#spideyrecs

All my Spidey recs are collected under my, uh, spideyrecs tag! :DMost of the info is the same post to post, but some posts are pure lists and some have more commentary. I should probably write one mega-post combining the two sometime ... I have a hanging ask from fuckyeahspiderwife about MJ recs, so I might make it part of that.

Hey anon! I was asked almost this exact same question a few months ago, so I hope you don't mind a C&P job!CREATIVE TEAMS:- Stan Lee/Steve Ditko, Amazing Spider-Man 1-40(Honestly, ASM from Lee to Owlsley is an almost unbroken chain of awesome with the major exception of Denny O’Neil - seriously, I don’t even know what happened there.)- Roger Stern/John Romita Jr, ASM #224-252, more or less- J. Michael Straczynski/John Romita Jr, ASM vol II #30-59 and ASM vol I #500-508- Peter David/Rich Buckler, Spectacular Spider-Man #103-126 roughly, doesn’t really pick up until #107- Paul Jenkins/Mark Buckingham, Peter Parker: Spider-Man vol II #20-57- Kurt Busiek/Pat Oliffe, Untold Tales of Spider-Man #1-25 plus annualsSTORY ARCS, MINIS, SINGLE ISSUES:- Death of Gwen Stacy, ASM 121-122- Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut, ASM 229-230- MJ's character development arc, ASM ASM 256-261- The Commuter Cometh!, ASM 267- Gang War, ASM 284-287- The Death of Jean DeWolff, SSM 107-110- Eye Witness!, SSM 121- Kraven’s Last Hunt, (cross-title arc, see here)- Revenge of the Green Goblin, (mini + cross-title arc, see here)- A Death in the Family/Return of the Goblin, PP:SM vol II #44-47- Spider-Man: Blue (miniseries)- Spider-Man/Human Torch (miniseries)- Spider-Man: Fever (miniseries)- Parallel Lives (short graphic novel, reprinted in You Just Hit the Jackpot)This is a somewhat eclectic combination of "stories I think every Spidey fan should read" and "stories I really, really like," with the result that there are probably some stupefyingly obvious candidates in both categories that I've overlooked.You asked about ASM specifically, but I included some other storylines, and I've written a bit about my favorite Spectacular Spider-Man storylines here. You can also just bookmark my recs tag for future reference. Hope this helps!

Noooo problem, I love blathering about Spidey!I usually direct people to start where I started, with J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita Jr's run. It's not a perfect run by any means, but JMS writes my absolute favorite Peter and Aunt May and one of my favorite MJs. The entire run can be found in trades. After JRjr left things get more piecemeal and continuity driven - the "New Avengers" arc is tons of fun and I enjoyed Ron Garney's stretch on the title during Civil War/Back in Black, but I don't know if you've read Civil War.Roughly contemporaneous to JMS/JRjr was Paul Jenkins' run on Peter Parker: Spider-Man (#20-41 and #44-50, collected in 4 trades), another excellent run. JMS wrote philosophical but action-packed arcs whereas Jenkins did lots of slice of life stories, so they go well together. The title got rebooted to Spectacular Spider-Man, but don't bother with those issues - editorial pushed Jenkins to write more traditional supervillain stories, and it just didn't work.If you like Silver Age stuff my next recommendation would be Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's original run (ASM #1-39, several options for trades). Basically the entire framework for the next 50 years of stories (except for Mary Jane, Felicia Hardy and maybe three post-Ditko supervillains) packed into 39 issues. Good stuff.I would also recommend Roger Stern and John Romita Jr's run on Amazing Spider-Man and Peter David's brief but great stretch on Spectacular Spider-Man, but they haven't been traded consistently. The "Spider-Man Visionaries" series will be your friend here, and they might be in the Essentials as well.My single favorite accessible storylines are the first six-issue arc of JMS/JRjr (collected in trade as "Coming Home") for high octane philosophical drama and Spectacular Spider-Man #121 ("Eye Witness!") by Peter David et al. for the lulz.Hopefully, that was helpful and not super-intimidating. O_o