Top Ten Key Spider-Man issues

[The-Collector]

 

Of course this is debatable and I wouldn't have much issue with swapping 6 or 9 for 298.

 

 

If 39 doesn't make the list there's no way I support 298. I think 300 adequately encompasses the era, the moment, and what it signified.

 

 

Personally, one of my favorite issues has always been 15. Kraven just kept coming back, and has always been a great villain, and gave Spidey one of the greatest copper age storylines in Kraven's Last Hunt.

 

To me he's had more impact that either the Lizard or Electro, but I have a lot of love for ASM #9.

 

I forgot about 39. So much shame.

[oakman29]

Pretty spot on list.

As far as "key" I think ASM 1 has most of its importance tied up in being the #1 issue of the title, less about content. In my list its below #14 where spidey's main ongoing arch enemy is introduced.

 

I'd also pick #39 over #50. Sure the #50 has the Kingpin, but he's a DDevil enemy, and it has the iconic cover & 1st splash page, but in #39 we get the reveal that his arch enemy is is best friends father, and we get the first appearance of Romita, plus the reveal that Osborn knows Spidey is Peter... way more important, and goes with your #119/#120 pick later.

 

Kingpin is huge in Spider-man lore though. DD never fought him until the Miller issues, yet Kingpin was intricately tied into most issues of Spider-man in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and then again in the 160s, long before DD ever thought of him.

 

#39 is a key to be sure and a great cover, but #40 is a more important book, as it has the origin of the Goblin. My list would go like this..

 

AF #15

AS #1

AS #14 1st Goblin, 1st meeting/battle with the Hulk

AS #31 1st Gwen Stacy/Harry Osborne/Prof Warren

AS #42 1st "appearance" of Mary Jane Watson

AS #3 1st Doc Ock

AS #121 - Death of Gwen

AS #122 - Death of Norman Osborn

AS #50 1st Kingpin

AS #129 1st Punisher

AS #300 1st Venom

AS #238 1st Hobgoblin (dominated a 50 issue run)

AS #40 Origin of the Goblin

AS #39 Spider-man/Goblin learn each other's ids, 1st Romita

AS #6 1st Lizard

AS #252 1st Black Costume (Venom)

AS #4 1st Sandman

AS #15 1st Kraven

AS #13 1st Mysterio

AS #2 1st Vulture

AS #100 Spider-man gains 4 extra arms

AS #101 1st Morbius

AS #20 1st Scorpion

AS #149 1st Spider-clone

Now that's a list I can get behind.

[Benjamin Grimm]

ASM 149 . First Clone.

 

[thehumantorch]

Here's my list

 

AF15 is a given.

ASM 1 start of his own title and 2nd appearance

ASM14 Goblin his classic SA villian

ASM 121 and 122 Who would ever forget reading these two books for the first time?

ASM 50 Kingpin his classic late SA villian and a classic cover to boot

ASM129 The Punisher is a bit out of vogue now but he was a ground breaking villian and has starred in his own title for years.

ASM 300 Venom, his classic copper age villian

ASM 252 first black costume

ASM 3 Doc Ock is pretty important in Spidey's universe

[Anfield Fox]

Superior Spider-Man 1. First title to replace Amazing Spider-Man.

 

 

Honestly if we're talking keys it's AF 15 and then ASM 1-9. Only book outside that run that is worthy of being included is 14.

[MR SigS]

The 2nd Vulture (#7) more worthy than the 1st Mysterio (#13)?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Superior Spider-Man 1. First title to replace Amazing Spider-Man.

 

 

 

[Anfield Fox]

The 2nd Vulture (#7) more worthy than the 1st Mysterio (#13)?

 

The way i look at it is would i rather have a 7 or a 13. Well for me it would be a 7.

[The-Collector]

Honestly if we're talking keys it's AF 15 and then ASM 1-9. Only book outside that run that is worthy of being included is 14..

 

I disagree with this vehemently. 7 and 8 are mere blips in the Spider-man/marvel pantheon compared to 20, 25, 31, 39, 40, 41, 43, 50, 100, 101, 121, 122, 129, 238, 298, 300, 361 etc

[Anfield Fox]

Honestly if we're talking keys it's AF 15 and then ASM 1-9. Only book outside that run that is worthy of being included is 14..

 

I disagree with this vehemently. 7 and 8 are mere blips in the Spider-man/marvel pantheon compared to 20, 25, 31, 39, 40, 41, 43, 50, 100, 101, 121, 122, 129, 238, 298, 300, 361 etc

 

Ok how about AF 15, 1-6, 9, 13-14.

 

I have most of the later keys in high grade and will probably never have the early keys so maybe that's why i feel the way i do

[The-Collector]

Honestly if we're talking keys it's AF 15 and then ASM 1-9. Only book outside that run that is worthy of being included is 14..

 

I disagree with this vehemently. 7 and 8 are mere blips in the Spider-man/marvel pantheon compared to 20, 25, 31, 39, 40, 41, 43, 50, 100, 101, 121, 122, 129, 238, 298, 300, 361 etc

 

Ok how about AF 15, 1-6, 9, 13-14.

 

I have most of the later keys in high grade and will probably never have the early keys so maybe that's why i feel the way i do

 

I guess price isn't always reflective of importance.

[Anfield Fox]

Honestly if we're talking keys it's AF 15 and then ASM 1-9. Only book outside that run that is worthy of being included is 14..

 

I disagree with this vehemently. 7 and 8 are mere blips in the Spider-man/marvel pantheon compared to 20, 25, 31, 39, 40, 41, 43, 50, 100, 101, 121, 122, 129, 238, 298, 300, 361 etc

 

Ok how about AF 15, 1-6, 9, 13-14.

 

I have most of the later keys in high grade and will probably never have the early keys so maybe that's why i feel the way i do

 

I guess price isn't always reflective of importance.

 

I was going for attainability though price and supply are linked to that.

[chrisco37]

I wouldn't have 6 and 9 on there. Those are the big "surprises". 31 needs to be on the list, too many important characters introduced there. 42/43 could be on there together.

 

I like 39/40 over #50 as well. But, at least I can understand why 50 is on there. I loved both 6 and 9 as issues, but they aren't top 10 material.

[ComicBookQuest]

ASM 31 is another key book that needs to be added. Maybe replace ASM #9

 

Do you guys think #39 replaces Annual #1 or ASM #50... I really really love #50

 

Also feel free to leave comments on the post

[TSwift25]

It's so hard to narrow it to ten, but if I had to:

 

1) AF 15

- Self Explanatory

2) ASM 1

- Tempted to put it lower, but introducing JJJ, the Bugle, et al makes it tough to ignore. Plus it's #1.

3) ASM 14

- The Goblin. Arguably the most important Marvel villain because of his role in changing Spider-Man (Gwen). Not even Doom can claim to have impacted a title that much.

4) ASM 3

- Honestly, if not for Ock's revival of late this would be lower, but it's pretty clear that for two stretches (60's and 2010's) he's the Spidey villain.

5) ASM 121 - 122

- Probably the defining Spider-Man story arc.

6) ASM 42

- MJ. I'd argue she's dominated the title more than any character other than Uncle Ben/Peter.

7) ASM 300

- Maybe the most popular Spider-Man villain. To me, losing punch as Eddie's been phased out of the Marvel universe.

8) ASM Annual 21

- An event so big, Marvel spent nearly 30 years debating whether to undo it.

9) ASM 252

- The black costume, be it on Spider-Man or later as Venom, controlled the 80's and 90's of Spidey.

10) ASM 39-40

- Iconic story arc, setting up the ultimate cat-and-mouse Spider-Man story.

 

Honorable mention ASM 149, ASM 50, ASM 129, ASM 238, ASM 15, ASM 361.

 

The Jackal's a huge villain who introduced and was, for better or worse, the linchpin of a infamous Spidey run. The Kingpin dominated a big part of Spidey in the 60's and 70's, but I just can't think of a defining Kingpin story arc the way I can with the other villains. The Punisher's huge but his impact in Spider-Man is fairly limited relative to the rest of the MU. I think it speaks to all that happened in Spider-Man that the Punisher doesn't make the top-10. Hobgoblin's first appearance. The longest (more or less) continuous Saga in Spidey's history. That we've had myriad fill ins since kind of lessens this one for me though. Kraven was kind of corny for a long time, but Kraven's last hunt is for many the best Spidey story ever written. Have to give that 1st appearance its due. Carnage, for a long stretch, was probably the most popular Spider-Man villain and his appearance alone drove sales of a book.

[zosocane]

My list if I had to keep 10 issues for importance of story (not OPG/GPA value):

 

1. AF15 (the core of ASM 1 is subsumed by AF15, so I would not add ASM1)

 

2. ASM 3 (Doc Ock the #2 villain in the mythos and has stood test of time)

 

3. ASM 14 (1st Goblin, most popular villain in Marvel Universe)

 

4. ASM 40 (classic story, the dad of Pete's best friend is revealed as Gobllin)

 

5. ASM 50 (classic cover, Spidey quits (the heck with responsibility), 1st Kingpin)

 

6. ASM 90 (Death of Captain Stacy -- 1st notable death in Spidey mythos; Captain Stacy in his last words reveals that he knew Spidey's true identity)

 

7. ASM 121 (The Night Gwen Stacy Died -- don't even add 122 (which counts as a separate issue) because when Spidey says "and Goblin, you're going to pay" or words to that effect at the end of 121, Gobby's death in 122 is all but a fait accompli and not a shock. In contrast, 121 hitting newsstands was a complete and utter shocker -- no reader in 1973 saw Gwen's death coming.)

 

8. ASM 194 (1st Black Cat)

 

9. ASM 252 (1st all-black costume -- every kid in America recognizes it, and it was quite bold in 1984 or so for Marvel to completely change their flagship character's costume -- the equivalent to DC completely changing Superman's threads)

 

10. ASM 300 (1st Venom).

 

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I think it's quite telling that on all the posts before mine, there are very, very few references to issues after #300, which was published in 1987 if memory serves me well. That was 25 years ago. That tells us quite a bit of what Marvel hasn't done in moving the Spidey mythos forward -- just a lot of publicity stunts and gimmicks.

[Magneto]

After reading this I realize I have a few more key Spider-Man comics than I realized. Nice!

[TSwift25]

I think it's quite telling that on all the posts before mine, there are very, very few references to issues after #300, which was published in 1987 if memory serves me well. That was 25 years ago. That tells us quite a bit of what Marvel hasn't done in moving the Spidey mythos forward -- just a lot of publicity stunts and gimmicks.

 

I don't know if I completely agree with that. It's not so much what hasn't happened in the last 25 years, but what happened in the first 25, relative to making a top-10 list. There are some HUGE books (ASM 2, ASM 6, ASM 15, ASM 20, ASM 25, ASM 31, ASM 129, ASM 238, ASM 252) that aren't easy consensus top-10's. Spidey's just had a ton of significant issues, and it's really hard to say that some books will hold up to the test of time.

[Erndog]

After reading this I realize I have a few more key Spider-Man comics than I realized. Nice!

 

7 of 10 here, nice!

[zosocane]

I think it's quite telling that on all the posts before mine, there are very, very few references to issues after #300, which was published in 1987 if memory serves me well. That was 25 years ago. That tells us quite a bit of what Marvel hasn't done in moving the Spidey mythos forward -- just a lot of publicity stunts and gimmicks.

 

I don't know if I completely agree with that. It's not so much what hasn't happened in the last 25 years, but what happened in the first 25, relative to making a top-10 list. There are some HUGE books (ASM 2, ASM 6, ASM 15, ASM 20, ASM 25, ASM 31, ASM 129, ASM 238, ASM 252) that aren't easy consensus top-10's. Spidey's just had a ton of significant issues, and it's really hard to say that some books will hold up to the test of time.

 

The last 25 years has been a lot of self-parody and ridiculous publicity-driven story lines to drive up sales. There haven't been a lot of compelling, original characters (good guy or bad guy) with good stories behind the characters. It's been disappointing. More than anything I would like to see the mythos evolve to a point that we all look at, say, 4 or 5 issues from the last 10 years and think, that's absolutely a classic or absolutely a must-have. I see your point -- that the key characters built over the first 25 years necessitate having to give them story time in the last 25 years. I submit that the writers didn't need to do that, nor did they need to come up with ridiculous stuff. Superior Spider-man is a perfect example of all that's been going in the wrong direction the last 25 years.