this was and he just looked at me and calmly said, "Just read it." So, I turned the cover and began reading one of the greatest and most emotional stories that I have ever read in a comic book.

When I was done reading, I had to sit there for a few minutes to collect myself before I could walk over to my friend's desk to return his book.

"Pretty good, eh?" he said, nodding at me. I nodded back. He then went on to say how ASM has really improved, especially with this JMS guy as the new writer. I nodded again.

Another bonus was that JRJR had returned to the comic, so right after work that day I went to my local comic shop and purchased the previous 10 issues or so of Amazing Spider-Man. And that night I read them all.

Spider-Man was great again! Reading those issues reminded me of why I started collecting in the first place. The writing was strong, the artwork was fantastic, and JMS's treatment of Peter was perfect!

I was back!

So, it was really the JRJR/JMS issues from this set that made me fall back in love with Amazing Spider-Man, and the reason why I haven't looked back since. (regardless of things like "One More Day", or Dock Ock as Spider-Man, or whatever else).

And I finally have this entire set in a 9.8 or higher. A lot of these issues were impossible to find for sale in a 9.8, so I ended up sending in quite a few to be graded by CGC. Luckily for me that I took care of my comics because most of them came back as 9.8s (after a nice little quick press by CCS, of course).

Here is my top 5 comics/story arcs from this set:

5)

#43 -- Damn! I love this cover!!!

4)

#39 -- The 'NUFF SAID issue -- A comic with absolutely no dialogue -- They did a great job pulling it off and it was fun comic to experience

3)

#30 -- 1st JMS story in ASM -- From this point on until JRJR left, this title was unbelievably good!

2)

#38 -- The May confronts Peter about his being Spider-Man was perfectly done -- Not in a typical, "Oh My God! You're Spider-Man!" way, but a, "We are family, and I support you and love you." way -- Perfect!

1)

#36

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