My History of Comic Collecting - By Set Type - Part V

[BooZeR]

SET DESCRIPTION:

Ah...AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #301 to #400...

 

...What can I say about this collection of comics...

 

...From the first appearance of Venom to the start of the clone saga...

 

I went from loving Amazing Spider-Man and really hitting a high in my comic collecting, to hating everything about Marvel and not collecting comics anymore - Which at one point looked like it might have been forever...

 

Things started out well enough - McFarlane's Amazing Spider-Man was a huge hit, and it was the first time that non-Spider-Man collectors were starting to jump on the ASM train. I had friends that were buying 5 or 6 copies every month of McFarlane's ASM (I still only bought one copy). The writing was decent, the art was original, and the vibe of the comic was fun.

 

Then McFarlane left to do the horrible over-hyped Spider-Man title and the penciling duties were left to Erik Larson.

 

Now, don't get me wrong, Larson was decent, and looking back it's not as bad as I remember thinking it was...But McFarlane had BIG shoes to fill, and Larson came up short in my opinion. The stories started becoming very derivative, with tons of "Who's Hot Now" special guest stars...And the early 90s being the age of mega cross-overs and special editions didn't help things either.

 

Bagley took over from Larson in issue #351 and that was pretty much it for me...I stuck around for a few more issues, but I was finally done after issue #359.

 

Now I know some of you are saying that if I had just stuck around a little longer things would have improved a bit with the introduction of Carnage, but that means I would have had to endure Cardiac, Peter's "parents", a billion terrible Venom and Carnage appearances, a horrible ASM #50 cover swipe on issue #392 by Bagley, all the lame clones and such that were introduced in the 390s, and, of course, the death of everyone's favorite Aunt May in issue #400.

 

NO THANKS!

 

I should also mention that the other Spider-Man titles were even worse garbage and I had already stopped collecting them months ago.

 

It's all great and fun to read those issues in retrospect, knowing where everything eventually ends up, but you have to believe me when I say that as much as I loved collecting Spider-Man comics in the 80s, I hated them just as much by the time I quit collecting in late 1991.

 

 

With all this in mind, here are my top 5 issues/story arcs from this set:

 

5)

#334 / #335 / #336 / #337 / #338 - I was glad to see the Sinister Six back - I really love those classic villains (especially Doc Ock!) and the cover to #336 was a nice tribute to #90 (death of Capt. Stacy)

 

4)

#312 - The Green Goblin and Hobgoblin in the same issue - NO WAY!!!

 

3)

#311 - Mysterio has always been a favorite villain of mine and I didn't think he was ever used enough - An original Sinister Sixer that was made into a B-list super villain?!? McFarlane made him creepier than usual in this issue, and it was good to see him back.

 

2)

#316 / #317 - The return of Venom and two of the best covers that didn't have a circle around Spider-Man.

 

1)

#301 - I love this cover, I loved the return of the original costume, and I still couldn't get enough of McFarlane's version of Spider-Man.